• Salesforce is giving all employees the option to work from home until at least July 31, 2021, extending its previous guideline allowing remote work until the end of 2020.
• Salesforce is slowly reopening its 160 offices around the world based on local government guidelines and the advice of medical experts and local leaders, but this option is meant to allow employees to plan ahead.
• It is also expanding benefits for employees: Offering $250 more to purchase office supplies to work from home and giving parents six additional weeks of paid time off.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Salesforce is extending the option for its employees to work from home until at least July 31, 2021, the company announced Wednesday. Previously, all 49,000 employees were allowed to work remotely until the end of 2020. 

While Salesforce is slowly reopening its 160 offices around the world based on local government guidelines and the advice of medical experts, extending the work from home option to next summer gives employees the ability to plan ahead, the company said.

Salesforce is the latest of its peers to extend the option to work from home until next year, with Facebook, Google, Slack, and Uber among those that have given employees that option as well. Some companies, like Twitter, Facebook, Slack, and Atlassian, told they can work remotely even after offices reopen.

Salesforce is also expanding remote work benefits for its employees, giving each person $250 to purchase office supplies to work from home, which adds to the $250 it gave employees earlier this year. Parents also have the option to take six additional weeks of paid time off. Salesforce also said that parents and guardians can work from home even past August 2021 if they are in areas where schools are closed and students are doing remote learning. 

"We understand that moving our offices to our homes is not always easy or comfortable — especially for those with families at home or for those who are feeling isolated — and we're working hard to address the unique needs of our employees during this time," Brent Hyder, chief people officer, said in the blog post.

Salesforce has previously described the process of reopening its offices as a "light dimmer, not a light switch" where reopening each location will be a unique process that will take place in phases. That process includes weighing factors like government guidance and COVID-19 case levels, redesigning offices to ensure social distancing, and communicating with employees in order to determine which offices to open next. 

In order to help customers take the same steps, Salesforce in May released a set of products to guide organizations in their reopening efforts, including tools to track the employee health data and shift management software.

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pzaveri@businessinsider.com or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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NOW WATCH: How 'white savior' films like 'The Help' and 'Green Book' hurt Hollywood

• When she launched the corporate venture organization at utility giant National Grid, Lisa Lambert decided to break from the norm in the industry and use a compensation program taken from traditional venture firms.
• Unlike most corporate venture groups, National Grid Partners, or NGP, has a carried-interest program that allows investors to share directly in the gains from their investments.
• Lambert argues that the program encourages accountability and discourages bad bets.
• Other than that program, Lambert largely patterned NGP after Intel Capital, the chipmaker's widely respected and long-running corporate venture capital, where she worked for nearly 17 years.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When Lisa Lambert got the job of setting up a corporate venture capital operation for utility giant National Grid, she turned to one of her former employers for inspiration.

Lambert had previously worked for more than 16 years for Intel Capital, one of the longest-running and most widely respected corporate venture arms. So it was only natural that she would take some lessons from her time there to National Grid.

"Everybody models themselves after Intel Capital and rightly so," she told Business Insider in an interview earlier this month.

But Lambert was determined that at least one big thing would be different at National Grid Partners, or NGP, the utility's venture arm, where she serves as president. She wanted NGP's investors to be able to share directly in the success of the startups they backed. So, she borrowed a page from the traditional venture industry and put in place a compensation program for NGP investors in which the organization divvies up with them 15% of the profits the venture arm makes on its investments.

That model "is very much an incentive to outperform," said Lambert, who also serves as National Grid's chief technology and innovation officer. It "keeps us grounded," she continued, "because we're delivering strategic value, but at the same time we're not making bad investments."

Carried interest encourages accountability, Lambert said

Such compensation arrangements are typically called carried-interest programs. They're generally the rule at traditional, independent venture firms, although those firms and their partners usually get a 20% cut of the gains from their investments.

Carried-interest programs are uncommon in the corporate venture world, where investors are usually salaried employees. Just 13% of corporate venture capital, or CVC, operations have carried-interest programs, according to a recent survey by J. Thelander Consulting, an industry research firm, although many more firms — some 25% — are considering them.

Corporate venture arms that don't have such programs lack accountability, said Lambert, one of the exceedingly few Black women in venture capital. Most corporate venture organizations have a dual mandate — to invest in businesses or technologies that have strategic significance for the parent company and to deliver a return on their investment, she said. But if the corporations' investors don't have an incentive to produce those returns, they're more likely to make bad bets.

"You can call anything strategic and get the business unit excited about it," Lambert said. "But if a company fails in two years, then what good is that? You've wasted your time, you've wasted the money, you've wasted the business unit's engagement."

NGPs venture arm intentionally resembles Intel's

Other than the way she set up NGPs compensation program, though, Lambert largely patterned the organization after Intel Capital. Like Intel's venture arm, National Grid's invests in all stages of startups, from those just getting launched to mature, established ones.

Last year, NGP opened an incubation center in its San Francisco office for very early-stage startups to help them get off the ground by connecting them with its operating businesses and with other potential customers. Most of its venture investments, though, are in growth- and later-stage startups, Lambert said.

Similar to other corporate venture operations, National Grid's venture arm is supposed to focus largely on investments that have strategic value to the company. About 65% to 75% of NGP's investments are expected to have direct and near-term value to the parent company's operating units, Lambert said. To make sure it's in sync with those units, NGP works closely with them to help them figure out their investment priorities and the use cases for particular technologies, she said.

Each business unit has a different set of preferences. For National Grid's US and UK gas businesses, leak detection is a huge priority, as are technologies that can help with operations and maintenance, Lambert said. Its US electricity business, meanwhile, is focused on analyzing and managing its customer data and on technology that can help its field workers do their jobs, she said.

"The business unit really defines where we should focus based on what their needs are," she said.

National Grid is re-upping its investment in NGP

But not all of its investing is directed by those units. NGP reserves about 25% to 35% of its funds for what Lambert calls "pathfinding" startups. These are ones that don't have an obvious strategic value for any of the parent company's particular business unit at the moment, but are working on ideas that could be relevant or useful three to five years down the line.

Thus far, National Grid is fully behind Lambert. When she launched NGP in 2018, the utility company committed to investing $250 million over two to three years. It's since said it plans to supplement that amount with another $75 million in its next fiscal year. Since it launched, NGP has invested $155 million, spanning some 23 deals.

Lambert's mission is to inculcate innovation inside of National Grid both through its investments and by changing its culture. To do that, she both borrowed from Intel — and took a different path.

"The methods, the style, the approach" of Intel Capital "certainly made a big impression on me," she said. She continued: "They put CVC and the work we're doing at NGP on the map."

Got a tip about startups or venture investing? Contact Troy Wolverton via email at twolverton@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

• Read more about startups and venture investing:
• One of the very few Black women VCs says diversity can slow down business decisions — but that's actually a good thing
• These 3 startups were recently accused of misstating their financial information, highlighting how little such companies may be required to disclose to their VC backers and other investors
• Stanford business school graduates knew their classmates would soon found great startups, and they created a unique club to invest in them. The result is a $1.5 million fund bound by loyalty, community, and democracy
• This Silicon Valley pharmacy raised $39 million in three separate rounds with the same bare-bones pitch deck

SEE ALSO: Meet the husband-and-wife team that run AngelPad, the exclusive startup accelerator whose early bet on Postmates just led to a $2.65 billion Uber acquisition

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NOW WATCH: How 'white savior' films like 'The Help' and 'Green Book' hurt Hollywood

• Facebook announced Wednesday it was taking down pages and accounts that promote QAnon, a conspiracy theory with a growing number of followers.
• An estimate published by the Guardian said QAnon pages on the social media platform had 4.5 million followers.
• After sporadic moves to limit QAnon's spread, Wednesday's move is the company's most significant to date.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook is finally cracking down on QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory that accuses prominent politicians of links to pedophilia and has been linked to violence.

For huge numbers of people, it may be too late.

Over the past few months, QAnon content has run rampant on Facebook, reaching millions of people and growing rapidly as the pandemic fueled paranoia and enflamed distrust of the government. Numerous analyses over the past weeks and months have shown how Facebook has provided QAnon adherents an extraordinary platform to spread their virulent and fact-free narrative — illustrating how Facebook is still struggling to police dangerous misinformation on its social network four years after its widely publicized failures in the 2016 US election.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it was taking down a swath of pages and accounts promoting QAnon, while also updating its policies to slow the spread of content from pages that it is leaving up. 

"Today we are expanding our Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy to address organizations and movements that have demonstrated significant risks to public safety but do not meet the rigorous criteria to be designated as a dangerous organization and banned from having any presence on our platform," the company wrote in a blog post.

Qanon followed the discredited Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely accused senior Democratic politicians of being part of a secret pedophile ring. An unknown figure known as "Q", who claims to be a senior intelligence official, posts "drops" of bogus information about political elites' secret child-trafficking agendas and US President Donald Trump's purported fight against them. The FBI has warned that it poses a potential domestic terrorism threat.

It has grown in popularity and attention over the last few years, spreading through Facebook's groups and pages to sweep up millions of people. 

Several recent attempts to quantify its size and growth illustrate the current pervasiveness of the conspiracy theory.

An investigation by The Guardian earlier in August found that 170 prominent QAnon pages had a combined 4.5 million followers across Facebook and Instagram and were growing fast, with "dedicated communities for QAnon followers in at least 15 countries on Facebook."

This vast reach was confirmed by internal documents from Facebook obtained by NBC News. The company's own internal research reportedly found that "the top 10 groups ... collectively contain more than 1 million members, with totals from more top groups and pages pushing the number of members and followers past 3 million."

And an analysis conducted by social media research firm Storyful detailed in a Wall Street Journal report found that "membership in 10 large public QAnon Facebook groups swelled by nearly 600% from March through July, to about 40,000 from about 6,000."

Facebook has previously taken sporadic action against the movement, banning a 200,000-strong group in early August, but its announcement on Wednesday is its most significant to date. 

It says it has removed 790 groups, 100 pages, and 1,500 ads, and added new restrictions to an additional 1,950 groups, 440 Facebook pages, and 10,000 Instagram accounts.

The social networking giant is also trying to prevent the ability to boost the popularity of pages and groups it is allowing to remain, stopping the promoting of them in recommendations via algorithms, reducing QAnon content's prominence in the newsfeed and search, and blocking its followers' access to tools like ads and fundraising.

This crackdown may help to slow QAnon's spread — but it comes only after it has already found a vast audience through the social network. 

In the 2016 election, Facebook's failures to police its platform led to Russia utilizing the social network to spread political misinformation to sow division during the election and boost Donald Trump. There's no suggestion that Russia is behind the recent QAnon surge — though it has promoted it online in the past— but its growth shows that Facebook still faces significant difficulties with policing its own services.

Do you work at Facebook? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.

SEE ALSO: Facebook is letting its employees work from home until July 2021 due to the pandemic

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NOW WATCH: The rise and fall of Donald Trump's $365 million airline

• Facebook announced Wednesday that it was removing pages associated with paramilitary organizations, including the New Mexico Civil Guard.
• As Business Insider reported, the New Mexico Civil Guard is a right-wing vigilante group whose leaders include a neo-Confederate with a swastika tattoo and a self-styled "national anarchist" with a history of denying the Holocaust.
• The news comes after the New Mexico Civil Guard pulled out of a rally, featuring local elected Republicans, claiming offense at "blatantly racist" comments from other speakers.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook has removed the New Mexico Civil Guard and other paramilitary organizations from its social network, it announced Wednesday.

In an August 19 statement, Facebook said it was taking action against groups that "have celebrated violent acts, shown that they have weapons and suggest they will use them, or have individual followers with patterns of violent behavior."

Nick Martin, editor of The Informant, confirmed the group's removal on Twitter.

As Business Insider reported, the New Mexico Civil Guard is a right-wing vigilante group whose leaders include a neo-Confederate with a swastika tattoo and a self-styled "national anarchist" with a history of denying the Holocaust.

The group has appeared, heavily armed and in camouflage, at anti-racist protests in the state, earning it plaudits from some local Republicans, who planned to pay "special tribute" to the organization at a rally on Aug. 22.

Earlier this week, however, the paramilitary group announced — on its since-deleted Facebook page — that it was pulling out of that rally, citing remarks from other planned speakers that "came across as blatantly racist." That came after another speaker told Business Insider they would not participate in the rally, following our reporting. (Other scheduled speakers include Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin, who has said Black athletes protesting racism should "go back to Africa," and Rick Lopez, vice-chair of the state Republican Party.)

Facebook, announcing the group's removal, said it would also delete pages associated with the "QAnon" conspiracy theory, and continue to delete accounts "when they discuss potential violence." It also conflated armed paramilitary groups with anti-fascist organizations that have condoned property destruction, prompting outrage from long-time watchers of right-wing extremism.

"[O]utrageous," David Neiwert, author of "Alt-America: the Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump," responded on Twitter. "The far right thrives by spreading disinformation," he said. "One of the underrated aspects of Antifa is that [it] spreads accurate information about the bad actors on the far right."

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

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NOW WATCH: Inside London during COVID-19 lockdown

• Irish proptech startup Offr has raised a £2.7 million ($3.6 million) seed funding round from Barclays. 
• The 10-month-old company is a digital solution for buying, letting, and renting properties across borders and saw a boom in interest during the coronavirus pandemic, even as actual property transactions diminished. 
• "It was an out of body experience," Robert Hoban, CEO and cofounder of Offr, told Business Insider in an interview. "The pandemic slowed transactions to a trickle but drove business development for us, we saw so much change in 10 weeks."
  
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

Irish property tech startup Offr has raised a £2.7 million ($3.6 million) seed funding round from Barclays. 

The 10-month-old company is a digital solution for buying, letting, and renting properties across borders and saw a boom in interest during the coronavirus pandemic, even as actual property transactions diminished. 

"It was an out of body experience," Robert Hoban, CEO and cofounder of Offr, told Business Insider in an interview. "The pandemic slowed transactions to a trickle but drove business development for us, we saw so much change in 10 weeks. There was so much less fear and resistance around technology previously but now seen a lot of change in a very conservative industry."

Existing investors Delta Partners on behalf of Bank of Ireland, AIB, Enterprise Ireland, The European Investment Fund and Frontline Ventures also participated in the round which takes Offr's total funding to $4.8 million. 

Earlier this year, Offr participated in the Barclays London Accelerator, powered by Techstars, and was selected as one of the few candidates for follow-on investment from this year's cohort of companies.

Much of the fundraise itself was done remotely from Hoban's kitchen table in Dublin and he said that he is still yet to meet some 50% of the company's investors in person.

"We weren't doing a load of pitching to VC funds because the new VC funds to us weren't looking to make new investments during the pandemic," Hoban added.

"We had a strong existing investor base and then interest from private and strategic investors in the product but we still got a proper grilling, these are no slouches." 

Offr's platform allows buyers to securely submit offers and real estate agents to track the progress of sales or leases via a phone or laptop. Similarly, users are updated on changes to legal documents through alerts while buyers can upload proof of funds, ID, or other documentation through the platform. 

"Our biggest challenge is property people who often have no tech training and are skeptical about new tech offerings because they fear that it could replace them," Hoban said.

The company already has operations across commercial and residential property markets in the UK, Ireland, and Australia and has plans to expand into South Africa, Italy, and eventually the US going forward. 

Check out Offr's pitch deck below:

SEE ALSO: Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Dubai-based proptech startup Nomad used to raise $4 million

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Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday. Sign up here to get this email in your inbox every morning.

1. Trump has said he backs a TikTok acquisition by Oracle, whose chairman is a major supporter. Trump described Oracle as "a great company."
2. Apple hit a $2 trillion market cap. The stickiness of Apple's customer base has become more important than ever in recent years.
3. Airbnb, last valued at $18 billion, has confidentially filed for an IPO. The firm declined to say when it expected to go through with the offering, how many shares it planned to sell, or what price it expected to offer them at.
4. Google's venture fund has quietly laid off 8% of its employees as it shakes up one of its earliest innovative services. The exact reasons for the layoffs are unclear, but an inside source said that GV marked its 10th anniversary last year by planning out a strategy for the next decade. 
5. The first app using Apple and Google's COVID-19 contact tracing tech in the US is about to launch. Apple and Google's contact tracing tech has seen slow adoption since it was first rolled out in May, but the companies now say 20 states have expressed interest.
6. Uber sent an ominous message to riders in California ahead of its possible shutdown. If a judge doesn't grant Uber and Lyft's request for a stay in a decision from last week over the employment status of drivers, the apps could shut down Thursday night.
7. Facebook and Instagram are finally policing QAnon conspiracy theory groups and other movements that pose 'significant risks to public safety'. The list includes pages and groups tied to the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, US-based militias, and "offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests.
8. Google deleted 2,500 YouTube accounts with ties to China to combat disinformation on the platform as the 2020 election draws closer. News of the removal comes as relations between China and the US grow increasingly tense.
9. Salesforce will let its employees work from home until August 2021, with six extra weeks of time off for parents. Salesforce is also expanding remote work benefits for its employees, giving each person $250 to purchase office supplies to work from home.
10. Real estate startup Offr has raised $3.6 million in seed funding during the COVID-19 crisis. The 10-month-old company is a digital solution for buying, letting, and renting properties across borders and saw a boom in interest during the coronavirus pandemic

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

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NOW WATCH: Leslie Odom, Jr.'s $500,000 gamble that led to a starring role in 'Hamilton'

• At a lunch years ago, Warren Buffett advised Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky to "get rich slow."
• Chesky sped up the process on Wednesday by filing to take his home-rental company public, even though it's still battling the coronavirus pandemic.
• Airbnb's bosses cut costs, raised $2 billion in capital, and laid off 25% of their workforce earlier this year, as they expected annual revenue to plunge by more than 50%.
• Airbnb said that on July 8, customers booked more than 1 million nights of stays worldwide for the first time since March.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Warren Buffett once advised Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky to "get rich slow." Chesky sped things up on Wednesday by filing to take his home-rental company public, even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on its business.

Buffett, a billionaire investor and the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, made the comment during a lunch with Chesky and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Chesky said in a PandoMonthly interview in 2013. Bezos had asked Buffett why everyone doesn't copy his simple investing strategy and make a fortune.

"Because no one wants to get rich slow," Buffett replied.

'Getting rich slow isn't actually slower'

Chesky underlined the wisdom of Buffett's approach in a Fortune interview in 2017, after Airbnb was privately valued at $30 billion.

"Nothing about Airbnb was slow," he said. "It's only nine years old. But I do think that it's been helpful for us to be able to go a little slower and take a little bit of a breather and be a little more thoughtful."

Read more:Stock market wizard William O'Neil famously turned $5,000 into $200,000 in just a few year's time. Here's the 7-part model he uses to sniff out winning stocks.

However, Chesky said that tapping the brakes at a fast-growing company is tricky and could lead to work piling up.

"Getting rich slow isn't actually slower," he said. "It's slower in year one, but it might be faster in year seven."

Airbnb didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Bouncing back

Chesky and his cofounders are attempting an initial public offering shortly after the toughest period in Airbnb's history. The coronavirus pandemic sparked widespread lockdowns earlier this year, devastating global travel and eviscerating demand on Airbnb's platform.

Chesky wrote in May that Airbnb's revenue could plunge by more than 50% this year. He responded by slashing costs, raising $2 billion in fresh capital, and laying off 1,900 employees, or 25% of the group's global workforce. The measures were intended to help focus and "evolve" the company for the post-virus era, he said.

Read more:Bruce Fraser outperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 286% as a hedge-fund manager before switching to real-estate investing. He details the strategy he used to amass more than 1,600 multifamily units.

Airbnb also refunded customers who were forced to cancel trips, and it set aside $250 million to reimburse hosts who lost bookings. Bookings rebounded in June but were still down 30% from the same period last year, Bloomberg reported.

The outcome was a 67% year-on-year plunge in revenue to $335 million last quarter, fueling a $400 million loss before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, Bloomberg said.

But Airbnb said that on July 8, customers booked more than 1 million nights of stays worldwide, the first time that bookings had reached that level since March.

Airbnb's recent challenges call into question why Chesky is pushing to list the company this year, potentially disregarding Buffett's advice. One reason could be pressure from employees to go public before lucrative stock options expire, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The stock market's swift recovery may also be a factor. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs earlier this week.

Read more:Jefferies says buy these 7 back-to-school stocks poised for big returns with much of the US going remote

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NOW WATCH: Why you don't see brilliantly blue fireworks

• Helsinki-based indoor farming startup iFarm has raised a $4 million seed round.
• iFarm's indoor farm tech is automated and allows customers to start growing salads, greens, berries and vegetables in urban environments.
• iFarm's platform is powered by computer vision, machine learning, and data about thousands of plants collected from a distributed network of farms as well as industry knowledge.
• "COVID-19 been a boost to our business, it's boosted our number of farms, requests from customers also increased, we were in the right place at the right time," Max Chizhov, cofounder and CEO of iFarm, told Business Insider in an interview.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Helsinki-based indoor farming startup iFarm has raised a $4 million seed round to continue its growth from the coronavirus pandemic.

iFarm's indoor farm tech is automated and the firm claims to allow customers to start growing salads, greens, berries and vegetables in urban environments. The firm says its platform is powered by computer vision, machine learning, and data about thousands of plants collected from a distributed network of farms as well as industry knowledge.

"COVID-19 been a boost to our business, it's boosted our number of farms, requests from customers also increased, we were in the right place at the right time," Max Chizhov, cofounder and CEO of iFarm, told Business Insider in an interview.

The round was led by Gagarin Capital, a previous investor in the startup. Other investors include Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC and several business angels.

"It was not hard for us to raise this money during the pandemic because our existing investors supported us," Chizhov added. The round was closed remotely in July. 

The company will use the funding to develop its iFarm "Growtune" tech platform which Chizhov calls a "super app" that enables the operation of multiple varieties of vertical farms through an API. 

Delays to supply chains because of the pandemic has accelerated iFarm's business according to Chizhov, who added that the company has a planting area of 11,000 metres squared across a number of countries and is aiming for 1 million metres square and 500-plus crops by 2026. 

"The 2020 pandemic exposed the problems of the global food system – food supplies, sowing and harvesting were disrupted across the globe," Mikhail Taver, Managing Partner at Gagarin Capital, said. "iFarm is taking a novel approach to agriculture, offering an automated solution to grow crops close to the consumer and ensure food security.

"We believe that the future of the food market lies in modern technologies and are excited to support the project on its way."

Check out iFarm's pitch deck below:

SEE ALSO: An exclusive look at the pitch deck HR startup Flux used to raise $3 million as the pandemic makes remote working the norm

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• You can turn on subtitles on HBO Max through the "CC" — or Closed Captions — button on the service's mobile app and desktop site.
• Click or tap the "CC" icon in the bottom playback bar once you begin streaming HBO Max content to enable or disable English-language subtitles. 
• Depending on your device, you can style your captions through its accessibility settings or directly through HBO Max's "CC" menu.
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Whether you're watching your favorite HBO Max show with or without subtitles, it's easy to turn the setting on or off anytime you'd like.

Turning on subtitles on the mobile app versus a computer looks almost the same. However, making changes to your subtitles preferences will depend on your device. 

If you want to change things like the language, size, color, or font of your captions on your smartphone, you'll need to access your Android or Apple device's "Accessibility" menu in the Settings app. On an iPhone, you can find it under "Subtitles & Captioning," while Android users can locate subtitle settings under "Captions Preferences." On the desktop site, HBO Max allows you to control the subtitles from the "CC" icon directly. 

Otherwise, you'll turn your subtitles off the same way you turn them on. You'll know whether they're enabled or disabled based on the button's background color. If the "CC" is outlined against a black background, then the setting is disabled; if it's filled in, the setting is turned on.

Here's how to turn your HBO Max subtitles on and off.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $699.99 at Walmart)

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

Acer Chromebook 15 (From $179.99 at Walmart)

How to turn on HBO Max subtitles on the mobile app

1. Open the HBO Max app on your phone. 

2. Find and select a movie or TV show you wish to watch, and begin playing it. 

3. Locate the button labeled "CC" in the bottom right-hand corner. If the bottom toolbar is not visible, tap on your screen to make it appear.

4. Tap the "CC" icon, and subtitles should automatically appear. 

5. Turn them off, tap the "CC" button again.

How to turn on HBO Max subtitles on the desktop site

1. Go to play.hbomax.com and log in to your account. 

2. Select a show or movie you'd like to watch from the HBO Max library. 

3. Once the show is playing, click the "CC" button. If the bottom toolbar isn't visible, click or move your cursor over the viewing window for playback options to appear.

4. To enable subtitles, choose "On" and wait for the font to turn purple. 

5. To change the way your subtitles display, tap the gear icon beneath the "ON/OFF" option. 

6. In the pop-up that appears, you can set the font type, size, color, opacity, background, and caption style window at the top. Click each tab to select from its respective submenu.

7. After you make your selections, a checkmark will appear next to your choice. 

8. Click the purple "Save" button to update and view your changes. You can also click the gray "Reset" button to restore your settings to their default.

9. If you decide you don't want to make any changes, you can click the "X" in the upper right-hand corner to close the window without saving.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• 'What is HBO Max?': Here's what you need to know about HBO's streaming service answer to Netflix and Hulu

• How to use the 'watch later' list on HBO Max to save movies and shows you're interested in

• How to download HBO Max movies and shows onto your phone or tablet to watch when you're without internet

• How to add a profile to your HBO Max account, including 'Kid' profiles with parental controls

• How to clear your cache on HBO Max to help the service run more efficiently and fix playback issues

SEE ALSO: The best streaming services you can sign up for online

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why American sunscreens may not be protecting you as much as European sunscreens

• Palantir has moved its headquarters away from Silicon Valley, to Denver, Colorado. 
• The secretive data company, which confidentially filed to go public in July, has been planning the move for at least several months. CEO Alex Karp told Axios in May that the company was "getting close" to deciding where to move its headquarters. 
• Karp and Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel have long taken issue with the culture in Silicon Valley. Karp has described it as a "monoculture" and Thiel has said the tech world has "an extreme strain of parochialism."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Secretive data company Palantir has officially moved its headquarters to Denver after its CEO described Silicon Valley as a "monoculture." 

The company has made the change official on its website, listing Denver as its headquarters rather than Palo Alto, California, which was previously the hub of its business. 

The Denver Business Journal was the first to report the relocation. A spokesperson for Palantir did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. 

Palantir's move out of Silicon Valley has been in the works for a while. In an interview with Axios in May, Karp said that the company was "getting close" to deciding where to move Palantir's headquarters. 

"We haven't picked a place yet, but it's going to be closer to the East Coast than the West Coast," Karp said. "If I had to guess, I would guess something like Colorado."

Karp, who has been living in New Hampshire during the coronavirus outbreak, told Axios he liked "living free" there and described what he sees as an "increasing intolerance and monoculture" in the tech industry. 

Palantir was founded in 2003 in Silicon Valley, but CEO Alex Karp and the company's cofounder and chairman, investor Peter Thiel, have long criticized Silicon Valley. 

"The Silicon Valley attitude sometimes called 'cosmopolitanism' is probably better understood as an extreme strain of parochialism, that of fortunate enclaves isolated from the problems of other places — and incurious about them," Thiel wrote in a New York Times op-ed last year. 

Palantir's decision to center its business outside the Bay Area comes as the company is also on track to go public in September. Rumors about a Palantir IPO have swirled since 2019, but on July 6, Palantir announced it had filed a draft of its IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's IPO could be one of the biggest of the year.

SEE ALSO: The life and career of Alex Karp, the billionaire CEO who's taking Palantir public in what could be one of the biggest tech IPOs of the year

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The rise and fall of Donald Trump's $365 million airline

• Mastercard is one of the world's largest payment networks, but it's increasingly looking outside of its bread-and-butter businesses of processing debit and credit-card transactions.
• Its card-related revenues are down as spending slowed amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to its second-quarter earnings.
• Beyond cards, Mastercard is looking for new revenue opportunities, especially when it comes to monetizing the wealth of data it has.
• Here are the 15 execs at Mastercard leading the charge as it looks to keep up with the ever-changing world of digital payments.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Mastercard is one of the largest payment networks in the world, processing billions of transactions a year. But even with its massive size, the card giant wasn't immune to the coronavirus pandemic slowing global spending. Revenue dropped 17% year-over-year at Mastercard, according to its second-quarter earnings. 

To be sure, the pandemic has accelerated consumers' shift toward more digital, touch-free payments, which could benefit Mastercard in the long run. 

And there are opportunities beyond just cards.

Revenue from cyber, intelligence, and data, which Mastercard reports as 'other revenue,' was up 14% year-over-year. Those business are expected to grow, especially as payments increasingly shift online.

"More digital transactions versus more cash transactions is more data," Michael Miebach, Mastercard's president and incoming CEO said during its second-quarter earnings call. "More data means more desire and more need for data analytics capabilities, but also to protect that data. So our cyber solutions are going to benefit from that in the long run."

In June, Mastercard acquired data startup Finicity, furthering its ambitions in consumer data. And its engagement with fintechs has positioned the incumbent to grow alongside disruptors in the payments space.

From working with fintechs to managing the network's global cybersecurity infrastructure, here are the 15 execs at Mastercard driving its growth both through cards and otherwise.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at sbalogh@businessinsider.com, encrypted messaging app Signal (801-824-5318), or direct message on Twitter @shannen_balogh.

Read more:

We talked to Mastercard's incoming CEO about why the card giant is spending $825 million to buy financial-data startup Finicity and how it compares to the Visa-Plaid deal

POWER PLAYERS: Meet 11 American Express execs leading the card giant's digital payments and small-business lending push

A Mastercard exec lays out how a surge in contactless payments is giving the company an unexpected boost as people rethink touching cash

SEE ALSO: POWER PLAYERS: Meet 11 American Express execs leading the card giant's digital payments and small-business lending push

SEE ALSO: We talked to Mastercard's incoming CEO about why the card giant is spending $825 million to buy financial-data startup Finicity and how it compares to the Visa-Plaid deal

SEE ALSO: POWER PLAYERS: Meet the 8 PayPal execs shaping the payment giant's future as its stock skyrockets and e-commerce surges

Alissa (Dr. Jay) Abdullah, senior vice president and deputy chief security officer of operations and technology

Abdullah leads Mastercard's corporate security solutions, responsible for protecting the company's network and data.

And as payments become increasingly digital, the importance of protecting user identities has grown.

"With digital acceleration, network boundaries are dissolving," Abdullah said. 

"The focus is turning to the protection of our data's attributes and the associated metadata. Data without the user's identity becomes less useful or valuable to the adversary."

Abdullah joined Mastercard in 2019. She previously served as deputy chief information officer in the White House under the Obama administration.

"Those experiences have increased my diversity of thought, revealed the interconnectedness between sectors, expanded my critical eye on customer needs, and enlarged my sense of emotional intelligence," Abdullah said. 

Deborah Barta, senior vice president of innovation and startup engagement

Barta oversees Mastercard's innovation initiatives within Mastercard Labs, the company's R&D arm. She's led the development of products like Provenance, Mastercard's blockchain solution.

Through Provenance, Mastercard offers supply-chain transparency, both for governance and consumer use cases. Mastercard has partners in both the food and luxury goods industries, where merchants can use Provenance to authenticate where goods come from.

"COVID-19, regulation, and a trend toward nationalism are creating interest from consumers, brands, and governments around visibility and where products are from (e.g., consumers want ethically sourced foods; governments need to know where PPE is, etc.)," Barta said. "In parallel, 5G, blockchain, and IoT make tracking more feasible."

Barta also oversees Start Path, Mastercards startup incubator. More recently, Barta rolled out Sandbox, an internal innovation program where employees can pitch ideas and get sponsorship from senior leaders. 

"When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Mastercard Labs adapted the Sandbox model to help spur innovation across the organization focused on helping customers, partners, and communities during the pandemic and as they recover," Barta said.

Barta joined Mastercard in 2007, after working as a strategic business consultant for several years at Deloitte and Andersen.

Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence

Bhalla leads a team that develops products for security on Mastercard's network. Data security is a top concern, especially as consumers' daily lives become ever more digital.

"As an industry, we have a duty to innovate responsibly.  We need to recognize security and privacy as core to successful technology development.  For me, one of the most important factors here is that the user should control his/her data," Bhalla said.

"Technology has the power to do so much good. But, put simply, if people don't trust it, they won't use it."

And while privacy and security are key, they can't come with interruptions to the consumer experience. 

"This is crucial: no trade-off between security and convenience. Increasingly, our security is silent, invisible and part of what we call a frictionless consumer experience," Bhalla said.

From biometric authentication to behind-the-scenes fraud prevention, Mastercard's approach to cybersecurity ensures that the card network is able to keep transactions and user data secure without limiting the consumer experience.

Bhalla joined Mastercard in 1993, and became president of cyber and intelligence solutions in 2018.

Bricklin Dwyer, chief economist

Dwyer leads Mastercard's Economics Institute. His team uses Mastercard's data platforms, like SpendingPulse and Recovery Insights to analyze macroeconomic trends from a consumer perspective. 

"The COVID-19 outbreak has accelerated the digitization of how we work, live, and shop. While this may be surprising in terms of the speed or pervasiveness, this has had roots in behaviors and innovations seen before the pandemic," Dwyer said. 

"For instance, the share of online sales doubled in April and May compared to the previous year. This rapid increase is unlikely to have occurred without the impetus of the pandemic, but the shift to digital had been persistent over the past decade plus."

While some spending behavior has been temporarily changed by the coronavirus pandemic, Dwyer expects some trends, like touch-free retail, to stick around. And Dwyer's research informs Mastercard's strategy when it comes to engaging with customers. 

Dwyer joined Mastercard in 2019 after several years as head economist at the French bank BNP Paribas.

Sherri Haymond, executive vice president of digital partnerships in North America

Haymond leads the team responsible for partnerships with fintechs like Brex, Ellevest, Revolut, and Robinhood. 

"When working with our fintech partners, we've always taken a co-creation approach from day one. We recognized early on that joining forces would ultimately make the entire ecosystem stronger and more resilient," Haymond said.

Mastercard has various engagement channels with fintechs, including Start Path, its incubator, and Accelerate, through which fintechs can tap into Mastercards network. 

"Looking to the future, we see our open banking strategy as being key to working with fintechs," Haymond said. "Open banking is all about making our information work harder and better for us, and today plays a significant role in ensuring that the apps, banks, and fintechs that power our daily lives do so in a way that meets our needs."

In June, Mastercard acquired financial data startup Finicity, furthering its ambitions to connect fintechs, banks, and lenders through open banking.

Haymond joined Mastercard in 2010, and became EVP of digital partnerships in 2016.

Read more: We talked to Mastercard's incoming CEO about why the card giant is spending $825 million to buy financial-data startup Finicity and how it compares to the Visa-Plaid deal

Jorn Lambert, chief digital officer

Lambert leads Mastercard's digital strategy, which covers the company's card and non-card payments, as well as Mastercard Labs, the company's R&D arm. 

He was appointed to his role in July with a broad remit leading all of Mastercard's digital solutions globally. And digital payments have become increasingly critical amid the coronavirus pandemic, as consumers shy away from cash.

"Consumers are increasingly moving away from cash and embracing digital payments experiences – they will not revert to old payment habits after the pandemic," Lambert said.

"As chief digital officer, I'm laser-focused on driving our strategy to deliver seamless, secure and differentiated solutions as consumers increasingly embrace these digital payments experiences."

From contactless cards to blockchain solutions, Lambert will drive all of Mastercard's initiatives when it comes to digital payments. He joined Mastercard in 2002.

Read more: A Mastercard exec lays out how a surge in contactless payments is giving the company an unexpected boost as people rethink touching cash

Ed McLaughlin, president of operations & technology

McLaughlin leads close to half of Mastercard's employees across operations and technology. He launched Mastercard's first technology hub in New York in 2014, and has since added seven more hubs globally.

Overseeing Mastercard's tech means McLaughlin is responsible for keeping its global payments network up and running 24/7, ensuring speed and efficiency.

"Mastercard's technology is designed digital-first – it's API-based and enabled for hybrid cloud environments," McLaughlin said. "This, combined with our applied research and agile development capabilities, has delivered a series of industry leading innovations."

Mastercard's tokenization tech, for example, replaces sensitive card information with one-time codes used for payments on mobile and wearables like smart watches. 

"A big focus for my team has been our API transformation, which encourages novel and different types of services," McLaughlin said.

Mastercard's API-based tech not only enables internal teams to plug into its platforms, it also facilitates more seamless partnerships with fintechs.

McLaughlin serves on Harvard's Kennedy Business School's Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence. He joined Mastercard in 2005, and became president of operations and technology in 2017.

Carlos Menendez, president of enterprise partnerships

Menendez leads Mastercard's Global Cities team, which manages the firm's relationships with governments and community leadership.

"Mastercard works with its city and industry partners to improve safety and efficiency, promote economic growth, and ensure inclusion by focusing on three main areas: mobility, data analytics, and expanding access to essential services," Menendez said.

Menendez oversees partnerships with organizations like OnwardUS, for example, which provides retraining and upskilling resources and connects workers with employers that are hiring right now. During the pandemic, Mastercard has also partnered with Uber Eats to deliver meals to National Health Services workers in the UK.

"By developing partnerships with government and community leaders, Mastercard's Global Cities team is focused on driving commercially sustainable social impact," Menendez said.

Menendez joined Mastercard in 2010, and previously was COO of Citi's retail banking business in Western Europe.

Read more:We talked to Mastercard's incoming CEO about why the card giant is spending $825 million to buy financial-data startup Finicity and how it compares to the Visa-Plaid deal

Laura Quevedo, executive vice president of decision and transaction solutions

Quevedo manages Mastercard's decision-making tech, which runs behind the scenes to approve or decline transactions. And a large part of that remit is keeping Mastercard's fraud monitoring systems up-to-date with the latest tech.

And at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, credit-card fraud was rising.

"When speaking to our customers, we're hearing about a variety of types of fraud happening since the start of COVID: account opening, phishing/smishing attacks, account takeover attempts, cyber-related attacks, ransomware and BIN attacks, to name just a few," Quevedo said. 

"As we move deeper into digital payments, validating the cardholder's identity becomes increasingly more important."

Mastercard's fraud monitoring tech, which it calls Connected Intelligence, was built out a few years ago to collect payment-activity data and learn as it authenticates and manages disputes.

"When we look at any type of payment, we must examine data sets and behaviors. ACH, real-time payments, cross-border, and card are all unique, which means that we need to train models on their distinctive data features and behaviors to detect different types of fraudulent activity," Quevedo said.

Quevedo joined Mastercard in 2000 and was named EVP in May 2020.

Tara Nathan, executive vice president of humanitarian and development

Nathan oversees Mastercard's digital solutions aimed at marginalized communities globally. She leads Mastercard's partnerships with development organizations and NGOs to introduce digitally-enabled solutions for those communities.

"There are 3.4 billion people around the world struggling to meet their basic needs, such as access to food and life-saving healthcare. Many live in remote areas and have no formal way to identify who they are, no records, and inconsistent (or no) connectivity; providing government or NGO services, or aid, can be very challenging," Nathan said. "Our team at Mastercard has developed the digital rails that allows service providers to reach people safely and efficiently."

Mastercard's Community Pass, for example, is a digitally-enabled ID credential that those in remote areas can use to transact digitally and access healthcare. 

"We're focused on building a more inclusive digital economy and to get there we need to make commercially-sustainable social impact business as usual," Nathan said.

Nathan joined Mastercard in 2013, and has been in her current role since 2016.

Chris Reid, executive vice president of global identity solutions

Reid leads all of Mastercard's identity products, which includes digital IDs and biometric data.

As physical identity markers like fingerprints and face scans become more prevalent in consumers' daily lives, Mastercard is developing the tech to enable people to authenticate payments using biometrics. Mastercard is running pilot programs with fingerprint scanners embedded in cards, for example.

"We're exploring new biometric technologies, including eye movement, heartbeat, and pulse, as we consider what the future of retail and digital identity will be," Reid said.

And to get consumers comfortable, securing data while keeping the user experience as seamless as possible is key, Reid said.

"But broad adoption of biometrics via connected devices or integrated onto cards cannot happen without scaling industry authentication standards, such as EMV3DS," Reid said. "This is critical to reduce fraud and increase approval rates, while delivering less friction at the checkout, whether that is in store or online."

Reid joined Mastercard in 2008, and has been in his current role since May 2020.

Read more:We went to Mastercard's tech showcase, which featured biometric sensors and shrimp-tracking blockchain. It's part of a push to embrace a future without cards.

Raj Seshadri, president of data and services

Seshadri oversees all of Mastercard's data initiatives, offering its customers analytics, loyalty, and consulting services. 

"We've always worked to help businesses answer their most pressing questions, but with the pandemic, the need to get it right — and right now — has never been greater," Seshadri said. 

She led Mastercard's Recovery Insights, a suite of data-driven products meant to help Mastercard customers — like retailers, grocers, and governments — react and adapt quickly to the ever-changing impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. 

"When a large US grocery store chain wanted to understand decline and recovery curves for supermarkets and restaurants to help them better forecast and plan for impacts to their own stores, we jumped right in," Seshadri said. "We worked with them to develop a new Daily Market Trend Index, which is now available for other customers and other markets."

Seshadri serves on the firm's management committee, and joined Mastercard in 2016. She previously worked at BlackRock, Citi, and McKinsey.

Ronald Shultz, executive vice president of new payments business in North America

Shultz oversees all of Mastercard's new payment products, primarily outside of its bread-and-butter card network.

With a focus on digitizing cash and check transactions globally, Shultz leads the company's business-focused payments innovation through products like Mastercard Track.

"As the pandemic continues to amplify the pain points associated with traditional payment methods, businesses are realizing that digitized and automated payments are no longer nice to haves – they're absolute must haves," Shultz said.

"The continued use of slow, costly, paper B2B payment methods essentially boils down to habit — and the best way to break a habit is to replace it with a better one."

Shultz spent more than a decade at American Express before joining Mastercard in 2018.

Jess Turner, executive vice president of products and innovation in North America

Turner leads Mastercard's product development across its card and non-card payments platforms. She also manages the relationships with Mastercard's key card issuers, working with them to push product innovation forward.

"Digital payments are on the rise, and as we continue to see this shift to digital, all types of payments will be an increased source of revenue," Turner said.

From the industry-wide Click to Pay checkout solution to Mastercard Send, which enables real-time payments between businesses, consumers, and governments, Turner is leading the card giant's strategy to facilitate more than credit and debit-card transactions.

"We are now tapping into new segments such as governments, treasury banks, and small businesses as we innovatively solve for the demand for push payments to hundreds of millions of US consumers and small business debit and prepaid cards," Turner said. 

"In particular, this solves for needs specific to the gig economy, on-demand payroll, government disbursements, and more."

Turner joined Mastercard in 2006, and has been in her current role since June of last year.

Stephane Wyper, senior vice president of retail innovation

Wyper is responsible for Mastercard's retail-related initiatives. And while changes in retail were underway before the coronavirus pandemic, it's prompted an accelerated shift in the way retailers operate.

"It's clear that we're entering a new phase for brick and mortar — one where stores will be smaller in size, digitally wired day one, and designed around consumer segments at specific locations," Wyper said. "Online retail is also being forced to adapt to an ever more digitally sophisticated and connected consumer."

For Mastercard, that means keeping up with the changes in consumer and merchant behavior, like an increased preference for contactless transactions and the need to streamline in-store and online sales.

And data, Wyper said, is becoming increasingly important for retailers. 

"Through our data and services business, we aim to create meaningful insights to improve a retailer's operations or sales performance, from historical spend patterns to location-based insights," Wyper said.

Mastercard is also eyeing ways to apply AI to retail intelligence in pricing and shopper promotions.

Wyper joined Mastercard in 2012, and has led retail innovation since 2016.

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• In the past few years, Python has become one of the most popular, fastest growing, and best loved programming languages.
• It has grown quickly because of its ease of use, utility, and open source nature, experts say, as well as because of the boom in artificial intelligence and data science jobs.
• For example, the popular AI project TensorFlow runs uses Python, as does Facebook's Instagram.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The programming language Python has made learning to code much easier, including for would-be developers without computer science degrees. 

Since it launched in 1991, it has gained popularity among engineers and non-programmers alike, including data scientists, students, and business professionals. Dr. Chuck Severance, a clinical professor at the University of Michigan School of Information who teaches a 10-week Python course on Coursera, calls Python the "Netflix of programming."

It's approachable, widely useful, and extremely popular right now. In just the second week of August, nearly 8,000 people completed his course, and many former students have walked away with new jobs, he says. Python's popularity has grown largely because of the explosion in data science jobs, experts say, which the language is particularly well-suited for. 

Python even surpassed Oracle's Java for the first time in usage and popularity in 2019, according to GitHub, to become the second most-used language after the web programming language JavaScript. A June survey from developer-focused analyst firm RedMonk found the same results. Usage of Python on GitHub projects grew 151% last year.

"Python has been making an ascent," KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, industry analyst at RedMonk, told Business Insider. 

And not only is the language widely used and growing fast, developers love it. According to developer Q&A site Stack Overflow, Python is the third most loved programming language.

Python is a good beginners' language 

Because it's a relatively simple language, Python is increasingly used as to teach students how to program.

"The reason why Python is so popular is it's easy to learn," AnnElizabeth Konkel, economist at Indeed, told Business Insider. "It does not require cloud access and does not require excessive license. There are plenty of resources for people to learn how to download it, how to start learning. Also, it's versatile."

For the first time, Python overtook Java as the most-studied language in 2020, according to a survey from software developer company JetBrains. 30% of respondents have started, or continued, to learn Python, and many beginners and nonprofessional developers are using it, including in fields like medicine and government.

"It's so powerful and easy for beginners at the same time," Anastassiya Sichkarenko, marketing analyst at JetBrains, told Business Insider. "It has a great future."

Peter Wang, cofounder and CTO of the data science platform Anaconda, says that what makes Python special is how it can be used for so many types of tasks.

"The future of Python ties to the future of software development in general," Wang told Business Insider. "It's the future of machine learning. It will be a mainstay. Python will be a significant part of that movement. My hope is that it never loses its accessibility and never loses its roots as a pedigree in teaching language."

Languages that are good for web programming — like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — are not as useful for tasks like crunching or analyzing numbers as Python is. And while languages like Java and C# are well-suited for large teams working on large projects, Python is versatile enough for teams or individual projects. It's an easy language for beginners to start with, but also useful for enterprises. 

Another factor behind its rapid spread among developers is that it's an independent, open source language that's free for anyone to use or download, without a specific company pushing it. As a result, much of its growth has been organic. 

"Python has had a community focus that is unique among massively popular programming languages," Christopher Neugebauer, vice chair at the Python Software Foundation, told Business Insider. "It's not a language designed by a small number of people. It's been made available by collaboration over the Internet."

Today, apps like Instagram run on Python, and just recently, Facebook made one of its Python-based security projects — Pysa — available as open source. And there's a large ecosystem of popular Python projects, including the mathematical computing project NumPy,  the scientific computing project SciPy, and TensorFlow. And a crop of AI and data science companies have emerged based on Python, too. 

Read more: Everything you need to know about TensorFlow, Google's own home-made AI software that's now helping NASA discover planets and beating champions at Go

There's been a surge in jobs that need Python skills

Python is most often used in web development, data science, data analysis, statistics, machine learning, and scientific computing, like analyzing genes.

Data science has grown especially fast in the last five years, says Dmitry Trofimov, project lead for the Datalore project. As jobs like data scientists and data engineers have been growing, Python, too, has boomed. For example, data scientists may use Python to analyze how often people click on ads to better target them to customers.

"Python is definitely not slowing down," Trofimov told Business Insider. "It's accelerating. It's pretty stable and pretty fast, mostly because of data analytics and data science."

According to an Indeed report in November 2019, Python is the third most in demand tech skill and was listed in 18% of job postings.

Stack Overflow has also seen an increase in jobs that require Python. In 2017, there were 500 jobs per month on Stack Overflow that required Python skills.  In 2018, there were about 750 per month. It's now 1000 jobs per month.

Python programmers in the US make an average salary of $120,000, according to Stack Overflow, and $59,000 globally.

Still, as coronavirus pandemic has thrown nearly every industry into disarray, different organizations have seen different impacts on the demand for Python. 

On Indeed, there has been a decline in demand for data science jobs since March, along with other types of software engineering jobs, while companies are prioritizing jobs like IT and systems engineers to help employees working from home. Likewise, HackerRank saw a 27% decline in roles for Python developers during the pandemic.

However, HackerRank did see a 9% growth in demand for data scientists, who frequently use Python.

"The data that companies are working with right now is unprecedented, and has virtually no correlation to anything most companies have faced," Vivek Ravisankar, cofounder and CEO of HackerRank, told Business Insider. "It's confusing at best, and useless at worst due to the unique circumstances we're facing. This confusion brings an increased need for data scientists, who can parse through increasingly complex data and draw out trends and notable insights that could help companies get a leg up on their competitors."

The firm notes that it's possible this growth may have occurred even without the effects of COVID-19, since data science has been one of the fastest-growing job roles for several years already.

Even though the pandemic has put many tech companies under uncertainty, Indeed's Konkel says companies see data science as an investment, and many jobs outside tech — like medical research — require Python skills. 

"If someone was interested in learning Python pre-COVID, I would encourage it," Konkel said. "I wouldn't interpret it as a silver bullet."

The future of Python

In the last nine to twelve months, Stack Overflow has seen an acceleration in the number of questions asked about Python each day, though that rate exploded during the coronavirus pandemic. Starting in the second half of March, questions about Python went from 750 on average per day to between 1100 and 1200 questions. 

Jason Punyon, developer at Stack Overflow, suspects that this is because Python was already popular, but that during the pandemic, people have more time to pick up and toy with the language. 

Python is also a gateway language: It helps people learn about what programming is and become more confident about learning new languages. Because it's possible to pick it up without a computer science degree, Python can help narrow the diversity gap in programming, University of Michigan's Dr. Severance said. 

"If we think about economic justice and who your parents are and what economic status you lived in and where you were born, it's really difficult for a person that did not get born into an ideal situation to find their way into and survive a computer science degree," Severance said, citing how women and minorities have long been underrepresented in the programming field.

There are now more opportunities for people of all ages, races, genders, and economic backgrounds to learn programming through online resources, and he says that Python is "the enabler" for that. Tech does, of course, still have a long way to go, he added. 

"For me, I'm proud that I graduate more people than every computer science department in the whole world," Severance said. "To change the world in a positive way through technology, this is just the beginning."

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SEE ALSO: A study co-authored by Microsoft found that developer interviews evaluate for stress, not actual coding skills. Now, companies are trying to fix that.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What it's like inside North Korea's controversial restaurant chain

• QR codes are popping up at restaurants around the world as business owners consider new ways to keep diners and employees safe.
• Acceptance of QR codes has waxed and waned over the years but some tech CEOs think this is the moment for diners and restaurants to embrace them.
• Tech companies like BentoBox and Thanx have created their own QR code-based systems for restaurants. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Order from your phone," the cheerful table card reads. "Open your camera app and hold it over this code." In the center of the card: a boxy, black-and-white QR code.The maligned QR code — short for quick response — has made its pandemic-era comeback at restaurants across America and around the world.

During its summer burger and wine bar pop-up, guests at the world-renowned Noma in Copenhagen used QR codes affixed to tables to access the menu. At Holybelly in Paris, servers wear the codes on pins attached to their aprons. In the U.S., codes are popping up affixed to restaurant tables from casual Waffle House locations to more upscale independents, like the outdoor tables at San Francisco's Mister Jiu's.

The codes trace their history back to the '90s, though acceptance has waxed and waned over the years. During a global pandemic amid fears of shared surfaces and prolonged face-to-face interaction, it's become a way for guests to access menus, place an order, and pay their bill.

Tech companies are rethinking the QR code in our no-touch reality. Thanx, a company that provides digital ordering and helps businesses manage customer relationships, just added new technology that connects all the dots: menus, ordering, and payment. Guests scan a code at their table, read the menu, order, and pay directly from their phones. Servers deliver food from the kitchen, reducing most of the touchpoints we need to avoid right now. No face-to-face ordering, no credit card-taking, no check signing.

Read more:Retail startup Thanx created a smart QR code that's helping restaurants up their digital game at a crucial time. The CEO says the tech 'will become the new normal well beyond COVID.'

"The good news is that QR code technology has advanced a lot from where it used to be. You can literally use the camera app on your phone to scan a QR code, you don't need a separate app," said Thanx CEO Zach Goldstein. Customers don't have to download an app or log in to use the codes, though they can opt into restaurant loyalty programs or save their payment information.

BentoBox, a company that designs and builds restaurant websites. released its own version of order-at-the-table last week. As part of the offering, the company sends free printed tabletop cards including a QR code to restaurants. Krystle Mobayeni, CEO of BentoBox, and also a designer, says her team spent a lot of time considering how to make the codes fall in line with the aesthetic standards and high bar they have for design.

"Design can transform a product or experience, and we've approached this in the same way we've approached our websites, Mobayeni said. "We have unique templates for these QR codes. They have customizable colors and there's just the right elements to be able to customize. There's these main and secondary colors that can be adjusted, almost like a brand system."

The company recommends cardholders ("They're pretty classy — marble, chrome," said Mobyayeni) and includes a lookbook of other ideas for QR code display —printed on salt and pepper shakers, embossed on a table, or a larger display for standing and ordering at a distance — though doesn't yet offer those options itself.

For all the design attention they're getting, QR codes are still pretty basic technology, and anyone can use a tool to generate one for free. While some restaurants use tech like Thanx or BentoBox to incorporate ordering and payment, others use QR codes simply to replace shared paper menus.

"It's almost a joke that these things have become such a critical part of our lives and our restaurants' lives. It's very ironic," said Mobayeni. "The thing that's actually driving that is they're a universal good piece of utility."

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Airbnb has confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering despite a tumultuous year.
• The vacation rental company has taken a beating during the coronavirus pandemic, laying off 25% of its staff in May.
• Brian Chesky, the CEO and cofounder of Airbnb, said the company was expected to bring in less than half the revenue it earned in 2019.
• Chesky is worth an estimated $3.1 billion, according to Forbes.
• The 38-year-old billionaire has previously rented out his own San Francisco apartment on Airbnb, does weekly yoga with his girlfriend, and has attended the famously wild Burning Man arts event in the Nevada desert.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Airbnb has confidentially filed paperwork for its initial public offering, the company announced on Wednesday.

The announcement did not offer any details on timing of the IPO, how many shares it plans to sell, or what price it expects to offer them at. 

The vacation rental company, which has been rumored for months to go public sometime in 2020, has taken a hit due to the coronavirus pandemic. In May, Airbnb laid off 25% of its staff— nearly 1,900 people — and CEO Brian Chesky said that the company was expected to bring in revenues of less than half the $4.8 billion it earned in 2019.

Chesky, the 38-year-old cofounder and CEO of Airbnb, is worth an estimated $3.1 billion, according to Forbes. 

Despite his wealth, the tech billionaire lives a relatively modest lifestyle. In 2016, Chesky (along with Airbnb's other two cofounders, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, and Blecharczyk's wife) pledged to give at least half his fortune to charity over the course of his lifetime.

Chesky previously said in interviews that he has rented out his own San Francisco apartment on Airbnb, does weekly yoga with his girlfriend (who he met on Tinder), and has attended the famously wild Burning Man arts event in the Nevada desert. 

Here's what Chesky's life is like.

SEE ALSO: 15 alternative resorts across the US that are perfect for social distancing, from a tiny house resort in upstate New York to a bohemian yurt retreat in West Texas

DON'T MISS: The coronavirus outbreak has triggered unprecedented mass layoffs and furloughs. Here are the major companies that have announced they are downsizing their workforces.

Brian Chesky is the cofounder, CEO, and Head of Community of Airbnb.

Chesky founded Airbnb in 2008 with his then-roommate, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk.

According to Airbnb's corporate website, the endeavor started off as a way for Chesky and Gebbia to pay their rent. In the fall of 2007, the roommates charged strangers $80 per night to sleep on an air mattress in their San Francisco apartment when local hotels were sold out for a design festival. The next spring, they officially launched their company, then named AirBed & Breakfast.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Airbnb was estimated to be worth about $38 billion. Now, it's valued at $18 billion.

The company, which has more than seven million listings in more than 100,000 cities, has been battered by the coronavirus crisis. 

In May, Airbnb laid off nearly 1,900 employees and Chesky said in a letter to staff that the company was on track for revenues of less than half the $4.8 billion it reportedly earned in 2019. Each of the laid-off staffers received a severance package that included several months' pay, a year of healthcare, and help from Airbnb finding a new job, the company said.

Airbnb has also taken on $2 billion in debt and agreed to having its valuation slashed from $31 billion to $18 billion as part of the debt financing.

Still, Chesky and the other two Airbnb founders are all billionaires.

Each of the three founders is worth an estimated $3.1 billion, according to Forbes.

Before cofounding Airbnb, Chesky had a background in design and strategy.

After growing up in upstate New York, Chesky attended the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design.

It was at RISD that he met Joe Gebbia, one of the future cofounders of Airbnb.

Despite being worth $3.1 billion, the Airbnb cofounder has maintained a relatively modest lifestyle.

In 2015, Chesky told People that he still lived in the apartment where he and Gebbia started the company.

"I still live in the original Airbnb and I still Airbnb it so you can book it," he told the magazine. "It's available throughout the year, you can book the couch for just like $50."

A source at Airbnb told Business Insider that Chesky recently moved and isn't hosting at the moment, but that he looks forward to hosting in the future.

Sometime in 2013, Chesky started dating artist Elissa Patel.

The couple met on Tinder, Chesky told Fortune magazine in a 2015 interview.

Chesky told Fortune in 2015 that the couple does yoga together every Thursday morning.

He also said they often go on "staycations" and book an Airbnb in a different neighborhood to experience a new part of town.

A source at Airbnb declined to comment on whether the couple is still together, but they were photographed together at an Airbnb event in New York City in September 2017.

Like other tech CEOs, Chesky has reportedly attended "Burning Man," the wild nine-day arts event in the Nevada desert that's frequented by celebrities and tech moguls.

After he attended Burning Man for the first time in 2013 on the invitation of Burning Man board member Chip Conley, Chesky reportedly said: "Burning Man is what life would be like if artists ruled the world."

A source at Airbnb told Business Insider that Chesky hasn't attended the event in years. 

Burning Man was canceled for the first time ever in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2016, Chesky signed the Giving Pledge promising to donate the majority of his fortune to charity over the course of his lifetime.

"With this pledge, I want to help more kids realize the kind of journey I have had," Chesky wrote in his pledge. "I want to show them that their dreams are not bounded by what they can see in front of them. Their limits are not so limited."

Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett launched the pledge in 2010, and it has since been signed by more than 200 people, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The CEO often acts as the public face of the company at Airbnb events, mingling with celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashton Kutcher.

Source:Yahoo News

Chesky has said that one of his biggest productivity hacks is making lists.

"If you have a list of 20 things to do, you end up realizing, 'I don't need to do 20 things,'" Chesky said during a 2017 appearance on the "Masters of Scale" podcast, Business Insider previously reported. "If I do these three big things, the other 20 things will kind of happen as outcomes, or outputs, of it."

Now, it appears Chesky is planning on taking Airbnb public despite a tumultuous year.

After taking a beating due to the pandemic in the spring, Airbnb has begun to recover somewhat as global vacation rental bookings have started to rebound. 

The company's announcement Wednesday did not give any details on the timing of the IPO, how many shares it plans to sell, or at what price they would be offered.

As Troy Wolverton wrote for Business Insider, Airbnb filing the paperwork doesn't necessarily mean the company will actually go public. Companies like Postmates and Doordash also confidentially filed paperwork for an offering in the past couple of years but never went public.

Time will tell if Airbnb decides to move forward with the process.

• Compared to services like Hulu + Live TV and AT&T TV Now, Sling is one of the most affordable cord-cutting platforms that still offers a healthy selection of live channels like ESPN, CNN, Bravo, and Discovery.
• Sling offers two branches of its streaming service — Orange and Blue — each for $30 a month.
• Bundle both packages and you'll get a bit of a discount at $45 a month. That's one of the two packages for half price.
• Read more: A full breakdown of what channels you get with every Sling TV package, plus all the add-ons
  

Cord cutting — or ditching cable — is all about freeing yourself from the confines of contracts, ditching bulky hardware, and, most importantly, saving money. But many of the live TV streaming services out there are creeping up in price, ever closer to the threshold that might cause you to reconsider cancelling that cable subscription after all.

But Sling remains one of the options on the market that is truly much cheaper than a cable subscription. Though you may make some sacrifices in the user-interface department — it's a bit clunky and not as intuitive as some of the more expensive services — the streaming quality is top-notch, making its cost-effectiveness a no-brainer if Sling carries the channels you watch.

Updated 8/20/2020 by Kevin Webb: Updated language for accuracy and timeliness. Added new link for additional information in the article's summary.

How much does Sling cost?

Sling offers two different channel bundles, Orange and Blue, and each one costs the same at $30 a month. While the services are largely the same, there are a few channel differences between the two packages.

Sling Orange gives you access to ESPN and Disney. While Sling Blue doesn't include those, it makes up for it by adding on Bravo, Discovery, FX, AMC and, in select areas only, NBC. For a full list of channels on Orange and Blue, click here. Sling Orange only lets you stream on one device at a time, while Blue lets you watch on three devices simultaneously.

If your little one absolutely can't miss "DuckTales" on Disney and you can't live without "The Real Housewives" on Bravo, you can bundle the two packages into Orange + Blue and get a small multi-service discount. Instead of paying $30 times two, the bundle package is $45 a month.

As a special introductory offer, new Sling subscribers will get their first month of Orange or Blue for just $20 or the Orange + Blue bundle for $35. At that price, it's a great opportunity to see if the service is right for you without sinking a ton of cash into trying it out.

Additionally, Sling offers a ton of different ad-on options if you want to beef up your channel selection. For $5 to $10 a month each, you can add mini-bundles like Sports Extra, Kids Extra, Comedy Extra, News Extra, Lifestyle Extra, Heartland Extra, or Hollywood Extra. Each offers a handful of channels in the genre you select.

Sling comes with ten hours of DVR storage included, but you can upgrade to 50 hours for an additional $5 a month.

If you want to package all the extras together, Sling offers its Total TV Deal, which is all seven add-ons plus cloud DVR storage for an additional $20 a month with Orange or Blue, or an extra $25 a month with the Orange + Blue bundle.

Sling is also not slacking on their premium channel add-ons either. They offer a Showtime package for an additional $10 a month, a Starz package for $9 a month, and EPIX for $5 a month. 

If you have a smart TV, it's likely the Sling app is already installed, and you can start streaming right away once you sign up. If not, Sling's got some device offers to get you streaming quickly and affordably. If you subscribe and pre-pay for two months of Sling, they'll throw in a free Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K or AirTV Mini. Click here for full details on current device bundles from Sling. 

All in all, Sling might not have the beautiful interface that Hulu + Live TV sports has, or the channel selection that Youtube TV boasts, but for the money, Sling is the best low-cost service out there. The streaming quality is comparable to cable, and if Sling carries the channels you watch most often, the price can't be beat.

SEE ALSO: Every service Hulu offers begins with a free trial — here's what you need to know to get started

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• There are several iPad keyboard shortcuts you can use with your tablet's on-screen keyboard or an external keyboard. 
• You can create any number of "text replacement" shortcuts for your iPad as well — when you type these shortcuts, they'll autocorrect into a longer text phrase.
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Whether or not you use an external keyboard with your iPad, there are a number of handy keyboard shortcuts you can use to make typing faster and more efficient. 

In addition, there are custom shortcuts you can create on your own. 

Here's how to use both.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

10.2-inch iPad (From $329.00 at Amazon)

How to use keyboard shortcuts on your iPad's external keyboard

Virtually every external keyboard for your iPad includes Cmd and Option keys, which you can use for a handful of important shortcuts. 

• See a list of the most common shortcuts: Cmd
• Go to the Home screen: Cmd + H
• Commonly used app switcher: Cmd + Tab 
• Open (or close) the Search screen: Cmd + Space bar
• Take a screenshot: Cmd + Shift + 3
• Take a screenshot and open it for editing: Cmd + Shift + 4
• Show (or hide) the Dock: Cmd + Option + D

How to use keyboard shortcuts on your iPad's on-screen keyboard

Even if you're not using an external keyboard, your iPad has a few built-in shortcuts as well. These work with the on-screen keyboard. 

Alternate characters

Tap and hold any key on the iPad keyboard to see the alternate characters associated with that key, like accent marks. 

Not all keys have alternate characters, so you should explore the keyboard to see what options you have available.

Quick-select an alternate key

You probably know that you can switch to the numeric keyboard by tapping "123," or the symbols keyboard by tapping "#+=." Once selected, that keyboard will remain on screen until you manually change back. 

But if you only need to enter a single number or symbol, tap and hold the keyboard change key, swipe up to the key you need, and then release. You won't switch keyboards, but will still have entered the number you want.

For example, suppose you're typing letters on the main keyboard and need to enter the number 5. Tap and hold "123," and swipe up to "5." Release, and you'll have inserted a 5 without switching keyboards, so you can keep typing normally. 

Switch to all-caps

Put the keyboard in all-caps mode by double-tapping the Shift key. It'll be highlighted and all letters you type now will be capitalized. 

Turn it off by tapping Shift again or by tapping "123." 

End a sentence with a period

By default, the keyboard is set so you can just double-tap the Space bar and your iPad will automatically insert a period.

Switch to the small iPhone-style keyboard

By default, you get a large on-screen keyboard that takes up the whole width of your iPad's display. Using a pinching gesture, you can shrink the keyboard into a tiny module in the middle of the screen. 

If you do this, the iPad keyboard behaves like an iPhone keyboard, which includes letting you swipe" around the keyboard to type without lifting your finger off the screen. 

How to create your own keyboard shortcuts on the iPad

The handful of built-in shortcuts are handy, but you can create your own "text replacement" shortcuts to automatically turn any shortcut into a longer text phrase.

1. Start the Settings app.

2. Tap "General" and then tap "Keyboard."

3. Tap "Text Replacement."

4. Tap "+" in the upper right corner.

5 Type the phrase you want to create, and then type the text shortcut that you want to use to trigger it. For example, you could enter your complete postal address in the Phrase field and then enter "address" in the Shortcut field — that way, when you type "address" it'll autocorrect into your full address.. 

6. Tap "Save."

How to edit keyboard shortcuts on the iPad

After you create a text expansion shortcut, you might need to modify it. For example, you might want to change the phrase, or you might find that you trigger the shortcut by accident, so you need to make it harder to enter unintentionally. 

1. Start the Settings app.

2. Tap "General" and then tap "Keyboard."

3. Tap "Text Replacement."

4. Tap the shortcut that you want to edit. 

5. On the Text Replacement page, you can modify the phrase or shortcut and tap "Save" when you're done. 

How to delete a keyboard shortcut on the iPad

If you no longer need a shortcut and want to remove it to eliminate the possibility of triggering it by accident, you can delete it with just a couple of taps. 

1. Start the Settings app.

2. Tap "General" and then tap "Keyboard."

3. Tap "Text Replacement."

4. Tap "Edit" at the bottom left of the screen.

5. Tap the red "-" next to any shortcut you want to remove, and then tap "Delete."

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to use and get rid of split screen on your iPad, so that you can multitask more efficiently

• How to use your iPad as a second monitor for your Windows computer

• How to remove your Apple ID from an iPad and wipe your personal information from the device

• How to use your iPad as a second display for your Mac computer without any wires or add-ons

• How to restore your iPad from a backup after resetting it, so you never have to lose your data

SEE ALSO: The best iPad cases you can buy

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• Courtney Trop is a fashion influencer with over 340,000 followers on Instagram (@alwaysjudging).
• In March, she launched her first brand, Hi Stevie, which sells CBD and plans on releasing other cannabis products.
• When the pandemic forced many brands to cut their influencer budgets this spring, Trop saw her fast-growing career suddenly come to a halt.
• Her new brand, however, became her "financial saving grace" and now makes up 50% of her income, she said. 
• Business Insider spoke with Trop about how she pivoted this year from working mostly with other brands on sponsorships to working on her own brand.
• Subscribe to Business Insider's influencer newsletter: Influencer Dashboard.

Courtney Trop has been a luxury fashion blogger and influencer for nearly eight years, so she's used to the twists and turns that come with an evolving industry.

What was new for her, however, was having to completely pivot her business this year as the bottom fell out of the market, with many brands slashing their influencer-marketing budgets in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Last year was the best year in my career," Trop told Business Insider. "I was on planes every single week."

But starting in early March, when the pandemic caused many brands to shut down and send thousands of influencers home during fashion month, Trop's busy day-to-day career slowed down.

"My schedule really went to a halt," Trop said. "Every brand I worked with for fashion month, half of them just aren't paying me at all."

The drop was devastating for her income, but Trop said it also gave her the time she needed to finally launch her first product. For around two years, Trop had been brewing her own cannabidiol (CBD) formula — the non-psychoactive component of cannabis — with the help of her business-and-life partner, slowly teasing it on her own Instagram account (@alwaysjudging).

In March, she officially launched Hi Stevie, her CBD and cannabis brand. 

"This has been my saving grace financially," Trop said, adding that Hi Stevie is now her main focus as an entrepreneur and creative. When the influencer-marketing industry began to pick back up in June, she resumed working with brands, but said that Hi Stevie now makes up about 50% of her income. 

"I assume it will continue to grow and hopefully, once my fashion career comes back full force, Hi Stevie will have also grown by then, so it will make up for the losses this year," she added.

Being an influencer taught her about marketing and brand building

When Trop began developing Hi Stevie, she used her Instagram audience to gauge interest and research what her community was looking for in a CBD product.

Using the features of Instagram Stories and leaving her DMs open to her followers, she used her following as a focus group for her brand. She found they wanted a CBD product that actually tasted good, and that they were interested in vegan CBD gummies, among other insights. (Her gummy product will launch later this year.)  

"Being on the other side as an influencer, it's easy for me to create a brand and give customers what they want because I know both sides of it now," Trop said. For years, she'd been observing the ways brands market themselves. 

On the sales side, she found that planning Instagram challenges and giveaways, such as including a free tote bag as a gift for each purchase, boosted her sales.

"You'd be surprised how well giving people a gift with purchase works," she said.

Recently, Trop struck a partnership with the fashion brand DanCassab, which had reached out to her about creating content for the brand's website that would highlight what influencers were working on at home during the pandemic. Through some conversations, Trop and DanCassab made a plan to send Hi Stevie to the fashion brand's customers and influencers as a part of its gifting campaign this fall. 

"I'm seeing this new movement where brands want to work with influencers now that have their own brand or they're doing something more," Trop said. She said finding those opportunities and making connections across industries is what has helped her build her brand so far through word-of-mouth and Instagram.

Launching any brand is a challenge, but CBD comes with its own obstacles

Trop said that cannabis had long been part of her Instagram presence and was a topic she'd discussed frequently with her followers, which made CBD a natural starting point for her when launching her own products.

She said she manufactures all of the products in her home, from creating the CBD formula to bottling and boxing it up and mailing out packages.

Trop said that navigating the legality of operating a cannabis-based business has been the hardest part so far, since the laws vary by state and country. And the FDA forbids all health claims related to CBD (with the exception of Epidiolex, an FDA-approved epilepsy drug that contains it).

Hi Stevie's first product, a CBD oil or "tincture," is priced at $60, but is only shipped domestically for now. Trop has a large audience in Paris, and said eventually she wants to figure out how to legally tap that market.

Even with Instagram, there are hurdles to selling her product on the app using its shopping features. She plans on enrolling once she's able to, "but again, the legality with CBD and cannabis is so difficult," she said.

For more stories about how influencers are adapting to changes across the industry, check out these Business Insider articles:

• Houseplant sales are booming and so are 'plantfluencers,' the social-media creators sharing plant tips, products, and content
• 'Insurance' has surged the most among Instagram influencers of any content topic during the pandemic. Here are the others with the biggest increases and decreases.
• How the coronavirus is changing the influencer business, according to marketers and top Instagram and YouTube stars

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Airbnb, which quietly filed to go public earlier this week, is officially banning groups larger than 16 people.
• The move coincides with what Airbnb is calling a "Global Party Ban" — a formalized ban on "all parties and events at Airbnb listings" that expands on already existing Airbnb rules.
• The move is the latest in a string of initiatives aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic, the company said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Airbnb is officially banning party houses and capping listing occupancy at 16 people, the company announced on Thursday.

"This party ban applies to all future bookings on Airbnb and it will remain in effect indefinitely until further notice," Airbnb revealed in a blog post. The ban is an extension of an already existing rule Airbnb implemented in late 2019, and represents the company's latest attempt to alter its business in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The move also comes amid a confidentially filed IPO— the latest indication that Airbnb intends to go public this year.

As the coronavirus pandemic ended travel for millions, Airbnb pivoted business away from experience-centric vacations. The company enacted new health and safety requirements for hosts, and offered an "extenuating circumstance" policy to the service's users that allowed them to cancel rentals due to pandemic-related concerns.

It also laid off a substantial portion of its staff: About 25% of Airbnb employees were cut in May. 

In July, after travel restrictions and shelter-in-place orders began lifting, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company's business has bounced back. "We were down, but we're not out," Chesky said in an email to employees shared with Business Insider. "We're not committing to going public this year, but we're not ruling it out. When the market is ready, we will be ready."

Got a tip? Contact Business Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@businessinsider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.

SEE ALSO: Airbnb unfroze its IPO plans thanks to bookings rebound, but the $18 billion startup has built its comeback on very thin ice

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• When you sign up for Uber Eats as a delivery driver, there is a multi-step process that includes submitting to a background check.
• You may also be asked to upload your license and vehicle registration, if you're driving a car or scooter when you apply to be an Uber Eats driver. 
• You have to be at least 18 to deliver for Uber Eats, regardless of the delivery transportation method you choose. 
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Nowadays, many more people are looking for a side-hustle to make some extra money, and one of the most popular jobs is driving for food delivery services like Uber Eats.

Uber Eats is a go-to option, not just because couriers are in higher demand with more people working and staying at home. Uber Eats delivery driving lets you set your hours and get paid instantly. As a bonus, the sign-up process is relatively easy and straightforward. 

You don't have to go in for multiple interviews or submit a resume and cover letter. All you need to do is consent to a security screening, provide the required documents, upload a photo, and wait to be confirmed. It takes about three to four days for your background check to go through, and as soon as you're approved, you can sign in to the app and start picking up orders.

Sign-up requirements differ depending on how you're planning to do your delivery. Cyclists will need to be at least 18 and have a valid government-issued ID. If you're driving a scooter, you need to be at least 19, and — like those signing up to deliver with their car — you have to have a valid drivers' license for that class of vehicle. The age required to drive a car for Uber Eats varies from city to city and specific requirements about the age and make of your car, which you can find on Uber's website.

You can fill out the required documentation in any order you like, but Uber recommends that you do them in the order they have them set. The registration process may include different steps depending on what site and computer you're using, and whether you've already got a rider account with Uber. 

But if you're thinking about signing up to be an Uber Eats delivery courier, here's how you'll likely do it. 

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How to sign up for Uber Eats on the website 

1. If you don't already have an account, go to Uber Eats' website and fill in the required information in the static "Sign up now" form. 

2. If you already have an Uber account, go to the Uber Eats log in page. 

3. Enter which city you want to drive in and an invite code if you have one on the sign-up form. 

4. Once submitted, Uber will list the delivery transportation methods available in your area. These may include using scooters, bicycles, cars, and walking. Review the listed sign-up requirements for each.

5. Select the method that is best for you.    

6. A checklist of requirements will appear based on which delivery method you choose. Click on each checklist item to review it. 

7. Upload any supporting documents or fill out any required online forms, including photo IDs and licenses, vehicle registrations, and background checks.   

8. When you fill out your background check, you will likely be prompted to enter your social security number. Only do so if you're sure you're on the secure Uber Eats site.

9. Read and agree to the terms, then hit submit.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to delete your Uber Eats account on a phone or computer
  

• 'Can you pay cash for Uber Eats?': Yes, but not in the U.S. — here's how to pay for Uber Eats in all locations

• How to contact Uber Eats in several different ways if you experience an issue with your order

• How to cancel an Uber Eats order and determine if you'll get a refund

• What is Uber Eats? Here's what you need to know about the ride-hailing service's food delivery app

SEE ALSO: The best pre-made meal delivery services for when you don't want delivery

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• Facebook is doubling down on using AI to support its data centers and network infrastructure.
• The social networking firm has formed a new infrastructure team, Network.AI, according to a recent job posting.
• The team is now hiring as it looks to build out hardware and software that supports Facebook's AI infrastructure.
• The effort underscores the ever-growing importance of AI to Facebook, and in networking more broadly.
• "As we continue to use our advances in AI and ML more and more, it's naturally becoming more intensive on our networking infrastructure," a Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider, in part.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook has quietly formed a new team focused on incorporating more AI capabilities in its massive network infrastructure and data centers.

The Network.AI unit is part of Facebook's broader infrastructure team and is working to develop hardware and software to build out Facebook's expansive fleet of data centers around the world that power its various products, Business Insider has learned.

A recent Facebook job listing seeking a engineer disclosed the existence of the Network.AI group, describing it as "[spanning] the design and operations of the AI networking [infrastructure]...work. Network Engineers at Facebook are a hybrid software/network engineers who design, build and operate our worldwide data center network. This team owns the complete life-cycle of the AI network in the data center from planning, design, product definition, QA, deployment and monitoring."

The new team illustrates how Facebook is keen to continue innovating as it builds the infrastructure that supports its more than 3 billion users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger around the world, and the ever-increasing importance of AI to its strategy.

In an email, a Facebook spokesperson said: "We develop and deploy AI and machine learning [ML] technologies in our products and services to connect, protect and empower people with new abilities. As we continue to use our advances in AI and ML more and more, it's naturally becoming more intensive on our networking infrastructure. As a result, we're expanding our existing network engineering team to drive our continued growth."

'This team owns the compete lifecycle of the AI network'

The job listing says that the engineer will "(Re)Design, deploy, manage and maintain the Facebook data center networks for AI infrastructure worldwide." It's not clear how many people are currently working on Network.AI. 

Here's the key section of the listing, that details some of the hardware and software work the team is focused on (emphasis added):

"The Network.AI group is a new team within Facebook Infrastructure. The charter of the new group spans the design and operations of the AI networking Infra including the network switches and the host side systems, as well as forward-looking projects such as transport evolution. Network Engineers at Facebook are a hybrid software/network engineers who design, build and operate our worldwide data center network. This team owns the complete lifecycle of the AI network in the data center from planning, design, product definition, QA, deployment and monitoring. Simple and scalable network design, automation and data analytics are the keys to meeting our demands. In this role, you will be responsible for conceiving, developing and deploying network software, systems and tools that keep the AI data center network operating at maximum reliability, scalability and efficiency.

AI's growing importance for hyperscalers

Facebook's new team underscores the growing importance of automation and AI in networking, especially for so-called hyperscalers, tech behemoths that operate massive data centers, such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. 

Investing in more AI technology would enable Facebook to have a data center network that "more resilient, scalable and probably more secure," IDC President Crawford Del Prete told Business Insider.  "Given the scale the Facebook operates, I suspect that they need a fairly high degree of automation in these areas as the job is too big to get done manually."

More automation would mean substantial cost savings and would also allow Facebook to flag network glitches faster and more efficiently, said Michael Dortch, principal analyst of DortchOnIT.com.

"I can't overemphasize the value of AI-powered site design and infrastructure deployment," he added. "Once that infrastructure is deployed, AI can help to identify and isolate operational problems, and quickly tell technicians precisely what needs fixing or replacing and how best to do it."

Facebook is no stranger to ambitious data center plans

Facebook has taken the lead in industry-redefining data center practices before. In 2011, it spearheaded the Open Compute Project, a plan to design data centers along open source principles — an initiative that is now also followed by companies including Google, Microsoft, Cisco, and Alibaba. 

The company has also explored using robotics in its data centers, and now has a fleet of robots patrolling its facilities and a dedicated team working on automating the multi-billion-dollar locations, as Business Insider first reported in February 2020.

Data center sustainability is another area of investment for Facebook. It says its facilities are 80% more water-efficient than a typical data center, and that "in 2020, we will have committed to enough new renewable energy resources to match 100% of the energy used by every data center built by Facebook, and always in the same state or power grid as the data center itself."

Do you work at Facebook? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.

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