Techmeme
November 3, 2022, 6:30 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Sources: Elon Musk and his Twitter advisers discussed adding paid DMs, which would let users privately message “Very Important Tweeters”  —  The billionaire and his advisers have discussed adding paid direct messages, fees to watch videos and other features to the service.
Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Sources: Twitter staff have yet to receive a single official message since Elon Musk took over, relying instead on his tweets, media reports, and private chats  —  Workers follow new boss's tweets and share rumors on anonymous apps amid silence from leadership on firings, staff cuts and product changes.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Elon Musk plans to cut ~3,700 jobs at Twitter, or half of the company's workforce, starting on November 4, and reverse its work-from-anywhere policy  —  Elon Musk plans to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at Twitter Inc., or half of the social media company's workforce …
Bloomberg:
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon pauses hiring for roles in its corporate workforce, after announcing in October plans to freeze hiring for corporate roles in its retail business  —  KEY POINTS  — Amazon is pausing hiring for roles in its corporate workforce, the company announced in a memo to staff Thursday.
Jennifer Surane / Bloomberg:
Memo: Stripe plans to lay off 14% of its staff this week, reducing its headcount by 1,000+ to almost 7,000, to trim expenses in preparation for “leaner times”  —  Stripe Inc., one of the world's most valuable startups, will cut more than 1,000 jobs as it seeks to rein in costs ahead of any economic downturn.
Wall Street Journal:
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
TikTok plans to update its privacy policy on December 2 to confirm that its staff outside of Europe, including in China, can access the data of European users  —  Privacy policy update confirms data of continent's users available to range of TikTok bases including in Brazil, Israel and US
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp launches Communities, a structured discussion group feature for of up to 1,024 people, in testing since August 2022, worldwide over the next few months  —  WhatsApp today is officially launching Communities, the new feature offering larger, more structured discussion groups that first entered into testing earlier this year.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Amazon plans to roll out the Matter over Wi-Fi standard to 17 Echo devices in December, starting with Android phones, covering smart plugs, bulbs, and switches  —  Amazon will start its Matter journey slowly, bringing support for the new smart home standard to 17 Echo devices in December.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Substack announces Chat, an opt-in feature letting writers host discussions with their subscribers, available in the Substack iOS app and coming soon to Android  —  Another company hoping to capitalize on Twitter's upheaval in the wake of Elon Musk's takeover is the newsletter platform Substack.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google unveils an AI model trained on 400+ languages with the largest “coverage seen in a speech model” and plans to support the 1,000 most spoken languages  —  Google has announced an ambitious new project to develop a single AI language model that supports the world's “1,000 most spoken languages.”
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Twitter cancels its Chirp developer conference set for November 16 in San Francisco as the team builds “some things that we're excited to share with you soon”  —  Twitter is canceling its developer-focused Chirp conference amid management transition, the company said late Thursday.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
Police and other sources say Block's Cash App has become a primary payment tool for adult and children sex traffickers due to lax monitoring and user ID rules  —  The Twitter and Block billionaire made Cash App into a $700 million monster.  Now police officers, nonprofit critics and current …
TechCrunch:
Ajit Mohan, the head of Meta India who joined the company in January 2019, has left to become the president of Snap's Asia Pacific business  —  Ajit Mohan, the head of Meta in India, has left the firm and joined rival Snap, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Nelson Wang / CoinDesk:
Coinbase Q3: net revenue down 28% QoQ to $576M, net loss down 50% QoQ to $545M, subscription and services up 43% QoQ, and monthly transacting users down to 8.5M  —  The crypto exchange's transaction revenue fell 44% from the second quarter.  —  Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) …

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's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Saam Motamedi from Greylock Partners
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Invest Like the Best:
Henry Ellenbogen - Man Versus Machine
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
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.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:30 PM ET, November 3, 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.

More News

Chloe Chaplain / The i Paper:

Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Kate Irwin / Decrypt: