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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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