Techmeme
April 22, 2020, 8:05 AM

Top News

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Facebook invests $5.7B in Jio for a 9.99% stake, making it the largest minority shareholder in the subsidiary of India's most valued firm, Reliance Industries  —  Facebook has enjoyed unparalleled reach in India for more than a decade.  But as China's fast-growing ByteDance emerges …
Nikhil Pahwa / MediaNama:
Facebook's deal with Jio is unlikely to make a dent in India's mobile payments market, where Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm have emerged as the big players  —  So it's confirmed: Facebook has bought 9.9% stake in Jio Platforms Limited, the parent company of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, for $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore).
New York Times:
Facebook's Jio investment may pave the way for WhatsApp to connect with Indian businesses via JioMart, Jio's small-business marketplace, for mobile shopping  —  It was the largest bet by the social network on the developing market, where millions of people have gone online in recent years.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Epic Games launches Fortnite on the Play Store, after over a year of offering it only outside the store, noting Google puts sideloaded apps at a disadvantage  —  Epic Games is finally settling its feud — kind of — with Google and putting Fornite onto the Google Play Store, but the studio sounds pretty pissed about it.
About Facebook:
Facebook rolls out Messenger Kids to 70+ new countries, adds features to make it easier for parents to connect kids with their friends  —  With schools closed and people physically distancing, parents are turning to technology more than ever to help their kids connect with friends and family.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Kuo: Apple postpones iPhone SE Plus release from H1 to H2 2021, seeing a dip in demand for iPhones and production delays across the upcoming iPhone 12 models  —  Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities has shared a new investor note today detailing the ongoing development of Apple's 2020 iPhone 12 models.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q1 revenue of $5.77B, up 27.6% YoY, vs $5.76B est., global paid net subscriber additions of 15.77M, now totaling 182.86M accounts, up 22.8% YoY  —  - Netflix reported its Q1 2020 earnings after the bell on Tuesday.  — Netflix has ranked among analysts' favorite …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Vivaldi browser gets built-in options to block ads and tracking, with a blocklist powered by DuckDuckGo's Tracker Radar, and comes out of beta on Android  —  Vivaldi, the browser launched by former Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner, has long positioned itself as a highly customizable alternative to Chrome and Firefox for power users.
Jason Schreier / New York Times:
While gaming sales are breaking records, the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the gaming industry with delays, scope cuts, and serious production challenges  —  The coronavirus pandemic is offering mixed news and new challenges for gaming companies, both independent and corporate.
Snap:
Snap reports in Q1 DAUs increased 20% YoY to 229M, revenue increased 44% YoY to $462M, time spent watching Discover content rose 35%+; stock up 18%+ after hours  —  Snap Inc. Announces First Quarter 2020 Financial Results Daily Active Users increased 20% year-over-year to 229 million …
James Pearson / Reuters:
Sources: Vietnamese state-telcos took Facebook's local servers offline, slowing traffic, until the company agreed to increase censorship of “anti-state” posts  —  HANOI (Reuters) - Facebook's local servers in Vietnam were taken offline early this year, slowing local traffic …
CNBC:
US Small Business Administration notifies ~8,000 business owners seeking federal relief loans that their personal data may have been exposed to other applicants  —  - Some small business owners seeking help via the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan program …
The Daily Beast:
Sources say Palantir's data suites are a primary contributor to HHS Protect Now, a US government tool to track the spread of coronavirus in use since April 10  —  Palantir, a longtime partner of intelligence agencies, co-founded by major Trump backer Peter Thiel, is helping build “the single source for [coronavirus] testing data.”
Taylor Lyles / The Verge:
Google says it is gradually rolling out a “Hey Google” feature that lets users adjust the listening sensitivity of Assistant devices in detecting the command  —  No, Google, I wasn't talking to you  —  Google is starting to “roll out gradually” a feature allowing …
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
General Motors is shutting down Maven, the car-sharing service it launched in 2016, amid the COVID-19 pandemic  —  The coronavirus pandemic was the final nail in the coffin  —  General Motors is shutting down Maven, the car-sharing service it launched in 2016, the company tells The Verge.
Bloomberg:
Analysis shows that Huawei landed $4B worth of network contracts from China Mobile in 2020, over half of the operator's 5G contracts, as US sanctions persist  —  - Lands $4 billion in network gear contracts from China Mobile  — Beijing's banking on 5G innovation to boost post-virus economy
Ginny Marvin / Search Engine Land:
Google will let merchants list their products for free in Shopping search results, as part of an effort to better compete against Amazon in product search  —  After 8 years, Google will bring free listings into its Shopping results as part of an evolution to better compete against Amazon in product search.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 03/28 - Claude 3 Opus Surpasses GPT-4 For The First Time
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:05 AM ET, April 22, 2020.

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

Rachel Abrams / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: