Techmeme River

November 27, 2021, 9:30 PM

November 27, 2021

8:25 PM •	Arol Wright / Android Police: Spotify confirms it is retiring the Car View mode in its mobile apps, offering no replacement, but says it is working to improve how users listen while driving
4:40 PM •	Vlad Savov / Bloomberg: Now that most video game platforms have a digital-only purchasing option, paying separately for the same video game on each is indefensible
2:25 PM •	Stephen Diehl: Crypto tokens allow venture capitalists to dump their investments on an enthusiastic public without regulation, in the midst of a speculative mania
1:05 PM •	Reuters: Indian government tells Starlink to stop “booking/rendering the satellite internet service” as it does not have a license to operate in the country
11:35 AM •	Bloomberg: Sources: Cloud Village, the music streaming arm of Chinese gaming giant NetEase, raises ~$422M in a Hong Kong IPO, pricing shares at HK$205, or ~$26.30
7:25 AM •	Jing Yang / Wall Street Journal: Sources: Alibaba is delegating more responsibility to presidents of its business units to shed its monolithic image in the wake of China's regulatory crackdown
1:20 AM •	The Economic Times: Paytm reports Q2 revenue of $144.8M, up 64% YoY, and a net loss of $63M, up 8%+ YoY, in its first post-IPO earnings report

November 26, 2021

8:30 PM •	Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal: Gartner: global chip makers are projected to spend $146B this year, about 50% higher than before the pandemic and double the amount five years ago
3:55 PM •	Martha Muir / Financial Times: Kazakhstan plans to ration power over winter to 50 registered crypto miners as illegal miners and mass relocations from China cause blackouts across the country
2:25 PM •	Aditya Kalra / Reuters: Source: WhatsApp has almost 20M users in India using its payment services and received regulatory approval to double the number to 40M
12:45 PM •	Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: Italy fines Apple and Google €10M each for “aggressive” data practices and not providing users with clear enough information on commercial uses of their data
11:15 AM •	Reuters: Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo reports $3.3B in Q3 revenue, up 51% YoY, vs. $4.1B estimated, and 741.5M MAUs, up 15% YoY; stock is down 15%+
10:15 AM •	Bloomberg: China considers setting up a digital asset exchange in Beijing as it calls for faster trials of the digital yuan
9:15 AM •	Ryan Browne / CNBC: Klarna posts a pre-tax loss of $344M from January to September, up 4x YoY, and says it has 90M+ customers after entering nine markets since the start of 2020
8:50 AM •	Brenda Goh / Reuters: Meituan reports Q3 revenue of $7.6B and a loss of $1.57B, including a $532M antitrust fine in October, its largest quarterly loss in three years
7:15 AM •	Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: UK's CMA says Google has agreed to expanded oversight in the development of Privacy Sandbox as part of the regulator's antitrust investigation
4:30 AM •	Stefanie Marotta / Bloomberg: Coveo, which offers AI-powered enterprise search and personalization services, raises CAD$215M from its Toronto IPO, one of Canada's largest tech IPOs this year
2:35 AM •	Eric Slivka / MacRumors: Kuo: Apple AR headset to launch in late 2022 with an M1-like chip and no tethering to a Mac or an iPhone; Apple wants to replace the iPhone with AR in 10 years

November 25, 2021

10:30 PM •	Liya Su / DealStreetAsia: Chinese GPU maker Moore Threads raises a $313M Series A co-led by Source Code Capital, Shanghai Guosheng Group, and Bohai Sheng Industrial Fund Management
9:55 PM •	Bloomberg: Sources: China asked Didi Global to delist from the NYSE citing concerns about leaking sensitive data; options include privatization or a Hong Kong listing
8:55 PM •	Debby Wu / Bloomberg: UMC and Micron agree to withdraw their IP complaints against each other, with UMC paying Micron a one-time undisclosed sum, following a years-long legal battle
5:25 PM •	Paul Stamatiou: A look at some key design challenges in crypto and Web3, from onboarding to wallet security, that need to be addressed for the next generation of users
3:25 PM •	Olatunji Olaigbe / The Record: How one Nigerian university student turned to cybercrime during the pandemic to pay his bills, driven by high unemployment, few well-paying jobs, and boredom
1:30 PM •	Patricia Allen / EU-Startups: Everstox, which offers product management and monitoring software for logistics operators, raises a €20M Series A led by Acton Capital
11:50 AM •	Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Spotify confirms it is testing Discover, a TikTok-like vertical feed of music videos that appears to repurpose Canvas videos, in its iOS app
10:25 AM •	Nicole Carpenter / Polygon: Roblox sues Ruben Sim, a YouTuber it banned over harassment and sexual content, for leading a “cybermob” that it says terrorizes its platform and developers
8:50 AM •	Charlie Taylor / The Irish Times: Filings: Google Ireland agreed to a €345.2M tax settlement with Irish authorities; Google Ireland had €48.4B in revenue in 2020, up from €45.7B in 2019
8:40 AM •	Meir Orbach / CTech: Israel reduces the countries approved for export of cyber tools from 102 to 37, most of which are in the West, after the US sanctioned NSO Group and Candiru
7:55 AM •	Keith Zhai / Wall Street Journal: Sources: at least nine state-run Chinese companies, including China Mobile, tell staff to stop using Tencent's chat app Weixin, citing security concerns
7:40 AM •	Michael Levenson / New York Times: Pinterest settles discrimination lawsuits by releasing former employees from NDAs and pledging $50M to overhaul its corporate culture and promote diversity
7:30 AM •	Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal: EU proposes broad disclosures about political ads and banning targeting based on sensitive data, but not microtargeting, and fines of up to 5% of global revenue
4:35 AM •	Evelyn Cheng / CNBC: Baidu wins approval to start collecting fares for Apollo Go robotaxis in Beijing's Yizhuang district, the first such approval in a large Chinese city
2:55 AM •	Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal: Q&A with Christie's head of marketing Neda Whitney on selling NFTs, expanding beyond traditional high-value artwork, the metaverse, and more

November 24, 2021

11:05 PM •	Jabari Young / CNBC: WatchBox, an online marketplace for buying, selling, and trading luxury watches, raises $165M from investors including Michael Jordan and Giannis Antetokounmpo
9:30 PM •	Malique Morris / The Information: Poshmark's market cap is now $1.4B, a 50%+ drop from its January IPO, as revenue growth slowed to 16% in Q3, down from 42% in Q1, amid Apple's privacy changes
8:25 PM •	Nathaniel Mott / PCMag: Check Point details MediaTek DSP firmware vulnerabilities in some Android smartphones that could be exploited to eavesdrop; MediaTek released patches in October
7:35 PM •	Hans Nichols / Axios: Sources: five Democratic senators told the White House they oppose crypto critic Saule Omarova, Biden's pick to lead the OCC, effectively killing her nomination
6:30 PM •	Wall Street Journal: Verizon and AT&T offer to reduce the power coming from 5G towers for six months as the FAA examines possible aircraft interference
5:45 PM •	Financial Times: Refinitiv: Southeast Asian fintech companies have raised ~$3B across 80 deals so far in 2021, more than in 2020 and 2019 combined
4:35 PM •	Sam Reynolds / Blockworks: Banking Committee chair Sen. Sherrod Brown probes Coinbase, Binance.US, Tether, and others over stablecoin consumer risks, and seeks a response by December 3
3:30 PM •	Michael McSweeney / The Block: Coinbase acquires crypto wallet startup BRD and says BRD wallet users will have the option to migrate to the Coinbase wallet in 2022
3:05 PM •	Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times: The US places a dozen Chinese groups developing quantum computing, semiconductor, and aerospace technologies on an entity list, blocking exports to them
2:35 PM •	Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: A Windows 10 and Windows 11 exploit allows an attacker with physical access to gain SYSTEM privileges, bypassing Microsoft's patch from earlier this month
12:56 PM •	New York Times: Adam Mosseri agrees to testify about Instagram's effects on teenage users before a Senate Commerce subcommittee during the week of December 6
11:45 AM •	Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Brisbane-based Simpro, which offers work management tools for employees in the field, raises $350M and acquires productivity tools ClockShark and AroFlo
10:40 AM •	Peter Grant / Wall Street Journal: CB Insights: real estate tech startups have raised $9.5B during 2021 so far, topping the record $9B invested in the “proptech” sector during 2019
9:20 AM •	Vikas Sn / Moneycontrol: India-based Dream Sports, which runs online fantasy platform Dream11, raises $840M led by D1, Tiger Global, and others at an $8B valuation, up from $5B in March
8:55 AM •	Sneha Shah / The Economic Times: Indian used car marketplace Spinny raises a $285M Series E led by ADQ and Tiger Global at a $1.75B post-money valuation, after raising $108M in July
7:15 AM •	Reuters: Chinese state media says a regulator told Tencent to submit any new apps or updates for inspection through December 31; Tencent says its apps remain functional
6:10 AM •	James Marson / Wall Street Journal: How Belgian police infiltrated messaging service Sky ECC in February and March, gathering 1 billion messages that yielded arrests and drug seizures
5:45 AM •	Jon Porter / The Verge: Twitter updates its iOS app to stop automatically refreshing timelines and causing tweets to disappear, after rolling out the update on the web last week
5:40 AM •	Mimi Billing / Sifted: Denmark-based podcasting and audio tech startup Podimo raises a $78M Series B led by 83North and Highland Europe
4:40 AM •	Nikkei Asia: Japan's top banks and 70 other companies prepare to trial a new digital currency in H2 2022, backed by bank deposits and for large business transactions
2:25 AM •	Slate: A look at the case of ex-Facebook engineer Behdad Esfahbod, who was detained and tortured in Iran in 2020, Facebook's response and lessons it learned, and more
1:45 AM •	Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: Conduktor, which provides an all-in-one GUI that simplifies working with Apache Kafka clusters, services, and applications, raises a $20M Series A led by Accel
1:05 AM •	Taylor Soper / GeekWire: CoreStack, which offers companies AI-powered cloud governance software, raises a $30M Series B led by Avatar Growth Capital, bringing its total funding to $45M
12:35 AM •	CoinDesk: The Indian government pushes a bill for Parliament's winter session that would ban most cryptocurrencies and form a framework for creating a CBDC
12:15 AM •	Bloomberg: Dell beats estimates with Q3 revenue of $28.4B, up 21% YoY, with revenue from PCs rising 35% YoY to $16.5B, and net income of $3.89B, up 341% YoY

November 23, 2021

11:20 PM •	Kyle Alspach / VentureBeat: Resilience, a cyber insurer that also offers policyholders services for defending against ransomware, raises a $80M Series C from General Catalyst and others
10:55 PM •	Nikkei Asia: Sources: Apple taps TSMC to mass produce 4nm 5G modem chips for the iPhone in 2023, in an effort to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm
10:25 PM •	Rebecca Torrence / FierceHealthcare: Luma Health, which helps health care providers centralize and automate scheduling and communication with patients, raises a $130M Series C led by FTV Capital
10:05 PM •	Elizabeth Howcroft / Reuters: Decentraland says it sold a virtual real estate plot for $2.4M in crypto to Tokens.com subsidiary Metaverse Group, claiming it to be its largest transaction
9:35 PM •	Casey Newton / Platformer: Startups like Royal, which helps musicians create and sell NFTs, could potentially upend predatory record deals and further shift power to artists and fans
6:42 PM •	The Verge: Samsung says it will build a ~$17B, 1,200+ acre chip factory in Taylor, Texas, roughly 30 miles from its Austin facility, operational in H2 2024
6:15 PM •	Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review: Sources: French officials were in the final stages of buying NSO's Pegasus spyware in July, but opted not to after claims that French politicians were targeted
6:05 PM •	Stephanie Condon / ZDNet: VMware beats in Q3 with revenue of $3.19B, up 11% YoY, vs. $3.12B estimated, and Subscription and SaaS revenue of $820M, up 21% YoY
5:20 PM •	Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: Kore.ai, which helps companies make AI assistants with low-code tools, raises a $73.5M extended Series C after Nvidia joins as an investor
5:10 PM •	Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: Apple delays the release of its digital ID feature in the Wallet app for iOS and watchOS until early 2022
4:55 PM •	Larry Dignan / ZDNet: HP beats in Q4 with revenue of $16.7B, up 9.3% YoY, Personal Systems revenue of $11.8B, up 13% YoY, and Commercial PCs revenue up 25% YoY
4:30 PM •	Emma Betuel / TechCrunch: UK-based mental health provider Ieso raises a $53M Series B as it plans to use its real-life therapy session data to fuel AI-powered text-based therapy
4:20 PM •	Jordan Pearson / VICE: ConstitutionDAO's organizers say the project has run its course and will shift its Discord channel into read-only mode in two weeks
4:00 PM •	Jennifer Elias / CNBC: Internal email chain shows over 600 Google employees have signed a document opposing Google's vaccine mandate, which Google says it firmly stands behind
3:10 PM •	Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: Tidal taps DistroKid and others to offer direct artist payments, where up to 10% of a user's HiFi Plus subscription goes to their most-listened-to artists
2:00 PM •	Apple: Apple plans to notify targets of state-sponsored spyware attacks like NSO's ForcedEntry and commits $10M to cybersurveillance researchers and advocates
1:45 PM •	Ronan Shields / Digiday: Outbrain announces a $55M acquisition of Video Intelligence, an ad tech company that matches video with text content, as it aims to differentiate from Taboola
1:12 PM •	Nicole Perlroth / New York Times: Apple sues NSO Group in US federal court, seeking to ban NSO from using Apple products and alleging NSO illegally targeted Apple users with surveillance tools
12:29 PM •	Emma Roth / The Verge: Reddit is shutting down the Dubsmash app on February 22, after acquiring it last December, as the Dubsmash team adds video creation tools to Reddit's main app
12:00 PM •	Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Spotify debuts Netflix Hub, collecting official soundtracks, playlists, and podcasts for top Netflix content, in seven countries including the US, UK, and India
10:45 AM •	Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal: Sources: Samsung plans to build a ~$17B chip factory in Taylor, Texas, in 2024, with an announcement expected today; Samsung says location is not finalized
10:25 AM •	Kate Park / TechCrunch: Verbit, which offers voice transcription services using AI and freelancers, raises a $250M Series E at a $2B valuation, after hitting a $1B+ valuation in June
10:03 AM •	Nikkei Asia: Source: Japan is allocating ~$5.2B in fiscal 2021 to support semiconductor manufacturers, including ~$3.5B for TSMC
9:50 AM •	Dennis Schaal / Skift: Peek, which offers tools to manage tours and activities, raises a $80M Series C led by WestCap, bringing its total funding to ~$120M
9:45 AM •	Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Budapest-based Bitrise, which helps companies build and operate mobile apps, raises a $60M Series C led by Insight Partners
9:30 AM •	Nikkei Asia: Analysis: 597 VC firms have invested in Indian startups this year, with 211 making their debut venture in the country; hedge funds spent $4.3B, up ~3x from 2020
8:45 AM •	Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: São Paulo-based buy now, pay later startup TruePay raises a $32M Series A led by Addition, three months after raising an $8.5M seed
8:40 AM •	Nick Harris / The Mail on Sunday: Analysis: 17 of 20 English Premier League clubs have signed commercial deals with cryptocurrency companies, drawing criticism for potentially exploiting fans
8:25 AM •	Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Vercel, which develops the Next.js framework, raises a $150M Series D at a $2.5B valuation, after raising a $102M Series C at a $1.1B valuation in June
7:20 AM •	Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg: EU approves Digital Markets Act measures: mandating social app interoperability, banning ad targeting to minors, and fines up to 20% of global annual sales
6:45 AM •	Jonathan Haidt / The Atlantic: Regulators and legislators should mitigate Instagram's harmful effects on teen girls by toughening COPPA and forcing Facebook and others to share data
6:05 AM •	Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Kuaishou beats as Q3 revenue rose 33.4% YoY to $3.2B, above $3.15B estimates, with a $1.1B net loss, and Chinese MAUs rose 19.5% YoY to 573M
6:00 AM •	Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Bangalore-based NoBroker, which connects apartment seekers with property owners, raises a $210M Series E at a $1B valuation led by Tiger Global and others
5:55 AM •	Bloomberg: Xiaomi reports Q3 revenue rose 8% YoY to $12.2B as net income dropped 84% YoY to $123.5M, driven by component shortages and growing competition in China
5:40 AM •	Reuters: Italy's antitrust regulator fines Amazon $77M and Apple $151M for alleged anti-competitive cooperation to sell Apple and Beats products
2:30 AM •	Michael P. Regan / Bloomberg: A look at the decimalization of meme coins like dogecoin and shiba inu, as retail investors plow money into them because they look cheap
2:10 AM •	Romain Dillet / TechCrunch: Payhawk, which offers an all-in-one financial management service for businesses in Europe, raises a $112M Series B led by Greenoaks at a $570M valuation
1:15 AM •	Reuters: JioMart is disrupting the traditional salesperson-driven retail distribution model in India by offering mom-and-pop stores fast deliveries, credit, and training

November 22, 2021

11:50 PM •	David Thiel / @elegant_wallaby: [Thread] A former Facebook employee says Meta announced an “absurdly accelerated timeline” for e2ee messaging to preempt antitrust action and generate good PR
11:35 PM •	Rich Woods / XDA Developers: Sources: Qualcomm has an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for Windows on ARM that is set to expire soon, opening up chip vendor competition
10:35 PM •	Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times: Two former Netflix employees at the center of protests over Chappelle's special, including one who just resigned, withdraw their NLRB charge against the company

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