Techmeme: IAB: US digital ad spend rose 35% YoY to $189B in 2021, the largest gain since 2006; 10 publishers and platforms took 78.6% of the total, up from 78.1% in 2020 (Megan Graham/Wall Street Journal)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

April 12, 2022, 7:20 AM

Top News

The Verge:

Meta rolls out a test for some creators to sell virtual items and effects in Horizon Worlds, which will take a 25% cut of any sale after app store fees — Horizon Worlds will take a 25 percent cut of any sale after app store fees — Meta is testing new features to let creators …

More: YouTube, Reuters, Protocol, Oculus Blog, CNBC, cybernews.com, PhoneArena, Cryptonews, TechCrunch, Neowin, Social Media Today, VRScout, Tubefilter, Android Central, CoinDesk, Road to VR, UploadVR, VentureBeat, Engadget, and The Economic Times

Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg. Tweets: @slhamlet, @tomaxwell, @brianjjackson, @mixedrealitytv, @oculos410, @alexdchandler, @jonvirtual, @alexeheath, @ericpresidentvr, @iainmacl, @alexeheath, @ballmatthew, @ernestle, and @boztank

Andi Ortiz / The Wrap:

Last Week Tonight's John Oliver weighed in on data brokers, showing how easy it was to target members of Congress with ads after obtaining their personal info — John Oliver escalated his typical shenanigans on Sunday night's episode of “Last Week Tonight,” going from poking fun at politicians to outright blackmailing them.

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:

Ethereum developers launch the so-called mainnet shadow fork, a key stress test ahead of the proof-of-stake Merge upgrade, expected to reduce energy use by ~99% — Ethereum's network is inching closer toward its much-anticipated software upgrade known as the Merge, having just entered a key testing step.

More: CoinDesk, Fortune, Cointelegraph, Cryptonews, Micky, CryptoPotato, The d-Learner Path, and Forkast

Tweets: @vdwijden, @vdwijden, @bulldogholmes, @cory_eth, and @monetarywonk

Janko Roettgers / Protocol:

Netflix is rolling out a Double Thumbs Up ratings option, which will appear next to the thumbs up and down buttons, to let it refine content recommendations — For nearly five years, Netflix has had simple thumbs-up and thumbs-down icons to express viewing preferences and help its algorithms provide better recommendations.

More: About Netflix, The Verge, TNW, XDA Developers, Variety, Tom's Guide, Fossbytes, Neowin, Phandroid, Pocket-lint, Digital Trends, SlashGear, MobileSyrup, GameSpot, iPhone in Canada Blog, Android Police, CNET, Engadget, and Android Authority

Tweets: @mmasnick, @dcseifert, @carnage4life, @alexhcranz, @ihnatko, and @jank0

See also Mediagazer

Bhanvi Satija / Reuters:

Research: TikTok's ad revenue is projected to triple in 2022 to $11B+, surpassing Twitter and Snapchat combined, which are expected to make $5.58B and $4.86B — Video-sharing app TikTok's advertisement revenue is likely to triple in 2022 to more than $11 billion, exceeding the combined sales …

More: eMarketer, PYMNTS.com, Coinspeaker, The Information, dot.LA, The Times, Benzinga, Pandaily, PingWest, and Tech News. Tweets: @tanarrowz

Max A. Cherney / Protocol:

Filing: Chipmaker Ampere Computing, founded by former Intel president Renee James, has filed for an IPO; Oracle reportedly has a 20%-50% stake in Ampere — Oracle-backed server processor startup Ampere Computing said Monday that it plans to go public, filing initial confidential paperwork with the SEC.

More: DCD, SiliconANGLE, The Next Platform, CRN, Silicon Valley Business …, and Oregonian. Tweets: @dylan522p

Brad Stone / Bloomberg:

Marc Andreessen has tweeted ~350 times in the past two weeks, often referring to “the current thing” meme, joined by Elon Musk and others — Three of America's top technologists are talking and tweeting with unusual fervor. But first... - Beijing is targeting tech companies' algorithms

More: Protocol, Gizchina, Washington Post, NBC News, Financial Times, and ZDNet

Tweets: @parmy, @tomgara, @chafkin, @markmilian, @ryanlawler, @crypto, @technology, @spakhm, @jesslivingston, @tvietor08, @quasimondo, @ldrogen, @pmarca, @retalk_network, @paulg, @paulg, @elonmusk, @bradstone, @karaswisher, @elonmusk, @paulg, @pmarca, @pmarca, @pmarca, @pmarca, @pmarca, @pmarca, and @pmarca

Bloomberg:

Sources: Singapore-based fashion marketplace Zilingo suspends CEO Ankiti Bose, after attempts to raise $150M-$200M led to an investigation over its accounting — Zilingo Pte, one of Singapore's highest-profile startups, has suspended Chief Executive Officer Ankiti Bose after an effort …

More: Inc42 Media and Tech in Asia

Tweets: @sindhuhtoi, @pelstrom, and @chandrarsrikant

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Some business customers say Microsoft's licensing rules make it harder and costlier to run Windows and Office on rival cloud platforms like AWS and Google Cloud — The current tide of antitrust scrutiny and regulations focused on big technology companies has conspicuously omitted one company …

Tweets: @dinabass, @bradstone, @markets, and @pelstrom

Jill R Shah / Bloomberg:

Filing: Meta spent $26.8M on Mark Zuckerberg's security in 2021, up 6% from 2020, far above other execs, such as Sundar Pichai ($4.3M) and Jeff Bezos ($1.6M) — The cost of keeping Mark Zuckerberg safe keeps going up for Meta Platforms Inc., far outstripping what similar technology companies with high-profile executives are spending.

More: Meta, B&T, LatestLY, Silicon Valley Business …, New York Post, and Australian Financial Review

Tweets: @gregbensinger, @davidgura, and @jackpullara

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:

IAB: US digital ad spend rose 35% YoY to $189B in 2021, the largest gain since 2006; 10 publishers and platforms took 78.6% of the total, up from 78.1% in 2020 — Advertising has followed shopping online during the pandemic at a breathless rate. The ad spend was concentrated—78.6% …

Tweets: @neilretail and @megancgraham

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:

Meta has sent ~90 subpoenas related to the FTC's antitrust case to companies including Dispo, which says the requests are “overbroad, vexatious, and harassing” — On a quest to show the FTC that it isn't a monopoly, Meta flooded a wide swath of major tech companies with subpoenas last month.

Tweets: @tayhatmaker, @dlisscious, @nmasc_, and @seyitaylor

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:

Over 14,000 Etsy sellers start a week-long strike over an increase in transaction fees from 5% to 6.5%, grievances with Etsy's Offsite Ads program, and more — If you're in the market for funky trinkets and unique, handmade clothing, you might want to put off your shopping until next week.

More: Wall Street Journal, CBC News, The Recount, Protocol, Engadget, CNN, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @esdin, @local12, @saraschaefer1, @chuckwendig, @aharonbernal, @abc12wjrt, @modestproposal1, @miarsato, and @charitylscott

Eli Tan / CoinDesk:

Coinbase will produce a movie trilogy based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club, set to premier at NFT.NYC in June; BAYC owners can submit their apes for consideration — The trio of films will tie into the launch of Coinbase's long-awaited NFT marketplace. — The Bored Ape Yacht Club is getting …

More: CryptoSlate, Coinspeaker, Benzinga, HYPEBEAST, one37pm.com, The Block, Protocol, Bitcoin News, Crypto Briefing, Decrypt, and Forkast

Tweets: @mdudas, @mixtatiq, @piques15, @electiondaymad1, @discoverxnft, @alex, and @valkenburgh

Reuters:

Epic Games, which makes Fortnite, raises $2B from Sony and KIRKBI, the holding company behind LEGO, at a $31.5B post-money valuation — Epic Games said on Monday it had raised $2 billion from Sony Group Corp (6758.T) and the family owned holding company behind the Lego Group, giving the “Fortnite” maker a valuation of $31.5 billion.

Maria Chutchian / Reuters:

Cloud services provider Sungard files for bankruptcy with $424M in secured debt, its second bankruptcy filing in three years — (Reuters) - Technology company Sungard Availability Services returned to bankruptcy on Monday about three years after wrapping up its prior Chapter 11 case.

More: Sungard Availability Services, ZDNet, and SiliconANGLE. Tweets: @reuterslegal

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Soxton:

AI-powered law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

Zoho:

Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements — 2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

Alex And Ranjan's 2026 Outlook: ChatGPT 1 Billion, AI Shopping, Apple's Big Year, AI Love Boom

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.

Hard Fork:

Where Is All the A.I.-Driven Scientific Progress?

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

The Talk Show With John Gruber:

'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson

The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.

Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.

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.

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:20 AM ET, April 12, 2022.

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.

From Mediagazer

Alex Ritman / Variety:

In Channel 4's 2025 Alternative Christmas Message, Jimmy Kimmel said “tyranny is booming” in the US and, on his ABC suspension, “We won, the president lost”

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

As the BBC fights Trump's $10B lawsuit and ITV plans to combine its broadcasting business with Sky in 2026, a look at the slow death of the UK's TV channels

Henry Blodget / Regenerator:

Bari Weiss' 60 Minutes decision may have been a way to both signal that she's serious about shifting CBS' sensibility to the right and “improve” a story

Upcoming Tech Events

Jan 4

Samsung "The First Look" media event

Game Developers Conference

More News

Christine Hall / TechCrunch:

Berlin-based Choco, which makes ordering tools for restaurants and suppliers, raises a $111M Series B2 at a $1.2B valuation, bringing its funding to $282.5M

More: Tech.eu

Kris Holt / Engadget:

Fitbit receives FDA clearance for passive heart rhythm monitoring to detect signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and will roll out the feature in the US soon

More: Silicon Republic, Android Central, TechCrunch, Tom's Guide, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, MobiHealthNews, PCMag, MSPoweruser, The Hill, and Pocket-lint. Tweets: @fitbithealth

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Voyager Innovations, owner of popular Filipino financial app PayMaya and neobank Maya Bank, raises $210M led by SIG Venture Capital at a $1.4B valuation

More: Tech in Asia and Bloomberg

Teddy Amenabar / Washington Post:

Educators say esports infrastructure company PlayVS is misrepresenting itself as the exclusive provider of interscholastic high school esports for some games

Tweets: @tkidd, @jeffcohen23, @leadergrev, @teddyamen, @clerkie, @vicebabe, @teddyamen, @kevin_hitt, @teddyamen, and @jacobwolf

Wall Street Journal:

Okta, IBM, and other companies are increasingly setting aside college degree requirements for US job applicants, opening up tech jobs to a range of new talent

More: The 21 Hats Morning Report. Tweets: @lvgully, @bkcwilliams, @josephbfuller, @makingsenses, @wsj, @wsj, @tomgara, @tomgara, and @kathryndill

Laura Landro / Wall Street Journal:

A look at the use of AI in some US hospitals, including adopting predictive models to help identify and prioritize ER and ICU patients who are most at risk

Tweets: @dukehospitalist, @wsj, and @aboutkp

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:

Sources: Meituan plans to lay off 10%-20% of staff from its core business units, days after announcing that it added 17K jobs from July 2021 to mid-March 2022

More: Tech in Asia and TechNode

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Stenn, which uses data analytics to provide loans to SMBs working in international trade, raises $50M from Centerbridge at a $900M valuation

More: Finextra and AltFi

Earlier Picks

Kim Zetter / Zero Day:

Substack rolls out 2FA, initially for writers and account holders who log in via its web platform, but plans to make it available for mobile app users soon

Tweets: @kimzetter, @briankrebs, and @kimzetter. Thanks:@thekenyeung

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:

NFT project Pudgy Penguins, once highly successful, is attempting a comeback after being acquired for 750 ETH; NonFungible says trading peaked at $13.6M/day

More: Mint Calendar. Tweets: @crypto, @olgakharif, @pudgypenguins, @asvanevik, and @business

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Beijing-based Cocos, which develops the open-source Cocos Creator engine for 2D and 3D games, used by 1.4M developers to date, raises a $50M Series B

More: GamesIndustry.biz, Cocos Creator & …, and TechCrunch

Andrew Duehren / Wall Street Journal:

US policy makers identified stablecoins as an initial target for regulation, asking lawmakers to pass legislation that would treat stablecoin issuers like banks

Tweets: @aduehren, @ronwhammond, @jessmarindavis, and @dizer_ym

Sara Fischer / Axios:

French social app BeReal, which encourages users to post one selfie per day, has exploded in popularity with Gen Z users; Apptopia says MAUs are up 315% in 2022

More: VICE and Social Media Today

Tweets: @semaforben, @liahaberman, @chrissyfarr, @davidskapinker, @ssingh2010, @mranthropology, @natalimorris, @mattnavarra, @martinsfp, and @sarafischer

New York Times:

In the absence of federal crypto regulations in the US, lobbyists and executives are helping draft and pass favorable bills at state level

More: The Signal, Protocol, Cryptonews, and CoinDesk

Tweets: @leereiners, @bruneski, @frankpasquale, @dukelaw, @aaschapiro, @haileylennonbtc, @ricardovalp, @silvermanjacob, @benmezrich, @blairherter, @cz_binance, @ericliptonnyt, @mdudas, @grahamdavida, @ericliptonnyt, and @rschooley

Sohini Podder / Reuters:

Datto, which provides data backup and protection services for SMBs, agrees to be taken private by Kaseya for $6.2B in cash, funded by Insight and others

More: TechCrunch, Business Wire, Cybersecurity Dive, Channel Futures, Blocks and Files, Bloomberg, CRN, Help Net Security, and Barron's Online

Omar Abdel-Baqui / Wall Street Journal:

Elon Musk appears to have deleted some tweets critical of Twitter and its leadership; Musk liked a tweet saying he was “told to play nice and not speak freely”