Yesterday’s antitrust hearing/circus with the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google had a bit of everything.

Here’s one takeaway for each butt in the hot seat, plus a couple more.

The receipts looked baaaad. The questioners whipped out 2012 emails showing Mark Zuckerberg was very worried about Instagram, a competitor at the time. 

One memorable line from his outbox: “Instagram can hurt us meaningfully without becoming a huge business.” The Verge called the emails “clear statements” that Zuck “moved to buy the upstart app to insulate Facebook from current and future competition.”

It got hot inside Google’s garden. CEO Sundar Pichai took heat for an investigation by The Markup that showed many searches starting on Google… end up right back on Google (it found 41% of the first page of Google mobile results is taken up by Google products).

Those words won’t reassure anybody. Last week, The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell saying Amazon invested in startups — and used the intel to launch its own private-label goods. 

When asked Wednesday, Bezos said Amazon has rules against doing that. Then he added: “I can’t guarantee you that policy has never been violated.”

Tim Cook took the fewest questions. The New York Times’s tally showed he faced 35, vs. ~60 for the others. When it was his turn in the spotlight, he was fightin’ off questions about the App Store.

While all eyes were glued to the livestream…

• TikTok tried to steal the show. CEO Kevin Mayer said the company will open its algorithm to outsiders’ eyes — and challenged Zuck & Co. to follow suit.
• Snapchat tried the ‘ol news dump. Its first-ever diversity report is out. The results weren’t pretty.
• Twitter got dragged into it. One Congressman seemed to ask Zuck about something that happened on Twitter. Oops.

Your take

We asked y’all which Big Tech company would reach a $2T market cap fastest. ~3k readers responded:

• 57.8%: Amazon (current market cap: ~$1.51T)
• 12.3%: Apple (~$1.6T)
• 10.8%: Tesla (~$278B)
• 7.4%: Alphabet/Google (~$1T)
• 4.3%: Facebook (~$665B)
• 6.5%: Someone else

Hey, laaaaadies. By 2030, we’re gonna be in charge of $30T in assets, a $20T increase from 2016. The boys in the banks better get set.

Is this a Missy Elliott track?

Nah, it’s a McKinsey banger. 

A report from the consulting giant found:

• Male Boomers, who hold more than 70% of investable assets, will pass assets to their wives when they die. 
• Younger women are getting sh*t done in corporate America.

It’s a shakeup for a male-dominated field

Thirty percent more young, married women are making their own financial decisions than 5 years ago. If more firms want to serve them, they should take note: 

• Women are willing to pay for in-person advice… if they feel a connection with their adviser. 
• Women tend to be risk-averse with their portfolios, focus on life goals like retirement, and are interested in financial literacy and community outreach.

It’s an agricultural whodunit: People in 28 states are receiving mysterious seed packets from China and Kyrgyzstan. 

This isn’t a Jack and the Beanstalk situation. State agencies are warning not to plant them for fear they could be invasive — and they’re pretty sure the seeds are part of a “brushing” scam. 

WTF are ‘brushing’ scams?

They work like this: A shady seller finds your info and registers a fake Amazon or AliExpress account in your name. Then they use it to buy, say, a packet of their own seeds.

When the goods arrive, the seller leaves a glowing review — now with a “verified buyer” tag.

Don’t brush off brushing

Last year, Amazon encouraged the “verified” elite to rate more purchases. The idea: Their ratings are trustworthy, so they could drown out paid reviews.

According to one study, brushers jacked up their search rankings 10x faster than unbrushed rivals. And only 2.2% of brushing accounts were caught.

Happn is a dating app that helps you match with the cute rando you saw crossing the street. It’s kind of like Missed Connections, a classic for Craigslist stalkers admirers. 

In the Before Times, Happn only let you slide into the DMs of people who came within ~¼ mile of you. But now the company has extended its match radius to ~75 miles. 

Could the bigger net help you find love? In the name of sCiEnCe, our staff writers tried it out.

Michael: The main page asks, “Who would you like to cross paths with?” then lists gender options. Creepy factor: 5.

Caroline: Is this like Pokemon Go? Do I need to leave the house and walk around?

(Apparently not. Happn matches you with other users who’ve been near you in the past week. You can say “hello”… or send ‘em packing.)

Michael: All my matches will either be from the grocery store or coffee shop because those are the only 2 places I go anymore.

Caroline: I just matched.

Michael: Oh god. 

Caroline: Oh, sh*t. He’s, like, in college. He walks his dog by my house. Honestly, I’m going to hide for a while. I was on Happn for 10 minutes and found 2 neighbors.

The best quarantine content was ESPN’s The Last Dance.

But it took 22 freaking years to make.

Fortunately, with the NBA season kicking off today, we don’t have to wait 2 decades for more unreal behind-the-scenes footage. 

Millions of fans have tuned in to LA Laker JaVale McGee’s video dispatches from Disney World, where the NBA is posting up.

Since releasing his first clip on July 12th, McGee’s YouTube account has exploded from 37k to 469k subscribers (and counting). 

How’d he do it?

A collab with Devin Dismang — an Emmy-winning producer who’s worked with the Golden State Warriors.

In an interview with The Hustle, Dismang dished on how he spins McGee’s raw footage (from taking half-court shots with LeBron James to snagging J.R. Smith’s breakfast omelette to fishing with Alex Caruso to trolling Anthony Davis after a scrimmage) into YouTube gold:

• How he turns 30-40 gigs of raw data into a 15-minute clip.
• NBA players don’t use email (it all happens via Dropbox, texts, and FaceTime).
• JaVale came strapped with Sony and Hero cams.

Check out our behind-the-scenes story here.

Kintone is like Legos for business 

Imagine being able to pick up pieces from all different parts of your company — like, let’s say, your CRM, expense reporting, content calendar, and even Slack channel — and slot them all together into one seamless, easy-to-navigate product. 

Sound like your ultimate productivity dream? Then you’re going to want to check Kintone. 

Their no-code platform uses the same concepts we loved as kids, letting you plug ‘n play to help your business work faster, smoother, and be more self-sufficient.