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December 30, 2020, 7:00 PM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Amazon: |
Amazon plans to acquire podcast network Wondery, which will join Amazon Music — We've signed an agreement to acquire Wondery, a top-rated podcast creator and producer that entertains and educates listeners. — We're pleased to announce that Wondery—an innovative podcast publisher …
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Tweets: @sub8u, @thekenyeung, @natjarv, @bergmayer, @ashleyrcarman, @joshsternberg, @bergmayer, @wonderymedia, @loudmouthjulia, @sarthakgh, @sarafischer, @stevekovach, @levynews, and @kintan
| CoinDesk: |
Binance says US users will not be able to deposit or trade XRP beginning January 13, joining Coinbase and several other exchanges in delisting or suspending XRP — Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is suspending XRP trading for its customers effective next month.
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Bittrex Support, Binance.US, PYMNTS.com, and Crypto Briefing
Tweets: @philosophyofmet, @lawmaster, and @binanceus
| Stephanie Chan / Sensor Tower Blog: |
Consumers worldwide spent $407.6M across the App Store and Google Play on Christmas, up 34.5% YoY; mobile games rose 27% YoY to $295.6M, led by Honor of Kings — 2020 has been a record-setting year for worldwide spending on mobile apps and games, which passed $100 billion in a single year for the first time ever in November.
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Tweets: @asymco, @glenngabe, @sensortower, @snazzyq, @somegadgetguy, and @khoi
| Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg: |
| Nick Statt / The Verge: |
Gadget trade-in site Gazelle, one of the longest running used smartphone buyers in the US, says it will end its core trade-in program on February 1, 2021 — The company's long-running trade-in program will end on February 1st, 2021 — Gazelle, one of the longest-running used smartphone buyers in the US …
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9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Android Authority, Engadget, Liliputing, and Michael Tsai
| Lily Hay Newman / Wired: |
Ransomware attacks have transitioned from a model of many small payments from various individuals to a smaller group of large targets with massive ransoms — 2020 was a great year for ransomware gangs. For hospitals, schools, municipal governments, and everyone else, it's going to get worse before it gets better.
Tweets: @andrewrdroste, @iethics, and @salvodan
| Todd Spangler / Variety: |
ESPN+ is raising its annual fee for new subscribers from $49.99 to $59.99; renewals for existing subscribers will remain $49.99 through March 2, 2021 — UFC fans are going to pay more to catch the promoter's premiere fights on Disney's ESPN Plus streaming sports package next year.
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Engadget, Sports Business Daily, The Streamable, and SlashGear
Tweets: @tevtalksmma, @yay_yee, @seansheehanba, @robnashville, and @tzm_tmt
| Jason Del Rey / Vox: |
eMarketer: US e-commerce sales, up 12%-16% in recent years, will have grown by 30%+ in 2020 and Amazon's US retail business grew an estimated 39% YoY in 2020 — When we look back at 2020 in the business world, we'll remember it as the year online shopping stopped being the future of retail and became the present.| Golan Hazani / CTech: |
Sources: SimilarWeb is planning a Nasdaq IPO in Q2 2021, aiming for a $2B+ valuation; the company has raised $240M in total, including $120M in October — The market intelligence company joins list of Israeli firms set to embark on a U.S. IPO in the coming months which already includes eToro … | Rohit Prasad / Fast Company: |
The head scientist for Alexa argues that Turing Test, designed as a thought experiment, is no longer relevant for building AIs that are designed to help humans — This year marks 70 years since Alan Turing published his paper introducing the concept of the Turing Test in response to the question, “Can machines think?”
Tweets: @edbott, @gavinsbaker, @martinsfp, and @carnage4life
| Mark Sweney / The Guardian: |
Ampere: UK streaming subscribers grew 34% YoY in 2020, with a combined 32.4M for Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+, the top three services — Britons spent 40% of their waking hours watching TV during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, fuelling the biggest year for new subscribers to streaming services.| Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times: |
Association of American Publishers: audiobooks revenue is up 17%+ YoY, e-book sales are up 16%+; NPD BookScan says US print book sales are up ~8% in 2020 — With people stuck at home and so many other activities shut down, a lot of reading — or at least a lot of book buying — happened this year.
Tweets: @nytimesbooks, @nytimesbooks, @pamelapaulnyt, @fidmart85, and @mariskreizman
| Wall Street Journal: |
France says it has resumed collecting its digital services tax, as the UK and Italy prepare to collect their own; France's 3% levy brought in €400M in 2019 — Dispute centers on cross-border revenue at Google, Facebook, Amazon and other tech firms — Detente is ending in the global fight over tech taxes.
Tweets: @samschech and @neilretail
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Command Line:
GitHub Universe 2026: Highlights from the developer's developer conference — Copilot Fusion was the belle of the ball, but the hero at the heart of the two-day event was the developer community.
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Cheeky Pint:
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Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
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