Techmeme: Researchers say Alibaba's cloud platform that hosted Shanghai's now-leaked police database used outdated systems that didn't offer the ability to set a password (Karen Hao/Wall Street Journal)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

July 18, 2022, 7:35 AM

Top News

Karen Hao / Wall Street Journal:

Researchers say Alibaba's cloud platform that hosted Shanghai's now-leaked police database used outdated systems that didn't offer the ability to set a password — Cybersecurity companies say Alibaba's cloud platform that hosted Shanghai's police database used outdated systems that didn't offer ability to set a password

More: TechRadar, The Register, Bloomberg, Reuters, Nikkei Asia, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, iTnews, and Barron's Online

Tweets: @sofiahcbbg, @joshchin, and @_karenhao

Moneycontrol:

Report: in emails sent to three creators, Coinbase says it is “temporarily shutting down” its US affiliate program on July 19 and plans to relaunch it in 2023 — According to a Business Insider article, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will “temporarily shut down” its US affiliate-marketing programme on July 19.

Source: Insider. More: CryptoSlate, Benzinga, Inside Bitcoins, ZyCrypto, Coinpedia, and CoinGape

Tweets: @bitboy_crypto, @mattthequick, @doobzdoobz, @simonyusea, @nickdrakon, @cryptoslate, @zguz, @ahcastor, @nateobrienn, @brian_armstrong, @nateobrienn, @lukebk, @paul__armstrong, @ianrborthwick, @therealtblake, @greybtc, @niallohiggins, and @waywardwinifred

Financial Times:

Chinese grocery delivery firm Missfresh, which had raised $1B+ in VC funding from Tiger, Goldman, others, falls in market cap on Nasdaq from $3B in 2021 to $88M — Chinese grocery delivery group valued at $3bn a year ago is now worth just $88mn — Tiger Global-backed grocery delivery start …

More: Produce Report, GlobeNewswire News Room, Business Wire, Market Munch, and Pandaily

Tweets: @muradahmed, @carnage4life, and @donweinland

Nathan Grayson / Washington Post:

A look at YouTube's strategy, started in 2019, of signing Twitch streamers with a network of creators that can simulate community and build its own game culture — Listen — Gift Article — Where once the departure of Twitch stars for YouTube Gaming elicited shock and awe …

More: The Jacob Wolf Report. Tweets: @imaginemod, @tarawlevy, @vahn16, @vahn16, and @vahn16

Wall Street Journal:

Adam Neumann's Flowcarbon and some other startups offering cryptocurrencies backed by carbon-offset credits have slowed product rollouts amid the crypto crash — Investors rushed to startups offering cryptocurrencies backed by carbon-offset credits, then the markets tanked

More: Decrypt and The Block

Tweets: @coinbureau, @wsj, @smdiehl, @donnaredel, @pt, @natbaker, @mayazi, @pt, @pefrase, and @smtuffy

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Sydney-based Hivery, whose software helps retailers select the right mix of products to stock on store shelves, has raised a $30M Series B led by Tiger Global — Hivery, a startup that bills itself as an “optimization platform” for retailers, today announced that it raised $30 million …

More: Business Wire, Digital Nation, and PitchBook

Nikkei Asia:

Tracxn: ~$8.5B in VC funding was raised by Indian education startups from 2014 to 2021, with about half of that in 2021 alone, as they vie for US marketshare — Grab for market share takes on extra urgency as valuation woes and job cuts bite — AKITO TANAKA, Nikkei Asia chief business news correspondent …

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

Seattle-based Phaidra, whose AI software automates building controls for industrial facilities like power plants, raised a $25M Series A led by Starshot Capital — Industrial production is one of the dirtiest corners of the corporate world. A startup from former Google engineers thinks …

More: goSkagit. Tweets: @mhbergen and @andrewfielding

Sabah Gurmat / Rest of World:

An app for India's largest public employment program is jeopardizing the livelihood of 82M+ due to technical glitches, an English-only UI, and poor connectivity — Poor connectivity and an English-only interface make the app unusable for many who rely on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Tweets: @restofworld, @vickiturk, @restofworld, @restofworld, and @_sabahgurmat

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

MakeMyMove: at least 71 US cities and towns now offer cash grants and other perks to attract remote workers, mostly in tech, up from at least 24 in October 2021 — Incentives are drawing high-paid tech workers, and challenging how we think about local economic development

More: Slashdot. Tweets: @wsj, @hunterwalk, @tunguz, @adamkovac, @folletto, @philsimon, and @adamkovac

Yaling Jiang / South China Morning Post:

Despite China's scrutiny of online credit, smaller services have spread; iResearch: the microlending penetration rate grew from 0.4% in 2014 to 69.2% in 2021 — Trams and cast-iron postboxes speak to the history of the city, while delicacies such as fishballs and egg waffles are street food essentials …

Tweets: @chinabeigebook and @michaelxpettis

Arielle Pardes / Wired:

Rapid delivery startups, which surged during the pandemic, have either retreated from some cities or shut down after struggling to make the economics work — Companies that promise groceries delivered in 15 minutes surged during the pandemic—but are now in retreat.

More: Financial Times. Tweets: @solsona, @victoria_agago, @harrymccracken, and @carnage4life

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Grit:

How Evan Spiegel Is Building the Future of Computing

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Acquired:

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.

Subscribe to Acquired.

Lenny's Podcast:

Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:35 AM ET, July 18, 2022.

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

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

President Trump files a $10B defamation lawsuit against the BBC, alleging it intentionally doctored a Panorama documentary to misrepresent his January 6 speech

Aidan Ryan / The Boston Globe:

The Boston Globe says Brian McGrory will return as editor, after Nancy Barnes' departure at the end of 2025; McGrory previously was editor from 2012 to 2023

Sara Fischer / Axios:

WSJ launches Free Expression, a newsletter-focused opinion brand that will be available via its own channels and Substack, initially offering free content

Upcoming Tech Events

Jan 4

Samsung "The First Look" media event

Game Developers Conference

More News

FinSMEs:

Oakland-based Mayvenn, which offers an e-commerce tool and a marketplace for salon services, has raised a $40M Series C led by Cleveland Avenue

More: FashionUnited, Global Cosmetic Industry, BeautyMatter, Forbes, and PR Newswire

CNBC:

The 2022 “crypto winter” differs from previous crashes, in part due to the macro environment, the TerraUSD collapse, excess leverage, and contagion from 3AC

More: CryptoSlate. Tweets: @arjunkharpal

Financial Times:

India steps up its crackdown on Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, which control ~60% of the country's smartphone market, by claiming tax evasion and unlawful remittances

Alastair McCready / VICE:

Industrial-scale online scam centers in Southeast Asia have perfected “pig butchering”, a romance-meets-investment fraud increasingly centered on cryptocurrency

Tweets: @viceworldnews, @softwarnet, @geraldrflynn, @caseynewton, @ryan_knutson, @bitfinexed, and @almccready1

Christopher Mathias / HuffPost:

New Gab accounts seem to automatically follow the GOP nominee for Pennsylvania governor Doug Mastriano, after he paid Gab $5K in April for “campaign consulting”

More: Slate, Rolling Stone, and 90.5 WESA

Tweets: @letsgomathias, @pt, @jonbjohns, @letsgomathias, and @alkapdc

Maxwell Strachan / VICE:

An interview with MetaMask co-founders who say “we can't stop people from making Ponzis on blockchains” and “putting your money in cryptocurrencies is gambling”

More: Tech.co and Inside Bitcoins

Tweets: @maxwellstrachan, @sameer_singh17, @danfinlay, @someday_deane, @iansherr, @jaymavs, @ummjackson, @danfinlay, @flynnjamm, @mathewi, and @maxwellstrachan

Earlier Picks

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:

Experts say a ruling against Twitter in its lawsuit against content removal orders in India could let the government censor a wide swath of platforms and sites

Tweets: @carnage4life, @aaschapiro, and @aspi_icpc

New York Times:

As China builds up its vast surveillance and security apparatus, it is running up against growing public unease about data security and privacy in the country

Tweets: @frankpasquale, @maytechummia, and @amyyqin

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

Experts say archiving TikTok videos is challenging and urge the platform to preserve and provide access to its content for war crime investigations in Ukraine

More: Washington Post and Slashdot

Tweets: @charlesmok, @sariarhohavren, @charlesmok, @maxseddon, @washingtonpost, and @willoremus

Mat Di Salvo / Decrypt:

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a national ban on using digital assets for payments, but allows investing in digital assets like bitcoin

More: Protocol, Cryptonews, SiliconANGLE, Engadget, Neowin, Slashdot, PYMNTS.com, and Blockworks

Tweets: @davidgerard, @neerajka, @santiago__sa, and @decryptmedia

Jef Feeley / Bloomberg:

Filing: Elon Musk's lawyers say Twitter is unfairly pushing for a “warp speed” September 2022 four-day trial and ask for a court date in February 2023 or later