Techmeme
February 8, 2021, 3:30 PM

Top News

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Sources: Twitter is building subscription products to ease its dependence on ads, including “tipping” for exclusive content and charging for TweetDeck  —  - Internal groups are researching options users might pay for  — Social network says ‘revenue durability’ is now top priority
Steve Kovach / CNBC:
Filing: Tesla has bought $1.5B worth of bitcoin and says it will start accepting bitcoin as a payment method for its products in the future  —  - Tesla announced in an SEC filing Monday that it has bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin.  — The company also said it would start accepting bitcoin as a payment method for its products.
Wall Street Journal:
TechCrunch:
Clubhouse is now blocked in China after an uncensored period during which it grew rapidly  —  Thousands of Chinese users suddenly found themselves unable to access Clubhouse on early Monday evening as the country prepared to start the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
A dev whose own app was targeted by a scam ripoff finds that scam apps are flourishing on Apple's App Store, fueled by lax enforcement of rules and fake reviews  —  Over the last several weeks, developer Kosta Eleftheriou has been highlighting many apparent scam applications on the App Store.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's Dan Riccio is focusing on future VR and AR devices, and the group working on in-house screens and cameras is now under chip chief Johny Srouji  —  - Apple moves team working on own screens, cameras to Srouji  — Riccio left top hardware job recently to work on ‘new project’
Bloomberg:
Hyundai and its affiliate Kia say they are not in talks with Apple to develop an autonomous vehicle; Hyundai shares fell ~8.4% in Seoul, while Kia dropped 14%  —  - Apple's plans for own-branded EV are being intensely watched  — Hyundai's new EV platform can charge cars to 80% in 18 minutes
Taha Broach / The 8-Bit:
In the iOS 14.5 beta, Apple has finally added the ability to set a default music streaming service, including Spotify, when using Siri to play songs  —  Apple launched the initial beta versions of iOS 14.5 to developers and public beta testers last week.  Among the list of new features …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Sources: Mark Cuban is co-founding Fireside, a podcast app where hosts can talk to fans live and monetize their conversations, with plans to launch this year  —  Fireside is launching this year  —  Mark Cuban is getting in on the audio and podcasting hype.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Facebook expands policies to take down more posts with vaccine-related misinformation, including assertions that vaccines cause autism  —  Facebook said on Monday that it plans to remove posts with erroneous claims about vaccines from across its platform, including taking down assertions …
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Sources: TikTok has briefed advertisers on new e-commerce tools launching in 2021, including letting popular users add links and earn commission  —  Viral video app set to unveil a suite of new online shopping tools  —  TikTok is planning an aggressive expansion into ecommerce in the US …
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Xiaomi unveils global version of its Mi 11 flagship with Snapdragon 888, 6.8-inch 1440p OLED 120Hz display, and up to 265GB storage, starting at €749  —  The latest Xiaomi flagship to leave China  —  Xiaomi is announcing the international version of its Mi 11 flagship phone today after an earlier release in China.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Automattic's enterprise-focused WordPress VIP says it is acquiring content analytics service Parse.ly  —  WordPress VIP (WPVIP), the enterprise arm of WordPress.com, is acquiring Parse.ly, a content analytics platform that's used by thousands of digital publishers.
Pavel Alpeyev / Bloomberg:
SoftBank's Vision Fund posts $8B profit in Q3; Son says 15 companies have gone public from the fund, and its $680M investment in DoorDash is now worth ~$9B  —  - Vision Fund booked a third-quarter profit of $8 billion  — SoftBank continued to lose money on derivatives trading

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