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Showing posts from July, 2023

X reinstates Kanye West’s account after Musk banned him last year

Social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) has reinstated the account of Kanye West (who legally goes by Ye) after he was banned last year for posting a picture of Swastika merged with the Star of David . Last December, months after Elon Musk took over the platform, Ye created a tweetstorm by posting a series of antisemitic comments along with a picture that violated the social network’s rules. At that time, Ye also posted an “unflattering” picture of Musk, but the Tesla CEO clarified that the rapper-producer wasn’t banned because of that. Just clarifying that his account is being suspended for incitement to violence, not an unflattering pic of me being hosed by Ari. Frankly, I found those pics to be helpful motivation to lose weight! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022 Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ye’s account won’t be eligible for monetization and ads will not appear next to his posts. Last week, X rolled out an ad revenue-sharing

Oppo A78 4G teased officially, to launch in India soon

Oppo plans to launch the 4G variant of its Oppo A78 smartphone in India soon. With the tagline “Endless Entertainment”, the company hasn’t specified a launch date. However, they did mention the smartphone would exhibit specs compatible with its global market. The global variant supports a 6.43-inch AMOLED display, Snapdragon 680 processor, 8GB RAM, and a 5000mAh battery unit with 67W fast charging. Fingerprint and face unlock, USB Type-C charging, a 3.5mm audio port, dual rear cameras, and an 8MP front camera will also feature on the phone. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/6KOksTZ

Fidelity deepens valuation cut for SaaS startup Gupshup

Fidelity has slashed the estimated worth of its holding in SaaS startup Gupshup by over 20% in a month and by more than 50% since the original investment in the latest brutal markdown across private markets. The U.S. asset manager valued its holding in Gupshup at $8.08 million at the end of June, down from $10.15 million a month prior , according to a monthly disclosure. Fidelity originally invested $16.2 million from its Blue Chip Growth Fund in Gupshup in mid-2021 in a funding round that valued the business messaging services provider at $1.4 billion . The business messaging platform, which started its journey in India 17 years ago, raised $340 million in 2021 from a clutch of investors including Tiger Global, Think Investments and Malabar Investments. Fidelity slightly improved the value of its holdings in Reddit, Discord, Twitter-parent X Holdings and Indian e-commerce Meesho in the month of June, it disclosed in the filing. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ZNxWucs

Tiger Global exits Flipkart, makes highest-ever profit

Tiger Global has announced to its limited partners that it has realized $3.5bn gains from its phased selloff of Flipkart, an Indian e-tail giant. The gains, the highest the company has from a single company globally, were made in the last few years. Tiger Global invested around $1.2bn in Flipkart in 2009, and it started selling shares to Softbank Vision Fund in 2017. It followed it by selling $2.5bn stake to Walmart, taking the gain up to $1bn. Walmart's stake in Flipkart is about 77% after buying a 4% stake from Tiger Global, which made the highest profit from an Indian online company. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/thDaH9F

Walmart pays $1.4 billion to buy Tiger Global’s remaining Flipkart stake

Walmart paid $1.4 billion to buy out Tiger Global’s remaining holding of Flipkart shares as the retail giant further expands its stake in the Indian e-commerce startup. The transaction took place in recent days and Tiger Global, which has cashed most of its Flipkart shares earlier, overall made a return of $3.5 billion on an investment of $1.2 billion, the New York-headquartered hedge fund told investors, according to a person familiar with the matter. Wall Street Journal first reported on the deal. Flipkart is the only Indian startup in which Tiger Global had invested more than $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The U.S. investment giant has poured over $6 billion on Indian startups altogether. The secondary Flipkart shares sale valued the Bengaluru-headquartered at $35 billion. Flipkart was valued at $37.6 billion in a funding round in 2021, but has since internally cut its worth by about $5 billion following the split of payments startup PhonePe . Walm

Tesla’s range-flation problem, Waymo reverses on self-driving trucks and Ford tweaks its EV playbook

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The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here —  just click The Station — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free.  Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B. Hey frens! I’m back from vacation and who-wee — a lot happened this week from automaker earnings and the Tesla range inflation drama to Waymo tapping the brakes on self-driving and Cruise expanding to yet another city. One other note, you can find me on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast , a place where I will show up on a semi-regular basis, including this episode that came out Friday! Onward! Want to reach out with a tip, comment or complaint? Email Kirsten at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com . Reminder that you can drop us a note at  tips@techcrunch.com .  If you prefer to remain anonymous ,  click here to contact us , which includes SecureDrop ( instructi

Is Black news VC backable?

Lately I’ve been thinking about media publishing startups (think Semafor and Puck) and their fundraising rounds. Semafor recently raised a $44 million seed round, and Puck raised a $7 million Series A in 2021. The Messenger, among the newest in the industry, recently raised $50 million. Publishing media jobs are uncertain, pushing those with an entrepreneurial spirit to start their own companies, giving them more ownership over their work. But compare their experience to that of Dana Amihere, who is still trying to find support and funding for her news media startup. She launched AfroLA News in 2022 to cover the Black community in Los Angeles. So far, she won’t even touch venture capital. The outlook is bleak for people who look like her, she said. People in the startup world keep telling her things are getting better, but “ Who are things improving for?” she asked. “Knowing what the landscape looks like, it almost feels more worthwhile to dedicate the limited time I do have to oth

Can we trust automakers to build an EV charging network that rivals Tesla’s Supercharger?

Automakers appear to have had an awakening last week: Electric vehicles are the future, and if they want to continue selling cars, they have to think beyond the car. I’m not talking about subscriptions, though; I’m talking about charging. For years, major auto manufacturers were happy to leave the infrastructure to someone else. Tesla was the lone exception, building a globe-spanning network of speedy and reliable chargers that have placated range-anxious car shoppers who have bought the company’s EVs in droves. Other automakers, though, failed to connect the EV charging experience with EV sales. Perhaps it’s because infrastructure is unfamiliar territory. Or maybe they actually weren’t that interested in selling EVs. Whatever the case, automakers’ recent come-to-Jesus moment culminated in an announcement last week that seven of the largest would be forming a joint venture to build a massive charging network across North America. Consisting of no fewer than 30,000 charge points off

When you’ve got two exits under your belt by the age of 26

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In this week’s edition of The Interchange, we get into M&As in the fintech space as AngelList nabbed a startup and Uplift got bought for less than it raised in venture funding. We get into those deals and much more. Want to receive this in your inbox every Sunday? Sign up here . Shopify’s credit bet, Jeeves’ update and AngelList’s second buy Last week, Shopify announced a new offering — Shopify Credit, a business credit card designed exclusively for its merchants. The new product marked Shopify ’s first pay-in-full business credit card, said Shopify president Harley Finkelstein. It is powered by Stripe and issued by Celtic Bank, “and accepted everywhere Visa is,” he added. My editor and I were intrigued by the fact that Shopify insisted it would charge no fees — no late fees, no foreign transaction fees, and no interest. But upon further digging into the fine print, as fellow fintech enthusiast Sar Haribhakti tweeted about, it turns out that Shopify is also describing the new o

This week in food tech: New fund shows food investments are still simmering

If you’re adventurous with your food, or just like to keep up with the fast-moving food tech industry, here’s a roundup of this week’s stories and some notable news we weren’t able to cover. Supply Change Capital The venture capital fund madness we’ve seen all year has made its way to the food sector. This week, I wrote about Supply Change Capital , which closed on $40 million in capital commitments for its first fund, targeting investments in the global food industry. The female and Latina-owned firm is spearheaded by co-founders and managing partners Noramay Cadena and Shayna Harris, who met 14 years ago in business school. The firm has already made 15 investments, including in allergen-free snack food company Partake Foods , ingredients startup Michroma and alternative seafood maker Aqua Cultured Foods . Supply Change joins firms like Joyful Ventures, which debuted in June with $23 million , focused on investment in sustainable protein startups. Joyful was co-founded by Jenni

Google wants to get rid of AI-generated product reviews, here's how

Google's latest Product Ratings policies, set to be applied from August 28, will restrict the use of automated and AI-generated content in reviews. The move aims to maintain the integrity of the review system and eliminate fake content to create a trustworthy environment for consumers and businesses. Google will flag policy violations and deploy a combination of AI tools and human-based evaluation to ensure compliance. Automated programs and AI app-generated reviews will be marked as spam and removed from the platform. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/bi5JP3L

Twitter rebrands to ‘X,’ hackers infect Call of Duty, and foreign visitors to China go cashless

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Hey, friends, welcome to Week in Review (WiR) , TechCrunch’s roundup of the week in tech news. Life getting in the way of your daily TechCrunch habit? Not to worry. WiR will get you caught up in no time. This week, WiR covers the improving quality of AI porn generators and the ethical dilemmas they raise; Twitter rebranding to “X”; and hackers infecting Call of Duty with self-spreading malware. Elsewhere, we dive into a North Korean hacking group, foreign Chinese visitors’ newfound ability to go cashless, and the rollout of Sam Altman’s Worldcoin eyeball-scanning crypto project. As always, it’s a lot to get to, so let’s not delay. But first, a reminder that if you haven’t already, sign up here  to get WiR in your inbox every Saturday. Most read Twitter rebrands to “X”: This week, Twitter removed its iconic bird logo and adopted “X” as its new official branding. The move, which Elon Musk announced over the weekend , is a harbinger of the platform’s shift — perhaps more aspirational

Android’s earthquake alert system reportedly failed in Turkey

Google's Android Earthquake Alert System may have failed during the devastating earthquakes that hit Turkey in February. The system, which uses the accelerometer in phones to gather collective warning data and detect the epicenter and magnitude of a quake, notifies people seconds before a tremor strikes, allowing them to take necessary precautions. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/gu3hr6H

How to lock video during a meeting on Google Meet

Google Meet has a Camera Lock feature that lets meeting hosts block video of all participants. It allows them to control participation levels, address disruptions and enable camera use as needed. Camera Lock can be activated from a computer or iOS device and applies to all other devices connected to the meeting. However, participants won't be able to share their screen or present once their video is locked. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/mSwlJUZ

HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar’s salary sees huge fall in fiscal year 2023

HCL Technologies CEO C Vijayakumar's remuneration dropped almost 80% to INR28.4 crore ($3.46m) in FY23 from INR130 crore in the prior fiscal year. The fall was due to the absence of the long-term incentive component, which will be paid next year, according to the company annual report. Vijayakumar had earned almost $12.5m under the LTI in FY22. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/29pxgS6

Elon Musk’s Twitter (now X): Everything you need to know, from layoffs to verification

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Welcome to Elon Musk’s Twitter ( now X ), where the rules are made up and the check marks don’t matter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO first announced his bid to buy Twitter in April 2022, zealously driven to rid the platform of spam bots and protect free speech. “This is just my strong, intuitive sense that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization,” Musk said at a TED conference on the day he made his offer. “I don’t care about the economics at all.” Even for one of the richest men in the world, $44 billion is a lot of money to cough up to buy a middling social platform. Despite his fervent declarations about expanding “the scope and scale of consciousness” through public discourse, the billionaire got cold feet. A month later in May, he tried to kill the deal , claiming that Twitter had more bots than its public filings let on. After a truly chaotic legal discovery process, which even included some e