Techmeme
April 8, 2020, 9:40 AM

Top News

@jack:
Dorsey says he's moving $1B of his Square equity, ~28% of his wealth, to Start Small LLC to fund COVID-19 relief, to later focus on girls' health and education  —  I'm moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl's health and education, and UBI. It will operate transparently, all flows tracked here: https://docs.google.com/...
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Airbnb is paying 10%+ interest on the $1B funding it raised on Monday; investors were offered free stock warrants based on an $18B valuation  —  Airbnb's new investors get free warrants based on company valuation of $18 billion  —  Airbnb Inc. agreed to pay its new investors interest …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook's experimental product unit debuts Tuned, an iOS app creating a “private space” for couples, letting them keep a photo diary, exchange notes, and more  —  Keep a photo diary and check in on each other's moods  —  First, Facebook launched a dating feature, and now …
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
Study of 225 pieces of COVID-19-related content rated false or misleading: 59% remain up with no warning label on Twitter, 27% on YouTube, and 24% on Facebook  —  Facebook and YouTube do better, but still leave some misinformation up  —  More than half of the misinformation …
Bloomberg:
Taiwan bars all government agencies from using Zoom for official work due to security concerns, becoming the first national government to impose a ban on Zoom  —  - Taipei joins SpaceX in halting use of video-conferencing app  — Researchers say Zoom routes data via servers in China
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Google says G Suite now has over 6M paying businesses, up from 5M in February 2019  —  - Google's G Suite, which competes with Microsoft Office 365, has passed 6 million paying customers, according to executive Javier Soltero, who previously worked at Microsoft.
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Valve releases data showing rise in games making $10K during first two weeks after release but analysis suggests ~80% of games earn under $5K during same period  —  Valve offers a peek behind the sales curtain, telling an incomplete and mixed story.  —  It has been roughly two years …
Kaveh Waddell / Consumer Reports:
Dan Grover:
Overview of how apps from Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and others are helping users in China check their exposure, get care, and more during the COVID-19 outbreak  —  Summary: China's apps played a pivotal role in supporting some of the most effective tactics the country used in fighting Covid-19 …
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Hong Kong-based Neat, which helps startups and small businesses do cross-border banking online and apply for corporate credit cards, raises $11M Series A  —  Neat, a Hong Kong-based fintech startup, announced today that it has raised a $11 million Series A to help small businesses do cross-border trade.
Dara Kerr / CNET:
After Lyft quietly changed its paid leave policy for drivers, some say the process for getting sick pay is confusing and arduous  —  Without a clear paid leave policy, some drivers may still be on the road despite getting infected. … Ben S. stopped driving for Lyft in mid-March.
Ashley Stewart / Business Insider:
Microsoft says it is pausing new hires except in some “strategic areas”, citing uncertainty due to the pandemic; sources: the company is still hiring for Azure  —  - Microsoft is “temporarily pausing recruitment” for some roles amid uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis, the company confirmed Tuesday.

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