Daily Crunch - Uber confirms Postmates acquisition

Monday, July 6, 2020 Posted by bloggerdaddy 0 comments
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Monday, July 06, 2020 • By Anthony Ha

Welcome to the new Daily Crunch

You may have noticed that The Daily Crunch is making its way to your inbox about six hours later than usual. Do not be alarmed! We decided that sending the newsletter later in the day was a better fit for the TechCrunch news cycle — hopefully, there will be fewer days when we hit Publish and then groan when we see a giant story break five minutes later.

We’re also taking the opportunity to rethink the newsletter format. The mission hasn’t changed — the goal is to deliver the day’s big tech headlines in an email that you can read in just a couple of minutes. But we know that different readers are focused on different areas of TechCrunch’s coverage, so moving forward, The Daily Crunch will be organized to make it easier to find the news that interests you.

This is very much an experiment, so if you have any feedback, positive or negative, feel free to email me at anthonyha@techcrunch.com.

Without further ado: Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 6, 2020.

The big story: Uber confirms Postmates acquisition

The reports last week were true: Uber announced today that it’s acquiring Postmates in an all-stock deal worth $2.65 billion. It looks like the restaurant delivery market is consolidating — Uber previously tried to acquire Grubhub, which ended up selling to the European company Just Eat Takeaway instead. The company said Postmates will continue to operate as a standalone app, but tech and delivery operations will be consolidated.

Meanwhile, Alex Wilhelm took a close look at Uber’s finances to help Extra Crunch readers understand why the company’s stock is up today, arguing that the acquisition could help Uber Eats “grow more quickly while bringing down its losses as a percent of revenue.”

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The big story: Uber confirms Postmates acquisition image

Using RPA and AI for Email: Take Customer Service to a Whole New Level

Sponsored by Astute

Robotic process automation has made its way to email. See how advances in machine learning and NLP create intelligent email automation to keep email volume under control and slash processing time by 80%.

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The tech giants

US tech giants halt Hong Kong police help — After the Chinese government has passed a new security law undermining protections for Hong Kong, both Facebook and Twitter said that they will no longer process demands for user data from Hong Kong authorities. (In Facebook’s case, this also applies to WhatsApp.)

Instagram Reels tested in India following TikTok's ban — Instagram may be taking advantage of India’s decision to ban TikTok by expanding its Reels feature, which allows users to create 15-second videos set to music.

Intel to invest $253.5 million in India's Reliance Jio Platforms — Intel joins General Atlantic, Facebook and Silver Lake as an investor in India’s top telecom operator.

The tech giants image

Image Credits: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg / Getty Images

Startups, funding and venture capital

Here's a list of tech companies that the SBA says took PPP money — Bolt Mobility, Getaround, Luminar, Stackin, TuSimple and Velodyne all took loans of $150,000 or more from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. But confusingly, some of the firms on the list (including Bird and Index) denied taking any loans.

Sequoia announces $1.35 billion venture and growth funds for India and Southeast Asia — Sequoia Capital India made more than 50 investments in India last year, putting it ahead of any other VC firm in the country.

Payfazz gets $53 million to give more Indonesians access to financial services — This Indonesian startup offers a number of mobile financial services, including bill payments and loans.

Startups, funding and venture capital image

Image Credits: Ekspansio / Getty Images

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Four views: Is edtech changing how we learn? — Devin Coldewey, Natasha Mascarenhas, Alex Wilhelm and Danny Crichton have thoughts about whether digital learning can make quality education more accessible, or will simply widen existing divides.

As COVID-19 surges, 3D printing is having a moment — 3D printing has fallen out of the spotlight over the past couple of years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has changed all that.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, designed to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

'Hamilton' gives Disney+ a holiday weekend bump in US, with app downloads up 74% — That’s according to data from Apptopia.

Original Content podcast: 'Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga' is a goofy delight — Every week, Darrell Etherington, Jordan Crook and I review the latest streaming movies and shows in a freewheeling discussion. In this episode, we were all pleasantly surprised by the new Will Ferrell movie on Netflix.

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Daily Crunch - Apple and Google block banned apps in India

Thursday, July 2, 2020 Posted by bloggerdaddy 0 comments
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Thursday, July 02, 2020 • By Anthony Ha

Banned Chinese apps are beginning to disappear from India’s app stores, Palantir is raising more funding and Venmo starts testing Business Profiles.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 2, 2020.

Apple and Google block dozens of Chinese apps in India

Two days after India blocked 59 apps developed by Chinese firms, Google and Apple have started to comply with the government’s order and are preventing users in the world's second-largest internet market from accessing those apps.

UC Browser, Shareit, Club Factory and other apps are no longer listed on Apple's App Store and Google Play Store. In a statement, a Google spokesperson said that the company had "temporarily blocked access to the apps"on Google Play Store as it reviews the order.

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Apple and Google block dozens of Chinese apps in India image

Image Credits: PRAKASH SINGH / AFP / Getty Images

SEC filing indicates big data provider Palantir is raising $961M, $550M of it already secured

Palantir, the controversial and secretive big data and analytics provider, has reportedly been eyeing up a public listing this autumn. But in the meantime it's also continuing to push ahead in the private markets.

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Venmo begins piloting 'Business Profiles' for small sellers

Business Profiles offer small sellers and other sole proprietors the opportunity to have a more professional profile page on its platform. Sellers can share key business details like address, phone number, email, website and more.

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Venmo begins piloting 'Business Profiles' for small sellers image

Image Credits: Venmo

Tesla delivered 90,650 vehicles in second quarter, a smaller than expected decline

Tesla said Thursday that it delivered 90,650 vehicles in the second quarter, a 4.8% decline from the same period last year, prompted by challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — like suspending production for weeks at its main U.S. factory. But the company still managed to beat expectations despite the headwinds.

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Top LA investors discuss the city's post-COVID-19 prospects

From larger fund investors like Mark Suster and Kara Nortman at Upfront Ventures to Dana Settle at Greycroft Partners; to early-stage investors like Will Hsu at Mucker Capital; TX Zhuo at Fika Ventures, the responses were generally upbeat about the future opportunities for Los Angeles startups. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Top LA investors discuss the city's post-COVID-19 prospects image

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman

Dish closes Boost Mobile purchase, following T-Mobile/Sprint merger

T-Mobile today announced that it has closed a deal that divests Sprint's pre-paid businesses, including Boost and Virgin Mobile. The whole thing was a key part of T-Mobile's bid to merge with Sprint.

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AR 1.0 is dead: Here's what it got wrong

Many AR startups made huge promises and raised huge amounts of capital before flaring out in a similarly dramatic fashion. Lucas Matney argues that a key error was thinking that an AR glasses company should be hardware-first, when the reality is that the missing value is almost entirely centered on first-party software experiences. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Daily Crunch - Tesla becomes the most valuable automaker in the world

Wednesday, July 1, 2020 Posted by bloggerdaddy 0 comments
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Wednesday, July 01, 2020 • By Anthony Ha

Tesla hits a financial milestone, Discord is now valued at $3.5 billion and we unpack the 👁👄👁 phenomenon.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 1, 2020.

Tesla blows past Toyota to become most valuable automaker in the world

In 10 years, Tesla has gone from public market newbie to the most valuable automaker in the world. The electric automaker had long since passed the valuations of Ford and GM — and in January, it became the most valuable U.S. automaker ever when its market capitalization hit $81.39 billion.

Still, a few automakers remained ahead of Tesla globally, until today. Tesla shares popped this morning, and the company's market cap now stands at nearly $208 billion, surpassing Toyota.

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Tesla blows past Toyota to become most valuable automaker in the world image

Image Credits: Mason Trinca for The Washington Post / Getty Images

Watch today: Startups compete in Visa innovation live stream

Sponsored by Visa Everywhere Initiative

TODAY, at 2 pm PDT, 5 startup finalists go head-to-head in Visa's open innovation competition to solve future problems faced by the payments and commerce industry. Tune in to see which finalist will walk away with the grand prize.

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Discord now has a $3.5B valuation and $100M for a sales pitch lighter on the gaming

"It turns out that, for a lot of you, it wasn't just about video games anymore," wrote co-founders Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy in a blog post. Discord, they said, is "a place to have genuine conversations and spend quality time with people, whether catching up, learning something or sharing ideas."

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What 👁👄👁.fm means for Silicon Valley

In 36 hours, a diverse group of young entrepreneurs and technologists used a mysterious meme to raise more than $200,000 for three charities supporting people of color and the LGBTQ community: The Okra Project, The Innocence Project and The Loveland Foundation.

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What 👁👄👁.fm means for Silicon Valley image

Image Credits: Tim Robberts / Getty Images

Facebook bans 'violent network' of far-right boogaloo accounts

Facebook took action to remove a network of accounts Tuesday related to the "boogaloo" movement, a firearm-obsessed anti-government ideology that focuses on preparing for and potentially inciting a U.S. civil war.

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Dear Sophie: Is immigration happening? Who can I hire?

Lawyer Sophie Alcorn lays out the current immigration landscape for a Bay Area recruiter. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Dear Sophie: Is immigration happening? Who can I hire? image

Image Credits: Sophie Alcorn

YouTube TV hikes price to $64.99 per month following new channel additions

The bump in pricing is now one of several price increases YouTube TV has seen since its debut, due to the rising costs of programming for the streaming TV service — with the cord cutting trend now accelerating due to the pandemic.

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NASA pays out $51 million to small businesses with big ideas

NASA has announced its latest batch of small business grants, providing more than 300 businesses a total of $51 million in crucial early-stage funding. These "phase I" projects receive up to $125,000 to help bring new technologies to market.

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