Techmeme: Research: global VC investment for 2018 reached $300B+, up 55% YoY, across 34K+ deals, up 32% YoY, with $100M+ rounds accounting for over 56% of the capital (Jason D. Rowley/Crunchbase News)

Top News

Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg:

Tencent previews Xiaowei, an AI voice assistant for WeChat that will integrate with Tencent's own services and apps by third parties such as Meituan or Didi — - WeChat's assistant can help connect users with mini apps — WeChat mini programs will focus on monetisation with ads

More: TechCrunch, South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post, and Tech in Asia

Tweets: @jonrussell, @luluyilun, @business, and @payathedo

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Researchers: a hacking group made ~$3.7M in Bitcoin since Aug. with Ryuk ransomware, which only targets firms with huge resources and can lay dormant for a year — Ryuk lies in wait for as long as a year, then pounces on only the biggest prey. — A recently discovered ransomware group …

More: crowdstrike.com/blog, BleepingComputer, and ZDNet

Tweets: @bank_security and @likethecoins

Jason D. Rowley / Crunchbase News:

Research: global VC investment for 2018 reached $300B+, up 55% YoY, across 34K+ deals, up 32% YoY, with $100M+ rounds accounting for over 56% of the capital — Make no bones about it: 2018 was one heck of a year for the global venture capital market, and the fourth quarter closed it out on strong footing.

More: TechCrunch and PitchBook

Tweets: @jason_rowley and @trengriffin

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

Apple says HomePod will become officially available in China and Hong Kong on January 18 for RMB 2,799, or ~$414 — Apple has announced today that HomePod will be available in China starting on Friday, January 18th. Apple teased last month that HomePod was coming to China in “early 2019,” but now we have an official release date.

More: MacRumors, Apple, South China Morning Post, and The Verge

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Plex is in talks to offer ad-supported movies and more premium subscriptions as soon as this year, taking on Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video Channels — Media software maker Plex is preparing to take on The Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video Channels, possibly as soon as this year.

More: TechSpot, MacRumors, The Mac Observer, Tom's Guide, and Engadget

Meng Jing / South China Morning Post:

Alibaba launches A100, an initiative for helping enterprises and merchants digitize their operations, initially for partner companies in its ecosystem — - The programme will initially involve companies, such as major brands and merchants, that are partners in Alibaba's ecosystem

More: The Drum, Yahoo! Finance, Forbes, Channelnomics, and Fortune

Financial Times:

China's new guidelines for short video apps ban 100 types of inappropriate content, say that platforms should review every piece of content that goes online — China's wildly popular short-video apps, such as Tik Tok, will now be held responsible for all “harmful” content posted by users …

Tweets: @conniechan

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Spanish on-demand laundry and dry cleaning startup Mr Jeff raises $12M Series A led by All Iron Ventures with plans to expand to 30 countries by end of 2019 — If you thought the on-demand laundry space had run out of startup steam, here's a bit of a conditioner: Spanish startup Mr Jeff …

More: Tech.eu, Novobrief, VatorNews, and EU-Startups

Sidney Fussell / The Atlantic:

Automation may not completely replace service workers, but will likely reduce hours, lower pay, and conceal intense demands on labor and poor working conditions — Workers may not be replaced by robots anytime soon, but they'll likely face shorter hours, lower pay, and stolen time.

Tweets: @bjm262run, @hash_tigre, and @pdorfman

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:

Research shows self-reported heavy Facebook users make impaired decisions, like drug addicts, on a classic test of maximizing rewards — Researchers at Michigan State University are exploring the idea that there's more to “social media addiction” than casual joking about being too online might suggest.

Tweets: @jdprater

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Intel's Nervana, a neural network chip for inference-based workloads, will lack a standard cache hierarchy, and software will directly manage on-chip memory — At a press event at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, Intel announced the Nervana Neural Network Processor (NNP-I) …

More: The Register, Wccftech, SDxCentral, NDTV Gadgets 360, PCWorld, Fortune, MIT Technology Review, and Engadget. Tweets: @wolfejosh

David Pierce / Wall Street Journal:

How MicroLED display technology, demoed by Samsung at CES, may let customers assemble their own TVs to the exact size and shape they want, like LEGO bricks — MicroLED is better looking, more efficient and more versatile than any previous display tech. Now all Samsung, Sony …

More: Forbes, Gizmodo, CNET, The Verge, 500ish Words, The Verge, and AnandTech

Tweets: @timesnow, @samsungnewsus, @wsj, and @verge

Sponsor Posts

Microsoft:

6 AI Trends to Watch in 2025 — Explore insight from Microsoft on key AI advancements that will shape our work and daily lives in the coming year.

Genesys:

The Levels of Experience Orchestration — What's your vision for the future of customer experience? See how AI can transform your business - and take you to the next level.

Zoho:

Zoho Workplace gets yet another security boost: The addition of Zoho Vault — Information is the new currency. More than ever, safeguarding sensitive data is now paramount. A data breach can not only damage …

Techmeme Leaderboards:

Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more — We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics. Download reports immediately for just $100.

Top News

Sponsor Posts

Who's Hiring In Tech?

About This Page

From Mediagazer

Upcoming Tech Events

More News

Earlier Picks