fortune--2020-04-15--What to know before applying for gig work during the coronavirus pandemic

Excited to get your hands on that stimulus check ?
So are scammers

A leap in U.S. unemployment has thrown a spotlight on one type of work in high demand during the coronavirus pandemic: gig work delivering groceries, meals and packages.
Some app-based delivery companies have announced hiring sprees to cope with a surge in online shopping. That comes as 16.8 million Americans have filed for unemployment aid in just the past three weeks.
Many gig jobs in delivery are relatively easy to get, often requiring little more than the ability to carry heavy loads, access to a bike or car, and passing a background check. But they also come with the risk of exposure to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 22,000 in the U.S. Most such jobs come with little to no access to benefits like health insurance and paid sick leave.
Here are some things to know about applying for gig jobs during the pandemic.
Who is hiring delivery workers?
The biggest hiring companies? Delivery services for groceries and other essentials including San Francisco-based Instacart, Target-owned Shipt, Philadelphia-based startup goPuff, and New York-based FreshDirect. Amazon is also adding independent contract drivers through its Flex program.
Restaurant delivery apps not hiring as quickly, with many of their small business partners struggling under shutdown orders. DoorDash, however, has launched a “priority access program” to help laid off restaurant employees sign up for delivery work. Uber has an internal app that helps its ride-hailing drivers find work for Uber Eats and other jobs. Lyft is partnering with government agencies, nonprofits and health organizations to help its out-of-work drivers find jobs delivering essentials to people in need.
Beyond gig jobs, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and Little Caesar’s are also hiring more delivery drivers.
Is gig work paying more during the pandemic?
Some delivery work has become more lucrative because of a rise in orders and bigger tips. Instacart and Shipt say tips have risen 30% on average in recent weeks. DoorDash says courier earnings have increased by $5 per active hour compared to this time last year.
Most app-based companies, however, are not directly boosting pay for their workers. Instacart and Shipt have offered bonuses that depend on the amount or type of orders completed, but workers who have staged walkouts are demanding hazard pay of $5 per order.
Those considering gig work should do their research. Does the company offer a guaranteed minimum per order? Does that guaranteed minimum include tips? Does the app default to a certain tip percentage?
Payment systems are also subject to change, often without warning for workers.
Some Shipt workers don’t like a new pay structure being tested in some markets that takes into account the time and distance it takes to complete an order and other factors. Willis Solis, a worker who helped stage a walk-out last week, said the original system is more transparent, with a $5 minimum per order plus 7.5% of the order amount. Solis said the new system often results is lower pay for larger orders, but Shipt says it allows shoppers to maximize earnings. Both systems allow workers to keep 100% of tips.
Have the jobs become more difficult during the pandemic?
Yes, especially for gig shoppers. Workers must stand in long lines to enter many stores because of distancing rules. Panic shopping and higher demand has sometimes cleared shelves of essentials, making it almost impossible for shoppers to meet efficiency goals for speed and order accuracy.
Some companies have temporarily eased their performance standards for workers. Shipt and Instacart are forgiving late deliveries and waving reviews lower than five stars.
Julie Sweder, who has worked part-time for Shipt for more than three years in Detroit, said she often has to find substitutes for a third of items on her orders, requiring more painstaking communications with clients, especially those using the service for the first time. But Sweder, who was made available by Shipt for an interview, said it is taking fewer jobs to reach her weekly earnings goal of at least $300 because the tips are larger and orders are bigger.
What protections are gig workers getting from the virus?
Most delivery apps have introduced a “contactless delivery,” although the decision is generally up to the customer, not the worker. Instacart, Shipt and DoorDash have made “leave at door” the default setting.
Some companies are working to supply delivery workers with gloves, sanitizer, and masks. But many workers have yet to receive protective equipment amid supply constraints. DoorDash charges a $5 shipment fee for workers who request supplies.
Most companies are temporarily offering 14 days of financial assistance for workers who are diagnosed with coronavirus or are placed in quarantine by health authorities. Instacart and Shipt workers who have staged walkouts want the policy expanded to include workers who are at high risk for contracting the virus or who exhibit symptoms, citing difficulties in getting tested.
Does taking a gig job disqualify you from applying for unemployment insurance?
Gig work does not automatically disqualify you from applying for unemployment insurance, said Jeremy Glenn, a labor and employment lawyer with Cozen O’Connor. Gig work will likely reduce the amount of weekly benefits you receive from your state, but you will still be eligible for $600 in extra weekly federal unemployment benefits under the pandemic relief act, known as CARES, Glenn said.
Whether it makes sense to supplement unemployment benefits with gig work depends. People must decide for themselves whether the extra pay is worth the risk of exposure to the virus. They may need child care. Because gig workers don’t get hourly wages, it could be difficult to calculate whether it makes sense financially to give up the full amount of weekly state benefits.
More personal finance coverage from Fortune:
—What to do if you can’t pay your bills this month
—When will stimulus checks be direct deposited or mailed? Ensure yours isn’t delayed
—What you should know about mortgage forbearance and skipping payments
—Everything you need to know about furloughs—and what they mean for workers
—Freelancers and independent contractors can now apply for SBA Paycheck Protection Program loans. What you need to know
—The IRS launched portal to get your stimulus check if you don’t file taxes
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-04-15--Couldn’t track your stimulus check? Errors and long waits plague IRS portal rollout

What to know before applying for gig work during the coronavirus pandemic

Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.
For many, it’s stimulus check payday in America. But for others hoping to track the status of their payments and potentially receive them earlier, technology is proving a terror.
Tens of millions of Americans this week are expected to receive their coronavirus stimulus checks, perhaps the most high-profile aspect of the government’s $2.2 trillion aid package designed to help households and businesses get through the current economic lockdown. Front of the line are those who have their direct deposit information on file with the Internal Revenue Service, which allows the government to send the money (up to $1,200 per person, depending on income) directly into their bank accounts.
For those who haven’t provided such information to the government, and who don’t want to wait (potentially up to several months) to receive their stimulus checks in the mail, the IRS launched its new Get My Payment portal on Wednesday morning. The website is supposed to allow people to submit their banking information to the IRS so that they can receive their stimulus payments via direct deposit, and also give them a means of tracking the status of their payment
But already, the portal’s rollout has proven problematic, as users trying to access Get My Payment have encountered myriad difficulties over the course of the day. Some were unable to access the portal, or experienced wait times, due to “high demand” that effectively stopped the site in its tracks, particularly earlier in the day.
But more worrisome have been “Payment Status Not Available” messages received by many who have entered their personal information into the portal, only to be told that the IRS “cannot determine your eligibility for a payment at this time.” Others were told to “Please Try Again Later,” and told that either their tax information did not match what’s on file or that they had already exceeded the maximum number of log-ins and should try again in 24 hours.
One Fortune reader, Michael Lowe of Seattle, Wash., wrote in to describe his difficult experience with the Get My Payment portal. After experiencing wait times to access the site, Lowe says he finally got around to filling in his direct deposit information—only to receive a notice that the site was experiencing “technical difficulties,” and that he should try again later.
“After this occurred eight or so times… the page came up and said I’ve exceeded my amount of log-ins for the day [and to] try again tomorrow,” says Lowe.
Other users have complained of similar issues and complications, such as logging into their bank accounts and finding notice of a pending withdrawal, rather than a deposit, from the IRS, or receiving security alerts from their banks notifying them of “unusual activity” on their accounts. By Wednesday afternoon, social media was so awash with complaints that the phrase “Payment Status Not Available” was trending on Twitter.
Despite evidence of these technical challenges, the IRS disputed any such difficulties in a statement on Wednesday afternoon—claiming that the Get My Payment site is “operating smoothly and effectively.” The agency added that as of “mid-day,” more than 6.2 million taxpayers had successfully accessed their payment status and nearly 1.1 million had provided their direct deposit banking information.
More personal finance coverage from Fortune:
—How to spend your stimulus check money, according to economists
—Here’s how to check the status of your IRS stimulus check
—Poll: How people are planning to spend their stimulus checks
—Excited to get your hands on that stimulus check? So are scammers
—How people are planning to spend their stimulus check money
—What to do if you can’t pay your bills this month
—No, you don’t have to pay back your stimulus check money
—When will stimulus checks be direct deposited or mailed? Ensure yours isn’t delayed
Paycheck Protection Program loans. What you need to know
—The IRS launched portal to get your stimulus check if you don’t file taxes
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-04-15--The coronavirus could change how freelancers work in the long term

The coronavirus pandemic is thrusting into the spotlight some of the fundamental problems that define working life for the 57 million Americans, or 35% of the country’s workforce that, according to a recent report by freelancing platform Upwork and the Freelancer’s Union, make their living by being self-employed.
The same report states that frelancers contribute $1 trillion annually to the GDP, and they operate largely without benefits—no sick leave, no unemployment, no paid time off. But as this pandemic progresses, it’s becoming clear that demands from freelance workers—be them writers, performers, ride-share drivers, or hospitality workers—are as valid as those from full-time employees.
And as regular office-life is going through changes that will go beyond COVID-19, and freelancers are facing a particularly dry season amidst the pandemic, this could also be the moment when self-employment is reshaped for the years to come.
Freelancers’ benefits could finally be broader and long-term
The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, known as the CARES Act, offers the self-employed large-scale unemployment insurance for the first time ever. “For the first time in history, under the federal stimulus package, unemployment will now cover freelance workers,” Rafael Espinal, President of the Freelancers Union. “This will inject needed money for workers to get by. Of course, it won’t cover all expenses, but it’s a start. We should find ways [for] this [to] become a right moving forward.”
Espinal also believes that if benefits were portable—each individual taking them from job to job without their coverage being interrupted—, that would create new opportunities for workers who prefer to be independent but are staying in full-time positions so as not to lose their benefits.
Of course, the benefits enacted are imperfect and come with a thick layer of bureaucracy. Kara Kleindienst, founder and CEO of New York-based dog walking company The Barking Meter, says the challenges for the self-employed who need to physically go to a job are complicated, including the loans and grants being afforded to businesses like her own.
“It’s a very difficult and confusing process,” she says. “For small business owners who cannot work from home, this money may be the only means to save our companies—yet the applications are daunting or not even open yet or financial institutions won’t take it on in the first place.”
Self-employment could become safer than full-time jobs
Hayden Brown, president and CEO of Upwork, thinks we’ll be seeing more and more freelance workers as the pandemic continues—largely because people feel more secure having more than one income source.
“We have heard from many independent professionals, particularly in the last ten years since the 2009 recession, that they feel a heightened sense of security having multiple sources of income via various clients they serve,” Brown says. With the pandemic and the recessionary period that may follow, “we anticipate that more workers will seek out
independent contracting arrangement”, she adds.
Sarah M. is one of such workers leaving her job at a school, citing job security as one of the reasons. “COVID-19 is likely to put that institution, already on shaky financial ground, into an even more precarious position,” she says. “Being self-employed actually feels more secure to me than working for a struggling small college.”
Others who have been freelancers for a long time, and always interpreted that as a risk, now feel differently. Nate Johnson, a leadership and mindset coach, says that the lack of job security involved with freelancing has caused him to reconsider what security really means, namely that it must be self-provided. “I’m glad I learned this a while back because so many people are realizing that even ‘secure’ jobs aren’t guaranteed,” he notes.
Monet Izabeth, a freelance content creator, says that the financial effects of COVID-19 have only reaffirmed her decision to be a freelancer. “I feel very prepared for this type of uncertainty, even more than some of my friends who have full-time, in-office jobs,” she says. “My work environment has strengthened my mindset of ‘where can I find the opportunity in this situation?’ instead of focusing on the negatives.” Used to the risk of being self-employed, freelancers tend to be more resilient—a useful resource when navigating unstable times like these.
Remote work could become the norm
Upwork and the Freelancer’s Union believe that the majority of the U.S. workforce will be freelance as soon as 2027. As the new work-from-home reality of coronavirus leaves its mark, we could find that number growing even more quickly.
“Remote work, and the talented freelancers who work remotely, will increasingly be the norm,” Brown says. “The trends supporting this started well before the current crisis, and may be accelerated by the changes everyone is making to adapt to new realities.”
Evidence of the trend is already on the talent side, with the increased number of freelancer sign-ups in the past weeks. “As businesses are rapidly adopting more flexible, remote work models, as well as contending with an uncertain economic climate, we expect them to be more open-minded to working with remote, independent freelancers than ever before,” she adds.
Megan K., a freelance set designer, hopes that one day her independent career will involve benefits, though she can’t quite picture what that would look like. “I have been freelance long enough that ordinarily I feel that I have some security; for every quiet time, there is an equally busy time to counterbalance,” she says. “I wish that my career provided some kind of retainer for the quieter times, although it’s hard to envision how that would work.”
While it may be hard to imagine exactly what the future of freelancing would, or could, look like, this enforced shake-up is being used to redefine things individually and collectively. “This crisis provides an opportunity to show how large of a workforce [freelancers are],” Espinal, of the Freelance Union, says. “And why we should be supporting the future of [that] work.”
More must-read careers coverage from Fortune:
—How Fortune 500 companies are stepping up during the pandemic
—3 ways to put your best foot forward on a video job interview
—Everything you need to know about furloughs—and what they mean for workers
—How freelancers can pivot to make it through the coronavirus pandemic
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
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fortune--2020-04-15--Excited to get your hands on that stimulus check? So are scammers

Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.
The Internal Revenue Service is bracing for another kind of epidemic—scammers trying to get their hands on the $1,200 payments being sent out to millions of Americans to bolster the economy.
The payments, plus an additional $500 for each child, have begun hitting bank accounts this week, opening a wide avenue of opportunities for scams, identity theft and low-tech crimes such as stealing checks from mailboxes.
“Right now, due to how vulnerable the population is, it’s really prime picking for fraudsters to come out in full force,” Donna Parent, the chief marketing officer at Sontiq, a identity theft protection company, said. The Federal Trade Commission “is reporting more than $13 million in fraud loss due to COVID-19—that’s only going to exponentially increase with stimulus payment scams.”
The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the agency’s watchdog, have already issued several warnings that scammers are posing as the IRS to try to get personal information from payment recipients that they can then use to steal the money. The inspector general is asking people to report any suspicious activity.
“Unsuspecting victims”
“I understand scammers are already contacting innocent Americans by impersonating IRS or Treasury Department officials, offering so-called COVID-19-related assistance that requires the sharing of personal financial information,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wrote in a letter to the inspector general earlier this month. “These scammers then use that information to steal from their unsuspecting victims.”
The $1,200 payments are available to those earning less than $75,000 as an individual, including recipients of Social Security, disability and veterans benefits. Those earning above that threshold and up to $99,000 get a smaller payment.
People in that population, including the elderly, those with less education and those who aren’t tech savvy are the most likely to fall victim to some of these scams, and are also the most likely to need the money, said Vanita Pandey, the head of strategy at Arkose Labs, a company that detects and prevents online fraud.
The coronavirus outbreak means that a lot of people who weren’t familiar with the internet are now using apps to communicate with family and friends or ordering groceries online, giving scammers ample opportunity to find easy targets, Pandey said.
“IRS Criminal Investigation is actively working to combat scam artists trying to exploit Economic Impact Payments,” the agency said in a statement Tuesday. “So far, the scams CI has already seen look to prey on vulnerable taxpayers who are unaware of how the payments will reach them. IRS CI is prioritizing these types of investigations to help protect taxpayers and the tax system.”
There’s some commonsense moves that check recipients can take to protect their personal data as well as their payments. Avoid clicking on links sent in email or text messages that appear to be from the IRS. The IRS said it won’t contact people by telephone, email, social media or text message to ask for personal information.
The IRS is using tax return information from 2018 and 2019 to send the payments. For those who have direct deposit information on file from a tax refund in one of those years, the IRS will send the money directly to their bank accounts.
People who didn’t file a tax return in either year should submit their bank account or address information IRS as soon as possible to prevent a criminal from submitting incorrect information to divert payments. Social Security beneficiaries will automatically receive their payments, though those who just started receiving benefits will need to send their information to the IRS.
That portal could give scammers an opening to hijack payments, because the website requires personal information—such as Social Security numbers—that is available for sale for on the dark web after being compromised in security breaches at government agencies and private organizations, said Mike Chapple, a former computer scientist with the National Security Agency.
“Exploiting this loophole isn’t rocket science,” Chapple, now an information technology, analytics and operations professor at the University of Notre Dame, said. “A criminal could purchase identity information on the dark web and then use it to falsely claim stimulus payments, directing the funding to their own bank account.”
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that those receiving Supplemental Security Income will automatically receive their payments to their bank accounts, direct express debit card or by paper check, just as they typically receive their benefit payments.
However, people who get Social Security or disability payments who have dependent children will likely need to upload their information to the IRS to get the additional $500 per child.
Online portal
The agency opened online portal Wednesday that will let people update their direct deposit or mailing address and, eventually, let recipients see the status of their payment and the day it is scheduled to be mailed or deposited. The IRS will also mail notifications to recipients about two weeks after their payment has been sent that will also include instructions about how to report that a payment hasn’t arrived.
The U.S. Postal Service also offers an a heads up to people about what’s coming in the mail that day. Users can sign up online to get an “Informed Delivery” email about what is coming in the mail later that day. That can let mailed check recipients to know to be diligent in checking the mail so payments aren’t stolen.
It’s hard to know yet just how much fraud risk there is with the stimulus payments. After Hurricane Katrina, about 10% of government payments were fraudulent, Kim Sutherland, a vice president at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said.
Theft “epidemic”
Identity theft has plagued the IRS in recent years, so much so the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration called it an “epidemic” in congressional testimony. Scammers have been able to steal taxpayer information and file fraudulent tax returns to illicitly get refunds. The agency has greatly reduced the prevalence of stolen tax refunds by upgrading detection systems.
“The potential for fraud is present, but it is not substantially different from what IRS needs to deal with every tax filing season,” said Jack Smalligan, a former Office of Management and Budget official who is now a senior policy fellow at the Urban Institute. “The IRS has an elaborate process to identify scams, particularly high-volume scammers.”
Still, thieves are able to adapt their schemes, said Marcus Christian, a former top attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Government agencies are much more adept at detecting and preventing fraud, but the stimulus checks present an unprecedented opening for scams, he said.
“Fraud isn’t going to be reduced to zero,” said Christian, who is now a partner at law firm Mayer Brown. “There is some balancing of interests here: Get these out quickly to taxpayers, which will result in some fraud, and some taxpayers may have to go through an onerous burden to get rightful payment.”
More personal finance coverage from Fortune:
—Here’s how to check the status of your IRS stimulus check
—How people are planning to spend their stimulus checks
—Do I have to pay back the stimulus check money?
—Trump’s name will be on stimulus checks—after he denied wanting his name on stimulus checks
—Filing for unemployment benefits? What to know before you start your claim
—Debt collectors could seize your stimulus check before you have a chance to use it, lawmakers warn
Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-04-15--States’ old systems struggle to pay out the extra $600 in unemployment promised in the coronavirus s

States’ old systems struggle to pay out the extra $600 in unemployment promised in the coronavirus stimulus package

The bills are mounting for Justin Conrad, who lost his warehouse job three weeks ago and is anxiously awaiting his first state-provided unemployment check. Compounding his stress, his state, Connecticut, can’t say when Conrad will get the additional $600 a week in benefits that the federal government is providing in an economic relief package.
“I have no money coming in,” says the 39-year old in Norwich, Connecticut. “And this week I have to pay my utility bill,” he added with a nervous laugh. “With nothing coming in and very little anyone can say, it’s hard.”
Connecticut’s labor officials are scrambling to reprogram their computers to handle the additional unemployment payouts. Its decades-old system can process weekly payments only in the hundreds of dollars, or three digits. Problem is, the additional $600 from the federal government extends the payments into four digits.
Most other states have started to provide the extra federal jobless aid, though many did so only this week, nearly a month after businesses began shutting down across the country because of the coronavirus outbreak. At least 32 states will provide the extra federal benefits by the end of this week. California, the most populous state, provided its first extra payment on Sunday.
But several large states — among them Washington, Colorado, Wisconsin and Nevada — were still struggling to process those payouts as of late Tuesday.
The disparity reflects the patchwork nature of America’s unemployment benefits system: Benefits and eligibility rules vary sharply from state to state. And the slow and fitful distribution of payments points to the antiquated information technology that many states still rely upon for unemployment payments. Roughly two-thirds use a near-obsolete programming language, COBOL, that dates to the 1970s.
The situation has been frustrating and worrisome for the laid-off. Conrad is also a plumber and is looking for side jobs. “But even that’s very limited, because nobody wants you anywhere near their house,” he said.
As a single father with custody of a 16-year old son, “I can only do so much, which he understands,” Conrad said. “It’s like, ‘Eat what you can, but not too much.’”
Across the country, state officials say they’re working as fast as they can to process and distribute benefits.
“Once programming is complete, we must test to ensure accurate integrity and accounting measures,” said Nancy Steffens, a spokeswoman for Connecticut’s Department of Labor, who came out of retirement to help the agency amid a crush of jobless claims. She acknowledged that the aging COBOL system has made it “challenging” to handle the federally provided aid.
Michele Evermore, an analyst at the National Employment Law Project, noted that the additional federal benefits provide crucial support for millions. For a typical laid-off U.S. worker, state unemployment aid alone equals only about half the income the worker received from the job that was lost.
In normal times, the lower payments are meant to encourage people to quickly look for a new job. But in this case, the viral outbreak has shut down businesses, and Americans are being urged to stay home to avoid infections. The additional federal unemployment aid enables more people to follow those guidelines and not go out seeking jobs that don’t exist in many cases.
“I actually view the $600 as an important public health measure, almost more than a financial payment in a way,” Evermore said.
Like other states, Connecticut has been trying simultaneously to overhaul its computer systems and process a record-high surge in jobless claims. Nearly 17 million people have filed for such aid in the just the past three weeks, representing more than one in 10 American workers. The government is set to report Thursday that millions more applied for benefits last week.
Florida’s unemployment benefit system has struggled mightily to keep up with the crush, even resorting to the use of paper applications. The state began distributing the additional $600 on Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of Floridians who sought jobless aid encountered an online portal that crashed and phone systems that kept them on hold for hours. Now, the belated distribution of the federal benefits will be a huge relief for people like Desi Marinov, 42, a former flight attendant in Fort Lauderdale. She’s been cutting back on her prescription medications and reducing her cellphone use. And she’s asked her landlord to defer her rent.
“Any penny counts, especially when getting my job back is uncertain,” Marinov said.
Just six weeks ago, the unemployment rate was at a 50-year low, and few worried about filing for unemployment. Analysts say that lack of concern extended to many state officials. Some sought to reduce jobless-aid expenses. Florida and North Carolina, for example, reduced the number of weeks that recipients were eligible from what had been a standard 26 weeks across all states.
Many states also neglected to upgrade their systems, even though money to do so was included in a 2009 federal stimulus package. Evermore said such upgrades are complicated by the fact that states have varying eligibility standards and benefits amounts, making off-the-shelf software solutions difficult.
Some states banded together to buy the same software and then customize it. But those efforts were hampered when newly elected governors occasionally didn’t want to collaborate with other states, Evermore said. That’s resulted in technology problems that are rare in the private sector. In some states, for instance, if applicants forget their password to their state’s online system, it must be mailed to them, Evermore said, prolonging the difficulty of completing a filing.
Still, for those out of work who have already received the $600, it’s been a lifeline. They include Mirian Carpio Carpio, 34, who was laid off a week ago from her housekeeping job at The Marquette Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. She received her $600 federally provided benefits by direct deposit last Thursday and separately received $300 in regular state unemployment aid.
Her husband still has his job cleaning offices. Carpio Carpio is hoping to return to her old job when the virus outbreak eases. But many economists say the hotel business may never fully recover as companies hold more video conferences and cut back on travel.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—How Fortune 500 companies are utilizing their resources and expertise during the pandemic
—Inside the surreal “Mask Economy”: Price-gouging, bidding wars, and armed guards
—The IRS just launched “Get My Payment” portal for tracking your stimulus check status
—Should you fear government surveillance in the coronavirus era?
—If you’ve been a little busy lately, here’s what’s going on with the 2020 election
—The coronavirus crisis is fintech’s biggest test yet—and greatest opportunity to go mainstream
—There are 32 authorized coronavirus tests so far—here’s how they differ
—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-04-15--New York to begin antibody tests for essential workers

New York State took an initial step on the long road back to normal life and began laying foundations for how the process will work, introducing an antibody test to identify medical personnel and other essential workers who have already had the coronavirus and have some immunity, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
As the state’s coronavirus crisis starts to ebb and officials begin planning the massive undertaking of returning New York to a semblance of normality, they have begun putting in place initial goals and milestones. But with a shortage of testing capacity and a vaccine still as long as 18 months away, they are looking at a phased reopening based on two key factors: how “essential” a business is, and what its risk profile is for reigniting the spread of the virus.
A key element of the plan is to get testing up to speed, both for whether people have the virus and whether people once had it and have developed resistance. Initially, the test is being made available to first responders and other essential workers on the front lines of the battle against the virus.
Using a testing kit developed by the state’s Health Department, the program will run 2,000 of the tests a day, Cuomo said Wednesday at his daily virus briefing. Those who have the antibodies will be allowed to return to work earliest, because they no longer carry the virus and have developed resistance to it.
New York has been allowed to conduct the tests in its own labs. But in order to enlist the help of private administrators and make it available on a widespread basis, the state needs approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If the FDA approves, the state could test as many as 100,000 New Yorkers a day, Cuomo said.
Cuomo emphasized that wide-scale testing was vital to any plan to reopen schools and businesses and that the states can’t afford to do such testing without help from the federal government.
In a reminder that normal life will be a relative term in New York for the foreseeable future, Cuomo said he would sign an executive order requiring New Yorkers to wear a mask covering their nose and mouth in situations where social distancing can’t be maintained.
The order will take effect at the end of the week, Cuomo said. There won’t be a penalty for noncompliance at first, but if people aren’t following the order, he said, he will authorize a fine that would be enforced by local governments.
The new measures toward reopening are beginning to take center stage for New Yorkers eager to get back to work and move freely, even as they are unveiled against a backdrop of ongoing strife from the virus. Though new data shows the infection’s reach has plateaued and is beginning to ebb, it also shows the pandemic is far from over.
New York recorded 752 virus-related deaths in the latest 24-hour period, the 12th consecutive day with more than 500 fatalities. The overall death toll is 11,586. Thousands of new infections are being reported each day, and there was a sharp jump in the number of new hospital admissions for patients with the virus, to about 2,250 in a single day.
Still, total hospitalizations, intensive-care admissions and intubations — in which patients were placed on ventilator support — were down overall. And in a sign that officials believe the crisis phase of the infection is truly passing, New York — the recipient of thousands of ventilators from other states and countries as the virus mounted — is now sending them to other states, with 100 to Michigan and 50 to Maryland.
“We’re still in the woods,” Cuomo said. “But we can control the spread.”
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—How Fortune 500 companies are utilizing their resources and expertise during the pandemic
—Inside the surreal “Mask Economy”: Price-gouging, bidding wars, and armed guards
—The IRS just launched “Get My Payment” portal for tracking your stimulus check status
—Should you fear government surveillance in the coronavirus era?
—If you’ve been a little busy lately, here’s what’s going on with the 2020 election
—The coronavirus crisis is fintech’s biggest test yet—and greatest opportunity to go mainstream
—There are 32 authorized coronavirus tests so far—here’s how they differ
—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
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fortune--2020-04-15--The Coronavirus Economy: What it’s like running a local news station during a pandemic

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As the assistant news director for Anchorage’s KTUU-TV and anchor for The NewsHour, Rebecca Palsha-Hopkins always has to remain ready to change things up to react to breaking news. But few stories have taken over the news the way the coronavirus outbreak has.
Fortune spoke with Palsha-Hopkins—who joined NBC affiliate KTUU-TV 14 years ago as a reporter—about ramping up the reporting on the COVID-19 epidemic while figuring out how to send the staff members to work at home for a new series, The Coronavirus Economy. The following Q&A has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Rebecca Palsha is the anchor for “The NewsHour” and the assistant news director for KTUU-TV in Anchorage. Brad Hillwig
Fortune: Not that there’s an average day in the news business, but what was it like before the coronavirus epidemic became the biggest story of every day?
Palsha-Hopkins: I work on a lot of special projects, so either I would start working on a project of my own—I recently did a big climate-change series—or with reporters on their stories helping them figure out Who should you interview? What’s vital to the story? That would progress into getting ready to anchor for the day, and looking over all the rundowns (which outline what happens during each minute of a newscast) to make sure the scripts looked good. I usually worked [from] 9 a.m. to around 7:30 p.m.
What did yesterday look like? How has your day changed?
It’s been changing dramatically since this whole thing began. My news director was [in remote areas of Alaska] on the Iditarod Trail when it started. I was coming up with a plan for how to get people out of the office and not working in the building. That was about halfway through the Iditarod (around March 13), and then it progressed even faster toward the end of the race (March 22) that no reporters and photographers should be in the building except to work video into the system.
I’m the assistant news director, so it was is this the right call kind of struggles to deal with. I was in touch with the news director over email.
I think of a news broadcast as a collaborative, everybody-there thing. How did you set up the plan to move people to working at home?
It was a lot of reaching out to people I know at other stations to see what they were doing. The reporters and photographers were the easiest people to keep out of the building because they’re able to do things remotely live already. It’s the other people that are much more difficult to deal with—anchors and producers. Those people are always in the building.
What’s nice is that now that my news director is back, she’s taken the lead of getting the other team members out of the office. The weather team is already working out of their homes. All the anchor schedules have changed. This week I’m working a night shift and will anchor all the evening newscasts and all the other anchors will work from home approving scripts. And that will change next week; the anchors will be in a rotation. So much of my job is still in the building, so we’ll see next week what that means for me.
The next step is getting producers out of the building because it’s very difficult. They are the funnel for taking all the information. So they put what’s in the newscast. They have some computer stuff they need to do that’s really complex. You have someone who is physically there keeping time and making decisions that are happening in real time. That’s a difficult job to do outside of the building.
You and your husband, Anchorage Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins, are both in the news industry. Since you have two young kids, how are you handling this?
My dad stays with us in the winter to go ski, so he and my mom had been here already when everything started ramping up. When it came to the question of what do we do, we knew we still have to work and the hours are going to get longer, and the girls still have to do some schoolwork. We can’t just have them watching television all day long. That felt like an awful choice. My mom just retired as a teacher, so it was an easier choice for us to send our girls to live with my parents. We really miss them, but we both feel like we made the right choice.
Being immersed in the news right now can be challenging. What is it like working on all of this for you?
I think because my children aren’t here, it’s easier because work keeps me busy. I appreciate that. Now it feels like a higher calling because many people need this information. I appreciate that, and I appreciate all the emails and calls from viewers, which are extreme right now.
As you’re in a management position, what kind of tone did you decide to take with your staff? How are you helping them get through this?
I think it’s about being really careful about not ramping up your own emotions. These are stressful times. It’s about communicating to people the importance of the work we’re doing because knowledge is power for our viewers. They need all this information. So just kind of conveying to people that yes, it’s stressful and yes, you should be worried about everyone’s future. But really, what we’re doing is so important to our viewers, so you should really focus on that. Also, call your parents. Call your friends. A lot of our staff is really young.
How are you managing your own health? What are you doing to make sure you can keep moving forward?
I exercise quite a bit. I’ve been really sad because my yoga studio is closed. My gym is closed. These are all places that are important to me. I’ve just gone back to running outside and taking long walks with my husband outside after work. That’s what we do on the weekend. We get up at 8 a.m. and just kind of walk. The two of us. I need the sunshine and the air.
Do the two of you discuss your work at home? Or do you put limits on it?
During the week we have a bad habit of talking about it too much, and talking about our stories and our frustrations. On the weekends, it’s better because then it moves from news to “Did you finish this book?” and “Did you see the funny text from the girls?”
Since coronavirus is still far from its peak in Alaska, how are you preparing your staff for what’s to come and keeping them healthy?
They don’t come into contact with each other. That’s one of our goals. We assign people their own cars and their own equipment. The company bought a whole bunch of new laptops with the idea that people don’t have interaction with each other. Normally we have a policy that you drop your gear off and everything stays in the building. And now it’s please take it home with you.
What’s it like to be in the studio on your own when you’re the anchor for the evening?
It’s lonely. I was thinking about this the other day. I took a picture because, in particular, I’ve worked with my coanchor Mike Ross for almost my whole career. I’ve sat beside him for 10-plus years. This constant is gone. It’s strange. The NewsHour has never had just one anchor. And yesterday it was just me. It’s weird.
What have you been hearing from viewers?
People just have tons of questions. We now have a reporter just devoted to answering questions about the coronavirus. We’re just inundated with questions. And people are also calling more than ever and saying I appreciate your work. I had a viewer call in to ask, “Hey, how are you doing?,” and it made me feel good.
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Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-04-15--Stimulus checks are depositing: Here’s how people are spending the money

Millions of adults in the U.S. are seeing their stimulus checks deposit into their bank accounts. The $2.2 trillion stimulus package set aside this money to help give households a lifeline as the pandemic disrupts the nation.
To find out how recipients are planning to spend these checks—which can go as high as $1,200 for individuals or $2,400 for married couples and $500 for each qualifying child—Fortune and SurveyMonkey teamed up to poll 5,755 U.S. adults* between April 10–14.
Not everyone will receive cash, including individual filers with adjusted gross incomes above $99,000. So only those who told us that they expect to receive an economic stimulus were asked how they’d spend it.
During income tax return season, U.S. adults are notorious for making big purchases like cars or booking cruises. That’s not the case with these stimulus checks. Most will use the checks to pay non-housing bills (47%), buy groceries (33%), buy household essentials (30%), or pay their rent or mortgage (29%). Only 2% told Fortune-SurveyMonkey that they plan to use the money on travel.
Many millennials entered the workforce during the brutal years following the 2008 financial crisis. Now the 20- and 30-somethings are staring down what appears to be another deep recession. These Millennials and Gen Xers are more likely to say they’ll use the money on bills or groceries than their baby boomer peers.
Among millennials, 41% say they’ll use some of the money to pay rent or their mortgage. That compares to 16% of baby boomers who said the same thing.
Black residents are both getting infected and dying at higher rates from COVID-19. And black households’ finances are clearly more strained. While 43% of white Americans plan to use some of the money to pay non-housing bills, that number is 60% for black adults and 52% for Hispanic adults.
*Methodology: The Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll was conducted among a national sample of 5,755 adults in the U.S. between April 10–14. This survey’s modeled error estimate is plus or minus 2 percentage points. The findings have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography.
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fortune--2020-04-15--‘Ugly March’ leads into ‘hideous April’ for retail as sales slip the most they ever have

The closing of hundreds of thousands of stores and a scary economic outlook as the coronavirus outbreak spread led to the biggest drop in U.S. retail spending on record last month.
The U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday that retail sales, in-store and online, as well as spending in bars and restaurants, fell 8.7% compared to February, the biggest drop since the government began tracking the data in the 1980s and far worse than the declines seen during the Great Recession.
The month started off well enough. But as more and more cities and states mandated lockdowns, including massive store closings starting mid-month as the U.S. government declared a national emergency on March 13, worried shoppers stocked up on essentials and ignored the rest.
And April will likely be much worse.
“The whole month looks like it will be a write-off for retail, with stores remaining closed for the duration. Panic buying has now largely subsided and will not lift sales to the same degree,” says GlobalData Retail managing director Neil Saunders. “As ugly as March was, it appears to be a prelude to a hideous April.”
GlobalData Retail estimates 61% of all U.S. stores closed, about 260,000 locations. Many large chains had initially hoped to reopen in April, but now retailers from Abercrombie & Fitch to Macy’s says they’re closed until further notice.
Retailers selling groceries, medication, and other essentials fared well, especially early in the month. Grocery stores saw sales rise 25.6%, while at clothing stores, they fell 50.5%. And as consumers tried to save money on bigger-ticket items, spending on cars and car parts decreased by 25% last month. Despite an initial surge early in the month in electronics as people bought devices for homeschooling and entertainment, sales in that category plunged later in March. Sporting goods also fell sharply.
Perhaps most worrisome for retail is that even those stores allowed to remain open for business because they sell essentials, like Walmart, Target, and Costco Wholesale, face the prospect of slowing sales because they have to severely limit the number of shoppers they can let in at a time.
Best Buy, which closed stores to shoppers but has offered curbside pickup of online orders starting on March 22, said Monday sales have fallen 30% since then, a stark contrast to a strong start to March.
Still, in this environment, that decline would be the envy of many other big retailers. Macy’s, whose stores are all closed indefinitely, is reportedly working with bankers to restructure its debt given the collapse in sales, while Reuters has reported that J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus are considering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filings.
Beyond the store closings, exploding unemployment—16 million Americans have filed for initial benefit claims in the past three weeks—and uncertainty about when the economy can reopen are weighing down on consumer confidence in yet another reason for the retail sector to worry.
More must-read retail coverage from Fortune:
—Costco’s big March sales jump isn’t such good news for other big box retailers
—How the on-demand liquor delivery business changed overnight
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—How Fortune 500 companies are stepping up during the pandemic
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: The greatest designs of modern times
Follow Fortune on Flipboard to stay up-to-date on the latest news and analysis.


fortune--2020-04-15--Everything to know about Apple’s iPhone SE—a new $400 phone amid coronavirus pandemic

With smartphone sales tumbling during the coronavirus pandemic, Apple is making a move to appeal to more budget-conscious shoppers.
After a four-year wait, Apple on Wednesday announced an updated version of its smaller and lower priced iPhone SE model. The second-generation device has a larger screen than its 2016 predecessor, at 4.7 inches, but the same $400 starting price tag. Preorders start on April 17 on Apple’s website, with the SE going on sale on April 24.
The long-rumored device also has a single camera on the back, versus two or more on Apple’s higher-end models, and comes in black, white, and red. The iPhone SE’s design, with a home button and built in fingerprint scanner, is based on the older design of the iPhones 6, 7, and 8. Still, the new SE has the same processor chip, called the A13 Bionic, that Apple uses in its flagship iPhone 11 line up.
The iPhone SE has one camera versus two or more on Apple’s higher-end models. Courtesy of Apple
The low price, 43% less than the cost of Apple’s entry level iPhone 11, comes at a time when the world economy is slumping due to the coronavirus pandemic, and as phone sales overall have dropped sharply. With unemployment skyrocketing and consumers cutting back, industrywide smartphone sales declined 14% in February from the same month in 2019 and are expected to contract further, according to Counterpoint Research. Most Apple stores remain closed indefinitely.
The pandemic may also have affected Apple’s announcement plans. As it has done with all its product releases since the coronavirus pandemic, Apple debuted the new iPhone SE by a press release, without inviting reporters to an event.
Apple premiered the $400 iPhone SE in 2016 with a four-inch screen. In 2017, it increased the amount of storage capacity in the phone without upgrading other components.
At the same time Apple introduced the new SE on Wednesday, it stopped selling the similar iPhone 8 and 8 Plus phones, which it had priced at $450 to $600.
More must-read tech coverage from Fortune:
—How the coronavirus stimulus package would change gig worker benefits
—Zoom meetings keep getting hacked. How to prevent “Zoom bombing”
—Why China’s tech-based fight against the coronavirus may be unpalatable in the U.S.
—Hospitals are running low on the most critical supply of all: oxygen
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—WATCH: Best earbuds in 2020: Apple AirPods Pro Vs. Sony WF-1000XM3
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-04-15--Don’t expect business travel to bounce back this year— but don’t count it out altogether

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Susan Lichtenstein was attending an industry event, aptly named the Business Travel Show, in London at the end of February. By the last day of the conference, the novel coronavirus that had emerged from Wuhan, China, in late December had become the main point of conversation. By the time she reached Heathrow Airport to head home to Palm Beach, Fla., social distancing—before it entered the international lexicon—was already in action as she describes a scene of frenzied travelers concerned about keeping their distance from others.
“Once on the plane, I was one of many passengers who wiped everything down with disinfectant wipes and did not move around the cabin even though it was a 10-hour flight,” she recalls. “It was on that flight that I knew travel was going to come to a complete standstill.”
The COVID-19 global pandemic has placed a stranglehold on all facets of the global economy, and its impact will change the way businesses manage corporate travel. In 2019, global business tourism spending reached $1.28 billion, after climbing consistently for the past five years, according to Statista. In early February, the outlook had expected that figure to grow to $1.37 billion in 2020, but that certainly won’t be the case now as all nonessential travel has come to a sudden halt.
It will take a long time for travel to fully recover to 2019 levels: If not due to COVID-19 mitigation, it will be due to the economic downturn. “There will be recovery, but the last seven years or so have been fantastic for the travel industry, and this will be our point of comparison,” says Andrea Stokes, hospitality practice lead at J.D. Power.
Lichtenstein, managing partner of DigiTravel Consulting, a boutique firm in corporate travel and expenses management, expects it will take between two to three years for travel to come back to 2019 levels.
“It will be a prolonged process,” she says. “Companies are all in the process of changing their strategies to address their top priorities to drive revenue. Those priorities will fuel the growth of travel budgets for the next few years.”
Most experts agree that it will take a widely available vaccine for COVID-19 to restore consumer and business travel confidence, but that could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months. In the meantime, Dan Richards, CEO of Global Rescue, which provides medical, evacuation, travel risk, and crisis management services, suggests there are three things all travel entities can do to reduce the spread and severity of the disease while instilling customer confidence: communicate which steps are being taken to keep their travelers safe; track each and every traveler so contact tracing and potential exposures can be verified; and respond with testing, quarantining, and emergency transport capability when necessary.
“It will take time for business travel to recover, but we expect it to recover more quickly than leisure travel,” Richards says. “The key will be when companies feel they can meet the duty of care required to send their employees safely to the places they need to travel.”
Global Rescue also expects to see significant pent-up demand for travel, so when it does start to come back, there could be a surge.
There are a number of factors that will affect the timetable for business travel “bounce back,” according to Mike Taylor, senior director for travel and hospitality intelligence at J.D. Power. “The key would be that confidence in travel is restored,” says Taylor. “It all depends on confidence that travelers will not fall sick, or can be reasonably be assured that if they contract a virus, they can be treated effectively and quickly.”
For airlines, trains, cruises, hotels, and other travel providers, the first requisite will be ensuring cleanliness. Business travelers will be asking about hotel room cleaning procedures, how often planes are disinfected, and what steps passengers can take to prepare differently than they did previously. But these new measures will come at a high price for the suppliers, leaving many to wonder how that will be reflected in final costs later.
“I think we are going to see more and more precautionary measures taken by airlines and hotels to ease business travelers’ anxieties to encourage them to get back on the road,” says Paul Metselaar, CEO and chairman at Ovation Travel Group. Metselaar suggests airlines may need to change their boarding procedures as well as assign seats so travelers don’t sit next to strangers on flights. Hotels will also need to train staff on cleaning protocols and ensure rooms are extensively disinfected during room turnover.
Additionally, the onus will fall on employers to enact policies that empower employees to react quickly regardless of the cost, so that they will not need to wonder if the company will pay for extended leave or costs incurred if they fall ill while traveling.
“Businesses can help with employee health by bolstering their insurance on employees traveling for business, making employees aware of any additional coverage they would get when traveling on business, and being supportive of employees that do become ill,” Stokes advises.
Travel suppliers—from airlines to hotels—will also need to simplify and automate many of their processes and options for the travelers: Fare choices will need to be narrowed, and refunds and exchanges will need to be more available for little or no cost. “Companies and their suppliers would benefit significantly to map out these new procedures together, so both sides are comfortable with the solutions,” Lichtenstein says.
With all this in mind, some industry insiders are trying to remain optimistic. “Travel will absolutely bounce back to pre-COVID-19 levels, but it will take some time,” Metselaar says. “While this is unlike anything the industry has experienced, we have seen travel recover and soar post other debilitating events, like the uncertainty of recovery from the global financial crisis, the fear and anxiety of 9/11, and the Gulf War. Travel is vital to the infrastructure of business and will continue to have an impact on the global economy.”
Stokes expects frequent business travelers will eventually feel safe, but corporations may still avoid large meetings and events just in case. She points out that after Sept. 11, 2001, there was a similar fear that in-person meetings, conferences, and conventions would disappear, but that did not happen. And, she notes, the events industry was stronger than ever prior to COVID-19.
Taylor also differentiates the current pandemic and economic crisis from 9/11. “The system restarted quickly, and planes weren’t being hijacked and weren’t flying into buildings,” Taylor says. “The restart proved that travel was immediately safe again. Because of the lag between infection and symptoms of COVID-19, this time around confidence may take a bit longer to take hold.”
To travel or to teleconference?
Now that millions of workers have become more comfortable with virtual meetings, many corporations will try to reduce costs and risks permanently by moving internal reviews, corporate training programs, team meetings, and interviews online. Lichtenstein estimates this could reduce travel spend and costs by as much as 20%. The silver lining? It would also reduce their carbon footprint.
“Companies are always looking for ways to reduce costs and increase employee satisfaction,” Lichtenstein says. “It is difficult to do because, at times, these two goals conflict with each other. Virtual meetings provide both. Enabling employees to attend a virtual meeting when they are meeting internally solves for saving on the cost of those trips and not having the stress of traveling.”
Certainly, teleconferencing has surged in recent years after the Great Recession of 2008, encouraged as the technology has exponentially improved over the past decade. But there is something to be said about human contact—perhaps even more greatly valued after half the world’s population has been asked to self isolate. “In-person meetings include both verbal and nonverbal messages and intuition,” Taylor notes. “Sometimes those things are hard to capture on a computer screen.”
Lichtenstein acknowledges face-to-face meetings are critical to increasing revenue in any company. “Nothing can replace that experience of sitting across a table from each other and working together to solve your prospect’s or client’s needs,” she says.
Richards concurs, describing trust and personal relationships as the foundation of business. “I think more teleconferencing will occur as a result of the pandemic, but relationships and the trust that comes with them are so important to business that travel will recover. This simply can’t be done via video conferencing,” Richards says. “Digital tools can work nearly as well at conveying information, but in-person meetings and the shared experiences that ensue after are irreplaceable.”
The handshake, however, is likely a thing of the past. Social distancing has become quickly ingrained as the new normal for millions of people worldwide, and medical professionals have publicly stressed that handshakes are a primary source for disease transmission for not only COVID-19, but also the flu and the common cold, among other viruses. “[The handshake] may move away to make room for the elbow bump,” Lichtenstein says.
Rather than have an entire team travel, Lichtenstein expects companies will send out corporate leaders quarterly, while hosting regional meetings with an online option to include the whole team. “I am a big fan of ‘less is more’ if the less is fully optimized and planned before heading to the airport,” Lichtenstein says. Knowing that travel will be reduced and limited in order to meet revenue goals, employees could end up being encouraged to spend more time together online to stay close.
“Online meetings keep the focus clear, the time shorter, and productivity higher,” Lichtenstein says. “Companies will want to avoid unnecessary risk and limit the number of employees who can attend a face-to-face meeting or attending large events or conferences until a vaccine or drug is found.”
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Everything you should know about mortgage forbearance and skipping payments
—There won’t be any new emoji next year, and the pandemic is to blame
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—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-04-15--YouTube TV’s fight against big cable has gotten a big boost during the coronavirus pandemic

With coronavirus quarantines shutting down most of the country, YouTube’s cable television rival, YouTube TV, is getting a lift.
Homebound subscribers are increasingly watching the TV-streaming service. It had 830,000 daily active users on April 8, a 40% gain from the 580,300 on February 1, before the coronavirus pandemic began in earnest, according to analytics firm SimilarWeb.
“Similar to other streaming services, as well as traditional TV, we’re seeing an uptick in usage,” a YouTube TV spokesperson says.
The outbreak is a pivotal moment for streaming services, which were already tussling with cable providers for viewers. But with more people seeking entertainment while they “shelter in place,” the fight has intensified.
For $50 monthly, YouTube TV subscribers get 70 channels that feature live sports, news, and entertainment. They also get original content created by YouTube and a DVR with endless recording space—all without equipment or a contract.
When it debuted three years ago, YouTube TV had one major selling point: a strong package of live sports channels and features. In the past couple of months, however, virtually all sports have been cancelled worldwide because of the coronavirus outbreak, potentially threatening the service’s main sales pitch.
But Bruce Leichtman, president and analyst at boutique research firm Leichtman Research Group, says YouTube TV isn’t alone. Most of its competitors are in a similar situation because they also heavily depend on sports fans to subscribe.
Adding to YouTube TV’s complications is that the cost of licensing certain sports content became too high just before the coronavirus outbreak. As a result, YouTube TV dropped Fox Regional Sports Networks and YES Network, which includes New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets games. Shortly after the announcement, YouTube TV cut a deal with cable company Sinclair to provide Fox Regional Sports Networks in certain cities.
But that arrangement still left viewers without YES in the New York area, and Fox Sports Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West in Los Angeles. That meant that viewers in two leading markets couldn’t watch their home teams like the Los Angeles Angels and the New York Yankees.
Short term, it may turn out to be a lucky turn of events considering that professional sports are on a hiatus. Long term, however, it could hurt.
“Our number one challenge is managing the cost of content,” says Lori Conkling, global head of partnership for YouTube TV.
The service’s success hinges on striking a balance between giving people the shows they want while keeping the service cheaper than traditional cable. With popular streaming services like Netflix and Hulu continuing to attract eyeballs and traditional cable being offered as an add-on to broadband services, the competition is stiff.
Christian Oestlien, YouTube TV’s vice president of product, says he thinks the service, which already has “more than” 2 million subscribers , translating into more than $1 billion in annual revenue, can become a top five television provider over the next five years. It’s currently ranked around No. 8.
Comcast, which has 21.3 million customers, dwarfs YouTube TV, as does AT&T, with 19.5 million; Charter, with 16.1 million; and Dish, with 12 million.
Because of how YouTube discloses its subscriber numbers for YouTube TV, it’s unclear how it measures against other streaming services in terms of subscribers. Sling TV, for example, says it has 2.6 million subscribers.
“The business model for television is going to change in the next few years,” Oestlien says. “We think we’re set up to handle that.”
Overall, YouTube TV is trying to sell the message that its service is more convenient for users than cable because it lets them to watch programs from any device, check sports stats on-screen while watching a game, and watch news segments based on a particular topic.
“The old traditional [concept] of turning on something you don’t like and being stuck has gone away,” says Esther Ahn, head of design for YouTube TV. “We can create more of those moments where users can get right into the content that they want to watch.”
Some features on YouTube TV already do that. For example, sports fans can instantly tap into specific highlights from a previously aired game or player highlights across games. The broader goal is to add that capability to other broadcasts like the Academy Awards or the Olympics.
The service is also exploring creating features specific to certain types of content. In other words, it could, for example, repurpose some of its fantasy sports teams features so that viewers can predict Oscar winners or which women received a rose on The Bachelor.
In the grander scheme, YouTube TV is chump change for its parent company, Alphabet. The overall company had $161.9 billion in revenue in 2019, to which YouTube TV contributed less than 1%. Alphabet declined to say whether YouTube TV is profitable, but one analyst says that it’s unlikely.
“They’re probably losing money on it right now,” says Jason Helfstein, an analyst with Oppenheimer. “But again, it doesn’t matter right now for Google in the scope of the business.”
But even if YouTube TV is a minor part of Alphabet’s business, it could help the company create a television strategy—something that Helfstein says has been unclear in the past. Previously, Google has invested in products like televisions and Blu-ray players; Android TV, a smart television platform that uses the Android operating system; and Chromecast, a dongle that lets users stream content from their devices to their television sets.
“They’ve been all over the place with their TV strategy,” he says. “It’s probably a fair place for them to experiment.”
Even if YouTube TV can prove to consumers that it’s better than its competitors, it will never be able to kill cable, according to Leichtman. Big cable companies have become, above all, broadband providers using cable as the “glue” to keep its customers loyal. YouTube doesn’t have that same foundation.
“They’re nipping away at the edge, but they’re not going to be Comcast or Charter,” Leichtman says. “What holds a customer there?”
Because of its low cost, YouTube TV is likely to be a high-churn service, meaning it gains and loses customers easily, Leichtman says. And YouTube has no plans to change the price of its service.
Arguably, bundling YouTube TV with other products could increase customer loyalty. And YouTube TV has been working with companies like Verizon to offer a free-trial period in hopes of hooking new subscribers. But if more entertainment providers roll out à la carte options, allowing users to pick and choose what they pay for, it could complicate the case for subscribing to YouTube.
“Does the media industry ultimately give you an alternative where you can make your own bundle?” Helfstein says. “It’s just hard because other companies will be bundling their offerings with other things too.”
Still, YouTube TV’s executives think they can find a successful formula. “The burden is on us,” says Erin Teague, head of YouTube Sports. “There are things we can do because we’re purely digital that can’t be done on linear TV.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Inside Xerox’s audacious quest to buy much bigger rival HP
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—WATCH: Best earbuds in 2020: Apple AirPods Pro Vs. Sony WF-1000XM3
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fortune--2020-04-15--The coronavirus crisis is fintech’s chance to prove its mettle

It was the Great Recession that gave rise to the fintech boom, or so the origin story goes. Armed with righteous anger against big banks and validation from the Dodd-Frank Act mandating banks to make consumers’ data available to them “in an electronic form,” companies like Robinhood, SoFi, and Venmo (now owned by PayPal) became near ubiquitous.
Now as fintech faces its first global downturn, could its players become even more entrenched than before? Company leaders certainly see it as an opportunity to prove their mettle.
Not only is usage up within apps such as Venmo, but in a historic first, fintechs are being called upon to help disburse parts of the U.S.’s massive $2 trillion stimulus package—which includes forgivable small business loans and $1,200 payments to consumers—aimed at cushioning the economic blow of the coronavirus.
The Internal Revenue Service, for instance, has allowed eligible recipients to elect to receive their stimulus payments electronically—through Square’s Cash App or Venmo—rather than by paper check. The Small Business Administration meanwhile has approved PayPal, Square, and Intuit to distribute the forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.
Fintech proponents argue the industry will be faster and more efficient than their older banking competitors. And in this high-pressure moment, when consumers and small businesses are desperate for monetary relief immediately, speed is everything.
My colleague Jen Wieczner has the full story:
The crisis has become a proof-of-concept for fintech, one likely to change the way people bank and move their money even after they can visit a teller in person again. Says Zach Perret, CEO of Plaid, a startup whose software powers virtually all the major U.S. fintech apps (and which was recently acquired by Visa): “This shutdown time, I’ll suspect we’ll look back and say this was one in which digitalization really accelerated.”
The chosen ones
Late Tuesday, President Donald Trump revealed a list featuring some of the most prominent names in commerce as part of his “Economic Revival Industry Groups”—business leaders that Trump says will be advising him on when and how to reopen the economy. Colloquially, Trump has described it as his “Opening the Country” council.
Included in the list: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Mark Cuban, and one prominent venture capitalist, Doug Leone of Sequoia.
Interestingly absent: longtime Trump supporter Peter Thiel.
VENTURE DEALS
-Onfido, a San Francisco-based provider of identity verification and passwordless authentication, raised $100 million in funding. TPG Growth led the round.
-Moma Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based drug discovery platform focused on molecular machines, raised $86 million in Series A funding. Third Rock Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Nextech Invest, Cormorant Asset Management, Creacion Ventures, Casdin Capital, and Rock Springs Capital.
-Cerevance, a Cambridge, Mass.-based drug discovery and development company focused on brain diseases, raised $45 million in Series B funding. GV (formerly Google Ventures), Bill Gates, and Foresite Capital invested, along with Takeda Ventures, the Dementia Discovery Fund, and Lightstone Ventures.
-Perspectum, a Oxford, U.K.-based medical software company for identifying and monitoring multiple diseases, raised $35 million in funding. Blue Venture Fund and HealthQuest Capital led the round, and were joined by Oxford Science Innovation, Puhua Capital, the University of Oxford, and others.
-Alkira, a San Jose, Calif.-based multi-cloud networking start-up, raised $30 million in funding. Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and GV were the investors.
-Awake Security, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based advanced network traffic analysis company, raised $36 million in Series C funding. Evolution Equity Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Energize Ventures and Liberty Global Ventures, as well as existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Greylock Partners.
-FarEye, a New Delhi-based leading logistics SaaS platform, raised $25 million in Series D funding. M12 led the round and was joined by investors including Eight Roads Ventures, Honeywell Ventures, and SAIF Partners.
-Setu, an Indian digital payments startup, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Falcon Edge and Lightspeed Venture Partners U.S. led the round, and was joined by investors including Lightspeed India Partners and Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund.
-Nifty Games, a San Francisco-based developer of head-to-head sports games for mobile devices, raised $12 million in Series A funding. March Capital Partner led the round, and was joined by investors including Xiomatic Gaming, Defy Partners, Vulcan Capital, Courtside Ventures, Transcend Fund, Century Game, and OneTeam Ventures.
-Nelumbo, a Hayward, Calif.-based company focused on advanced-surface modifications, raised $14 million in funding as part of its Series A, which was co-led by Prime Mover’s Lab and University of Tokyo Edge Capital. Safar Partners, Darwin Venture Management, and Neue Fund and also participated.
-Sanar, a São Paulo Brazil-based online medical education platform raised roughly $11 million in Series B funding. DNA Capital and Valor Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Vox Capital and e.Bricks Ventures.
-Slite, a French startup focused on document sharing and organization, raised $11 million in Series A funding. Spark Capital led the round. Read more.
-Crop Enhancement, a San Jose, Calif.-based maker of agrochemical products to enhance crop yields, raised $8 million in Series B funding. Spruce Capital Partners/MLS led the round and was joined by investors including 1955 Capital, Phoenix Venture Partners, Cavallo Ventures, Davinia Investments, and Alexandria Ventures.
-Atlas AI, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider agricultural insight solutions, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Airbus Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Micron Technology and existing investor The Rockefeller Foundation. Read more.
-Savi, a Washington, D.C.-based platform for student loan borrowers, raised $6 million in Series A funding. Nyca Partners led the round. Read more.
-AI.Reverie, a New York-based simulation platform, raised $5.6 million in funding. Vulcan Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Compound, In-Q-Tel, Resolute Ventures, SGInnovate, TechNexus and Triphammer Ventures.
-Credit Kudos, a U.K-based. fintech for credit scoring, raised £5 million ($6.25 million) in Series A funding. AlbionVC led the round, and was joined by investors including TriplePoint, Plug & Play Ventures, Ascension Ventures’ Fair by Design fund, and Entrepreneur First.
-Aaptiv, a New York-based maker of a workout app, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from existing investor Insight Partners. Read more.
PRIVATE EQUITY
-A consortium led by Stone Point Capital and Further Global acquired Duff & Phelps, a New York-based valuation consultancy. The deal is valued at $4.2 billion.
-Persistence Capital Partners invested in Summit Veterinary Pharmacy, an Ontario, Canada veterinary compounding pharmacy. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
-Forest2Market and Fisher International, portfolio companies of Battery Ventures, acquired Tecnon OrbiChem, a U.K.-based provider of data and analytics firm for the petrochemical industry. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
-Longview Power, a Maidsville, W.Va.-based power generator backed by KKR, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Read more.
-Capital Constellation, managed by Wafra, made a minority investment and formed a strategic partnership with Pollen Street Capital, an asset manager in the United Kingdom and Europe. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
-An affiliate of Mill Point Capital acquired Knight Enterprises, a Clearwater, Fla.-based provider of communications infrastructure services. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
-Airbnb will raise $1 billion through a syndicated term loan. The investors include Apollo Global Management, Benefit Street Partners, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Oaktree Capital, and Owl Rock Capital, Bloomberg reports citing sources. Read more.
-J.C. Penney is exploring filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Reuters reports citing sources. Read more.
F + FS
-General Atlantic and credit investor Iron Park Capital Partners plan to launch a $5 billion fund to finance companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reports citing sources. The facility will provide structured-equity and debt financing. Read more .
-Lightspeed raised $4 billion across three funds. Lightspeed Venture Partners XIII with $890 million, Lightspeed Venture Partners Select IV with $1.8 billion, and Lightspeed Opportunity Fund with $1.5 billion. Read more.
-Zetta Venture Partners, which focused on AI, raised $180 million for its third and largest fund.
-Corigin Ventures closed its second fund with $36.1 million.
PEOPLE
-Oak Hill hired Micah Meisel as a partner. Meisel was previously at InTandem Capital.
-HarbourVest appointed Tadasu Matsuo as a managing director and co-head of the firm’s Japan office.
-Greylock hired David Thacker as a general partner. Thacker was most recently VP of product management at Google.
-Corigin Ventures hired Aubrie Pagano as a partner.


fortune--2020-04-15--Should you fear government surveillance in the coronavirus era?

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) recalls crisscrossing the country in 2004 and seeing copies of The 9/11 Commission Report in the hands of fellow travelers everywhere. In a recent interview with Fortune, the longtime lawmaker recalls being touched by how ordinary Americans clamored to read about an event that changed the country—and predicts that, in the future, Congress will prepare a similar account of the current coronavirus pandemic.
If Congress writes that report, Eshoo says she hopes it will include not just lessons about the virus itself, but sections about data collection and privacy too. And she is hardly the only one who is thinking about the privacy implications of the pandemic.
Activists and media outlets also warn that, like 9/11 before it, the outbreak could lead the government to demand new data-gathering powers—powers that could become entrenched even after the crisis passes.
While the pandemic has indeed set off a scramble by governments to gather health data in the U.S., these efforts—for now at least—are limited. The potential long-term implications could, however, pose privacy risks and also strengthen the case for those calling for a new federal law to protect data.
Google, the government, and surveillance
Google recently introduced a COVID-19 tracker, which relies on the location data of Android phone users, to measure how people are heeding social distancing instructions. Meanwhile, Facebook is also gathering and sharing data about users’ movements, and encouraging them to report symptoms to help researchers understand the disease. And on Tuesday, Apple launched a similar project that draws on Apple Maps data.
Privacy advocates are concerned about such initiatives. In the case of Google, this has included U.S. senators sending a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai, asking him to ensure his company’s tracking project doesn’t impinge personal privacy.
Major media outlets have also raised the alarm about a potential privacy crisis. This includes a New York Times article on March 23, near the onset of the crisis, titled “As Coronavirus Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets” and a Forbes piece the same day, “Coronavirus Could Infect Privacy and Civil Liberties Forever.” Implicit in these articles, and in subsequent news reports, is that the outbreak will be a privacy catastrophe as well as a medical one.
However, it’s unlikely any of this will happen in the near future.
In the case of the Google and Facebook initiatives, the companies are only collecting data when people explicitly opt-in and, even then, in a way that doesn’t make the identity of participants easily available. Ironically, these efforts may be more open and transparent than many of the companies’ other data gathering activities.
And for now, most of the COVID-19-related data tracking in the U.S. is nowhere near as invasive as what dozens of location marketing companies have long been doing in the name of advertising.
Some medical experts, meanwhile, say there is no appetite at the moment in the U.S. for tracking specific individuals as part of the campaign to curb COVID-19. “We don’t have time to track what people think we’re going to track,” says James Hodge, director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University. “There’s no systemic effort at any level of government to track movement of specific individuals until they give us reason to be concerned.”
Concern over “specific individuals,” Hodge explains, would only extend to symptomatic individuals who flout orders to stay inside. He adds that, even then, tracking them would likely require a court order.
Courtney Bowman, who leads a privacy and civil liberties team at the big data firm Palantir Technologies, likewise believes some of the recent outcry over privacy is misplaced. “Some of the discussion is over-indexing on the dystopian China scenario without acknowledging the differences that a federated society like the U.S. creates,” he says, referring to the fact that most power in the country resides with individual states rather than the national government.
Like Hodge, Bowman also believes tracking specific individuals is not practical or desirable—especially since the window for containing the pandemic has long passed. He does, though, acknowledge that government officials are inclined to ask for new sources of data in the hopes they will provide a quick solution. But he adds officials gradually become aware that “A.I. and magic solutions” can’t solve all problems, and that Palantir discourages them from collecting unnecessary data. (Skeptics, however, may point to a recently discontinued anti-terror program that collected phone records for years at a cost of $100 million, but which led to only one significant investigation).
Palantir, though, has long been a bugbear for civil libertarians and liberal groups that criticize the work it does parsing data for federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And some fear Palantir’s work with the federal government in the present crisis could be a new threat to privacy. Meanwhile, in the UK, some politicians have expressed alarm over reports that Palantir is compiling datasets from the country’s National Health Service.
Bowman, however, notes that Palantir’s current work in the U.S. is focused on how to track the country’s supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators rather than monitoring individuals. He also points out that Palantir has been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Health and Human Services for years on issues like food-borne illness, and that many at the company want to help solve the crisis. “I don’t want to sound self-serving but I think there’s a lot of commentary that presumes malicious intent as a starting point,” he says. “The world is in a really crazy place. Many of us operating on this are part of the world too, and are equally concerned.”
Health tracking in the U.S.
If the U.S. adopts a system of tracking individuals to combat the coronavirus, that system—known as contact tracing—is unlikely to resemble what is being put in place in other countries, say politicians, including Eshoo. “We don’t want the federal government to have real-time location data for every citizen,” she says.
Eshoo adds that China is no model for the U.S. as “it has no civil liberties,” but also criticizes measures being deployed in democracies like Israel and South Korea, where authorities have been tracking people by using CCTV, banks cards, and other tools.
Concerns over government tracking are shared not only among Democrats like Eshoo, but among libertarian-minded Republicans like Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-KY), as well as many ordinary Americans. This means that, if the country does adopt any form of contact tracing, it’s likely to be along the lines of what journalist Derek Thompson proposed in The Atlantic this week.
Thompson, noting that measures adopted by Singapore and South Korea are unlikely to fly in the U.S., predicts Americans may adopt a modified system that relies on using anonymous IDs broadcast between smartphones through Bluetooth, a technology standard for sharing data between devices. In practice, this would mean that if someone diagnosed with coronavirus had visited a Starbucks or other place, public health authorities would be able to alert others who had also been in the same place—all while relying on technology that doesn’t reveal the personal identity of the sick person in question.
Such plans for an American version of contact tracing took a step forward on Friday when Apple and Google announced they are partnering to develop an anonymized Bluetooth system to help authorities monitor infections via government apps. While any such technology is months away from being deployed, early reports suggest it would be opt-in and could provide an important public health without compromising individual privacy. (Skeptics, though, warn such a system could be a target for trolls and may be ineffective).
So far, proposals for contact tracing in the U.S. don’t appear to pose an imminent threat to civil liberties. But that doesn’t mean that privacy advocates should let their guard down.
Alex Abdo, a former American Civil Liberties Union director and senior attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, points out that many of the “temporary” security measures instituted after 9/11 still persist to this day. And he warns about the impulse—cited by Bowman of Palantir—of government officials in a crisis to ask for as much data as they can, without determining if the data is relevant or necessary.
Meanwhile, health companies are seeking to pool data of coronavirus patients for research purposes, while local governments are sharing addresses of patients with law enforcement in order to protect first responders. In both cases, there is a risk such data could be misused. Indeed, Eshoo recalls how victims of an earlier health crisis—the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s—faced financial and employment stigmatization, and says she wants to ensure this doesn’t happen to those with coronavirus.
These and other concerns led Eshoo, along with Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to send a letter to the White House, asking the White House to heed privacy principles while responding to the pandemic. The Trump administration has yet to comment publicly on the letter or address concerns over data privacy during the pandemic.
The larger threat to Americans’ privacy, however, may be rooted less in the current crisis, than in the country’s lack of a comprehensive laws that protect data in the first place, according to Bowman. The U.S., he notes, has a hodgepodge of laws when it comes to health and children’s privacy, which creates many gaps. It’s also unclear what laws apply to which companies. For instance, there’s uncertainty whether the federal health privacy law, HIPAA, applies to the likes of Google while, when it comes to data collection, phone carriers are subject to more stringent rules than tech companies.
The upshot is what the U.S. may need most is not specific measures to prevent misuse of health data during the current outbreak, but federal legislation that creates overarching privacy regulation such as already exists in places like Canada and Europe. Ironically, Congress was negotiating the details of such a law before the pandemic broke out and legislators became consumed with the crisis. Now, champions of the law, including Rep. DelBene, are pushing to ensure the project doesn’t fall between the cracks.
Says Rep. DelBene, who is pushing for privacy even as her home state of Washington faces some of the heaviest toll from the outbreak: “We need to continue to realize what a critical priority this is. Other parts of the world are taking this seriously. We need a federal standard.”
More must-read tech coverage from Fortune:
—How the coronavirus stimulus package would change gig worker benefits
—Zoom meetings keep getting hacked. How to prevent “Zoom bombing”
—Why China’s tech-based fight against the coronavirus may be unpalatable in the U.S.
—Hospitals are running low on the most critical supply of all: oxygen
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: Best earbuds in 2020: Apple AirPods Pro Vs. Sony WF-1000XM3
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.