Techmeme: Apptopia: Amazon ranked #4 in global shopping app installs in 2021, down from first in 2020, as e-commerce apps Shopee and Shein rose to #1 and #2, respectively (Todd Bishop/GeekWire)

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December 30, 2021, 4:10 PM

Top News

Brian Quarmby / Cointelegraph:

Ethereum scaling project Polygon says it quietly fixed a bug that put $23.6B in MATIC tokens at risk, but not before $2.04M in tokens was stolen — “Considering how much was at stake, I believe our team has made the best decisions possible given the circumstances,” said Polygon's co-founder Jaynti Kanani.

More: Polygon | Blog, Business Insider, The Crypto Basic, CryptoPotato, Tom's Hardware, CoinDesk, The Block, The Mac Observer, and Crypto Briefing

Tweets: @0xpolygon, @kaibadefi, @wublockchain, and @evai_io

Brian Newar / Cointelegraph:

South Korea tells Apple and Google to stop accepting play-to-earn games, which require in-app purchases before playing, and remove existing ones from app stores — The Games Committee has strengthened its stance against P2E games by saying those games should not receive an age rating needed to get listed on app marketplaces.

More: Gizmodo, Tech in Asia, Protocol, iPhone in Canada Blog, thegamer.com, iPhone Hacks, Micky, Waivly, BitcoinExchangeGuide, CoinCodeCap, AppleInsider, Bankless Times, CoinGape, and Benzinga

Tweets: @johnnyboufarhat and @cointelegraph

Reuters:

Samsung cuts output at its two fabs in Xian, China, which account for 42.5% of its NAND production capacity, amid COVID-19 lockdown; Micron output also affected — Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and Micron Technology (MU.O), two of the world's largest memory chip makers …

More: Micron Technology, Inc., The Korea Economic …, Samsung Newsroom, Bloomberg, RTÉ, iPhone in Canada Blog, Benzinga, Tom's Hardware, TechSpot, WRAL TechWire, and Businesskorea

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Apptopia: Amazon ranked #4 in global shopping app installs in 2021, down from first in 2020, as e-commerce apps Shopee and Shein rose to #1 and #2, respectively — Amazon's leading position in U.S. e-commerce is well-documented, but the latest global rankings for app installs show the potential …

More: Apptopia Blog, CNET, Tubefilter, and iPhone in Canada Blog

Tweets: @rbxnews_, @adamblacker25, and @julieverhage

Reuters:

Six women who work at Foxconn's Indian iPhone plant describe crowded dorms and food crawling with worms, which sickened 250+ workers, leading to protests — For women who assembled iPhones at a Foxconn plant in southern India, crowded dorms without flush toilets and food sometimes crawling …

Eli Tan / CoinDesk:

Justin Kan launches gaming-focused NFT marketplace Fractal, after someone hacked its Discord announcement bot and made off with about $150K last week — Since announcing plans to launch his gaming NFT marketplace Fractal earlier in December, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan has been one of the busiest men in crypto.

More: VentureBeat, The Block, and Waivly

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

OpenSea bans PHAYC and Phunky Ape Yacht Club, two NFT projects that are dueling over which is the authentic Bored Ape Yacht Club ripoff — And dodging NFT marketplace bans while doing it — A pair of non-fungible token projects are testing the boundary between plagiarism and parody.

More: CoinDesk and Rare Club Nifty Newsletter

Tweets: @gartenberg and @backlon

Eileen Yu / ZDNet:

China plans to become a global innovation hub for robotics by 2025; its manufacturing robot density in 2020 was 246 per 10,000 people, double the global average — Chinese robotics market is projected to expand at 20% through to 2025, when the government is aiming to double manufacturing robot density …

More: TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Nikkei Asia, The Robot Report, Slashdot, TechCircle, ChinaTechNews.com, and South China Morning Post

Entrackr:

OneCard, which offers an app-based card to help users in India build credit, raises a $75M Series C at a $722M post-money valuation, following a $35M Series B — Mobile-first credit card company OneCard has scooped up $75 million in a new round led by existing investor QED Fund.

More: Inc42 Media and Crowdfund Insider

Richard Lawler / The Verge:

Fortnite servers are back online after a major five-hour outage prevented players from logging on, among other issues — The hit battle royale game told players “You do not have permission to play Fortnite.” — There was some bad news if you're on winter break and hoping to play some Fortnite …

More: Forbes, Bloomberg, TechRadar, WRAL TechWire, CNET, CNN, Polygon, RealSport101, Bleeding Cool, Destructoid, Game Rant, MarketWatch, IGN, Input, SlashGear, Forbes, KnowTechie, Digital Trends, MobileSyrup, Epic Games Public Status, and Engadget

Tweets: @fortnitestatus, @fortnitestatus, @fortnitestatus, @epicgames, @happypower, @fransbouma, @mobleytakeover, @jenswo8, @hannahtaylorpro, @playz_stevo, and @verge

Akayla Gardner / Bloomberg:

Research: Binance Coin (BNB), the third largest digital token by market value, Solana, and Fantom gained over 1,000% in 2021; BTC gained 65% and ETH gained 408% — - Binance's BNB surged as Binance Smart Chain rivaled Ethereum — Smaller alt coins also saw returns upward of 1,000% this year

Wall Street Journal:

Google, Microsoft, and Oracle invest in potential cloud clients to beat AWS; Google claims 6% cloud market share, behind AWS at 41% and Microsoft at 20% — Alphabet company and others invest in potential clients as they look to close gap with Amazon in fast-growing sector

More: Thurrott. Tweets: @sub8u and @aatilley

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Minho Kim / New York Times:

Sarah B. Rogers, Trump's nominee to lead USAGM, says she would reinstate some agency employees; if confirmed, she would still serve in the State Department

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

Swiss film producer Simon Afram sues Netflix for $105M, saying Netflix lost an unencrypted copy of a film starring Nicolas Cage that he spent $45M to produce

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

NBCU's deal with YouTube Premium signals a new phase in the streaming wars where platforms weigh deals with other companies to add content to their platforms

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More News

Rebecca Feng / Wall Street Journal:

SenseTime closes up 7.3% in its Hong Kong trading debut after rising as much as 23%; the company raised $740M in its IPO at a $16.4B valuation

More: PingWest, Yahoo Finance, The Irish Times, DealStreetAsia, Bloomberg, Coinspeaker, South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, Bloomberg, and Reuters

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:

Intel closes the first phase of the sale of its SSD and NAND businesses to SK hynix and says SK hynix's Solidigm subsidiary will operate the Dalian fab in China

More: SiliconANGLE, Reuters, Intel, TechSpot, HotHardware.com News, TechRadar, SK hynix Newsroom, Slashdot, VideoCardz.com, and AnandTech. Tweets: @donal888. Thanks:@paulyalcorn

Bloomberg:

Didi Global reports Q3 revenue of $6.6B, down 13%+ QoQ, and a net loss of $4.7B, as China's cybersecurity probe forced it to take down many of its apps

More: Reuters, Pandaily, South China Morning Post, BBC, Financial Times, Tech in Asia, Wall Street Journal, and Business Wire. Tweets: @next_china

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

HDMI Forum will introduce HDMI 2.1a, the latest standard, at CES 2022, with minor updates that only further complicate the system's haphazard device support

Washington Post:

As the US faces record COVID-19 infections, effective use of exposure notification apps is unlikely, given slow adoption and poor data on their efficacy

More: 9to5Mac, MacDailyNews, PhoneArena, and KnowTechie

Tweets: @cha_myoung, @mikemadden, @jeffnolan, @digiphile, @vickerysec, @andrewmartonik, @robpegoraro, @gerritd, @washingtonpost, @trippmickle, and @markseibel

Earlier Picks

Youkyung Lee / Bloomberg:

Six of the 10 best-performing South Korean stocks in 2021 are linked to the metaverse or NFTs, including Wemade Max, up 1,500%, and Giantstep, up 1,200%

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:

T-Mobile confirms reports of a data breach caused by SIM swap attacks on a “very small number of customers”, following six other data breaches since 2018

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:

Autonomous trucking startup TuSimple says its semi truck completed an 80-mile route in Arizona without a human on board and no human intervention

More: Associated Press, The Logistics Rundown, SiliconANGLE, CNET, FreightWaves, Electrek, TuSimple, The Hill, and Forbes

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:

Some LastPass users say their master passwords were compromised and used in blocked login attempts from unknown IPs; LastPass blames “credential stuffing”