Techmeme
October 3, 2023, 3:25 PM

Top News

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: in September, Meta pitched EU regulators a plan to charge Facebook and Instagram desktop users a subscription fee to avoid ads, starting at ~€10/month  —  European users would have option to pay fee or agree to personalized ads, according to company's pitch to regulators
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Netflix plans to raise the price of its ad-free service a few months after the Hollywood actors strike ends, likely starting with the US and Canada  —  Company to become latest streamer to lift fees; Disney weighs launching new live-sports tier abroad
Molly White:
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
Michael Lewis' new book, Going Infinite, depicts SBF as delusional, but says his FTX collapse explanations have “remained irritatingly difficult to disprove”  —  “Going Infinite,” by Michael Lewis, offers a behind-the-scenes account of Mr. Bankman-Fried's rise and fall.
Josh Ye / Reuters:
Apple starts requiring a Chinese government license to publish new apps on its China App Store, after China tightened its mobile app oversight in August 2023  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has started requiring new apps to show proof of a Chinese government licence before their release on its China App Store …
Imran Rahman-Jones / BBC:
The FCC fines Dish Network $150K for failing to move its old EchoStar-7 satellite far enough away from others in use, marking the agency's first space junk fine  —  The US government has issued its first ever fine to a company for leaving space junk orbiting the Earth.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 review: gorgeous build, a 120Hz display, an adaptive touchpad, and a unique hinge, but a poor battery and expensive at $2,000  —  Microsoft's new Surface Laptop Studio 2 has new chips, a new touchpad, and a very, very high price tag.
Nikki Ekstein / Bloomberg:
An interview with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on affordable prices, reliability, proper customer support, using AI for quality control, a loyalty program, and more  —  “We never fully built the foundation,” Brian Chesky says in a revelatory interview.  “It had four pillars when we needed to have 10.”
Todd Spangler / Variety:
TikTok confirms the company is running a limited-scale test of an ad-free subscription plan, but only says the market is not the US and does not share the price  —  TikTok is exploring a new way to make money: The popular video app has kicked off a limited-scale test of a monthly subscription service that eliminates ads.
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Epic Games plans to add IARC age ratings to Fortnite's “first- and third-party playable content” on November 14; creators can start the process on October 16  —  The company says that ‘this is a critical step toward building a metaverse that is safe and fun for everyone.’
Steven Ehrlich / Forbes:
Email: Chainalysis lays off ~150 employees, or 15%+ of its workforce, and plans to focus on government contracts; the company cut staff by ~5% in February 2023  —  Chainalysis is laying off approximately 150 employees, or slightly more than 15% of its staff of 900, CEO Michael Gronager told employees …

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