TikTok’s tune troubles

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Alex Wilhelm Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Good morning, friends, and welcome to TechCrunch AM for Wednesday, January 3. It's big tech earnings season, though the news there hasn’t been stellar thus far. But worry not, below we have new venture funds, the latest from fintech, Google's cloud storage momentum, and more. Heck, even TikTok makes an appearance! – Alex

TechCrunch Top 3 Universal Music Group to pull its music from TikTok: After failing to come to an agreement on royalties, Universal intends to remove its massive music catalog from popular social video service TikTok. Universal wants more money, but TikTok doesn't want to pay more. Universal says TikTok is only worth 1% of its revenue so it can afford to walk away for a bit. Can TikTok make it without Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande? Giant Ventures raises $250M: One part of the post-2021 venture pullback that we don't talk about enough is how much less money VCs are raising than they used to. So it's worth noting when a fund lands a $250 million fund, especially when its prior fund was $100 million. In this case, the firm in question is Giant Ventures, a U.K.-based VC that invests on both sides of the pond. Layoffs at Wattpad: Popular online writing service Wattpad has laid people off yet again. This time, it's about 30 people, or 15% of its staff — the same proportion of its headcount that it cut last year. Consider this another data point that monetizing online writing remains very, very hard to do. Image Credits: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP / Getty Images

Don't miss these Fintech layoffs: It's bleak to keep writing about them, but there are more layoffs to report. This time, the cuts stem from the world of big-cap fintech. Both PayPal and Block are cutting staff, with the former looking to reduce its headcount by 9% this year in a combination of cuts and closed open roles. Block is singing a similar tune, with 1,000 people getting laid off, or about 10% of its total team. The layoffs "add to a sense of malaise in the fintech and broader tech sector, which has seen tens of thousands of workers let go in the past few weeks," writes Kyle Wiggers. Yep, it's not just you. Tech layoffs really are getting worse. India updates: Accel is in advanced talks to lead a $15 million to $20 million funding round into Newme, a company that some are comparing to China's Shein. Given that Shein is considering an IPO in the U.S., it's not a shock that hyper-cheap e-commerce is getting more venture attention. Newme just closed a seed round to boot! In less exciting news for some Indian startups, the country's central bank issued new, strict curbs on Paytm's Payments Bank. Since that's the bank that fintech giant Paytm uses, this is a big deal. Starting February 29, Paytm Payments Bank will be able to do less than it does currently. This is not the first time Paytm has been in trouble, and it is in the soup this time around due to what the Reserve Bank of India calls non-compliance and supervisory concerns. People like cloud storage: Alphabet told investors in its quarterly results call that its storage solution, Google One, is nearing 100 million customers. I am one of them, though it's cheap enough that I honestly could not tell you how much space I have or what I pay for it. Why the disclosure? Google wants you to know that it's more than just a search giant and it is, in fact, the No. 3 cloud infra player. Its basket of subscription products, including Google One, YouTube Premium and Music, and other services, has crossed the $15 billion annual run rate mark. Musk pay deal unfair, judge rules: Elon Musk got an unwelcome ruling in the state of Delaware after a shareholder suit over his compensation package from Tesla. Apparently, the compensation was viewed by some as too much for a part-time CEO. Musk is mad about it, and is airing his gripes on X. Does the UK think it's the EU? The EU gets away with its regulatory strictures and fines because it is a large, wealthy market. The UK, which left the EU a while back, is also putting pressure on tech giants from TikTok to Bing and Google. The issue is that while the EU has a population of around 450 million, the UK is home to only 67 million folks. Think of it as a bit smaller and poorer market than two Californias stitched together. How much clout the UK can come to wield over how search and social media products work today is not clear, but it's no EU. Image Credits: CFOTO/Future Publishing / Getty Images

Before you go Talking with the founders of theSkimm: Rebecca Szkutak recently sat down with Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, the co-founders and co-CEOs of the Skimm, a well-known email newsletter company that targets millennial women. If you want to learn more about digital media and reaching the modern consumer, this is one for you. Image Credits: TechCrunch

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Instagram Threads gains traction

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Good afternoon, and welcome back to TechCrunch PM. Today we get into who's on top in the app stores, more layoffs, more venture capital and something to occupy your free time. Read on.  — Christine Image Credits: Bloomberg / Gabby Jones / Getty Images

Don't Miss StrictlyVC In Los Angeles On Feb. 29 Sponsored by TechCrunch Have you heard? Tekedra Mawakana (Waymo), Trae Stephens (Founders Fund), & Meredith Whittaker (Signal) are headlining StrictlyVC's LA event on Feb. 29. Join us for networking, content, and cocktails with top VCs and industry leaders. Tickets on sale now. Learn More

TechCrunch PM Top 3 Instagram Threads reaches the top 10: Just when you thought Instagram Threads was not going to see growth, the social media app tripled its month-to-month downloads in December to help get it into the top 10 apps in both the App Store and Google Play. More layoffs: Looks like the sun set a bit on software company Aurora Solar, which announced today it was laying off 20% of its staff after missing some growth targets. Meanwhile, PayPal is reportedly beginning company-wide layoffs today that are expected to affect "thousands." Airfocus bags $7.5M for its take on project management software: Yes, another project management software tool. However, this one has a bunch of goodies for enterprise project managers. Image Credits: Getty Images

More top reads Apple Card users raked it in last year: If you're holding an Apple Card, you are likely one of the 12 million users who earned more than $1 billion in Daily Cash from spending on Apple Card in 2023. Rule-breakers: The IRS finds itself in hot water while trying to keep employees from accessing TikTok. Heart pressure monitoring without an implant: That's Acorai's plan after grabbing around $4.5 million in seed funding. The Swedish medical device company is building a device that takes vitals via sensors on the patient's chest. All eyes on space: Watch SpaceX launch a Northrop Grumman resupply mission to the International Space Station. More venture capital for those ubiquitous startups: Ubiquity Ventures, started by Sunil Nagaraj, now has $75 million for its Fund III to sink into startups focused on what he calls "software beyond the screen." PadSplit keeps growing: The U.S. median monthly rent price of nearly $2,000 is keeping many lower-income workers from finding quality housing. Enter PadSplit, which now has over 10,000 units in 18 cities. Inside Studio's new online music school: Look out, MasterClass, Studio is plugged in and ready to make music. Today, Studio launched its first AI-powered online school for musicians, songwriters and producers to learn from top artists. Leal invests in customer engagement in Latin America: It's hard to identify your most loyal customers. Even more so when they pay with cash. That's where Colombia-based Leal comes in, offering merchants a way to collect data on customers and offer them personalized perks. Before you go: Head on over to TechCrunch+ and learn why B2B SaaS pricing can't just be about consumption versus subscription. Image Credits: SOPA Images / Getty Images

On the pods Today on Found, Becca is joined by Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, co-founders and co-CEOs of the Skimm, which is a digital media company dedicated to succinctly giving women the information they need to make confident decisions. They talked about how they've navigated the digital media industry for over a decade, how they pitched this to investors when they were new to the game, and the importance of building a team that aligns with your vision. Listen here. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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OpenAI wants to build family-friendly GPTs

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Alex Wilhelm Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Good morning, and welcome to TechCrunch AM for January 30, 2024. Today we're talking about a nine-figure AI round, another Indian unicorn facing valuation troubles, two semiconductor companies, two climate tech startups, and OpenAI’s decision to keep things SFW. It's a busy week thus far! – Alex

TechCrunch Top 3 Kore.ai raises $150M for conversational AI in the enterprise: Demand for AI tools to facilitate "business interactions," or the times when employees interact with customers or one another, has helped Kore.ai draw big dollars from venture backers. The company's massive round implies that VC demand for AI startup shares remains hot. ClickUp buys Hypercal: Productivity app ClickUp is building "one app to replace them all," according to its CEO, Zeb Evans. Now, the company is adding calendar functionality with its purchase of Hypercal. ClickUp last raised $400M at a $4 billion valuation back in 2021. Let's see if that somewhat dated coffer can afford the company any more acquisitions this year. Fidelity cuts the value of its holdings in Meesho: One fun way to track what late-stage startups are worth is to pore over the disclosure forms that large financial companies file, because they often tell us what a company is worth. In the case of Indian social commerce startup Meesho, Fidelity’s latest filing reveals that it thinks the company is worth $3.25 billion instead of the $4.9 billion valuation at which it last raised capital.

Don't miss these Chips are green because of all the money involved: The ability to manufacture lots of semiconductors is considered a national security issue today. That means that the amount of investment that the sector will receive globally will likely outstrip natural demand. On the other hand, computing power is more in demand than ever to power the ongoing AI boom. So it's not too surprising that Rebellions, a South Korean fabless AI chip startup, just landed $124 million in a massive Series B, partially predicated on work it announced recently to build an AI chip with Samsung. But that's not all. Semron, a German startup, wants to build "3D-scaled" chips that will allow companies and people to run AI models locally. AI in the enterprise! AI at home! AI on your device if it's a TV or a phone! Welcome to our new future. p0 wants to use AI to catch code flaws: No one wants to push an update to production that kills the service. That's what p0 wants to prevent. The company is using large language models to analyze code and help developers catch serious issues in code before it is shipped. I wonder how long it'll be until AI writes the code, more AI verifies that it's good to go, and then even more AI deploys it? Heck, AI could even be dogfooding at that point, right? Maybe developers will code up a solution to the ever-present shortage of high-powered code slingers. The latest in climate tech: Thankfully, not everything in the world (and this newsletter) is about AI. Some companies are still building vertical SaaS. BlueLayer is one such firm, and it is working on software that is specifically designed for carbon project developers, which I thought was pretty neat. It helps companies track carbon credits and provide reporting tools for other stakeholders. The company has raised $10 million to date. Also: Haven Energy has closed a Series A less than a year after it raised a seed round. Investors are seemingly impressed by the company, which connects consumer solar power generators to battery techs who can up their in-house storage capacity. Why is that big business? A regulatory change in California is a key driver, Tim De Chant reports. PG-13 OpenAI: On the heels of a global conversation about the use of modern AI tools for creating unsavory images, OpenAI has teamed up with Common Sense Media to offer family-friendly "chatbot apps powered by OpenAI's GenAI models," Kyle Wiggers reports. Given the appetite for AI regulation around the world, we think it's a good idea to keep tabs on how major AI model companies are working to get ahead of legal strictures by cosplaying as moral leaders. Plex raises $40M as it hunts for profitability: The streaming media economy is so large now that I have to admit I don't know all the companies in the space. Tubi, for example. It's on my Roku. What is it? I'll never know. Another streaming company that I should pay more attention to is Plex. The company started off as a media server tool, but then started offering a free streaming service, monetized via advertisements. Plex also offers a paid version of its service that offers content downloads. Regardless, TechCrunch reports that the company could reach profitability late this year or early next year, so while streaming has not yet proven to be a profitable avenue for many companies, Plex appears to have found a way forward that is resonating with consumers. Image Credits: Jason marz / Getty Images

Before you go Yelp has more AI, short-form video coming your way: I don't know about you, but what I want when I am looking at a menu is a short-form video of someone eating the food I am trying to learn more about. I kid, but it does seem that what I want from Yelp is not what most of its consumers want, if its latest feature load is built to answer user demands instead of trying to steer them towards more total engagement minutes with the app. What strikes me here is that all apps kinda look the same today. There's a feed, it's very visual, and there are videos. Apparently we are not merely seeing the TikTok-ification of just social media, but all media. RIP patience, and attention spans. Image Credits: Yelp

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Expect big things from Apple’s iOS 18

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Monday, January 29, 2024

Good afternoon, and welcome to TechCrunch PM. In today's news, we hope Apple's iOS 18 doesn't disappoint because it's just been hyped to the extreme. Plus, the European Union says ChatGPT has some 'splaining to do and that finsta account you have could turn into a real one. Let's go! — Christine Image Credits: Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images

TechCrunch PM Top 3 Apple's iOS 18 may be 'the biggest' software update in iPhone history: Are you ready for Apple's iOS 18? You better be because it’s going to be off the chain according to Bloomberg. Reporter Mark Gurman says iOS 18 is expected to be "one of the biggest iOS updates — if not the biggest — in the company's history." We don't have specifics on what will be so great, so we'll all have to wait until June. Arrival's spectacular fall continues with a delisting from Nasdaq: The move follows the commercial EV startup being late in posting financial results and failing to file a remediation plan with the exchange. It comes two months after Arrival secured a $50 million lifeline that it hoped would keep the company going as it explored options. ChatGPT is violating Europe's privacy laws: Italy's data protection agency tells OpenAI it's suspected of violating European Union privacy following months-long investigation. The company now has 30 days to respond. Image Credits: Arrival

More top reads Compa gives real-time compensation: When you get that new job, you definitely want to be paid what the market is saying your skills and experience are worth. Compa helps companies know that before they offer you the job. Yes, Flipside is coming: Instagram confirmed that the social media company is testing Flipside, an experiment that would essentially turn users' "finstas" — their separate, private, and more personal accounts — into a new product feature. Let's Zoom tonight: If you're getting an Apple Vision Pro, Zoom will be on there with its visionOS app that has, among other things, "persona" support for users to use a digital avatar during calls, 3D object sharing and a chat feature. Talking about AI's role in all these tech layoffs: Artificial intelligence does have its role to play, and while generative AI still has a ways to go in replacing a human, some of the job cuts we see today say it's coming. Here’s a good AI example: Speaking of AI doing the work of humans, the giving of venture capital is largely a human-led thing. Cap VC is launching a tool for venture capital firms and has plans to expand that to startups raising money. All in the vein of making better investment decisions, faster, using AI. Is Reddit's IPO worth $5B?: Over on TechCrunch+, that's the question Alex Wilhelm works on answering. Know if you need the umbrella before you step out of the house: The forecasting of weather keeps getting better and better. Now, thanks to Tomorrow.io's two radar satellites — and machine learning — we will know more than just if it is going to rain today. Image Credits: Compa

On the pods On today's Equity, Alex runs down the list of what to expect this week in terms of Big Tech earnings. He also looks, among other things, at Arc's new mobile app, Reddit's IPO and what Garry Tan said. Listen here. But wait, in case you missed it this morning, there's a bonus Equity from over the weekend with Crunchbase's Gené Teare, who discussed venture capital data and said there could be good news on the horizon. Listen here. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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