• VC Josh Elman, an early investor in TikTok predecessor Musical.ly, said he thinks Microsoft could be a good fit for TikTok if a reported purchase deal for its US operations goes through.
• President Trump has been pressing for a sale to an American company, and issued an executive order this week that would later ban TikTok from continuing US operations itself.
• But with parent company ByteDance's tech spread across multiple products, splitting up the app's operations could be difficult. 
• In his pre-VC career, Elman is known for serving in product management and other roles at company after company before they went public, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Veteran VC Josh Elman, an early investor in TikTok predecessor Musical.ly, said he thinks TikTok will be in good hands if a potential sale of the company's US unit to Microsoft goes through. 

Microsoft has reportedly been in talks to acquire TikTok's US operations, which have been valued at $50 billion by some investors. And now the deal is being pushed by President Trump, who wants an American company to buy the US side of TikTok, which is owned by China-based parent company ByteDance.  

Elman called Microsoft "a great steward of important independent properties," like LinkedIn, Minecraft, and Github. 

"I have high hopes they could do the same here if this comes together," Elman wrote in an email exchange with Business Insider.

In recent weeks, President Trump has amped up the pressure on ByteDance to sell TikTok's operations in the United States to a US company, alleging that the app presents a risk that the Chinese government will use it to spy on Americans. TikTok is a popular social network based on shared short-form videos. 

Trump's threats culminated in dual executive orders Thursday night barring US companies and individuals from doing business with TikTok, as well as with Chinese messaging app WeChat. The orders are set to take effect 45 days from their issuance. TikTok characterized the Trump administration as showing "no due process or adherence to the law."

Elman, who was both an investor and board observer for Musical.ly before it was absorbed by TikTok in 2017 and rebranded, said the mechanics of the deal splitting off US operations are unclear.

"I am still confused as to what pieces they can truly separate out to operate for different countries," Elman wrote.  "I have heard a lot of the ByteDance technology is shared across products."

Back in 2016, Elman was celebrating his firm Greylock Partners' investment in music video-sharing app Musical.ly, which he saw as a triumph of cultural cross-fertilization between China and the US. 

"It's the first company to be headquartered in China, designed in China, but popular in the US," Elman said at the time. "Finally we're seeing talented people who live in that ecosystem in that world and actually transcend it and build products in the US."

Elman, now a board partner at Greylock, declined to comment about the current politics of the situation surrounding TikTok's ability to operate in the US, except to say "I don't know enough of the rules of each country to fully comment on the security concerns. It does look like an area where digital regulation gets more and more important."

CIA analysts said they have yet found no reason to conclude that Chinese government agencies are now using TikTok to intercept communications from US smartphones, The New York Times reported Friday, but also said it's possible that they could use the app to do so at some point.

Elman is known in the tech world for jumping into companies before they hit it big. He worked at pre-IPO versions of Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin before becoming an investor and joining Greylock. 

"What I like to look for early is a combination of a new product that serves a human need and early indications of meaningful retention, driven by a thoughtful and ambitious founding team," Elman said. "In the case of Musical.ly, there were building something different and special to harness people's creativity into a new form of entertainment, and the team and especially Alex Zhu were just so thoughtful about the product and what they could build."

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• In July, Hannibal Buress released his new comedy special, "Miami Nights," on YouTube.
• Buress decided to forgo traditional streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu, partnering with start-up video-chatting service Undock to release "Miami Nights."
• In an interview with Business Insider, Buress discusses why he chose to partner with Undock.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Last August, while the rest of the world was relishing what they didn't yet realize was the last summer of normalcy, Hannibal Buress was filming a comedy special. 

The special, called "Miami Nights," was released in July and has gotten rave reviews from critics. But the comedian's unusual choice of platform also caught people's attention. Buress forewent the usual streaming services, such as Netflix and HBO, and instead teamed up with the startup video conferencing service Undock to put the whole special on YouTube — for free. 

In a conversation with Business Insider, the comedian explains how he and Undock pulled off a partnership that could come to shape the future of creative control for entertainers. 

Buress says partnering with Undock gave him more control over his work

A few weeks before Buress' special was set to go live, he was still looking for a sponsor. He had already decided to put "Miami Nights" on YouTube, making it available to stream for free, because he wanted to maintain creative freedom in his work. But he needed some capital to pull that off.

"I started thinking, 'maybe I could just get a sponsor, maybe a sponsor will be up for being at the top of the special," he said. "But then we were thinking, maybe we can get bigger sponsors, and bigger companies."

But it takes time to get those big sponsors — time that Buress and his team didn't have. So they went back to the drawing board and came up with a new idea: partnering with a start-up.

"I had done some start-up investing over the past few years, so I reached out to my friend and asked her if she knew of any good up-and-coming companies [I could partner with]," Buress said. 

With about two weeks to spare, that friend put Buress in contact with Undock, a platform that allows for both scheduling and video conferencing. Undock agreed to air its ads at the beginning of Buress' special, and the rest was history.

"We worked really hard to make the deal come together on such short notice," Buress told Business Insider. "And it felt good. Everybody is video conferencing these days, and it didn't feel like a hamfisted plug." 

Undock allows users to schedule and attend virtual meetings

Suddenly, the creative possibilities began to expand for Buress. Not only could he release comedy specials, but he could also create web series, live streams, and podcasts, and he's hoping to partner with more startup companies that can help him make it all happen.

In the end, Buress keeps his creative freedom and intellectual property rights, and a startup gets attention: it's a win-win situation, he says.

"If it goes great, it could be a different way to approach deals," he said, adding that this experience has prompted him to start rethinking how he's going to implement ads on his new podcast. 

Typically for podcasts, there are ad reads, and advertisers pay for that placement. But, Buress told Business Insider, he was thinking about making a partnership with all of his advertisers to possibly own equity in what he was promoting.

"I'm weighing whether I would want a bigger part of the podcast revenue," he said. "Now I'm thinking, why do an ad read for a fee instead of being a part of something? Especially something you think is dope and where you're not just reading it to read it."

Buress is particularly excited about the fact that he has more say over where his work lives.

For example, he explained, at any moment, he can quickly change his mind, take the whole special off YouTube, and sell it to Netflix. He could reinstate ads or open his comment section back up at any time. It's a new world of possibilities, which could help reshape the way artists retain their creative control and liberty, in an entertainment industry notorious for impeding intellectual rights.

"Or I could take it completely down, add a shorter version, hire a Spanish voiceover person and have them dub over it, then put it back up," he continued. "The next one might just go directly to my website. Who knows?"

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• Warren Buffett's best-performing stock over the past three months isn't Apple or Amazon.
• The billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO's biggest gainer is Restoration Hardware, a luxury furniture seller whose shares have more than doubled since the start of May.
• Buffett's second-best performer over the period is StoneCo, which has soared more than 80%.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Warren Buffett's best-performing stock over the past three months isn't Apple or Amazon, even though shares of both tech titans surged to all-time highs this week.

Instead, the star holding of the famed investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO since early May is Restoration Hardware, a high-end furniture retailer. Buffett's second-best performer is StoneCo, a Brazilian digital-payments company.

Apple stock has climbed about 52% over the past three months, while Amazon has gained 37%.

Meanwhile, Restoration Hardware shares have rocketed up 106%, and StoneCo has surged 81%. Another standout in Buffett's portfolio is the package-delivery company United Parcel Service, which has soared about 58% in the period, according to Gurufocus.

Read more:'The most extreme valuations in history': A notorious market bear says investors should brace for record-low negative returns over the next 12 years — and warns that today's exuberance implies a 66% plunge

True, Apple's and Amazon's size means the rally in their stocks over the past three months has added more than $1 trillion to their combined market capitalization.

Meanwhile, Restoration Hardware and StoneCo have added less than $10 billion in total to theirs.

Moreover, Buffett owned about 245 million Apple shares at the last count. Those are now worth close to $112 billion, making the iPhone maker by far the most valuable holding in his stock portfolio.

As a result, any movement in Apple stock matters much more to Berkshire's overall value than a change in the price of its Restoration Hardware or StoneCo shares. The same is true for Amazon, assuming Berkshire still holds a $1.7 billion stake in the e-commerce giant.

Read more:100 deals and $1 million in profit a year: Here's how Mike Simmons made a simple change to his real-estate investing strategy that took him from small-time house flipper to full-fledged mogul

Still, it's surprising that for all the hype around Apple and Amazon, they are far from Buffett's best-performing holdings on a percentage basis in recent months.

Berkshire first invested in Restoration Hardware in the third quarter of 2019, buying about 1.1 million shares. It boosted that stake to more than 1.7 million shares in the following quarter, or nearly 9% of the total shares outstanding.

With the coronavirus pandemic confining millions of Americans to their homes earlier this year, so-called stay-at-home stocks such as furniture retailers and home-improvement chains have seen their shares soar.

Buffett's company took a position in StoneCo in the fourth quarter of 2018. It bought about 14.2 million shares that it hasn't touched since, giving it a roughly 5% stake.

Assuming Buffett hasn't adjusted those holdings, they are worth about $695 million and $516 million.

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Here's a chart showing the four stocks' recent performance, indexed to May 1:

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• The job market was changing even before COVID-19 pushed the global economy into the abyss.
• If you find yourself out of work, underemployed, or simply ready for a new direction, now may be the perfect time to learn skills to help you enter the tech industry.
• A tech certification can be a faster, more affordable way to open the door to a new career, compared to say, a college degree.
• Below, we've got a running list of all the most valuable tech certifications and the typical salaries of those who hold them, according to various sites that track salary data.

With the economy in tatters, many people are looking around for a new career in the high-paying tech industry. And a certification is a very good way to get there, as many of them are associated with jobs that pay over $100,000.

Please note that a single certification itself won't instantly lead to a job with a six-digit salary. Salary depends on experience, job responsibilities, other education and certifications, location, and job title. And, obviously, the certifications associated with the highest-paying jobs tend to be held by people who have more years of experience and multiple certifications. In addition, certifications will expire — and need to be renewed — after one to three years. 

Also, a potential salary alone can't predict the right career path for anyone. People should start with the kind of tech that most interests them. Is it the cloud, marketing software, networking, programming, or app development? 

View this list more like a compass than a starting point. It can help you get an understand of how much you can make and what types of jobs and certifications you would need to get there.

Annual salary estimates are calculated based on proprietary databases or surveys from ZipRecruiter and Global Knowledge Training.

SEE ALSO: Enterprise tech salaries revealed: How much Oracle, IBM, SAP, Cisco, Dell, VMware, ServiceNow and Workday pay engineers, developers, data scientists and others

CCNP: $107,293

Name of certification:Cisco Certified Network Professional Enterprise (CCNP)

Description: The CCNP certification is the perquisite prior to the expert level. This credential certifies proficiency with computer networking on Cisco's products and is the new replacement, as of February 2020, to the popular CCNP Routing and Switching cert.

How much it may cost to get it:$600 for two exams; prep courses can run between $2,000 and $4,295. 

Potential salary: $107,293

Difficulty level in obtaining: This is a mid-level certification that requires several perquisites.

Source: ZipRecruiter

CCA-N: $109,430

Name of certification:Oracle Database PL/SQL Developer Certified Professional

Description: This credential shows that the IT pro is proficient with Oracle's database.

How much it may cost to get it: $490 for the two exams required. Prep courses can run over $7,700.

Potential salary: $109,430

Difficulty level in obtaining: This is a more advanced certification that requires first passing a pre-requisite cert.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant: $111,590

Name of certification:Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant

Description: A middle-tier certification that demonstrates proficiency using Salesforce's Marketing Cloud.

How much it may cost to get it: $200. Salesforce offers free online prep courses through its Trailhead education site. 

Potential salary: $111,590

Difficulty level in obtaining: This is not a terribly hard certification to obtain, but it does require a pre-requisite.  

Source: ZipRecruiter

CCP-V: $112,973

Name of certification:Citrix Certified Professional Virtualization (CCP-V)

Description: This is an advanced certification on networking tech from Citrix, maker of tech that allows any enterprise to deliver applications over a network (rather than install apps on devices).

How much it may cost to get it: The exam costs $300. Prep courses can run between $3,000 and $6,000. 

Potential salary: $112,973

Difficulty level in obtaining: This certification requires completing the associate level cert  as a prerequisite and passing two exams.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

Oracle Database Developer: $120,927

Name of certification:Oracle Database PL/SQL Developer Certified Professional

Description: This credential shows that the IT pro is proficient with Oracle's database.

How much it may cost to get it: $490 for the two required exams. Prep courses can run over $7,700.

Potential salary: $120,927

Difficulty level in obtaining: This is a more advanced certification that requires first passing a pre-requisite cert.

Source: Salary.com

Azure Administrator Associate: $125,993

Name of certification:Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate

Description: This credential validates that an IT pro has the skills to be an administrator of apps and services running on Microsoft's cloud Azure.

How much it may cost to get it: $165 for the exam. There are free self-study resources available. Third-party prep courses can run between $2,595 and $3,000.

Potential salary: $125,993

Difficulty level in obtaining: Although this is a fairly entry-level certification, most trainers recommend that the IT pro have completed the first level cert, Azure Fundamentals.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

ITIL Foundation: $129,402

Name of certification:ITIL Foundation

Description: This credential from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library is one of the world's most common systems for IT infrastructure management.

How much it may cost to get it:  The exam fee varies by location from $150 to $500. Third-party prep courses for the exam range from $750 to $2,495.

Potential salary: $129,402

Difficulty level in obtaining: This is an entry-level certification and a pre-requisite for other ITIL certifications.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

VMware Certified Professional: $130,226

Name of certification: VMware Certified Professional 6 Data Center Virtualization

Description: The credential validates that an IT pro can build and run infrastructure using VMware's popular vSphere 6 product.

How much it may cost to get it: $250 to VMware for the exam. Third-party prep courses can run $4,300.

Potential salary: $130,226

Difficulty level in obtaining:  This a mid-level VMware certification and requires several other certifications en route, that could take up to a year to complete.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

CISA: $132,278

Name of certification:ISACA's Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

Description: As one of the oldest certifications around (from 1978), the CISA credential proves a computer security pro has skills in auditing.

How much it may cost to get it:  $575-$760 for the exam (depending on membership with ISACA). Prep courses run $800 for ISACA members to $2,595 for third-party classes.

Potential salary: $132,278

Difficulty level in obtaining: IT pros must have at least five years of information system audit, control, or security experience.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

PMP: $143,493

Name of certification:PMI's Project Management Professional (PMP)

Description: While not a technical certification, Project Management Institute PMP is popular among tech professionals who work in product development, computer security, or PM jobs. 

How much it may cost to get it: Between $405 and $555, depending on PMI membership. Prep courses run between $2,000 and $3,000.

Potential salary: $143,493

Difficulty level in obtaining: The PMP requires a college degree and 3-years PM experience or a high school degree (or equivalent) and five-years PM experience, and involves 35 hours of project management education and training. 

Source: Global Knowledge Training

Salesforce Certified Technical Architect: $144,974

Name of certification:Salesforce Certified Technical Architect

Description: This is Salesforce's top expert credential that certifies that an IT pro has mastered designing, building, and maintaining a Salesforce infrastructure.

How much it may cost to get it:  The exam costs $6,000. Salesforce's free online training platform, Trailhead, can help guide through many pre-requisites. Courses with instructors can cost up to $2,700 apiece.

Potential salary: $144,974

Difficulty level in obtaining: This certification will take years to get and require obtaining at least seven (but many people do nine) previous Salesforce certifications.

Source: ZipRecruiter

CRISC: $146,480

Name of certification:ISACA's Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)

Description: CRISC is a certification aimed at mid-career level IT professionals that demonstrate that they have the skills for enterprise risk management and control.

How much it may cost to get it: Between $575 and $760 (depending on membership with ISACA). Prep courses run $800 for ISACA members to $2,400 for third-party classes.

Potential salary: $146,480

Difficulty level in obtaining: This credential requires a minimum of three years of related work experience or successfully completing at least two previous ISACA examinations of the four required for certification.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

CISM: $148,622

Name of certification:ISACA's Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)

Description: The CISM is a popular credential among IT pros that specialize in computer security from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. It helps security pros demonstrate that they understand the relationship between business needs and security.

How much it may cost to get it: Between $575 and $760 (depending on membership with ISACA) for the exam. Study courses and prep materials can cost between $1,000 and $2,000.

Potential salary: $148,622

Difficulty level in obtaining: This cert requires five years experience in a qualifying technical job. Some candidates may qualify with a year or two of experience if they hold several other pre-requisite certifications.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

CCIE: $149,846

Name of certification:Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)

Description: Cisco's CCIE remains the gold standard in computer networking certifications. It is no longer a single certification but is comprised of six specialties, including classic enterprise infrastructure and Cisco's collaboration tech.

How much it may cost to get it:  Written exams cost $450 and hands-on lab exams are $1,600 per attempt and only available at specific authorized sites. Prep courses can run $6,000, and there will also be costs involved to buy networking hardware.

Potential salary: $149,846

Difficulty level in obtaining:  These expert-level certifications are some of the most difficult certs for an IT pro to earn. It may involve up to a year of study and requires obtaining multiple pre-requisite certifications. 

Source: ZipRecruiter

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate: $149,446

Name of certification:AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

Description: This credential proves that a developer can design and deploy applications using a wide-array of technologies Amazon Web Services — Amazon's cloud platform — across AWS's compute, networking, storage, and database services.

How much it may cost to get it: $150 exam fee to Amazon. Preparation for this course may entail taking up to three third-party training courses costing around $3,000.

Potential salary: Between $130,000 and $149,446

Difficulty level in obtaining: A prerequisite of the beginner-level AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials is recommended, as well as a basic understanding of using AWS. This cert is popular with experienced IT professionals looking to add cloud credentials to their resume.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert: $152,094

Name of certification: Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Description: This credential shows that an IT pro has the skills to design and maintain infrastructure on Microsoft's cloud.

How much it may cost to get it:  Each exam costs $160. Free self-study, online training materials are available. Prep courses from third-party trainers can run $4,000.

Potential salary: $152,094

Difficulty level in obtaining:  This cert requires multiple Azure pre-requisites certificates (Administrator Associate and Developer Associate) and also involves two exams (Architect Technologies and Architect Design), according to trainer Global Knowledge.

Source: ZipRecruiter

Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect: $175,761

Name of certification:Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect

Description: This credential, launched in 2017, proves that a developer can build, manage and scale apps and services using a wide-range of Google Cloud technologies. 

How much it may cost to get it: $200 exam fee for Google. Preparation for this cert may entail taking up to five third-party training courses which could cost up to $5,000 and take a couple of months to complete. 

Potential salary: $175,761

Difficulty level in obtaining:  This is one of the most popular advanced Google Cloud certifications and is recommended for IT pros with three or more years of experience. 

Google cloud certifications are valid for two years.

Source: Global Knowledge Training

• Apple is probably on the verge of releasing a new Apple Watch, which means it's best to hold off on buying a new one right now.
• Even if you're not interested in the next model, expected to be called the Apple Watch Series 6, Apple usually discounts older versions after launching its newest watch.
• The next model is expected to come with more sleep-tracking features, better water resistance, and the ability to measure blood oxygen levels. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories and check out our guide to the best smartwatches here.

September is right around the corner. That means if you're about to purchase a new Apple Watch, you'll probably want to think again. 

Apple typically releases new Apple Watch models every fall in late September, making August one of the worst times to purchase a new Apple Watch. Last year, for example, it unveiled the Apple Watch Series 5 on September 10 and began selling it on September 20. It followed a very similar pattern in 2017 and 2018 by launching the Apple Watch Series 3 and Apple Watch Series 4 respectively in late September during those years.

If Apple upholds this rhythm, we can expect to see the Apple Watch Series 6 next month. Apple never discusses upcoming products before it's ready to unveil them, but reports have claimed to provide more insight about what to expect from Apple's next smartwatch.

Bloomberg, for example, reported in early 2019 that Apple was developing sleep-tracking capabilities for future Apple Watches. The company also just added a new Sleep app to the next version of the Apple Watch's software, which will be available for the Apple Watch Series 3 and higher. It's unclear if Bloomberg's report was in reference to this new app in watchOS 7 or additional sleep-tracking features that would be available on a new Apple Watch model.

The next-generation Apple Watch could come with other health-oriented additions as well, such as the ability to measure blood-oxygen levels, according to 9to5Mac. It'll also likely run on a new Apple processor and could come with better water resistance, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

You may not care about these updates and might just want a basic Apple Watch for fitness tracking and receiving notifications from your iPhone on your wrist. In that case, it's still probably best to wait until the new model is introduced. That's because Apple typically discounts its current Apple Watch models when introducing new ones.

Just think back to how Apple has shifted its Apple Watch lineup in recent years. When announcing the Series 5, for example, it discontinued the Series 4 and dropped the Series 3's price to $200. In 2018, it lowered the price of the Series 3 to $280 down from its original $330 starting price. 

Even if your top priority isn't having the latest and greatest Apple Watch model, you might be passing up a potential bargain by purchasing an Apple Watch before the next one launches. 

This year, of course, is different than years past. The coronavirus pandemic has created an unprecedented level of uncertainty around product launches, as companies like Apple have faced supply chain disruptions and have been required to shift to remote work arrangements. Apple already said it expects supply of the next iPhone to be available a few weeks late compared to last year, but it hasn't made any comments about the next Apple Watch. 

If the watch doesn't launch within the exact same time frame as last year, it'll likely launch sometime in the fall, as is expected for the next-generation iPhone. And for a gadget like the Apple Watch that's nice to have but for most people probably isn't a daily necessity, it's worth the wait. 

SEE ALSO: Apple's cheap new $400 phone convinced more people to buy iPhones, bringing its struggling smartphone business to growth even during a pandemic

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• Salesforce has seen significant leadership changes in its international business this year after its former head of international stepped down in February.
• Gavin Patterson, who took on the role, also became the company's new chief revenue officer in August. 
• International leaders will continue to report up to Patterson, but as Salesforce's international business has grown, it has appointed new country and regional leaders in Europe, Asia, and Australia. 
• Here are the 11 power players running Salesforce's international business as it looks to expand its customer base overseas. 
• Are you a current or former Salesforce employee? Contact this reporter via email at pzaveri@businessinsider.com or Signal at 925-364-4258. 

Salesforce's international business has gone through some significant leadership changes this year.

In February, Salesforce's former head of international, Miguel Milano, left to join AI startup Celonis, with executive Gavin Patterson taking his place.

Patterson had only recently joined the firm: He was poached from British telecom company BT Group, where he was CEO, to lead Salesforce's Europe, Middle East, and Africa division in August 2019.

Patterson just recently got another promotion: He's now the company's chief revenue officer and will lead its sales organization. In that role, Patterson is essentially taking over the responsibilities of former co-CEO Keith Block, who left in February — but with an even more global focus. CEO Marc Benioff has repeatedly highlighted Patterson's experience at BT as invaluable as Salesforce looks to expand its international business, which is a major market opportunity for the company.

As Salesforce's international business has grown, it appointed new country and regional leaders: In the past year alone it hired new leaders for its units in Europe, Northern Europe, Asia, and Australia. Meanwhile, its UK and Ireland business is still searching for a leader after its previous CEO — Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia — left in March.

All international leaders all report up to Patterson.

Having local leaders who know the markets well is the most successful route for software companies to expand globally, according to Valoir analyst Rebecca Wettemann.

"What we've seen as Salesforce has grown is them having both the resources and the knowledge to devolve more responsibility to regional or country heads," Wettemann said. "I've seen this with other software companies: The ones that do well globally have feet on the ground that understand intimately those regions. So I think it's a natural evolution."

While Salesforce's international business is still in early stages, its already got a strong bench of executives running key markets. 

Here are the 11 power players of Salesforce's international business that will help the company expand its overseas presence: 

Shinichi Koide, chairman and CEO, Japan

Shinichi Koide is responsible for Salesforce's business in Japan, where Salesforce opened its first international office (it now has a giant office in Tokyo). When he joined the company in 2014, Koide was tasked with turning Salesforce Japan into a "$1 billion business with more than 2,000 employees." 

As of mid-2019, Salesforce had hired over 1,500 workers in Japan and it committed to adding 2,000 new jobs there over the next five years.

Prior to Salesforce, Koide was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard's Japan business and worked at Softbank Telecom and IBM in Japan and the US before that. 

Ulrik Nehammer, executive VP and CEO Asia Pacific

Ulrik Nehammer leads the entire Asia Pacific region for Salesforce. He was promoted to the role in 2019 after joining in 2017 and spending about two years as strategic customer advisor — advising executives on their consulting over digital transformation efforts — and is now responsible for the business, customers, and company culture. 

He he has a few regional country leaders in the region who report to him and is based in Singapore, according to his LinkedIn. 

Before joining Salesforce, Nehammer was the CEO of Coca-Cola in Germany and had been with the firm in various roles in 1992. 

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson and CEO Salesforce India

Arundhati Bhattacharya joined Salesforce in April to run its India business and is tasked with helping it expand its business in one of its fastest growing regions. The company plans to add 3,000 new jobs in India in the next three years, according to TechCrunch.

"India is an important growth market for Salesforce and a world-class innovation and talent hub and Arundhati's leadership will guide our next phase of growth, customer success and investment in the region," Gavin Patterson said in a press release announcing Bhattacharya's role. 

Bhattacharya was previously the chairperson of the state-run State Bank of India, where she was the first woman to hold the position. She has 40 years of experience working in India's financial sector.

She reports to Ulrik Nehammer who oversees all of Salesforce's business in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Pip Marlow, CEO, Australia and New Zealand

For about a year, Pip Marlow has run Salesforce's Australia and New Zealand business and managed customer and community relations in the region. 

Before joining Salesforce, she was a senior exec at Suncorp and spent 21 years at Microsoft, including six years as the managing director of Microsoft Australia.

She also reports to Ulrik Nehammer.

Denis Terrien, executive VP and CEO of Southern Europe

Denis Terrien was hired as part of Salesforce's efforts to grow its European business and joined in June to run its southern Europe division, which includes France, Spain, and Italy. 

Patterson wrote in a press at the time that Terrien's "expertise and strategic, customer-centric leadership" made Salesforce "well-placed to deliver our next phase of growth and customer success in these important markets."

Previously, Terrien was the chairman of retail group Vivarte and the CEO of e-commerce group 3SI. Early in his career he helped found Amazon's French business.

Stefan Hoechbauer, executive VP and CEO of Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Stefan Hoechbauer is also part of Salesforce's growth in Europe. He will be joining Salesforce as the head of its Germany, Austria, and Switzerland business in October.

He is currently the global president of Digital Core at SAP, where he's worked for nine years, and is based in Germany.

Angelique de Vries, executive VP and CEO of Northern Europe

Angelique de Vries joined Salesforce last September to lead its northern Europe business, which includes the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Nordic countries like Denmark and Sweden. 

Before joining Salesforce she spent SAP for 24 years, and held various leadership positions, most recently in sales and customer experience, and before that as SAP's managing director for the Netherlands for five years. 

She is currently based in Amsterdam.

Isabelle Duvernoy, chief strategic customer officer, Southern Europe

Isabelle Duvernoy just got a promotion this month and is now the chief strategic customer officer for Southern Europe. In her new role she is responsible for top strategic accounts in the region, and manages the solution engineering team. 

She previously oversaw Salesforce's operations across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa as the COO of the region. Duvernoy has risen rapidly through the company since she first joined as a senior vice president of engineering in the area in 2019.

Before joining Salesforce, Duvernoy worked for IBM's Europe offices in various marketing and sales roles. 

Andres Prieto, executive VP and general manager, Latin America

Andres Prieto has lead Salesforce's Latin America business since 2018. He oversees the business, customer relationships, and company culture across the region. At the moment, Salesforce's offices in the region are in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.

Local country managers like Pilar García Pichardo in México, Guido Ipszman in Argentina, and Fabio Costa in Brazil report to Prieto.

Prior to Salesforce, Prieto was a senior VP of sales for Oracle in Latin America. 

Efi Cohen, head of Salesforce Israel R&D Center

Efi Cohen runs Salesforce's research and development hub in Israel. He joined Salesforce in 2018, when it acquired the marketing analytics company he cofounded, Datorama. Post-acquisition, he became the senior VP of product and engineering at Datorama, and was promoted to his current role in March. 

Salesforce is looking to double its research and development workforce in Israel over the next two years, according to Israeli news website Calcalist. It already has about 600 employees via acquisitions of Datorama and ClickSoftware. 

Petra Jenner, senior VP and general manager, Emerging Markets & Israel

Petra Jenner leads emerging markets and Israel for Salesforce. Emerging markets refers to countries in Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Africa, which are all regions where Salesforce doesn't have a large customer base yet. 

Jenner joined Salesforce in 2016 and led its commercial business unit and its European innovation and transformation services team before her current role. She helped build out Salesforce's team across Europe, Middle East, and Africa. 

Before Salesforce, she was a general manager for Microsoft in in Switzerland and Austria, and helped with its transition to the cloud. 

• The electric car race has been on since 2010, but it's now essentially over, and Tesla has won: CEO Elon Musk's automaker dominates the EV market
• But that market remains tiny, at just about 2% of global sales.
• Musk knows that for Tesla's grand vision to succeed, that share has to grow exponentially.
• Winning the EV race means that for Tesla, the real work of eliminating the internal-combustion engine has just begun.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The idea that automakers are racing to commercialize electric cars — and that one or some of them will come out on top — has always been flawed. 

For starters, the auto industry is huge: More than a billion passenger vehicles are roaming the planet, with another 80 million or so joining them every year. No single victor could satisfy that level of demand.

This was obvious even in the early days of the auto industry, when scores of carmakers, engine-makers, and coachbuilders were competing to put Americans and Europeans behind the wheel. Yes, there were obvious winners and losers: Henry Ford captured a huge amount of market share early on with his Model T, then General Motors grew itself into a competitor and took the lead. But more than a century on, both are carrying on, more or less fine. That's not how races work. 

In the 20th century, plenty of other famous names got in on the action. Vanished marques, such as Studebaker and Nash. Mid-century upstarts like Chrysler. The Europeans were always a factor: Mercedes, BMW, Fiat, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Rover, Vauxhall, Renault, Citroën. Mighty Volkswagen. After World War II, a surge of Japanese nameplates rolled in: Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru.

The point is that on a planet populated by billions of people, a significant percentage of whom aspire to personal mobility, you need a lot of automakers to satisfy demand and to share the risks of trying to meet it. 

That was the internal-combustion era, however. Which still makes up roughly 98% of the global market. Meanwhile, on the electrified front — 2% of worldwide sales — there's already a clear winner: Tesla.

A single statistic tells the story. Nissan's Leaf, an EV that arrived in 2010 before Tesla's Model S followed in 2012, had sold just over 400,000 units, all time. Tesla is now closing in on a million, for the five vehicles it has marketed since its founding (the original Roadster, Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y).

Tesla has a near-monopoly of a tiny market, then. The race, such as it is, has ended, and Tesla can declare victory. But here's the thing: CEO Elon Musk knows the race is the wrong narrative, the one that doesn't matter. Here's why:

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After Elon Musk sold his stake in PayPal to eBay in 2002, he took his personal payday — hundred of millions — and sunk it into several companies, including Tesla, which at the time was barely making any cars.

Electric vehicles weren't unprecedented. They had been around since the dawn of the auto age, and in the 1990s, General Motors took the bold step of launching the EV1, an EV with slightly more than 100 miles of range.

The EV1 used a nickel-metal hydride battery design, the best option available at the time. GM only leased the EV1 to customers, and eventually ended the program.

Tesla's battery design was rather different. It wired together thousands of lithium-ion cells to create a battery pack that required an intricate cooling system. But it yielded a range that was competitive with gas vehicles.

The original Roadster was Tesla's first product, and it was impressive. Based on a Lotus chassis, the two-seater could do 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, with double the range of the EV1.

Tesla never sold a lot of Roadsters, but the price was high enough to generate revenue to build the company's first "clean sheet" design, the Model S, unveiled in 2012. (Tesla also had a Department of Energy loan, plus equity investments from Daimler and Toyota adding to a 2010 IPO that raised about $260 million).

The Model X SUV followed in 2015. For Musk, it was imperative to sell high-priced, luxury EVs to fund his Master Plan: an affordable EV for the masses.

That car arrived in all-important Model 3, which hit the streets in 2017. By 2020, it made up the bulk of Tesla's sales, which had hit more than 250,000 annually.

The Model Y was next, revealed in 2019. With this car, Tesla was taking on the booming market for crossover SUVs in the US. Musk expected it to outsell the Model 3 in the long-run.

Tesla also announced a new Roadster, this time with a 0 to 60 mph time of under two seconds. Tesla hasn't yet built it, but for loyalists who took a chance on the original Roadster, it's going to be the must-have "halo" Tesla.

And in late 2019, Tesla showcased the wild Cybertruck, a massive departure from its design language. The goal was clear: GM, Ford, and FCA sell around three million full-size pickups every year. Replace them with electric pickups and you've made a major dent in the internal-combustion engine's hegemony.

While all this was going on, the rest of the auto industry was gradually figuring out its own EV agenda. The Nissan Leaf had launched in 2010, before the Model S. It was basically the only long-range EV available for several years.

Designer Henrik Fisker was seen as a direct Tesla rival in the early 2010s, with his Karma sedan. But the company went bankrupt in 2013.

General Motors launched the Chevy Bolt EV in 2016, beating Tesla's mass-market Model 3 to market. That didn't concern him — with GM back in the game, his vision had a far better chance of becoming a reality.

The Jaguar I-PACE was in the first wave of luxury EVs that took on the Model S and Model X. It arrived in 2018 and offered about 250 miles of range.

Audi rolled out its E-tron SUV in 2018, as well; it now delivers just over 200 miles of range.

Porsche unveiled its Taycan in 2019, and announced that it would have close to 300 miles of range, and — more importantly — be a proper high-performance EV. It would also be priced accordingly: $185,000 for the top-dog Turbo S version.

New startups also entered the fray. Rivian took the auto show circuit by storm in 2019, showcasing an ell-electric SUV and pickup truck, angling to capture the same buyers Tesla was targeting with the Cybertruck.

Post-Chevy Bolt EV, General Motors committed to an ambitious electric strategy. The automaker revived the Hummer nameplate, making it an electric pickup to be sold under the GMC brand.

In fact, GM has declared that its future is electric. In early 2020, CEO Mary Barra announced a new "Ultium" battery technology and said the company would introduce 22 new electrified vehicles by 2023.

Crosstown Detroit rival Ford wasn't sitting entirely still. Last year, it announced that it would extend its Mustang brand for the first time since 1965. The all-electric Mustang Mach-E was the result. It goes on sale later this year.

But of course, the big news from Ford was that an all-electric F-150 pickup was on the way, hitting the road in 2022. A game-changer? Possibly. The gas-powered F-150 has been the bestselling vehicle in the US since 1982. In 2019, Ford sold nearly a million F-Series trucks.

Despite all these new entries, Tesla's lead remains huge. It's currently opening, building, or preparing to build three new factories on three continents. Its market capitalization, at about $260 billion, is more than those of Ford, GM, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles — combined.

Musk has taken the company from essentially nothing to be the most valuable automaker in the world, in less than 20 years.

But he wasn't allowing himself to think that winning the EV race meant that his work was done. He was, at best, only at the beginning of fulfilling his master plans.

With the US and European markets mature, the China market was the world's major growth opportunity. It could have 40 million in annual vehicle sales at some point in the future — more than twice the size of the US market.

Electric vehicles are considered a key alternative to adding millions of polluting cars and trucks to the country's fleet.

If they replace enough gas vehicles, EVs could slow climate change, an important goal for Musk. Transportation and energy generation are two of the biggest generators of greenhouse emissions.

For Musk, the master plan isn't to be the biggest manufacturer of EVs — it's to accelerate humanity's exit from the fossil-fuels age, and to convince other automakers and innovators that the market for electric cars is viable.

Tesla could be selling millions of vehicles every year by the end of the decade, staying far ahead of its sundry rivals. But what matters more is that those millions in annual sales grow the EV market from 2% today to more than 50% by 2030 — and possibly far more than that.

• Researchers from North Carolina State University and Microsoft published a study in July that found that developer interviews often evaluate for performance anxiety, rather than actual coding skills.
• Researchers found that students who conducted a technical interview in a private room did twice as well.
• The typical developer interview process can also introduce bias, so North Carolina State University is working with companies like Microsoft, Google, and CoderPad on ways to improve the format. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Developer interviews — which often involve having a candidate stand in front of a whiteboard and solve coding problems in front of a panel of interviewers — have long been a dreaded process.

And according to new research from North Carolina State University and Microsoft, typical developer interviews are better at testing whether a candidate has performance anxiety than whether a candidate has competent coding skills. 

During a normal whiteboard interview, a candidate has solve a problem on the spot while explaining their process to interviewers. But according to the study from July, where researchers conducted technical interviews with 48 computer science students, a candidate does twice as well if there isn't anyone watching. 

"I don't think we have any definite answers here, but I think this is fairly strong evidence there is something wrong with what we're doing," Chris Parnin, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of the paper, told Business Insider. 

While tech companies may have created developer interviews with good intentions to test a candidate's programming skills, it has led to "harmful effects," Parnin says, because developers may experience stress during interviews when someone is watching them the entire time.

"We as an industry have inadvertently reinvented a stress test instead of an actual measure of technical skills," he said. 

Now, North Carolina State University is already starting to work with companies like Microsoft, Google, and CoderPad to explore ways to make small improvements in the interview process. 

Developer interviews can create unnecessary stress and anxiety

Parnin himself felt "there was something off" when he went through developer interviews in the past. This feeling stuck with him. 

He eventually started doing research on programming interruptions, where he found that if a developer is interrupted in the middle of programming, it can take 10 to 15 minutes to recover. 

"As I started doing more research as a professor, this kind of connected with me," Parnin said. "This idea that if programmers consider interruptions as one of the worst things that can happen, it's weird that the technical interview is designed around being asked questions about what you're doing but being surveilled the whole time."

Before beginning the study, the team gathered feedback on what developers said about technical interviews, and one of the most common things that came up was how much anxiety and stress these interviews cause. 

Besides stress, the interview process could also be riddled with bias, Parnin says. For example, if two candidates solve a problem correctly, interviewers may be biased towards hiring the candidate who projects more confidence, even if that person's solution isn't technically better. 

Some candidates might also have an advantage over others when it comes to coding interviews because of where they went to school. For example, Stanford offers a specific class that teaches students how to pass a technical interview.

"If you look at other schools, they never have done these sorts of tests so [candidates] go out and bomb them," Parnin said. That means that candidates who weren't privileged enough to attend a school with practice exams are automatically at a disadvantage.

"Turns out, these signals are just noise," Parnin says. "We're just measuring something else. If we can allow for multiple pathways for people to be interviewed, then it could potentially help reduce some of the problems associated with this."

Also, the developer interview process often results in college students spending more time practicing interview problems to get a job than working on schoolwork about fundamental computer science concepts.

Companies like Microsoft and Google are already looking into changes in the interview process

Since Microsoft helped shape the study, the results could potentially help guide it in rethinking its own interview process, Parnin says. For example, Microsoft may look into moving into a more conversational interview where the focus is on solving a problem together, rather than being interrogated.

Microsoft has already been rolling out some changers in its interview process. Starting in early 2016, Microsoft's developer division began rolling out the "Alternative Interview Framework" to better match an applicant's skills to what the job really requires. It's now used by Microsoft's developer division to interview product managers and program managers. 

Likewise, NC State is still in the early stages of working with companies like Google and CoderPad. Many companies have already adapted the whiteboard interview process to take place virtually during the coronavirus pandemic, and Twilio is even de-emphasizing it.

Read more: The pandemic is changing how companies like Amazon Web Services and Twilio hire software developers, as Silicon Valley rethinks the interview process

Parnin suggests that some potential ways to remove stress for candidates during the process include take-home exams, having candidates build a real-world project, adding private time during interviews, or having developers explain their thinking process retroactively.

"There's not going to be one easy answer for this," Parnin said. "Each company will have to reevaluate what's the best way for them to tailor the interview process so that it's more humane."

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley insiders say that the shift to remote work could finally make a dent in tech's diversity crisis. But companies will need to address several key challenges for the change to stick.

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• Cloud HR startup Rippling raised $145 million in a Series B round led by Founders Fund at an estimated $1.45 billion valuation, according to PitchBook. 
• Rippling CEO Parker Conrad recalls how he pitched Founders Fund partner Brian Singerman when they met while on a long walk in hilly San Francisco neighborhood Noe Valley. 
• "I was kind of like huffing and puffing, marching up and down these hills, sort of pitching Brian on the company," he told Business Insider. "So that was definitely different than then sort of like normally, how things work."
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Raising capital is tough in the middle of a pandemic and a severe downturn. It's likely even harder for startups serving a market that's been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis: small businesses.

But Parker Conrad, CEO and cofounder of HR cloud startup Rippling, managed to pull it off, raising $145 million in a Series B round led by Founders Fund, at a $1.45 billion valuation according to PitchBook.

Rippling's cloud platform makes it easier for small and medium sized businesses to manage employee records and needs.

Conrad has said Rippling offers broader features and services, including more automation to help integrate employees into their company networks and workflows. It's a hot market in which it competes with the likes of Okta, Onelogin, and Paylocity. 

Another rival is Zenefits, the hot cloud startup that Conrad also cofounded, but which he left amid an SEC scandal four years ago.

Conrad has managed to raise capital for Rippling despite that rocky stint, although the pandemic made the recent round a bit challenging. 

He had a meeting with Founders Fund two days before the lockdown in San Francisco where Rippling is based.

"It was the last in-person I had before we started, you know, working from home," Conrad told Business Insider.

Founders Fund reached out to Conrad's team in July to resume the conversation. 

For Conrad, it was not the typical pitch meeting with a venture capital firm. He and Founders Fund partner Brian Singerman met in Noe Valley, a hilly San Francisco neighborhood.

"We met outside with masks on and went for a walk," he said. "I'm not in the best shape in the world. I was kind of like huffing and puffing, marching up and down these hills, sort of pitching Brian on the company. So that was definitely different than then sort of like normally, how things work."

Here are the metrics Rippling used to raise $145 million:

SEE ALSO: Enterprise tech salaries revealed: How much Oracle, IBM, SAP, Cisco, Dell, VMware, ServiceNow and Workday pay engineers, developers, data scientists and others

SEE ALSO: VCs say that these 29 companies are the top startups in the booming big data industry

SEE ALSO: Experts predict 15 gigantic tech mergers we could see in a recession, from Amazon buying Oracle to IBM buying Dell

The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in a period of rapid change and uncertainty across the global economy.

Prolonged lockdowns, government stimulus, and accelerated digitization have fundamentally changed how businesses operate and how consumers are spending. Due to this disruption, our outlook for the rest of 2020 has changed significantly from when we made predictions for the upcoming year in December 2019.

Considering the impacts of the pandemic, Insider Intelligence has put together a list of 18 Big Tech Predictions for the Second Half of 2020 across Banking, Connectivity & Tech, Digital Media, Payments & Commerce, Fintech, and Digital Health.

This exclusive report can be yours for FREE today.

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• TikTok, the video-sharing platform that's become a mainstay of internet culture, is facing an uncertain future in the US, due to its ties to China thanks to its parent company ByteDance.
• After months of raising concerns about TikTok's national-security risks, the Trump administration took action this week aimed at banning the app in the US. However, it's still unclear whether Donald Trump has the power to do such a thing.
• Now, ByteDance has less than 45 days to avoid a ban by finalizing a deal for a US company to take over TikTok's US operations. Microsoft is the frontrunner in the deal, which is estimated to be valued between $10 billion and $30 billion.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Here's everything you need to go about what's going on with Trump's attempt to ban TikTok — explained in just 30 seconds.

TikTok, a product of the massive Chinese company ByteDance, came to the US in 2018. The app's addictive recommendation engine and simple video-making process quickly turned it into a mainstay in internet culture. It now has more than 100 million users in the US.

As TikTok's popularity has grown, so has scrutiny from US lawmakers over its roots in China, a country President Donald Trump has readily painted as an enemy. Chinese law requires domestic companies to "cooperate" with the state's security efforts — a connection that raised concerns about the government's influence over TikTok content moderation in the US and its access to American users' data. The US government quietly launched an investigation in November 2019 into TikTok's potential national-security risks, a review led by a government body called CFIUS.

TikTok's popularity continued to rocket during the coronavirus pandemic. Mainstream attention turned to TikTok when its userbase mobilized to falsely inflate the expected attendance for a major Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the start of July 2020, Trump administration officials first stated publicly they were considering banning TikTok in the US. 

On July 31, reports emerged the president would soon turn his words into action as the Trump administration weighed two executive orders: a nationwide TikTok ban, or a directive that ByteDance divest its TikTok operations in the US. In anticipation of a ban, ByteDance started shopping around for potential buyers. Although Trump seemed to initially lean toward a ban, he acquiesced in allowing ByteDance to hold talks to sell off TikTok's US operations — an acquisition in which that Microsoft appears to be the eager frontrunner.

Trump has given ByteDance until Sept. 15 to find a buyer, or he says he'll ban TikTok. He's also issued an executive order, set to take effect in less than 45 days, that will bar US companies and entities from "any transactions" with TikTok and ByteDance. However, it's unclear whether Trump has the power to issue a nationwide ban on an app like TikTok. Experts have questioned whether such action could violate Americans' First Amendment rights, and how effective the ban be in practice.

SEE ALSO: No, Donald Trump can't 'ban' TikTok

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NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

• In an interview with WIRED published Friday, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates talked about the state of US coronavirus testing, vaccines, and Microsoft's potential TikTok deal.
• On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that banned TikTok's parent company – ByteDance, which is a Chinese firm – from operating business in the US.
• Regarding Microsoft's potential acquisition of TikTok, Gates, who now serves as the company's technology advisor, compared the deal to "a poison chalice."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates described Microsoft's potential acquisition of TikTok as a "poison chalice" in an interview with WIRED published on Friday.

Gates, who now serves as the technology advisor of Microsoft after stepping down from the board of directors in March to focus on philanthropic efforts, shared his thoughts on coronavirus testing, vaccinations, and Microsoft's potential TikTok deal.

Gates noted that "being big in the social media business is no simple game," telling the publication that Microsoft making the industry more competitive is "probably a good thing." 

When asked about President Donald Trump's demand that TikTok be sold to an American company, with the federal government taking a cut, Gates described the move as "strange."

"I agree that the principle this is proceeding on is singly strange. The cut thing, that's doubly strange. Anyway, Microsoft will have to deal with all of that," he said.

Gates also deflected when he was asked whether he was "wary" about Microsoft jumping into the social media "game."

"I mean, this may sound self-serving, but I think that the game being more competitive is probably a good thing. But having Trump kill off the only competitor, it's pretty bizarre," he said.

Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated in July that the US was looking into a potential ban of the TikTok app. At the end of July, the New York Times reported Microsoft was in talks for acquiring TikTok.

In August, Microsoft officially confirmed it has been in talks to acquire TikTok's operations in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and stated it will complete discussions by September 15th. 

On Thursday, President Trump issued an executive order that banned TikTok's parent company ByteDance, a Chinese firm, from "any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States." President Trump mentioned in the order that the popular app could "allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information." 

On Saturday, NPR reported that "a person who was directly involved in the forthcoming suit but was not authorized to speak for the company" stated that TikTok planned to sue the Trump administration as early as Tuesday. 

• Read more:
• Trump just issued 2 executive orders aimed at Chinese-owned apps, barring US companies from doing business with TikTok parent company ByteDance and messaging app WeChat
• TikTok is at the heart of a wild geopolitical dogfight and it could result in Microsoft buying TikTok. Here's what's going on.
• Trump's attempt to ban TikTok and WeChat could face legal trouble for infringing on free speech, according to a First Amendment expert
• Microsoft could be "a great steward" of TikTok's US assets if reported sale talks succeed, says Josh Elman, an investor in the app's predecessor Musical.ly

Join the conversation about this story »

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• TikTok plans to sue the Trump administration over its recent executive order as early as Tuesday, NPR reported Saturday, citing a source directly involved in the lawsuit.
• President Donald Trump's recent executive order banned US individuals and companies from engaging in "any transaction" with Chinese firm ByteDance, the app's parent company.
• NPR reported the lawsuit will argue that the administration "failed to give the company a chance to respond" to the order.
• The lawsuit also alleges the administration's justification of the order for "national security" reasons is not supported with evidence, according to NPR.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

TikTok could sue the Trump administration over its recent executive order as early as Tuesday, NPR reported Saturday, citing a source "directly involved in the forthcoming suit."

President Donald Trump's executive order on Thursday banned US individuals and companies from engaging in business transactions with TikTok parent company Chinese firm ByteDance.

The order – which was followed up by a similar order targeting WeChat, a messaging platform also belonging to a Chinese company – cited concerns for national security.

The order alleged that the app's data collection methods could "allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information."

CIA Analysts stated to the White House that while it is possible for the Chinese government to access data, there was "no evidence" as of yet that it has done so, according to the New York Times.

TikTok's upcoming lawsuit will argue that the order is "unconstitutional" because it did not "give the company a chance to respond," according to NPR. Additionally, NPR reported that the lawsuit will argue that the order's reference to concerns for national security to justify the order is "based on pure speculation and conjecture." 

TikTok's spokesperson declined to comment to Business Insider beyond the company's statement issued Friday, which said "there has been, and continues to be, no due process or adherence to the law."

The statement said that Trump's order has a "reliance on unnamed "reports" with no citations, fears that the app 'may be' used for misinformation campaigns with no substantiation of such fear" and added that the company has "made clear that TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request." It said that it will "pursue all remedies" to uphold " the rule of law" – " if not by the Administration, then by the US courts."

In early July, both Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that they were looking into a potential ban of the TikTok app in the US. The New York Times reported at the end of July that Microsoft was in talks of a potential acquisition of TikTok. Microsoft publicly announced in early August – days before Trump issued an executive order – that they are continuing conversations for the potential purchase of TikTok's US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand operations. 

Meanwhile, a law professor at the University of Nebraska Lincoln told Business Insider's Tyler Sonnemaker and Paige Leskin that Trump's executive orders on TikTok and WeChat are "likely to have First Amendment problems."

The White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. 

• Read more:
• TikTok is at the heart of a wild geopolitical dogfight and it could result in Microsoft buying TikTok. Here's what's going on.
• Trump's push to ban TikTok in the US, explained in 30 seconds
• Bill Gates called Microsoft's potential TikTok deal a 'poison chalice' and said 'who knows what's going to happen'
• Trump's attempt to ban TikTok and WeChat could face legal trouble for infringing on free speech, according to a First Amendment expert

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in his statement to the antitrust House committee last week that Shopify is a new competitor.
• Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, however, said Amazon is not a "direct competitor" during the company's earnings call last week.
• E-commerce experts say they're "indirect" competitors that effectively play in the same field.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Last week, the CEOs of Amazon and Shopify gave contrasting views about each other. 

In his statement to the antitrust House committee, Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos singled out Shopify as a new competitor that's helping traditional brick-and-mortar stores launch their own online businesses.

But Shopify's CEO Tobi Lutke seemed to disagree when he was asked during the company's earnings call about Amazon as a competitive threat. He said Shopify "doesn't directly compete" with Amazon, instead highlighting its partnership with the online retailer.

"I don't think we have any particular insights beyond just fellow travelers in a world of technology," Lutke said.

The strikingly different perspectives of the two CEOs begs a question about the true nature of  their relationship with each other: Are they competitors?

"I think [Lutke] was being diplomatic," said Tom Forte, an analyst at D.A. Davidson, who asked the question about Amazon during Shopify's earnings call. "I really believe Shopify is a competitor to Amazon, and in some instances, the anti-Amazon."

Forte said Shopify serves as an "antidote" to the growing power of Amazon and other tech giants in the e-commerce space because it's helping over a million small businesses to compete with them — while fighting over the same market share. Shopify sells the tools needed to launch an online store, including software to run a website and accept online payments. But unlike Amazon, it doesn't sell anything directly to consumers or operate a marketplace where other merchants can sell their products. 

"Shopify's ultimate mission is to enable sellers to compete more effectively with Amazon," Forte said.

The competition is expected to accelerate going forward as Shopify continues to add more services. Most recently, it launched a new service called Shopify Fulfillment Network, which helps store and ship products on behalf of sellers. That service is in direct competition with Amazon's Fulfilment by Amazon, a key piece of its third-party marketplace that generated $53 billion in sales last year.

'Indirect' competitors

Amazon is the de facto leader in online retailing, with a market cap of roughly $1.6 trillion. Shopify, with a value of about $125 billion, is much smaller in size, but is starting to catch up.

In fact, Shopify helped facilitate more product sales than eBay for the first time in the second quarter, making it the second largest e-commerce service behind just Amazon, according to Marketplace Pulse. 

Perhaps the better way to describe their relationship is to call them "indirect" competitors, according to Rick Watson, CEO of RMW Commerce Consulting. 

While they play in the same e-commerce field, Amazon and Shopify are targeting different users, he said. For example, Amazon generates the bulk of its sales from end shoppers, while Shopify makes money by targeting business owners that sell online. Although Amazon has its own marketplace used by third-party sellers, merchants are unlikely to choose one over the other when selling online because each platform serves a different purpose.

"It's not mutually exclusive," Watson said. "Direct competition is almost out of the question."

That doesn't mean the dynamics won't change in the future. Amazon previously launched a Shopify-like webstore business that shut down in 2015, and there's no reason to believe it won't try it again given the company's ever-growing ambitions. Meanwhile, there's been plenty of speculation about Shopify potentially launching its own marketplace for years.

If they end up competing more directly, however, Shopify seems to have one advantage over Amazon: user trust.

Mark William Lewis, founder of Netalico Commerce, a consulting agency for online sellers, said the sellers he works with generally prefer to start on independent sites powered by companies like Shopify, before expanding to Amazon's marketplace. More importantly, he said, many sellers are worried about Amazon's dual role of being both a seller and a marketplace, an issue that's been at the center of the recent House antitrust investigation. Recent reports of Amazon copying best-selling products from its sellers and repeated claims of unfair suspensions that lead to unexpected losses have amplified those concerns, he said.

Still, Shopify seems mindful of Amazon's presence in the e-commerce space, Lewis said. It's common for Shopify to mention Amazon in company presentations, often creating an impression that they're winning share against the e-commerce giant, he said. (referring to the slide below that was used during last year's Shopify Unite conference.)

"Maybe Shopify is not a competitor, but an alternative to Amazon," Lewis said. "But they definitely look at Amazon as an 'us vs. them' situation."

SEE ALSO: Amazon quietly launched a new website for its big ad conference, which returns for its second straight year amid the company's surging digital ad sales

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NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

• Amid President Donald Trump's threats to ban TikTok, or force it to sell its US operations, Twitter was reported to be in talks with the video-sharing app Saturday night.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that a potential deal, if it materializes, could involve TikTok's US operations.
• Both Twitter and TikTok declined to comment on the report to Business Insider.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Another tech giant was reported to be on TikTok's dance card Saturday night — Twitter.

The Wall Street Journal's Georgia Wells and Cara Lombardo reported the two popular apps are in "preliminary" talks for a possible combination. "People familiar with the matter" told the paper that a deal, which it said Twitter may not end up pursuing, would involve TikTok's US operations.

Twitter declined to comment on the report to Business Insider. TikTok's head of corporate communications Josh Gartner said, "We don't comment on market rumors."

President Donald Trump has been harping on the popular video-sharing app to ditch its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, citing security concerns. Last week, Trump said he would "ban" the app, which he can't exactly do, if ByteDance doesn't sell.

Microsoft was seen as the frontrunner for a deal last week, with estimates for a potential deal for TikTok's US operations at $10 billion and $30 billion, Business Insider's Paige Leskin reported.

It's unclear what a Twitter-TikTok deal could look like, how much it could cost, or how Twitter could pay for it. The WSJ pointed out that Twitter's market cap is about $29 billion, while Microsoft's exceeds $1.6 trillion.

"Because it is much smaller, Twitter has reasoned that it would be unlikely to face the same level of antitrust scrutiny as Microsoft or other potential bidders, said people familiar with the discussions," Wells and Lombardo wrote.

Twitter has about 186 million users, according to its most recent earnings at the end of July. TikTok has more than 100 million users in the US alone.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal »

SEE ALSO: There is still no proof TikTok is spying on you for China

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NOW WATCH: Inside London during COVID-19 lockdown

• Europe's fastest-growing tech companies like Revolut and Babylon Health are permanently shifting towards more flexible remote working policies.
• London-headquartered neo-bank Revolut says 70% of its employees don't want to go back to working the same way they were pre-pandemic.
• Startup accelerator Founders Factory says that productivity has increased with remote working. 
• But, European venture capital firms Connect Ventures and Beringea found that 45% of the companies they had invested in thought the mental health of their teams has suffered. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Europe's tech startups are following Silicon Valley's lead when it comes to a permanent shift towards more flexible working. 

US tech giants like Google have recently revealed plans to continue remote working until summer 2021, while Twitter told employees as early as May that they can work from home forever if they want. 

Now, European tech startups like $5.5 billion neo-bank Revolut and telehealth unicorn Babylon Health told Business Insider that they too plan to implement flexible, remote working options long term.

"I think it's been a bit of a test bed for lots of companies, including us, who have been forced into this quite radical shift in the way we work," says Babylon Health's chief commercial officer Amanda Cupples. 

"From a value-add perspective, clearly that old model — that model of  high-density, open plan working — doesn't work in this environment, so we have to shift," she adds. "The question is how do we make sure that shift's a positive one that allows us to grow as a business."

Cupples says that Babylon's London headquarters are still open, but the startup won't review plans for a large-scale return to the office until autumn. The company has more than 2,000 employees globally.

"The one thing we do know is that it won't be a return to the pre-Covid model of five days a week in the office, which is largely what we did with some exceptions."

Revolut, also headquartered in London, likewise plans to shake up the old model of the five day in-office working week. The company has around 2,000 employees.

The fintech says 70% of its employees don't want to go back to working how they were before, with most wanting to balance time in the office with remote working some days a week.

At current estimates, that would mean a maximum of 60% of employees in the office at any one time, says VP Lesley Smith. 

"We've been impressed with how quickly people adapted to working outside the office and how they maintained productivity and team working wherever they worked from," Smith says. "People are saving the time from the daily commute and that's good for work/life balance."

But, the knock-on effects from remote working have not been all positive.

While productivity is good, mental health has declined

A survey by London-based venture capital firms Connect Ventures and Beringea of 31 portfolio companies found that, while only 12% of startups felt that productivity had fallen, 45% felt that the mental wellbeing of their teams had suffered from the shift to remote working. 

"There's definitely a general desire to work more flexibly, but I think there's also a general acknowledgement that there is value in face-to-face collaboration," says Babylon's Cupples.

"I think that's what's going to make people want to come back, because there are certain things that people are missing and they're mostly around culture and communications."

For many tech startups, productivity has increased with remote working.

"In one of our surveys, both our team and startups indicated that productivity ... felt higher in this remote-first world," says Louis Warner, chief operating officer of startup builder Founders Factory.

Founders Factory hosts a number of its startups at its offices, and runs accelerators as well as startup-building programs.

"During the lockdown period for instance, we have hosted two virtual investor showcase events which have been our best attended to date with over 500 investors in attendance, we have helped our startups close approximately £30 million in funding, and we have welcomed 15 new startups to our program," added Warner.

Almost half of Founders Factory's portfolio startups are considering a more flexible working environment, either "remote-first" or more working from home days, with 35% looking to return to the office "as soon as possible".

This is consistent with the outlook for other small tech startups.

80% of the early-stage startups surveyed by Connect and Beringea expect to return to the office by the end of 2020, but only 22% expect that the entire workforce will be back within the next one to two years. 

For lawtech startup SeedLegals, around half of the workforce are "happy at home" and half have plans to return to the office in the next few months.

"Based on those results, we've given notice on our current office space, and have two months to decide what to do next," says CEO Anthony Rose. "Currently our thinking is that we'll find some, possibly smaller, space, to reflect the changes in people's desire for flexibility in their working location."

But Rose isn't sure this is sustainable long term. 

"In my opinion, there are two stable scenarios: Everyone in the office, or everyone at home. The in-between state, with some employees at home and some in the office, may be the worst of both worlds," he says.

"You'll be trying to hold meetings with half the team sitting together, talking to a laptop on the desk with tinny sound and small videos of the rest."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 secrets about Washington, DC landmarks you probably didn't know

• Many employees at the top self-driving companies make six-figure salaries, according to data the companies have disclosed to the US government.
• Business Insider analyzed 2020 data from Argo AI, Aurora Innovation, Cruise, Waymo, and Zoox.
• The positions included in this story have salaries ranging from $115,040 to $234,000.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Building a self-driving car is an enormously difficult task that requires gifted engineers who are willing to spend years on projects that might never make their way to the public. And so the competition for talent is intense — as made clear by what the top companies in the space shell out. 

Five major players in the industry — Argo AI, Aurora Innovation, Cruise, Waymo, and Zoox — tend to pay six-figure salaries, according to data from the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification. The agency requires companies to disclose the amount of money they offer permanent and temporary employees from outside the US to ensure the firms aren't paying them less than the average wage earned by their peers. The salary data Business Insider analyzed is from 2020.

Aurora, Argo, and Zoox declined a request for comment, and Cruise did not respond to a request for comment.

Here's what some of the autonomous-vehicle industry's leaders are paying their employees recruited from outside the US.

SEE ALSO: Uber is hiring 140 engineers in India and offering a $500 allowance for employees to set up home offices

Argo AI

Argo AI has received investments from Ford and Volkswagen, the former of which plans to begin using Argo's technology for autonomous ride-hailing and delivery services in 2022.

• Hardware engineer II: $135,000 to $180,000
• Senior hardware engineer: $162,000 to $225,500
• Senior software engineer: $175,500 to $234,000
• Software engineer II: $135,000 to $181,667

Aurora Innovation

Founded by former members of Alphabet, Tesla, and Uber's autonomy programs, Aurora is working on an automated-driving system that could one day power semi-trucks and consumer vehicles.

• Software engineer: $123,055 to $172,875

Cruise

Purchased by General Motors in 2016, Cruise plans to launch a robotaxi service in San Francisco, but has not disclosed a timeline after pushing back a planned 2019 launch date.

• Engineering manager: $193,187 to $231,113
• Senior machine-learning engineer: $143,630 to $208,900
• Senior network engineer: $140,987 to $198,600
• Senior software engineer: $166,545 to $208,751
• Senior systems test engineer: $140,133 to $175,533
• Senior technical product manager: $176,667 to $215,000
• Senior technical program manager: $161,900 to $206,600
• Software engineer: $119,122 to $162,400

Waymo

Seen by many experts as the autonomous-vehicle industry's leader, Waymo has been operating a robotaxi service in parts of Arizona since 2018.

• Business analyst: $117,000
• Software engineer: $153,870
• Data scientist: $149,000
• Hardware engineer: $166,429
• Manufacturingengineer: $150,000 to $156,000
• Mechanical engineer: $144,500
• Product manager: $170,167
• Program manager: $165,667
• Research scientist: $188,333
• Systems engineer: $155,714
• Technical program manager: $186,571
• Test engineer: $121,667

A Waymo representative said the salary data shared with the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification is not reflective of the average compensation at the company since employees recruited from abroad tend to be less experienced than their coworkers. The representative also said the data doesn't account for the bonuses and equity awards Waymo employees receive.

Zoox

Amazon announced in June its plans to spend a reported $1.2 billion to acquire Zoox, which — unlike many of its peers — is developing a vehicle designed for autonomy from the ground-up.

• Electrical engineer: $115,040 to $135,000
• Engineering manager: $171,933 to $192,500
• Firmware engineer: $123,464 to $152,333
• Mechanical engineer: $124,100 to $140,667
• Senior software engineer: $156,582 to $203,333
• Software engineer: $134,224 to $165,000

• Read more:
• A top industry executive says there are 3 major players in autonomous vehicles, and Waymo, the most talked-about company in the business, isn't one of them
• 5 self-driving-car companies primed to survive the wave of consolidation slamming the industry
• Experts rank Tesla, Waymo and 16 other power players in the world of self-driving cars
• The CEO of the Amazon-backed self-driving car startup Aurora explains why testing its tech on a computer is better than testing it in the real world

• I tested a $76,000 Audi Q7 55 TFSI from the 2020 model year — an updated version of the second-generation of this popular luxury SUV.
• In the premium, three-row SUV realm, the Q7 has always been considered an excellent choice, and the 2020 model year is no exception.
• The major change is a new engine: a supercharged V6 has been swapped for a turbocharged V6 that's more powerful.
• The 2020 Audi Q7 continues the carmaker's tradition of serving the family luxury market.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the mid-size luxury SUV market, the two-row contestants compete more fiercely than their three-row counterparts. But for families, all transportation tends toward three-row capabilities. Once you're hauling two or three kids — plus all their gear, plus their friends, plus their friends' gear — that extra row becomes necessary. 

So you can go minivan, move up to a full-size SUV, or continue with mid-size vehicles, but add a third row and two more seats. If you've been a luxury customer, your needs are currently well-served: Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and Volvo, among others, are selling utes that can accommodate seven passengers.

Audi's Q7 has been in the game for a good while. In my book, this ute sets the standard. And it needs to, as its relatively high price tag provides a boost to Audi's revenue and profits. The latter has slid below 10% annually, and Audi wants to get back above that as soon as possible.

Given all that, I was rather interested in seeing what the refreshed second-generation of the SUV was like. Had it kept pace? And could it get the job done for Audi moving forward?

Read on to find out:

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My 2020 Audi Q7 55 TFSI test SUV arrived wearing a suave "Orca Black Metallic" paint job. The as-tested price was $76,040, but the base price was $60,800. (The cheapest Q7 is $54,800.)

The Q7 has been in the Audi lineup since 2005, pioneering the luxury, three-row SUV market. The second generation of the vehicle landed in 2015 and was refreshed in 2019.

The Q7 is Audi's largest SUV. It actually resides above the sporty Q8 in the brand's lineup, as well as the compact Q3 and mid-size, two-row Q5.

I tested the Q7 in 2016 and called it "luxury SUV perfection."

Read the review.

The Q7 has long been regarded as a sharply-designed SUV, and for the refresh, Audi didn't mess with success.

The "matrix" design LED headlights were part of a $10,400 "Prestige" package. Audi can take credit for creating an innovative daytime running-light idea, and these headlamps can easily pierce through the darkness.

My tester came with a set of 21-inch, 10-spoke wheels, included with a $1,750 exterior kit.

The back end of SUVs tends to be a weak point — there's no way to make an up-swinging barn door look good.

But the Q7 at least offers a smooth and sculptural interpretation. The elegant arrangement of the tail lights certainly helps.

Three-row SUVs can carry an additional two passengers, but a third row cuts into cargo capacity. You have a mere 14 cubic feet to work with.

However, if you drop the third row, that increases to 36 cubic feet. And if you lower the second and third rows, you have a cavernous 70 cubic feet.

My Audi Q7 55 TFSI had a 3.0-liter, turbocharged V6 engine under the hood. It makes 335 horsepower, with 369 pound-feet of torque. It also adds a modest mild-hybrid system that has a negligible impact on performance.

The power is sent to Audi's legendary Quattro all-wheel-drive system through a clean-shifting eight-speed automatic transmission. Fuel economy is fair: 17 mpg city/21 highway/18 combined.

The black interior on my Q7 was very, very Audi. The minimalism was palpable — a sharp contrast with Mercedes' blingy approach, and with BMW's driver-focused cabin layout.

A secondary touchscreen in the center stack enables climate control and also manages the heated and cooled front seats. Beautiful, but in practice, a bit tricky to use.

The second row is as restrained as the front seats, with pretty good legroom.

The second row has its own touchscreen-based set of dual-climate controls,

The seats are also easy to drop, to provide access to the third row. About the third row: the space is inadequate for anyone except smaller adults and pre-teen children.

The Q7 driver is a lucky human, perched at the center of a high-tech, digital nerve center.

The leather-wrapped, multifunction steering wheel is what one expects on an SUV of this caliber, but the Q7's layout is exceptionally user-friendly.

The Audi MMI infotainment system has an optional feature called "Virtual Cockpit" that allows the driver to customize the digital instrument cluster. I like to fill the screen with the navigation map.

The MMI system is superb — crisply rendered on a large touchscreen. It's responsive, but it does involve some sub-menus that you have to acquaint yourself with. It does everything well, from Bluetooth pairing to USB connectivity to GPS navigation. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are available, if you prefer your smartphone's OS.

Wireless charging is also in the house. Like heated/cooled seats and heated steering wheels, this has become a must-have feature for me on luxury vehicles.

In the luxury market, the Audi Q7 truly sets a standard for how to do a three-row SUV. That's why the vehicle is so popular among families, selling 35,000 units in 2019.

By the way, the dual-pane moonroof is welcome in a black SUV with an all-black interior.

So what's the verdict?

When I last tested the Q7, I found it to be utterly and completely compelling.

"Audi has really done a fine job of pleasing everyone with its premium SUV lineup," I wrote. "The luxury is there, the comfort is there, the roominess and versatility are there, the power and handling are there, the infotainment and ergonomics are there, and then there's an intangible Audi thing, which has always made these SUVs winners in the suburbs of New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles."

Nothing has changed since 2016, except that Audi has sold tens of thousands more Q7s to happy customers. The 2020 iteration is in no way a letdown. The big difference between the pre-refreshed Q7 I tested four years ago and this newbie is the turbocharged V6, which replaces a supercharged six. All things being equal, I favor supers to turbos for larger displacement vehicles, so missed some of the old Q7's surging power. But the turbo six is punchier, and there's more torque. So, improvements.

As far as I could tell, the 0-60 mph time is about the same, a scooch under six seconds — pretty fast for a vehicle this large. The Q7's handling is also superb. I'd say it's nearly car-like, except that Audi's cars handled with dazzling verve. So I'll qualify and say that for a 5,000-pound ute, the Q7 manages some magic. In my testing, I alternated between the Comfort and Dynamic drive modes, and while Dynamic adds oomph to the throttle and tightens up the steering, Comfort is plenty sporty. This is a great benefit of all Audis — they feel spirited even when they aren't supposed to.

I didn't tow anything with the Q7, but the rating is fantastic at almost 8,000 pounds. Unfortunately, my week of testing didn't coincide with a family trip, so I couldn't sample the real-world capacity and comfort of this SUV. But it should be excellent for most owners, for both mundane weekday/weekend errand duty and shopping, as well as summer road trips.

The bottom line here is that Audi updated with Q7 without altering much beyond the drivetrain, which is arguably now better. That means this three-row, seven-passenger hauler remains among the top tier of luxury utes.

• The coronavirus outbreak will have long-lasting effects on US workers, particularly when it comes to the open office made popular by Silicon Valley companies like Facebook and Google. 
• Experts say that the open office was never very positive for employees, who reported feeling less productive and more distracted, got sick more easily, and felt pressured to work longer and harder because of their lack of privacy. 
• When offices begin reopening, whether that's this year or next summer, we're likely to see a shift away from the open floor plan. 
• "Open floor plans are most definitely going to disappear," Rhiannon Staples, chief marketing officer at human resources management company Hibob, told Business Insider. "I feel like it was already on its way out and this was the kick it needed to get it out the door."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As the coronavirus continues its spread, unabated, in many parts of the US, it's becoming increasingly apparent that a return to "normal" is still far in the future. That's true for American office workers, many of whom have been working from their homes since March.

But when workers are able to return to work en masse, whether that's this winter or a year from now, the office probably won't look as they left it. 

Corporations nationwide are considering how to reopen spaces, from new ventilation systems systems to socially distanced elevators and closed-off kitchens. But the biggest change might be to the space as a whole. 

Experts predict that the wide-open office, popularized by tech industry titans like Google and Facebook, will become a thing of the past. The fad, already becoming passé, has become almost dangerous in the face of the virus — employees often sit packed in large, open rooms, with desks placed close enough to reach out and touch your coworker. 

But don't mourn the death of that open-office floor plan just yet: though it was once heralded as the key to employee collaboration and productivity, it was never all that great for workers anyway. 

The rise of the open office

Beginning in the early aughts, American tech workers began leaving cubicles behind in favor of an open-floor-plan office space. 

It all started with Google, which revealed its new headquarters, the Googleplex, in 2005. Based in Mountain View, California, it was — and still is — unlike any office in America. It had a bowling alley! And sleep pods! And even sand volleyball courts! 

The Googleplex, with its open design and flexible spaces, was heralded as the future. 

"The attitude was: We're inventing a new world, why do we need the old world?" Clive Wilkinson, the architect who designed the Googleplex, told Fast Company last year.  

Soon, companies started coming to Wilkinson and saying they wanted to by like Google, he told Fast Company. Not long after, Facebook followed suit, opening what it says is the biggest open-floor-plan office in the world: approximately 2,800 employees working in "one giant room," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said when it opened in 2015. 

"We saw a big pendulum shift where everyone came out of private offices and big cubicles into the open office, and that was an epic fail, because one size does not fit all. The open office has gotten a really bad rap as a result of doing it really badly," Melissa Hanley, CEO of the design firm Blitz, which counts Microsoft and Instacart among its clients, told Business Insider.

At the time, the idea was that if you broke down physical barriers between workers, it would break down metaphorical ones as well. Employees would be able to easily collaborate on projects and would be enticed to engage in a free-flow of ideas with their next-door neighbor. The company's CEO, once ensconced in a glass corner office, would now sit right out on the floor next to their employees, a person of the people. 

But that's not exactly what happened. 

Instead, employees put on headphones to shut out the noise that came along with wide-open spaces. They reported feeling stressed, anxious, and less likely to collaborate with those around them. In fact, a Harvard Business Review study from last year found that when a company switched to an open office, face-to-face interactions actually decreased by 70% — employees just communicated electronically instead. 

And that wasn't the only problem. A prescient 2018 piece by Vice's Mark Hay argued that open offices are vectors for disease, with employees who work in them taking more sick days than those who work in enclosed offices. 

"In the workplace, it only follows that if you're working in close proximity and handling objects and interacting closely with each other, it's a very easy route of transmission for germs, viruses, bacteria," Melissa Perry, a public-health researcher at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, told Business Insider earlier this year.

Socializing productivity

But beyond the prevalence of germs, there's another downside of the open office, at least for employees. 

"The open-plan office has always been in some ways in the interest of the company rather than the worker, because it socializes productivity," Melissa Gregg, Intel's chief technologist for user experience, recently told The New York Times. "It forces workers to watch each other's work, and it creates very few spaces of privacy for individual workers." 

Mentally, there's a pressure that comes with open offices. Workers don't want to look like they're not working hard, or like they're ducking out early. As Jeff Pochepan argued in Inc Magazine in 2018, this means that workers may work longer hours or feel undue pressure to be "on" and engaged 100% of the time, since everyone can see them. 

"I definitely think there's a concept within agile workplaces about accountability and thinking that you set something out that you're going to do and then you have to report back, did you do it," Hanley said. "I do think that the visual access to each other is probably feeding into that." 

Tracy Brower, a sociologist and principal in the Applied Research + Consulting Group at furniture manufacturer Steelcase, likened open offices to manufacturing, where workers generally kept an even, steady pace until a "rate-buster" came in — someone who worked harder and faster, thereby pushing the whole group too much.

"There's hustle culture where, I may not actually be more productive, but by goodness, I'm going to stay later than my boss, no matter what," Brower told Business Insider. "I think we can get caught up in working for the sake of working and being busy for the sake of being busy." 

'The kick it needed to get it out the door'

In the short term, the office is already changing. Companies are considering density like never before, spacing out workstations, limiting large groups in conference rooms and elevators, and placing partitions in between desks, almost like the cubicles of yore. 

But these cosmetic alterations are likely to be the precursor to a bigger change. Even though a full return to the office still appears to be a long way off, experts agree that when we do return — perhaps in summer 2021, as Google and Facebook expect — we should expect some permanent changes. 

"Open floor plans are most definitely going to disappear," Rhiannon Staples, chief marketing officer at human resources management company Hibob, told Business Insider. "I feel like it was already on its way out and this was the kick it needed to get it out the door."

But Brower said she doesn't think the open office is 100% dead — it's just going to feel different than it did in early 2020. 

"The pendulum has really swung toward open, open, open, and lots of density," Brower said. "I think what has now happened is we're starting to swing that pendulum way to the other side — more barriers, more boundaries, less density."

While that mentality is critical for the safety of employees in the near future, Brower said she doesn't expect things to stay that way. 

"I think what we will end up seeing is that pendulum landing somewhere a little bit close to the middle," Brower said. "This is actually our opportunity to reimagine, reinvent, use the coronavirus almost as an accelerator to get to places that are maybe even better than it would have been." 

SEE ALSO: With no mandate to shut down even if employees get sick, one expert calls Silicon Valley's reopening 'a very easy route of transmission'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Swayze Valentine is the only female treating fighters' cuts and bruises inside the UFC octagon

• The CEOs of four tech giants recently defended their market power in a historic antitrust hearing.
• A week later, it feels like business as usual.
• Blockbuster earnings, copycat apps, and near-$2-trillion market caps tell a different story to the one we heard from these companies a week ago.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Four of the world's most powerful tech CEOs appeared virtually before Congress late last month to defend against accusations they had grown too powerful.

Only 24 hours later, as all four companies announced Wall Street-beating earnings, these executives were singing a very different song to their investors.

Amazon blew past expectations for a record quarter, while Facebook proved neither a pandemic nor an ad boycott could hurt it.

And Apple is nearing a $2 trillion market cap at the time of writing.

But while stocks were soaring, some of the biggest revelations gleamed from the hundreds of emails and internal documents released by Congress were only just coming to light. Within those pages was a far more insightful look at how these giants often acquired smaller companies to consolidate power.

And in the days that followed, it's felt like business as usual.

Facebook rolled out its TikTok clone for Instagram, Reels, only a week after Mark Zuckerberg was questioned about the company's copycat strategies. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said during the House hearing that the company's tactics of cloning and acquiring made it "hard for new companies to flourish."

Unlike its less successful Lasso feature, Reels arrives as the fate of TikTok hangs in the balance, which could play to Facebook's favor.

Apple hasn't escaped the headlines either, after Tim Cook met Congress amid concerns that the App Store operated in a way that was anticompetitive.

This week, Facebook publicly attacked Apple's App Store policies after finally launching its Facebook Gaming app, but only after removing the ability for users to actually play games (they can still watch games via streaming).

Microsoft, meanwhile, slammed Apple for prohibiting its cloud gaming service on Apple's iOS platform.

Google finds itself facing the most immediate danger from antitrust action, with the Justice Department said to be preparing a case for later this summer, and this week its attempt to acquire Fitbit looked less certain as the EU launched a full-scale investigation. 

But that certainly didn't stop the company from staking a $450 million investment in security-monitoring provider ADT to boost its smart home business.

Antitrust regulators may have put some fear into big tech last week, but after the past few days, you'd be forgiven for not thinking so.

SEE ALSO: A top Wall Street tech analyst says Google is 'less relevant' in e-commerce since the pandemic — and it needs to develop or acquire to start gaining ground on rivals like Amazon

Join the conversation about this story »

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