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2019, in three paragraphs

Fully Charged
Bloomberg

Hey y'all, it's Austin. We're coming up not just on the end of the year, but the conclusion of a decade. In the past week, we've explored why the 2010s marked the era when tech turned dystopian, and how, despite growing scrutiny and pessimism shadowing the technology industry, the market still keeps hurdling forward.

For our final Fully Charged of 2019, we combed through our tech coverage from the past 12 months to see what themes emerged. There's a legitimate debate about whether unbridled advances in technology are a net positive for the world, or whether their negative, unintended societal consequences now outweigh the good. Yet, if our reporting this year revealed anything about this shift, it's that 2019 was plainly not the year the Valley learned its lesson and began to turn itself around. Things are only likely to get worse before they have any chance of improving. Here's what we witnessed:

1.  Big Tech's public reckoning accelerated—and engulfed new players

So much of the criticism of tech in recent years has centered on the effects of Facebook Inc., from Cambridge Analytica to its raft of ongoing privacy scandals. While the social network's woes continuedMark Zuckerberg seems ever-mired in crises—we saw a slew of additional tech companies and platforms face heat for their business tactics. Google's YouTube, we reported, prioritized user engagement over removing incendiary videos and hasn't done enough to protect children using the service. Amazon.com Inc. has been squeezing sellers' product pricing on its marketplace, raising antitrust concerns and capturing an alarming amount of household data from its consumer products, including recordings from its Alexa devices. Apple Inc.'s app-store dominance drew ire from developers, as did its reliance on contractors. And China grappled with misinformation and propaganda spreading on a variety of mobile services, stoking division during the Hong Kong protests.

2. Unicorn hype deflated, while founder-CEO mythos faded

After years of sky-high valuations for banner tech startups, a string of so-called unicorn startups struggled to live up to the hype on the public markets. Uber Technologies Inc. went public in May—the largest IPO in five years—but shares have tumbled since then. Other big bets by investor SoftBank Group Corp. have failed to pan out, too, most notably WeWork, which burned tremendous amounts of capital only to spectacularly flame out in its quest to go public. Adam Neumann, WeWork's co-founder, exited the company. Like a number of founder-chief executives this year, Neumann's once-Teflon reputation lost its sheen. Elon Musk, Tesla's founder-CEO, mostly fared well in 2019, but came under fire during several high-profile lawsuits and feuds, including an allegation that he pushed an employee. Meanwhile, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced they're stepping down at a challenging time for the search giant. And former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive—not a founder, but arguably the fullest embodiment of Steve Jobs's principles—left in the midst of Cupertino's critical reinvention as a subscription services-oriented company.

3. Washington's relationship with Silicon Valley became tortured

In addition to rising antitrust fervor and calls for privacy regulation from Capitol Hill and the presidential campaign trail, the Valley has struggled this year to define its role in geopolitics. Certain parts of the tech world are jumping at the opportunity to work with the U.S. military, but not Google. Microsoft Corp., which has seen its fortunes blossom under Satya Nadella, has faced some backlash from employees for its $10 billion Pentagon contract. (Amazon is not happy, either.) Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's trade war with China threatens to create a technological Cold War between the world's two largest economies. The so-called Silicon Curtain is already causing problems for talent acquisition, patents, AI competition and supply chains. Asian tech behemoths, from Foxconn to Huawei Technologies Co., got caught up in the squabble, as have startups, both stateside and abroad.

So there you have it: a year's worth of Bloomberg Technology in three paragraphs. What's on the docket for 2020? I expect tech companies will follow Apple in baking more privacy features into their products and market them as competitive advantages. The U.S. presidential election will probably leave a mark on the tech landscape, but it's hard to tell which direction that will go. And the big question is whether Baby Yoda can transform Walt Disney Co. into a streaming powerhouse to rival Netflix. Have a great New Year, y'all!Austin Carr

And here are some other global technology retrospectives from around the web:

The 84 Biggest Flops, Fails and Dead Dreams of the Decade

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The Verge takes a look back at the products the decade forgot, including Apple's 18-karat gold watch and Google's bowling ball-shaped streaming device.

The Decade Tech Lost Its Wayarrow

The New York Times offers an oral history of the 2010s, as told by Mark Zuckerberg and other tech executives and experts.

First, the Smartphone Changed. Then, Over a Decade, It Changed Us.arrow

The Wall Street Journal takes a journey to a reporter's basement to find the gadgets we depended on in 2010 and how they were all replaced with a screen full of apps.

10 Trends That Shaped the Decadearrow

The Pew Research Center offers a wonky, data-driven analysis of what changed in tech over the last 10 years.

Fully Charged is unplugging for the holidays. We'll be back in your inbox on Jan. 3.

 

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