Techmeme
April 8, 2020, 9:40 AM

Top News

@jack:
Dorsey says he's moving $1B of his Square equity, ~28% of his wealth, to Start Small LLC to fund COVID-19 relief, to later focus on girls' health and education  —  I'm moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl's health and education, and UBI. It will operate transparently, all flows tracked here: https://docs.google.com/...
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Airbnb is paying 10%+ interest on the $1B funding it raised on Monday; investors were offered free stock warrants based on an $18B valuation  —  Airbnb's new investors get free warrants based on company valuation of $18 billion  —  Airbnb Inc. agreed to pay its new investors interest …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook's experimental product unit debuts Tuned, an iOS app creating a “private space” for couples, letting them keep a photo diary, exchange notes, and more  —  Keep a photo diary and check in on each other's moods  —  First, Facebook launched a dating feature, and now …
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
Study of 225 pieces of COVID-19-related content rated false or misleading: 59% remain up with no warning label on Twitter, 27% on YouTube, and 24% on Facebook  —  Facebook and YouTube do better, but still leave some misinformation up  —  More than half of the misinformation …
Bloomberg:
Taiwan bars all government agencies from using Zoom for official work due to security concerns, becoming the first national government to impose a ban on Zoom  —  - Taipei joins SpaceX in halting use of video-conferencing app  — Researchers say Zoom routes data via servers in China
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Google says G Suite now has over 6M paying businesses, up from 5M in February 2019  —  - Google's G Suite, which competes with Microsoft Office 365, has passed 6 million paying customers, according to executive Javier Soltero, who previously worked at Microsoft.
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Valve releases data showing rise in games making $10K during first two weeks after release but analysis suggests ~80% of games earn under $5K during same period  —  Valve offers a peek behind the sales curtain, telling an incomplete and mixed story.  —  It has been roughly two years …
Kaveh Waddell / Consumer Reports:
Dan Grover:
Overview of how apps from Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and others are helping users in China check their exposure, get care, and more during the COVID-19 outbreak  —  Summary: China's apps played a pivotal role in supporting some of the most effective tactics the country used in fighting Covid-19 …
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Hong Kong-based Neat, which helps startups and small businesses do cross-border banking online and apply for corporate credit cards, raises $11M Series A  —  Neat, a Hong Kong-based fintech startup, announced today that it has raised a $11 million Series A to help small businesses do cross-border trade.
Dara Kerr / CNET:
After Lyft quietly changed its paid leave policy for drivers, some say the process for getting sick pay is confusing and arduous  —  Without a clear paid leave policy, some drivers may still be on the road despite getting infected. … Ben S. stopped driving for Lyft in mid-March.
Ashley Stewart / Business Insider:
Microsoft says it is pausing new hires except in some “strategic areas”, citing uncertainty due to the pandemic; sources: the company is still hiring for Azure  —  - Microsoft is “temporarily pausing recruitment” for some roles amid uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis, the company confirmed Tuesday.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Everything new in the Zoho Sign iOS mobile app  —  Ranked highly in the iOS App Store (4.9 stars), Zoho Sign's mobile app for iPhone is a user favorite.  We're thrilled to share that the app has been enhanced …
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

Grit:
Flexport's Third Act: Winning in a Broken Global Trade System
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
Everyone's an engineer now: Inside v0's mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder & CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js)
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Why COULDN'T Apple Make An iPhone In The US?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Big Tech's Tariff Chaos + A.I. 2027 + Llama Drama
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
The bull case for domestic manufacturing
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:40 AM ET, April 8, 2020.

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

ProPublica:

Earlier Picks

Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News:
Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Alex Hern / The Guardian: