Techmeme
July 29, 2021, 4:20 PM

Top News

Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Robinhood opens flat in its trading debut, giving it a market valuation of ~$32B, after raising $2.1B in its IPO; its shares slipped as much as 10% after debut  —  - Robinhood's opening price was $38 per share, valuing the stock trading app at roughly $32 billion.
Ryne Hager / Android Police:
Google updates Play Store policies to ban apps offering “compensated sexual relationships”, likely impacting sugar daddy dating apps, beginning September 1  —  Today, Google published a handful of changes to its Play policies, and nestled among precise legalese refinements …
Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:
Profile of Sophie Zhang, a former Facebook data scientist who wrote an exit memo detailing Facebook's inadequate steps to address global election misinformation  —  Sophie Zhang, a former data scientist at Facebook, revealed that it enables global political manipulation and has done little to stop it.
Jing Yang / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Didi is considering going private in order to placate Chinese authorities and compensate investors for losses using money made during its IPO  —  Ride-hailing giant has been contemplating delisting plan as crackdown widens and has obtained support from cybersecurity watchdog
Tiernan Ray / ZDNet:
OpenAI introduces Triton 1.0, an open-source programming language for writing GPU code for neural networks, and claims it is easier to write than Nvidia's CUDA  —  SEO: Python-like language promises to be easier to write than native CUDA and specialized GPU code but has performance comparable …
Source: GitHub and OpenAIMore: InfoWorld
Wall Street Journal:
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Eric Newcomer / Newcomer:
Profile of Bessemer Venture Partners, an early investor in Twilio and Shopify, as its competition with Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, and SoftBank ramps up  —  Bessemer Venture Partners is a thoughtful firm in a world of loose money.  —  4 hr ago  —  In 2009, Ethan Kurzweil …
Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg:
More than 90 CEOs, including Cook, Pichai, Jassy, and Zuckerberg, urge Congress to ensure citizenship for Dreamers, after a judge ruled against the program  —  - More than 90 executives seek legal status for Dreamers  — They say allowing citizenship would give U.S. economic boost
Harmeet Singh Walia / Counterpoint Research:
Global smartphone market grew 19% YoY in Q2 with 329M units shipped, led by Samsung with 58M units, Xiaomi with 53M, Apple with 49M, and Oppo with 34M  —  - Global smartphone market grew 19% YoY but declined by 7% QoQ as 329 million units were shipped, led by Samsung.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Senate reaches a deal on an infrastructure plan including $65B for broadband investments, $35B less than Biden's original plan; final vote still yet to happen  —  That's less than the original $100 billion plan  —  On Wednesday, bipartisan Senate negotiators reached a deal on an infrastructure package after weeks of tense discussion.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Nothing Ear (1) wireless earbuds review: comfortable, unique transparent design and lots of features, but buggy performance and so-so noise cancellation  —  Standout design, noise cancellation, and wireless charging for $99  —  There's a lot riding on the Ear 1 wireless earbuds …
Steven Musil / CNET:
Samsung Q2: profit of $10.8B, up 54% YoY, on $55.2B revenue; its chips business accounted for nearly half the profit; mobile division revenue declined QoQ  —  Samsung's operating profit showed strong growth in the second quarter, thanks to higher-than-expected chip prices and continued consumer demand …
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Mark Zuckerberg says video now accounts for almost half the time spent on Facebook, and that Reels is the “largest contributor to engagement growth”  —  He wants Facebook to become a ‘metaverse company.’  —  Facebook users are spending a lot more time watching video …
Amazon.com, Inc.:
Amazon reports Q2 revenue of $113.08B vs. $115.2B est., net sales grew 27% YoY, net income of $7.8B, and AWS net sales of $14.8B, up 37% YoY; stock down 5%+  —  SEATTLE—(BUSINESS WIRE) July 29, 2021—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2021.
More: CNBC
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Huawei announces P50 and P50 Pro, its first flagship phones with HarmonyOS, in China; Huawei executive says the phones lack 5G support due to US sanctions  —  Google's apps and services continue to be absent  —  Huawei has announced its latest flagship phones for the Chinese market, the P50 and P50 Pro.

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