Techmeme
December 26, 2018, 8:30 PM

Top News

Don Reisinger / Fortune:
Amazon announces a record-breaking holiday season with the number of voice-activated shopping orders placed using Alexa tripling YoY  —  Shoppers are increasingly using their voices to buy products online.  —  Amazon on Wednesday said that the number of voice-activated orders placed via …
Washington Post:
Reid Hoffman says he wasn't aware of disinformation campaign in Alabama race, apologizes for funding group linked to it; source says Hoffman invested $750K  —  Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized on Wednesday for funding a group linked to a “highly disturbing” effort …
Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: SEC and state regulators brought 90+ crypto-related cases in the past two years, recovering just ~$36M; cases increased as the market crashed  —  SEC and state regulators have brought more than 90 crypto cases over the past two years, but tracing funds is hard because of the elusive nature of the currency
Wolfie Zhao / CoinDesk:
Crypto mining startup Bitmain confirms layoffs, which, source says, may affect half of its total head count, with some departments being laid off entirely  —  Months after it filed an application to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Beijing-based cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain …
Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:
A look at Speakr, a social media influencer management platform that some influencers say has failed to pay them, with trouble starting in late 2017  —  The agency Speakr set influencers up with brands for lucrative campaigns—and then stiffed them.  —  After rising to MySpace fame in the mid-aughts …
Max Read / New York Magazine:
The internet now feels increasingly fake as trust declines and users begin to understand how bots fake page views, conversations, and more  —  In late November, the Justice Department unsealed indictments against eight people accused of fleecing advertisers of $36 million …
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
In 2018, smartphone makers, users, and some academics began to appreciate the effects of excessive smartphone use, leading to iOS' Screen Time and other tools  —  But will we actually reclaim our time from smartphones?  —  At the beginning of this year, I was using my iPhone to browse …
Raymond Zhong / New York Times:
As Huawei comes under government scrutiny worldwide, a look at the company's aggressive culture that encouraged employees to bend the rules, up to a point  —  SHENZHEN, China — Earthquakes, terrorist attacks and low oxygen levels on Mount Everest could not hold them back.
Abrar Al-Heeti / CNET:

Sponsor Posts

Termina:
AI Powered Diligence at Scale  —  VCs and founders deploy Termina AI Scans on >12% of all known series A+ deals to uncover hidden risks and opportunities.  Explore how you too can invest and build better companies with AI.
Zoho:
Top live chat software in 2025  —  When it comes to customer communication, every second counts for businesses because it leads to either a treasure trove or an empty cave.  To help with this …
SBS Comms:
Expect Better: SBS Comms  —  The media landscape is changing fast, so don't be slow — out with the old, in with the new.  SBS helps tech companies like GitHub, Cloudflare, Flexport, Ramp and more modernize comms and secure impactful results.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Diggnation:
Under the Wire with AI, Exoskeletons, and Gaming PC builds
Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht give you their unique, sometimes awkward, and always hilarious take on the edges of the internet.
Subscribe to Diggnation.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Folks Are Circling Intel
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Grit:
Co-founder & CEO, Wolt & Head of DoorDash International, Miki Kuusi: The Next Mountain
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
A founder's guide to crisis management | Uri Levine (Waze co-founder, serial entrepreneur)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:30 PM ET, December 26, 2018.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Megha Rajagopalan / BuzzFeed News:
Mara Hvistendahl / MIT Technology Review:

Earlier Picks

Zachary Fryer-Biggs / Wired: