2022 is on track to be the second most active VC year ever, despite the narrative that says otherwise. — You can get my free weekly newsletter, Big Technology, by signing up here. The S&P 500 is in the gutter. The tech-heavy NASDAQ is doing worse. IPOs are struggling to clear their listing prices and some tech stocks — like Uber — are trading well below their private market valuations. …

After decades of economic turbulence, some in Latin America looked to Bitcoin and rival cryptocurrencies as an answer. They’ll have to wait longer. — The small group of Bitcoin enthusiasts that gathered in Quito, Ecuador in early 2014 weren’t there in a vacuum. Not long before, the country faced decades of 40% inflation, high default rates, stagnant growth, and a painful year where the government froze bank accounts. In 2000, Ecuador ditched its currency…

A fascinating bit of internet history concludes today. — RIP Internet Explorer, which Microsoft is shutting down today. In a fascinating historical irony, Microsoft could’ve controlled the web. But the web — which enabled cloud computing — was a threat to Windows. So Microsoft instead kept Internet Explorer slow. And Google, in response, built Chrome. Why would Microsoft harm…

Impressions from a WWDC held with Apple’s share price down 19% on the year. — I love developer events because they preview where companies intend to focus for the next six to twelve months. Apple Worldwide Developers Conference — or WWDC — stands above the rest. …

Dall-E can illustrate just about anything using a short text prompt. Should it? — Dall-E’s power becomes evident within the first minute of seeing it. The AI program creates intricate, original images when you feed it short text prompts. Its only limit is your imagination. On Wednesday, I watched live as an employee of OpenAI — which created it — asked Dall-E to draw…

Sustainable, slow-growth businesses are the new hotness as risky, high-growth companies falter. — The stock market is absolutely annihilating companies that promise long-term growth without showing near-term results. Shopify is down 70% year to date. Rivian is down 69%. Meta — with its metaverse vision far into the future — is down 39%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ composite is down 23%. …

Can a mass-market metaverse dream come true? — The common narrative about the metaverse is that it’ll be a new digital world — enabled by virtual and augmented reality — where we’ll spend time with friends and family. The technology is moving so fast, proponents say, that we’ll experience life via the headset in short order. That vision…

Twitter finally proved its cultural influence was more valuable than the market thought. But perhaps not as planned. — The following is a selection from Big Technology, a weekly newsletter on Big Tech and society. To get it in your inbox for free, sign up here. Twitter is in disarray. The company’s top executives are leaving. Its share price is unstable. Its reputation is hurting. And its employees are…

It’s difficult to overstate how dominant TikTok’s become. Even the analysts are puzzled. — The following is a selection from Big Technology, a weekly newsletter on Big Tech and society. To get it in your inbox for free, sign up here. When Oscar Orozco, the director of forecasting at eMarketer, set forth to model TikTok’s growth for 2021, he thought it had to slow…