Buzzfeed
BuzzFeed launches Infinity Quizzes, creating personalized stories powered by OpenAI
BuzzFeed — the media site that made its name (literally) spinning out viral content — landed in the middle of the buzz itself last month when news leaked out that…
What do media layoffs and tech worries have in common? Fear about what’s ahead in coming quarters, especially as it relates to advertising revenues.
TikTok claims it’s not collecting US users’ biometric data, despite what privacy policy says
Last year, TikTok quietly updated its privacy policy to allow the app to collect biometric data on U.S. users, including “faceprints and voiceprints” — a concerning change that the company…
Will M&A bring relief to media startups amid a public-market hangover?
With public-market exits effectively off the table and M&A for media startups historically capped around 6x-8x, the upside in media deals isn’t very high compared to other investing opportunities.
TikTok targets small businesses with new ‘Follow Me’ educational program
TikTok announced today a new initiative designed to help small businesses better market themselves on its app — and eventually become TikTok advertisers. The company is introducing a free program…
This Week in Apps: Period tracking app privacy, Snapchat’s paid subscription, calls for TikTok ban
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues…
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Bidding adieu to the SPAC craze
The implosion of the SPAC boom has proven a multiquarter process. We may be in the final throes of the experiment, at least from a startup perspective.
If you must conduct layoffs, don’t be a jerk
Since our last column, another smattering of tech startups has laid off employees. We get it. Layoffs happen. But as we conduct yet another week of analysis into a depressing…
Grubhub’s free lunch promo creates a literal ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ for NYC restaurants
Grubhub offered free lunch to everyone in New York City yesterday. What could go wrong? Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., New Yorkers could use a Grubhub promo code to…
Lumos, a startup that wants to provide an end-to-end solution for enterprises to manage all of the SaaS apps their employees use, is coming out of stealth today. The company…
All eyes are on Swvl as it starts trading on a SPAC combination
Mass transit and shared mobility provider Swvl went public today in a landmark moment for Egyptian and Middle Eastern tech ecosystems. It’s also a test for the company going public…
Big Cabal Media, parent company of TechCabal and Zikoko, raises $2.3M seed funding
African startups raised between $4 billion to $5 billion in 2021, according to various reports. For years, tech publications run by local digital media startups have worked hard behind the…
Meta will add basic parental supervision tools to its VR headset almost three years after launch
Despite releasing its first virtual reality headsets in May 2019, Meta is only now adding parental supervision tools to its Meta Quest VR headset. After last year’s rebranding spectacle, all…
The results are proving to be pure trash so frequently once the hype has died down and real, post-debut life begins that I would hazard we’ve collected enough data to…
The New York Times Company agreed to purchase sports media outlet The Athletic in a deal valued at $550 million, The Information reports. This deal comes after months of speculation…
Featured Article
MrBeast’s ‘Real Life Squid Game’ and the price of viral stunts
First, everyone was talking about “Squid Game,” the Korean psychological thriller that became Netflix’s biggest series launch ever, with 142 million viewers. Now, everyone’s talking about YouTuber MrBeast’s recreation of the show’s titular fight-to-the-death, which racked up 142 million views in eight days. (Don’t worry, no one was killed). Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast), the 23-year-old who…
Extra Crunch roundup: Pre-pitch tactics, Warby Parker S-1, Israel’s fintech ecosystem
Forget what you’ve heard: There are *many* shortcuts to success.
Forbes jumps into hot media liquidity summer with a SPAC combo
Is it the most exciting debut? No. But it does highlight that with enough gumption, one can take a magazine business into the digital age and keep aggregate revenue growing.…
Venmo removes its global, public feed as part of a major redesign
PayPal-owned payments app Venmo will no longer offer a public, global feed of users’ transactions, as part of a significant redesign focused on expanding the app’s privacy controls and better…
Extra Crunch roundup: Unpacking BuzzFeed’s SPAC, curb your meeting enthusiasm, more
There’s a kernel of truth in every joke, so whenever someone quips, “This meeting could have been an email!” you can bet that some small part of them meant it…
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5 takeaways from BuzzFeed’s SPAC deck
BuzzFeed had a hard time with growth in 2020, but its deck showcases big optimism about the future of its leading business (advertising) and growth business (commerce).
TikTok launches Jump, a third-party integration tool
TikTok announced today the launch of its Jump program, which expands the app’s potential for third-party integrations. TikTok began beta-testing this feature in February with Whisk, a recipe-sharing app, though…
Jumpcut founder Kartik Hosanagar is a professor at the Wharton School, but about 10 years ago, he spent his summer in an unlikely way: he wrote a screenplay. Set in…
Float wants to provide liquidity to African SMBs in a way never done before
According to research, 85% of African SMBs have zero access to financing, and each day, African SMBs have billions locked up in receivables due to long payment cycles. This leads…
SPACs are desperate and asset prices are high as media recovers some and digital ad sales spike. SPAC now or forever hold your peace.
BuzzFeed uses AI to create romantic partners in its latest quiz
A new BuzzFeed quiz is the first in what Director of Product for Quizzes Chris Johanesen said he’s hoping will be a series of “stunt-y experiments” that the publisher launches…
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Bustle CEO Bryan Goldberg explains his plans for taking the company public
“Now, you know, we did six acquisitions in 2019. I don’t know if we’ll do six acquisitions in 2021. But I want to do a lot more than one acquisition in 2021.”
Parler jumps to No. 1 on App Store after Facebook and Twitter ban Trump
Users are surging on small, conservative, social media platforms after President Donald Trump’s ban from the world’s largest social networks, even as those platforms are seeing access throttled by the…
Parler removed from Google Play store as Apple App Store suspension reportedly looms
Shortly after Twitter announced Friday afternoon that they were permanently suspending the account of President Trump, Google shared that they were removing Parler, a conservative social media app, from their…
This Week in Apps: Apple bans party app, China loses 39K iOS games, TikTok births a ‘Ratatousical’
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry is as hot…
