Year: 2020

Food delivery startup DoorDash, which also runs operations for Caviar, has announced its plans to provide financial assistance to delivery workers who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or quarantined.

DoorDash workers in the U.S., Australia and Canada are eligible for up to two weeks of financial assistance if they get sick with COVID-19 or a public health agency places them under quarantine. The caveat is that workers must have been active on DoorDash for at least 60 days and have completed at least 30 deliveries in the last 30 days. The same goes for Caviar workers, who only operate in the U.S.

DoorDash says it is also shipping more than 1 million sets of hand sanitizer and gloves to its workers who are frequently interacting with customers. Additionally, the default method of delivery for DoorDash will now be no-contact, which means workers will leave the food at the customer’s door by default. Customers can still opt in to having the workers hand it directly to them, but workers can still initiate a no-contact delivery if that’s their preference.

DoorDash joins the likes of Uber, Instacart and Postmates, which have also taken some steps to help gig workers. Uber, for example, set up funds to support drivers who are infected or placed in quarantine by a public health authority. Instacart introduced a sick pay policy for in-store shoppers and extended pay for all shoppers, including independent contractors, who are affected by COVID-19. Similarly, Postmates has started offering two weeks of paid sick leave for people who test positive for the virus. These announcements come after gig workers have put pressure on companies and the government to ensure better protection for them during this pandemic.

Just yesterday, San Francisco announced a shelter-in-place order that legally requires people to stay home as much as possible unless it’s essential that they leave to do things like going to the grocery store, buying gas or going to the pharmacy. Gig workers, however, are perceived as essential. That means workers for Postmates, Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats are still on the hook for delivering food to people, and rideshare drivers transporting passengers are at risk of contracting the virus.

Gig Workers Rising is also pushing legislators in California to immediately enforce AB 5, which would ensure workers have access to good health care, paid sick leave, disability leave and more. It’s worth noting that DoorDash is one of the companies that has spent millions of dollars to oppose AB 5. The ballot initiative put forth by DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and other gig companies is a direct response to the legalization of AB-5, the gig worker bill that will make it harder for the likes of Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig economy companies to classify their workers as 1099 independent contractors.

Workers can find more info about DoorDash’s announcement here.

Food delivery startup DoorDash, which also runs operations for Caviar, has announced its plans to provide financial assistance to delivery workers who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or quarantined.

DoorDash workers in the U.S., Australia and Canada are eligible for up to two weeks of financial assistance if they get sick with COVID-19 or a public health agency places them under quarantine. The caveat is that workers must have been active on DoorDash for at least 60 days and have completed at least 30 deliveries in the last 30 days. The same goes for Caviar workers, who only operate in the U.S.

DoorDash says it is also shipping more than 1 million sets of hand sanitizer and gloves to its workers who are frequently interacting with customers. Additionally, the default method of delivery for DoorDash will now be no-contact, which means workers will leave the food at the customer’s door by default. Customers can still opt in to having the workers hand it directly to them, but workers can still initiate a no-contact delivery if that’s their preference.

DoorDash joins the likes of Uber, Instacart and Postmates, which have also taken some steps to help gig workers. Uber, for example, set up funds to support drivers who are infected or placed in quarantine by a public health authority. Instacart introduced a sick pay policy for in-store shoppers and extended pay for all shoppers, including independent contractors, who are affected by COVID-19. Similarly, Postmates has started offering two weeks of paid sick leave for people who test positive for the virus. These announcements come after gig workers have put pressure on companies and the government to ensure better protection for them during this pandemic.

Just yesterday, San Francisco announced a shelter-in-place order that legally requires people to stay home as much as possible unless it’s essential that they leave to do things like going to the grocery store, buying gas or going to the pharmacy. Gig workers, however, are perceived as essential. That means workers for Postmates, Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats are still on the hook for delivering food to people, and rideshare drivers transporting passengers are at risk of contracting the virus.

Gig Workers Rising is also pushing legislators in California to immediately enforce AB 5, which would ensure workers have access to good health care, paid sick leave, disability leave and more. It’s worth noting that DoorDash is one of the companies that has spent millions of dollars to oppose AB 5. The ballot initiative put forth by DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and other gig companies is a direct response to the legalization of AB-5, the gig worker bill that will make it harder for the likes of Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig economy companies to classify their workers as 1099 independent contractors.

Workers can find more info about DoorDash’s announcement here.

At today’s Corona Task Force press conference, Vice President Pence today asked construction companies to donate their stocks of N95 respirator masks to their local hospitals and stop ordering more for the time being. This call comes in the middle of a major shortage of these kinds of masks, which get their name from being able to block at least 95 percent of 0.3 micron particles.

Because of their ability to filter out these very small particles, these N95 respirators are often used by construction workers on sites where there is a lot of concrete dust, for example. Currently, these masks are in short supply — and prices are often extremely high. While the WHO doesn’t recommend the use of masks for most people, a lot of people have bought them anyway, which contributed to this shortage. At Home Depot, for example, they are currently completely sold out.

“We urge construction companies to donate their inventory of N95 masks to your local hospital and forgo additional orders of these industrial masks because of what the president asked to be included in legislation that is moving through congress today, these industrial masks that they use on construction sites are perfectly acceptable for health care workers to be protected from a respiratory disease,” Pence said. “What we ask construction companies — which our president knows very well from his background — we are asking them to donate their N95 masks to their local hospitals and also forgo making additional orders.”

In today’s briefing, Pence and President Trump also noted that the government is looking at making sure that the military will be able to establish field hospitals or expand existing facilities if necessary.

The fact that the U.S. government now has to ask these companies to donate N95 masks clearly shows how unprepared it was for this outbreak.

Ford said Tuesday it will temporarily shutdown vehicle and engine production at its factories in Europe in response to the spread of COVID-19, a disease caused by coronavirus.

The shut down will begin Thursday and is expected to continue for a number of weeks, Ford said without providing a specific timeline. Ford said it hopes the closure will only be required for a short period, but the duration depends on a number of factors, including the spread of the coronavirus, government restrictions, supplier constraints, and the return of customers to dealerships, many of which are now closed.

Ford’s manufacturing sites in Cologne and Saarlouis in Germany, and its Craiova facility in Romania will halt production beginning Thursday. The company’s assembly and engine facility in Valencia, Spain has been closed since Monday, after three workers were confirmed with coronavirus over the past weekend.

The automaker made the decision following the World Health Organization’s designation of Europe as the new epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic.

“While the impact of coronavirus at our facilities so far has been limited thankfully, its effects on our employees, dealers, suppliers and customers, as well as European society as a whole, is unprecedented,” said Stuart Rowley, president, Ford of Europe. “Due to the dramatic impact this ongoing crisis is having on the European market and the supplier industry — together with the recent actions by countries to restrict all but essential travel and personal contact — we are temporarily halting production at our main continental Europe manufacturing sites.”

Ford said it will continue to provide essential maintenance and service across Europe.

Other automakers are also shuttering factories in Europe, including Volkswagen and Daimler. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess announced plans to suspend production at factories in Spain, Portugal and Italy before the end of this week. VW’s native Germany and other European countries getting ready to follow suit.

Daimler Group announced Tuesday it will suspend the majority of its production in Europe, as well as work in selected administrative departments, for an initial period of two weeks.

The suspension applies to Daimler’s car, van and commercial vehicle plants in Europe and will start this week.

At a press conference in Washington D.C. today, United States Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin assured a room full of reports that the government has no plans to shut down the markets.

Posed a question by the audience, Mnuchin denied any plans to shut them down as was done following September 11. “We absolutely believe in keeping the markets open,” he explained. “Americans need to know they have access to their money. After September 11, the only reason why the markets were closed, was because the technology was disrupted.”

Mnuchin added that there was some consideration of rolling back hours, as part of a nation-wide social distancing effort being deployed to curb the spread of COVID-19. But for now, at least, a full shutdown is seemingly off the table as the administration continues to prioritize impacts on the markets themselves.

“I’ve been on the phone with the major banks with the New York Stock Exchange,” he added. “Everybody wants to keep it up and we make it to a point where we shorten the hours, if that’s something they need to do, but Americans should know that we are going to do everything to make sure that they have access to their money at their banks to the money in their 401k is into the money in stocks, so I want to just be very clear. We intend to keep the markets open.”

A number of other economic solutions are on the table and currently being considered by the White House and Congress, including public sector bailouts and temporary versions of universal basic income, designed at helping ease the strain of widespread business shutdowns.

Regardless of how COVID-19 pandemic plays out in the coming weeks and months, it’s already been brutal for small businesses, with some of them forced close for public safety, while others are taking a big hit in both revenue and access to credit .

So Facebook announced today that it’s creating a $100 million grant program for small businesses. Applications aren’t open yet, but the company says this will include both ad credits and cash grants that can be spent on operational costs like paying workers and paying rent. It will be available to up to 30,000 businesses in the the 30-plus countries where Facebook operates.

Facebook has also created a Business Hub with tips and resources for businesses trying to survive during the outbreak..

“We want to do more,” said COO Sheryl Sandberg in a Facebook post. “Teams across our company are working every day to help businesses. We’re looking at additional ways to host virtual trainings – and will have more to share in the coming weeks – and we’re finding more ways to help people connect and learn to use technology through Blueprint, our free e-learning training program.”

In addition, the company announced today that it’s partnering with the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Local Media Association to offer a total of $1 million in grants for U.S. and Canadian newsrooms that need more resources to properly cover the pandemic. These individual grants will be up for up to $5,000.

With U.S. consumers asked to refrain from social gatherings and shelter-in-place at home due to COVID-19, media consumption is prepared to boom. Based on Nielsen data from prior major crises in recent U.S. history that forced consumers to stay home, total TV usage increased by nearly 60%. We’re not there yet, but consumption is starting to climb in the most impacted markets, the firm found.

For example, Nielsen saw a 22% increase in total TV usage in the Seattle/Tacoma metro last Wednesday, compared with a week ago. New York and L.A. are already seeing usage that’s up by 8% during the same time. And for some demographics, usage is much higher.

Seattle teens home from school notched a 104% increase over this period, Nielsen found.

Total TV usage, to be clear, includes watching traditional live TV, DVR recordings, video-on-demand, and streaming services or other content through any TV set, game console or connected device.

But there’s potential for TV usage to grow even further.

During a crisis, TV viewing booms as consumers ramp up media consumption to stay informed as well as to kill time.

Nielsen is not officially forecasting the COVID-19 pandemic will increase TV viewing to levels associated with historical crises. But it does note that U.S. consumers have traditionally turned to the TV during troubling times.

When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in August 2017, for instance, Nielsen’s analysis found a 56% increase in total TV usage during the impacted period compared with the preceding period. And during the severe snowstorm that hit New York on the weekend of Jan. 23, 2016, total TV usage was 45% higher during the Saturday of the snow event compared with the Saturday before.

These, of course, were isolated events of a limited during. The COVID-19 crisis is different because it doesn’t just affect one region, nor will it be over within a few days or weeks’ time.

During these events, Nielsen said consumers stuck at home were tuning into feature films, news, and general programming.

Streaming, in particular, jumped by 61% during these periods.

The larger impact from COVID-19 could be from the newly remote U.S. workforce. Prior Nielsen data suggests that employees who work remotely Monday through Friday watch over three more hours per week of traditional TV, compared with non-remote workers, at 25 hours and 2 minutes vs. 21 hours and 56 minutes, respectively.

These changes to media consumption related to the COVID-19 crisis come at a time when the U.S. is already at a historical high for media consumption. Before the pandemic, U.S. consumers were already just shy of 12 hours each day with media platforms, and three-fourths of U.S. consumers are broadening their media options with streaming subscriptions and TV-connected devices.

Trends elsewhere in the world indicate COVID-19 will send users to stream even more.

In Italy and Spain, for example, first-time installs of Netflix’s app were up 57% and 34%, respectively, according to Sensor Tower data.

In addition, live streaming across YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Mixer grew by over 66% in Italy between the first week of February and this past week, according to StreamElements, and viewers were watching nearly double the number of channels.

But brands looking to capitalize on the stuck-and-home audience may not find that their messages resonate or produce the actions they desire. That’s because brands are looking to increase sales for products and services, and many consumers won’t now risking leaving their home to spend.

Movies Anywhere, the digital locker service that lets you access your purchased movies from across services including iTunes, Vudu, Prime Video, YouTube, Xfinity, and others, is preparing to launch a new movie sharing option. According to a report from CNET, the service today will begin testing a new “Screen Pass” feature that allows users to share a movie with friends via a text message sent from the Movies Anywhere mobile app.

Users must accept the Screen Pass within 7 days to gain access to the shared title.

The new feature will work a lot like a movie rental, as recipients have a limited time to watch the movie — in this case up to 14 days. Viewers then have 72 hours to finish watching the shared movie.

Meanwhile, Movies Anywhere users will also be limited to sharing only three movies per month.

The movies can be watched across the Movies Anywhere platform, except on Roku devices for the time being.

The feature isn’t yet publicly available, but is instead launching into a limited beta test later today, CNET says. The plan was to have Screen Pass commercially available by late summer or early fall. In other words, it may not be around to help consumers stuck at home looking for something to watch during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis.

A spokesperson told the news outlet they’re working to move up the launch, in light of the “unprecedented” circumstances facing the U.S.

The Movies Anywhere app, originally called Disney Movies Anywhere, has been around in some form since 2014 but remains a bit under-the-radar as people now turn to streaming services to watch their favorite films Initially intended as a way for Disney fans to aggregate their Disney, Pixar, and Marvel film purchases in one place, long before Disney+ was even conceived, today’s Movies Anywhere service is jointly operated by a number of industry partners. In addition to Disney, this includes Universal, WB, Sony Pictures, and 20th Century Fox.

It’s not clear at this time how many movies will be enabled for Screen Pass when it goes live, but it will be limited to select titles, the report noted.

Extra Crunch is excited to announce a new community perk from Startup Battlefield alum Osano. Starting today, annual and two-year members of Extra Crunch can receive 60% off their data privacy management software for six months. You must be new to Osano to claim this offer. This coupon is only applicable to Osano’s self-service plans. Osano is an easy-to-use data privacy platform that instantly helps your website become compliant with laws such as GDPR and CCPA. Osano works to keep you out of trouble and monitors all of the vendors you share data with — so you don’t have to. Connect the data dots to see what’s hiding with Osano here.  

You can sign up for Extra Crunch and claim this deal here.

Extra Crunch is a membership program from TechCrunch that features weekly investor surveys, how-tos and interviews with experts on company building, analysis of IPOs and late-stage companies, an experience on TechCrunch.com that’s free of banner ads, discounts on TechCrunch events and several Partner Perks like the one mentioned in this article. We’re democratizing information for startups, and we’d love to have you join our community.

Sign up for Extra Crunch here.

New annual and two-year Extra Crunch members will receive details on how to claim the perk in the welcome email. The welcome email is sent after signing up for Extra Crunch.

If you are already an annual or two-year Extra Crunch member, you will receive an email with the offer at some point over the next 24 hours. If you are currently a monthly Extra Crunch subscriber and want to upgrade to annual in order to claim this deal, head over to the “account” section on TechCrunch.com and click the “upgrade” button.  

This is one of more than a dozen Partner Perks we’ve launched for annual Extra Crunch members. Other community perks include a 20% discount on TechCrunch events, 90% off an annual DocSend plan and an opportunity to claim $1,000 in AWS credits. For a full list of perks from partners, head here.

If there are other community perks you want to see us add, please let us know by emailing travis@techcrunch.com.

Sign up for an annual Extra Crunch membership today to claim this community perk. You can purchase an annual Extra Crunch membership here.

Disclosure: This offer is provided as a partnership between TechCrunch and Osano, but it is not an endorsement from the TechCrunch editorial team. TechCrunch’s business operations remain separate to ensure editorial integrity. 

Japanese telecom conglomerate SoftBank Group has faced a litany of bad news in recent weeks, including reported revelations from the Wall Street Journal that the head of its Vision Fund was using corporate espionage firms to sabotage his corporate peers and that activist hedge fund investor Elliott Management had invested in the company to try to force more transparency to its balance sheet and board of directors in a bid to drive its stock price higher.

The bad news just keeps coming though.

Today, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the group’s debt outlook to “Negative” from “Stable” while affirming the debt’s rating of BB+, which is generally considered somewhat speculative or non-investment grade.

In the note from the ratings agency, S&P said that it was particularly concerned about SoftBank’s share repurchase program, which would see cash liquidity decrease as it buys up shares from investors on the public markets. That program, which would encompass about $4.8 billion in share buybacks and was announced last week, “[raises] questions over its intention to adhere to financial management that prioritizes its financial soundness and the credit ratings on it.”

My colleague Arman and I have covered SoftBank’s debt obsession obsessively on TechCrunch, but we last conducted that analysis at the tail end of 2018 when markets were still soaring and SARS-CoV-2 had yet to be discovered.

Now though, SoftBank’s penchant for debt is running straight into one of the most harrowing moments in recent economic history.

SoftBank’s debt-fueled expansion is particularly notable in its Sprint and T-Mobile telecom merger, which was recently approved by U.S. antitrust authorities and included tens of billions of dollars of debt to consummate, as well as in the Vision Fund, where special provisions in the fund’s structure guarantees a minimal level of return to investors. As the Financial Times reported back in 2017:

That debt provided by the Vision Fund’s investors will be in the form of preferred units, which will receive to an annual coupon of 7 per cent over the fund’s 12-year life cycle.

Yet, with few IPOs likely on the horizon given the catastrophic fall in the markets the past few days, what will happen to liquidity in the Vision Fund, and how will it meet that 7% minimum target? Or how will the combined Sprint and T-Mobile win over customers in a quickly souring economy to pay off down its gargantuan debt load?

The upshot for SoftBank is that it offers a service most customers consider essential. That’s one of the reasons why it’s debt hasn’t seen a ratings downgrade — ultimately, consumers are still going to need their smartphones to work. But with the piles of debt adding up and the economy in tatters, its future is looking ever more hazy and dangerous.