Techmeme: Spotify will launch real-time lyrics in 26 markets across Southeast Asia, India, and Latin America in partnership with Musixmatch, starting June 30 (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

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Techmeme

June 30, 2020, 2:20 PM

Top News

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Following the government's ban, many users have lost access to TikTok in India, its biggest overseas market, and the app is not in App Store or Play Store — A growing number of internet service providers in India have started to block their subscribers from accessing TikTok …

More: TechCrunch

India's app ban may present a model for other countries from Europe to Southeast Asia that seek to curtail China's access to their residents' data — - Ban shows the increasingly fractured nature of tech industry — Chinese firms may find themselves excluded from key markets

Tweets: @bgurley, @brij, and @next_china

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Sensor Tower: consumer spending on apps reached $50.1B globally during the first half of 2020, up 23.4% YoY, and first time installs were up 26.1% YoY

Rahul Shrivastava / India Today:

Indian government bans 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser, WeChat, and Clash of Kings, citing national security and maintaining public order

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google shares details on upcoming Sheets features that automatically clean up and complete data, through formula suggestions and more — Google today announced a couple of updates to Google Sheets that will make building spreadsheets and analyzing data in them a little bit easier.

More: The Keyword, ZDNet, VentureBeat, Android Headlines, SlashGear, and Engadget

Cara Lombardo / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Uber in talks to buy Postmates for ~$2.6B in a deal that could be announced next week if not sooner — A deal between Uber and the San Francisco-based food-delivery company could be announced next week if not sooner — Uber Technologies Inc. is in discussions to buy Postmates Inc …

More: New York Times, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, VICE, New York Times, CNBC, CNET, Reuters, TechCrunch, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Engadget, Ubergizmo, PYMNTS.com, TechSpot, The Verge, and SiliconANGLE

Tweets: @mikeisaac, @aaschapiro, @counternotions, @eghosao, @sherman4949, @bigblackjacobin, @martinapennisi, @heidi_chung, @nmasc_, @kateconger, @dhh, @shaig, @yashar, @mdudas, and @kateclarktweets

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Facebook will change its News Feed algorithm to prioritize news stories with original reporting and demote ones that are not transparent about their authors — Beginning today, Facebook will be updating the way news stories are ranked in its News Feed to prioritize original reporting, executives tell Axios.

More: About Facebook, TechCrunch, iMore, and Engadget

Tweets: @badnetworker, @jmgrygiel, @evelyndouek, @kantrowitz, @markcoddington, @marklittlenews, @kerrymflynn, @stevekovach, @markgongloff, @sarafischer, @jason_kint, @wongmjane, @gavinsblog, and @mattnavarra

See also Mediagazer

Abram Brown / Forbes:

Chat app Discord raises $100M led by Index Ventures at a $3.5B valuation, up from $2.05B 18 months ago, and says it has ~100M MAUs, up 50% YoY — By shutting out white supremacists and reinventing itself to be more accessible, Discord has added millions of more diverse users—teachers …

More: Discord Blog, The Verge, TechCrunch, Engadget, Index Ventures, TechSpot, Neowin, Gamasutra, GameSpot, and OnMSFT.com

Tweets: @jasoncitron, @abebrown716, and @glennf

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

UK government plans to begin allowing rental e-scooter trials on roads from Saturday, in a bid to ease pressure on public transport during the pandemic — In light of COVID-19 and social distancing regulations, the UK has been working on making it easier for people to get from point A to B …

More: BBC, GOV.UK, Telegraph, BBC, The Guardian, The Verge, Engadget, Sifted, Verdict, euronews, Pocket-lint, and Pocket-lint

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Spotify will launch real-time lyrics in 26 markets across Southeast Asia, India, and Latin America in partnership with Musixmatch, starting June 30 — Last November, Spotify confirmed it was testing real-time lyrics synced to music in select markets. Tomorrow, the company will announce …

More: TechHive, 9to5Google, Android Headlines, 9to5Mac, Droid Life, iDownloadBlog.com, Android Police, XDA Developers, MSPoweruser, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Neowin. Tweets: @mehedih_

Wall Street Journal:

Amazon is boosting efforts to lure military and commercial space organizations as major users of AWS, hoping to benefit from rising spending in the sector — AWS's move comes during a multiyear surge in U.S. military and civilian agency spending on space projects

More: The Amazon Blog, Fortune, Bloomberg, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @aws_gov and @thesheetztweetz

Jeff Hunter / AnyList Blog:

AnyList CEO details customer support challenges arising from implementing Sign In With Apple, which it won't support, complicated by its Hide my Email feature — Starting June 30th, Apple will be enforcing a new rule in the App Store requiring many apps to support Sign in with Apple.

More: 9to5Mac, Six Colors, and iMore

Tweets: @johnwilson, @morten_bo, @jacobbennett, @dhh, and @nixcraft

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Google says it is acquiring Canadian smart glasses company North, which is winding down Focals 1.0 hardware and canceling its plans to ship Focals 2.0 — Google confirmed today via blog post that it has acquired Canadian smart glasses company North, which began life as human interface hardware startup Thalmic Labs in 2012.

More: Tom's Hardware, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, The Verge, BetaKit, VentureBeat, CNET, CNBC, Neowin, MSPoweruser, and Road to VR

Tweets: @focalsbynorth, @benbajarin, @lucasmtny, and @srlake

Steve Lohr / New York Times:

Leading universities and tech firms back a new project to give scientists access to the data centers of tech giants and to public data sets for AI research — A proposal to give scientists access to huge data sets and powerful computers. — Leading universities and major technology companies agreed …

More: Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. Tweets: @nytimesbusiness, @jeffdean, @counternotions, @repagonzalez, @nytimestech, @stevelohr, and @repannaeshoo

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon launches Watch Party on Amazon Prime Video, a desktop feature for US Prime members to watch content together and chat with up to 100 viewers — Amazon Prime Video is beginning to roll out a co-viewing feature to Amazon Prime members in the U.S., the company announced today.

More: Engadget, Gizmodo, The Verge, XDA Developers, Android Police, TechHive, Thurrott, Mashable, Variety, Android Headlines, TechSpot, Fossbytes, Trusted Reviews, Pocket-lint, Neowin, and The Next Web

Tweets: @chrispirillo, @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia, @gameguypgh, @stuartbruce, @hnshah, and @lamarrwilson

See also Mediagazer

Matthew J. Belvedere / CNBC:

Netflix says it will put 2% of its cash holdings, currently ~$100M, toward financial institutions and organizations dedicated to helping Black communities — - Netflix announced plans to start putting 2% of its cash holdings into financial institutions and organizations to “directly support Black communities in the U.S.”

More: Netflix Media Center, Wall Street Journal, CNET, The Verge, Bloomberg, and New York Times

Tweets: @annie_parker, @cnbc, @jabarijyoung, @sallyshin, @jyarow, and @ttgbossmanszn

See also Mediagazer

Kevin Roose / New York Times:

Q&A with Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on banning r/The_Donald and other problematic subreddits after resisting for years — Steve Huffman, Reddit's co-founder and chief executive, says that new rule changes will help the company fulfill its mission. — On Monday, Reddit …

More: The Atlantic, Fortune, KnowTechie, and Ars Technica

Tweets: @blackamazon and @kevinroose

David Pierce / Protocol:

Workspace collaboration company Monday.com launches an App Framework, letting third parties build tools atop its service — A new “Apps Framework” will allow third-party developers to start building their own apps on top of Monday. — For a while, Roy Mann and Eran Zinman just wanted to build a good project management tool.

More: GeekTime and Enterprise Times

Tweets: @alex and @mcwm. Thanks:@maxlifton

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

German startup solarisBank, which offers financial services to other fintech companies through a set of APIs, raises $67.5M Series C at a valuation of $360M — Despite the Wirecard fallout, German fintech startup solarisBank has raised a Series C funding round of $67.5 million (€60 million).

More: coinspeaker.com and Crowdfund Insider

Tweets: @bradvanl and @saidhaschemi

Ryne Hager / Android Police:

Nearby Sharing, Android's long-awaited AirDrop competitor, is rolling out in beta — Android's long-awaited Nearby Sharing may be just about ready. The feature, which allows you to share files between Android devices quickly, easily, and wirelessly, has been compared to Apple's AirDrop …

More: XDA Developers, Android Authority, Android Central, 9to5Google, Neowin, Android Headlines, MSPoweruser, and Releases

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Lululemon says it plans to acquire home fitness startup Mirror for $500M; Mirror was last valued at $300M — Lululemon today announced plans to acquire home exercise startup Mirror, for $500 million. The fitness apparel company noted its plans by way of a press release …

More: New York Times, CNBC, lululemon athletica inc., Crunchbase News, Input, coinspeaker.com, Reuters, and Howard Lindzon

Tweets: @sapna, @hblodget, @caro, @techcrunch, @musa, @mathowie, @edzitron, @zck, @mattzeitlin, @danpriceseattle, @retailprophet, @adamsinger, @pitdesi, @darrenrovell, @mcwm, @joannastern, @kevinthau, @mekosoff, and @mdudas

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Capital, which offers an AI-based tool to help startups manage money and raise it in alternative ways, raises $9M “Seed 2”, after raising $5M in 2019 — In 2019, in the US alone, more than 10,000 startups raised more than $133 billion in venture funding, with a large proportion of that equity investments.

Thanks:@ingridlunden

Alex Barker / Financial Times:

Survey of 58 WFA members, who are responsible for $90B+ of ad spending worldwide, finds ~33% will suspend or are likely to suspend spending on social media — Study reveals extent of revolt against Facebook and Twitter over hate speech — Almost a third of the world's biggest brands …

More: Bloomberg. Tweets: @financialtimes

See also Mediagazer

Makena Kelly / The Verge:

FCC officially designates Huawei and ZTE as risks to national security, and telecoms can no longer use federal subsidies to purchase equipment from them — Telecoms can no longer use federal funds to purchase their equipment — On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission officially …

More: TechCrunch

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

AWS makes CodeGuru, a set of tools that use machine learning to automatically review code for bugs and suggest potential optimizations, generally available — AWS today announced that CodeGuru, a set of tools that use machine learning to automatically review code for bugs …

More: Amazon.com, Inc., SiliconANGLE, Thurrott, and DEVCLASS. Tweets: @kevinmiller

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:20 PM ET, June 30, 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.

From Mediagazer

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

Manuela Vega / Toronto Star:

Rogers Sports & Media lays off more than two dozen employees in its radio and podcasting divisions, citing declining revenue and challenges in advertising

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More News

Jamf, which makes tools for businesses to manage Apple devices, files for an IPO, reporting $60M revenue on an $8.3M net loss in the three months ending March

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

Qualcomm debuts Snapdragon 4100 chips for smartwatches, the first update since 2018, bringing much-needed performance improvements to upcoming Wear OS watches

More: Gizmodo, Android Police, XDA Developers, and TechCrunch. Tweets: @backlon

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:

Upsolver announces $13M Series A led by Vertex Ventures US to ease management of cloud data lakes by allowing users to query the data using SQL

More: FinSMEs

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:

Data integration company Fivetran raises $100M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst at a $1.2B valuation

More: The Irish Times, ZDNet, Fivetran Blog, Forbes, and Business Wire

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Tel Aviv-based startup Hunters, which helps enterprises defend and analyze hacker attacks, raises $15M Series A from M12 and US Venture Partners

More: FinSMEs, VentureBeat, and Security Boulevard

Mary Ann Azevedo / HousingWire:

Sundae, a real estate marketplace for distressed residential properties, raises $16.55M Series A led by QED Investors, bringing its total raised to $19.7M+

More: Business Insider. Thanks:@bayareawriter

River Davis / Wall Street Journal:

Some Japanese companies are stepping in to help China build its $150B national 5G network, filling a void created by US sanctions on supplying Huawei

Tweets: @wsjtech, @piie, @baldingsworld, @mdubowitz, @jchengwsj, @reconasia, @asiapolicy, and @scottlincicome

Nikkei Asian Review:

As China passes new national security laws for Hong Kong, people are altering their digital footprints or removing their social media posts to avoid detection

Earlier Picks

Ciara O'Brien / The Irish Times:

TikTok says it's moving privacy oversight of its European users from its US entity to its entities in the UK and Ireland starting July 29

More: Newsroom | TikTok and CityAM

Tweets: @mdudas, @azeem, and @pstasiatech

Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:

Google says it has removed search ads linking to sites that charged US users large fees for voter registration or harvested their data, after a watchdog report

More: Tech Transparency Project and Digital Trends. Tweets: @marietjeschaake

Janko Roettgers / Protocol:

Hulu, Samsung have pulled apps focused on 360-degree videos, as Oculus sunsets its 360-video optimized Go headset; Facebook: the future is more immersive 6DOF

Tweets: @protocol

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Despite pretending to be a free speech alternative to Twitter, Parler is taking down content and shutting down accounts

More: The Daily Dot and Axios

Tweets: @rmac18, @notjessewalker, @ike_saul, @mkay_fain, @iamcassiecurtis, @mcgrawfinkle, @senmikelee, @robaeprice, @martinsfp, @mikestuchbery_, @davidafrench, @cjane87, @maybeames, and @libertytarian

Guy Fawkes / vpnMentor:

Researchers find Toronto-based OneClass left data of 1M+ students exposed, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and the name of schools attended

More: SiliconANGLE

Julia Alexander / The Verge:

YouTube bans six channels, including those of white supremacists Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer, for violating its hate speech policies

More: Tubefilter, The Guardian, CNN, Decrypt, Business Insider, Mashable, Right Wing Watch, and MediaNama

Tweets: @rileyjaydennis, @ericgarland, @moonalice, @cooperstreaming, @micdamicrophone, @mtracey, @jkfecke, @cmclymer, @oneunderscore__, and @kevinroose

See also Mediagazer

Ina Fried / Axios:

Memo: Microsoft suspended its ads on Facebook and Instagram in the US in May and has since expanded the pause globally, over concerns of “inappropriate content”

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Twitch temporarily bans President Trump for “hateful conduct” that was aired on stream, noting it does not make exceptions for “political or newsworthy content”