Thursday, October 3, 2019

Daily Crunch - Taboola acquires Outbrain

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Thursday, October 03, 2019 By Anthony Ha

Happy Thursday

The two big content recommendation companies consolidate, Microsoft unveils a whole bunch of new hardware and startups take the stage at Disrupt SF.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for October 3, 2019.

Publisher adtech startups Taboola and Outbrain merge in $850M deal to take on Google and Facebook

The content recommendation rivals — who are, shall we say, not exactly known for the high quality of their recommendations — are merging to form a single company.

While the companies describe the deal as a merger, the combined entity will be called Taboola, with Taboola's founder Adam Singolda securing the CEO slot. Further, Taboola is paying Outbrain investors $250 million in cash plus a 30% share of the combined companies.

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Publisher adtech startups Taboola and Outbrain merge in $850M deal to take on Google and Facebook image

Introducing Brex Cash: The cash management account that earns rewards.

Sponsored by BREX

Setting up a business operating account for your startup shouldn't be hard. That's why we built Brex Cash, the cash account that earns you both returns on your money and rewards points on every wire payment and ACH you make - all with zero transaction fees.

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Here's everything Microsoft announced at today's Surface event

Most of the rumors panned out: There was a new version of the Surface Laptop, including the addition of a USB C port and a 15-inch model. The Surface Pro got a USB C port as well, along with improved studio microphones. And there's the new Surface Pro X, which finds the company utilizing Microsoft's new SQ1 chip.

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Introducing the Startup Battlefield companies at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019

This year’s batch covers rapid cholera detection, developer tools, strawberry-picking robots, regulatory monitoring and more.

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Introducing the Startup Battlefield companies at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019 image

Uber launches a shift-work finder app, Uber Works, starting in Chicago

This is a new app for matching = workers with shifts, called Uber Works. The app does this matching in partnership with staffing agencies, and it offers workers the carrot of more timely payments.

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Will Smith just dropped $10K on a startup that pitched him onstage at Disrupt

It’s true: I interviewed Will Smith and Ang Lee about their new movie “Gemini Man,” and it turned into a mini-startup pitch competition.

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Will Smith just dropped $10K on a startup that pitched him onstage at Disrupt image

In a new filing, the venture firm Mithril Capital says it has been under assault by its former general counsel

The firm has been characterized in news reports by Recode as being in a complete state of disarray — and, more recently, for reportedly being investigated by the FBI for financial misconduct. Mithril is now drawing a line from those stories to former employee Crystal McKellar.

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How Bongo, the 'Netflix of Bangladesh,' won the local video streaming market with just $10M

The on-demand video service began life as a channel on YouTube in 2014 before expanding as a standalone app to users a year later. Now, of the 96 million people in Bangladesh who are online today, 75 million of them are subscribed to either Bongo's YouTube channel or to its app. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Daily Crunch - Zuckerberg is wrong about TikTok

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Wednesday, October 02, 2019 By Anthony Ha

Happy Disrupt Day

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to understand TikTok, Microsoft unveils new Surface Laptops and a federal appeals court strikes a significant blow for net neutrality.

Also, today is the first day of Disrupt SF, so keep an eye on TechCrunch (and on tomorrow’s newsletter) for the latest updates!

Here’s your Daily Crunch for October 2, 2019.

Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok

In leaked audio of a Facebook all-hands meeting, Mark Zuckerberg described TikTok as “almost like the Explore Tab that we have on Instagram.” But Josh Constine argues that this is a serious misunderstanding of the app, which is more like a new form of social entertainment.

These distinctions matter because TikTok is a rapidly growing force in social media, a.k.a. a significant threat to Facebook and Instagram. And how can Zuckerberg beat what he doesn’t understand?

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Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok image

See what tools startups use the most: cloud, ads, and more

Sponsored by BREX

Find out what it takes to get a startup up and running with our first issue of the Brex Quarterly Review. We analyzed anonymous Brex transaction data to see what tools Brex customers are using to run their businesses—and talked to some of the people running them.

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Microsoft's latest Surface Laptop arrives in 13- and 15-inch models

Microsoft’s press event is currently underway as I write this newsletter, but it has already announced a new piece of hardware — the latest version of the Surface Laptop, with pricing starting at $999 for the 13-inch model.

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Court says FCC's 'unhinged' net neutrality repeal can't stop state laws

The FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules has been significantly weakened by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the Commission could not preempt state laws like those pending in California. In fact, one judge called the FCC’s logic “unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service.”

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Court says FCC's 'unhinged' net neutrality repeal can't stop state laws image

These are the top Y Combinator companies of all time, based on valuation

In October of 2018, Y Combinator published a mega list of the top 101 companies to have gone through the accelerator, as sorted by each company's valuation. This morning they updated the list, with Airbnb and Stripe have swapping the top spots.

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NASA launches a new planet-hunting telescope using a giant balloon

A new telescope will seek out planets that resemble Earth from a height of around 125,000 feet, using special optical technology that will filter out light from the stars they orbit to provide a better view.

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NASA launches a new planet-hunting telescope using a giant balloon image

Where top VCs are investing in edtech

New software, content and financing solutions for learning outside the traditional school system offer the more compelling business opportunities, particularly when it comes to vocational training. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Streamlit launches open-source machine learning application development framework

Streamlit co-founder Adrien Treuille says that rather than building a one-size-fits-all machine learning tool, the key was developing a solution that was flexible enough to serve multiple requirements, depending on the nature of the data involved.

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Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Daily Crunch - WeWork delays its IPO

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Tuesday, October 01, 2019 By Anthony Ha

Happy Tuesday

WeWork’s parent company officially delays its IPO, Europe’s top court makes a big decision about cookies and Twitter takes steps against abusive DMs.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for October 1, 2019.

WeWork withdraws its S-1 filing, will delay its IPO

The move was widely expected, but The We Company (which owns WeWork) made it official yesterday, with new co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham declaring that they’ve “decided to postpone our IPO to focus on our core business.”

Since the company’s S-1 became public, it has faced intense scrutiny over the general state of its finances, and more specifically over the power and behavior of Adam Neumann, who stepped down as CEO last week.

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WeWork withdraws its S-1 filing, will delay its IPO image

Image Credits: Spencer Platt / Staff / Getty Images

3 reasons business users are getting serious about open source

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Businesses with tech stacks powered by open source have a high ROI, are faster innovators, and are more secure than competitors powered by proprietary software.

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Europe's top court says active consent is needed for tracking cookies

It's a decision that plunges many websites into legal hot water in Europe. The Court says consent must be obtained prior to storing or accessing non-essential cookies, such as tracking cookies for targeted advertising.

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Twitter launches its anti-abuse filter for Direct Messages

Twitter is rolling out its spam and abuse filter for Direct Messages, a month and a half after the company announced it had started testing the feature. This should be useful for people who want to keep their DMs open without having to see abusive content.

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Twitter launches its anti-abuse filter for Direct Messages image

Microsoft OneDrive Personal Vault rolls out worldwide, launches expandable storage

Earlier this summer, Microsoft introduced an extra layer of security for its OneDrive product, allowing users to protect their files with two-step verification. Now it’s rolling this feature out worldwide.

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Pandora puts its personalization powers to work in a revamped app

The company’s new mobile experience includes a dedicated "For You" tab where a continually updated feed of content is presented to users, including music and podcast recommendations.

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Pandora puts its personalization powers to work in a revamped app image

Rapyd raises $100M for its 'fintech as a service' API, now valued at nearly a $1B valuation

Currently, Rapyd lets customers use its API to enable checkout, funds collection, fund disbursements, compliance as a service, foreign exchange, card issuing and integration.

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SmartNews' head of product on how the news discovery app wants to free readers from filter bubbles

SmartNews’ Jeannie Yang talks about the app's place in the media ecosystem, creating recommendation algorithms that don't reinforce biases, the difference between its Japanese and American users and the challenges of presenting political news in a highly polarized environment. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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