Techmeme
June 12, 2018, 1:45 PM

Top News

Dan Primack / Axios:
Sources: e-scooter company Bird is seeking to raise ~$200M in new funding at a $2B valuation; just three months ago the startup raised at a $300M valuation  —  E-scooter company Bird is seeking to raise around $200 million in new funding at a $2 billion valuation, according to multiple sources.
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Congress releases Facebook's written responses to follow-up questions from Mark Zuckerberg's April testimony; Facebook says it received 2,000+ questions  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered a lot of questions when he testified before Congress in April.
Josef Adalian / Vulture:
Inside Netflix's original content efforts as it spends $8B this year: “It's 70 percent gut and 30 percent data”, says Ted Sarandos  —  “What do you think about gas in the tank for the long term?” asks Cindy Holland, Netflix's vice-president of original content.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Uber unveils Uber Lite, a low-data app just 5MB in size for developing markets that shows maps only on request, coming to India first  —  “The next hundreds of millions of riders for us are going to come from outside of the United States", Uber's head of rider experience Peter Deng tells me.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Large funding rounds for Bird and Lime suggest strong economics, which means the potential for building moats for dockless scooter startups are relatively weak  —  As I understand it, the proper way to open an article about electric scooters is to first state one's priors …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Instagram adds shopping tags directly into Stories, so now users can tap a shopping bag icon to learn more about buying a particular item  —  Instagram's shoppable tags are about to pop up in Stories.  The company first started testing the feature back in 2016 with a limited set of 20 partners.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Swedish video-based call-a-doctor service Kry raises $66M Series B led by Index Ventures to finance further expansion in Europe  —  Swedish telehealth startup Kry has closed a $66 million Series B funding round led by Index Ventures, with participation from existing investors Accel, Creandum, and Project A.
Siobhan Hughes / Wall Street Journal:
Bipartisan group of senators move to stop Trump's deal to give ZTE a lifeline amid US export ban, by adding ZTE export ban as amendment to defense spending bill  —  White House sent top official to Capitol Hill to lobby against bipartisan effort to reverse pact to revive the Chinese telecommunications company
Christina Rogers / Wall Street Journal:
Argo AI, which received $1B from Ford and works on automated driving, says it has ~330 staff, up from under 12 last year, by hiring from Apple, Uber, and others  —  Equity stakes in a fast-growing startup and a link to a big auto maker are helping recruit engineers and robotics researchers
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Vietnam's new cybersecurity law raises concerns about restricting free speech, also requires foreign internet companies to store user data locally  —  Big tech firms including Google, Facebook and Twitter have expressed major concern after Vietnam's government passed a law that promises …
Robert Triggs / Android Authority:
USB Type-C has become a mess of compatibility issues, conflicting proprietary standards, and lacks sufficient consumer information to guide purchasing decisions  —  6.6K  —  USB Type-C was billed as the solution for all our future cable needs, unifying power and data delivery with display …

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:
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more  —  Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
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

Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
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 1:45 PM ET, June 12, 2018.

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

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:

Earlier Picks

Sean Lyngaas / Cyberscoop:
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: