1. Apple to Keep Austin Tech
For local Austinites, Mopac just got a lot more crowded. Apple announced Thursday that it will invest a cool $1B in a new 133-acre campus in North Austin, just 1 mile away from their existing site. The campus will be the worksite for 5K employees but will have the capacity to accommodate up to 15K employees, making Apple Austin’s largest private employer. “Apple is proud to bring new investment, jobs and opportunity to cities across the United States and to significantly deepen our quarter-century partnership with the city and people of Austin,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. With the rising cost of living in Austin, it is yet to be determined how Apple’s expansion will impact the local economy and city infrastructure.
(Source: CNBC)
2. Good Money = Customer Money
Have you ever wanted to own your bank instead of it owning you? Now’s your chance. Good Money is making digital banking history by becoming the first platform to offer new customers equity share of the company when they sign up. The goal is to have as much as 70% customer ownership. Customers and partial owners will control profits through investments and charitable donations, all of which will be determined by majority vote. Good Money is restructuring public perception of for-profit financial institutions and making that bread transparent for customers by putting them in the financial driver’s seat. If you think you’ve seen something similar, it’s called a credit union.
(Source: Fast Company)
3. NPR Just Got RAD
RAD (remote audio data), NPR’s new listener analytics platform, is taking the national public radio’s podcast industry presence to the next level. NPR, along with more than 30 podcast partners, are providing deeper insight into publishers and advertisers performance by collecting listening metrics. RAD’s approach focuses on delivering data about the podcast segments that listeners actually want to hear without tracking and retargeting listeners, unlike previous podcast data collecting platforms. NPR made the technology available to any partners who want to make the podcasting industry more open. Notably absent from the RAD podcast partnership is Apple, who launched a similar product. Thank u, next.
(Source: NPR)
