Techmeme: Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$20.6B, below ~$20.8B est., and operating profit up 37% YoY to ~$6.9B, driven by benefits from cost cutting in 2022 (Arjun Kharpal/CNBC)

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August 16, 2023, 1:00 PM

Top News

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:

Sources: Foxconn's Tamil Nadu plant in India plans to deliver new iPhone 15s only weeks after Chinese factories; previously, output lagged China by 6-9 months — - Apple is diversifying iPhone supply chain away from China — India's push to become a manufacturing hub is bearing fruit

Financial Times:

Internal documents: India accounts for $10B of Foxconn's annual revenue, or 4.6% of its 2022 revenue, as its India push shows the limits of “China plus one”

More: Apple Must, The Register, and The Economic Times

X: @birdyword, @financialtimes, @rmantri, @sushantsin, @pstasiatech, @chadbown, and @conradkbarwa

Nico Grant / New York Times:

Documents: Google DeepMind has been working with generative AI to perform at least 21 different types of personal and professional tasks, including life advice — The tech giant is evaluating tools that would use artificial intelligence to perform tasks that some of its researchers have said should be avoided.

More: Neowin, Engadget, Mashable, Tech Startups, CNBC, and The Verge

Bluesky: @sirshannon.com. X: @silvermanjacob

Timmy Shen / The Block:

Coinbase says the exchange received regulatory approval from the CFTC-backed National Futures Association to offer futures trading services to eligible US users — - Coinbase is now allowed to operate as a futures commission merchant and offer eligible U.S. customers access to crypto futures from its platforms, the company said.

Bloomberg:

Intel ends its $5.4B deal to buy Israeli company Tower Semiconductor after failing to win Chinese regulatory approval; Intel announced the deal in February 2022 — - Deal for Tower Semiconductor needed Chinese antitrust approval — Intel Corp. walked away from its attempt …

Kif Leswing / CNBC:

Apple backtracks and moves the “end call” button back to the middle of the screen, from the bottom-right corner, in the latest iOS 17 beta — - Apple has moved the end call button back to the middle of the screen in the the newest developer version of iOS 17 released on Tuesday.

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:

As San Francisco opens to 24/7 robotaxis, a look at Cruise and Waymo cars causing traffic jams and obstructing emergency vehicles, unraveling the public's trust — The day after California regulators handed driverless car companies a major victory, allowing them to expand …

More: The Register, Light Reading, Bloomberg, TechSpot, The Robot Report, PCMag, and Insider

X: @verge. LinkedIn: Philip Koopman

Chris Vallance / BBC:

Sama CEO Wendy Gonzalez says the company no longer plans to take harmful content moderation work from Meta and she regrets the work, after some staff sued Sama — A firm which was contracted to moderate Facebook posts in East Africa has said with hindsight it should not have taken on the job.

More: The Guardian. Forums: Hacker News

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:

Crypto key startup BitGo raised $100M at a $1.75B valuation from undisclosed US and Asian investors; Galaxy Digital scrapped a $1.2B BitGo acquisition in 2022 — The crypto company raised $100 million from new investors, emphasizing its focus on following rules and regulations.

More: PRWeb, SiliconANGLE, FinSMEs, Decrypt, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, The Block, Coinpedia Fintech News, and Crowdfund Insider

X: @bitgo and @silvermanjacob

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Epic Games expands its Epic Online Services crossplay tools from PC to PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, helping developers more easily add crossplay multiplayer — The change could mean that developers will be able to more easily bring crossplay multiplayer to their games.

More: Epic Online Services, VentureBeat, Dexerto, Neowin, and GameSpot

Forums: r/PS5 and r/Games

Caitlin Harrington / Wired:

OSHA investigations and 11 interviews: Amazon's first aid clinics put warehouse staff at risk by keeping them working instead of referring them to medical care — A WIRED investigation and federal citations show how first aid clinics in Amazon warehouses sometimes direct injured employees …

X: @tonyajoriley, @lfelizleon, and @jbarab

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:

The Authors Guild, American Booksellers Association, and Open Markets Institute urge the DOJ and the FTC to investigate Amazon's “monopoly” in the book market — The online retailer's size and sway affects the free exchange of ideas, the groups argue.

More: The Verge and Open Markets Institute

X: @openmarkets, @openmarkets, and @billineastala

See also Mediagazer

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:

Filing: Leslie Kilgore and Andrea Wishom stepped down from Nextdoor's board on August 1 after the US DOJ raised concerns they were also on Pinterest's board — - DOJ is cracking down on directors serving on rival companies

More: Reuters and US Department of Justice. Bluesky: @hunterwalk.com

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Users of X Pro, previously TweetDeck, report encountering X Blue paywalls to use the service; X said on July 3 that “in 30 days” X Pro would be subscriber-only — X, the social network formally known as Twitter, appears to be finally following through on its promise to make TweetDeck a paid service.

Bloomberg:

Documents: Amazon plans to impose a new 2% fee per sale on merchants who ship products themselves, on top of the ~15% fee they already pay, starting in October — - The new levy comes even with an FTC antitrust suit looming — Merchant fees generate revenue as online sales growth slows

X: @seyitaylor

Elizabeth Howcroft / Reuters:

PayPal plans to “temporarily pause” letting UK users buy crypto from October 1, to work on complying with new regulations, and restart support in “early 2024” — Payments giant PayPal (PYPL.O) will stop allowing UK customers to buy cryptocurrencies through its platform …

More: CoinDesk, The Block, Cryptonews, Coinpedia Fintech News, Crypto Daily, Watcher Guru, crypto.news, Cointelegraph, CryptoSlate, and CoinJournal. X: @deitaone

Olivia Poh / Bloomberg:

Southeast Asian giant Sea's stock fell 29%, its largest single-day drop, wiping out nearly $10B to hit a $23B market cap, down ~$180B from a November 2021 peak — - Singapore e-commerce stock drops to lowest ever as sales slow — Competition intensifies as Alibaba, TikTok gain shopping users

More: Reuters, Tech in Asia, Nikkei Asia, and Bloomberg

Bloomberg:

Sources: as part of the US DOJ's two-year Visa investigation, officials are looking at the company charging merchants more for not using its “tokenization” tool — - Merchants get charged more if they shun Visa's tokens — Long-running probe is now scrutinizing those price differences

More: Reuters and San Francisco Business Journal

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:

Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$20.6B, below ~$20.8B est., and operating profit up 37% YoY to ~$6.9B, driven by benefits from cost cutting in 2022 — - Tencent on Wednesday reported a surge in profit for the second quarter, but missed expectations.

More: PingWest, Nikkei Asia, Tencent Investor Relations, Bloomberg, Variety, Financial Times, Tech Xplore, Coinspeaker, South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Tech in Asia

Yuka Hayashi / Wall Street Journal:

The US Commerce Department forms a team of financiers from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, KKR, and other Wall Street firms to help allocate $39B in chip subsidies — Talent from Goldman Sachs, KKR and Blackstone will help determine how $39 billion in semiconductor chip subsidies are allocated

More: Politico. X: @davidasmanfox, @davidpgoldman, @adamthierer, and @zachweinberg. LinkedIn: Matt Hill

Ryan Weeks / The Block:

Layer 1 blockchain startup ZetaChain raised $27M from Blockchain.com and others and plans to launch its mainnet soon; ZetaChain has 27K+ dApp contracts deployed — - Several crypto and trading heavyweights, including Blockchain.com and Jane Street Capital, participated in the fundraise.

More: Cointelegraph

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:00 PM ET, August 16, 2023.

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

Ann Telnaes / Open Windows:

Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer-winning WaPo editorial cartoonist since 2008, quits after she says her cartoon criticizing CEOs currying favor with Trump was killed

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Apple offers Apple TV+ for free to anyone with an Apple ID this weekend, the first time it has offered such a promotion

Surbhi Misra / Reuters:

Filing: Skydance Media and Paramount Global defend their planned $8.4B merger, calling on the FCC to dismiss opposition from critics as lacking merit

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More News

Bloomberg:

Filing: Samsung sold ~3.55M ASML shares from April to June 2023, more than halving its holding from 1.6% to 0.7%, or 2.75M shares, and reportedly raising ~$2.2B

More: The Korea Herald, Reuters, Android Headlines, and SamMobile

Yuvraj Malik / Reuters:

JD.com reports Q2 revenue up 7.6% YoY to ~$39.7B, vs. ~$38.27B est., and retail sales up 2.5% YoY, vs. 4.5% YoY est. and slowing from 3.1% YoY in June 2023

More: South China Morning Post, Tech in Asia, Barron's Online, and JD.com Investor Relations

Politico:

By the end of August, the EU plans to use the DSA to force online platforms with 45M+ EU users to prove they are ensuring their products aren't harming children

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:

Ampere: in 2023, console video game players will spend $21B on in-game items and subscriptions, as “live service games” make the market more akin to mobile

X: @alex and @eleanorolcott

Bloomberg:

Sources: UK PM Rishi Sunak is planning an AI summit later in 2023 to host G7 leaders and CEOs from OpenAI, Microsoft, and DeepMind, possibly at Bletchley Park

More: Financial Times. X: @bloomberguk and @ellenamilligan

PYMNTS.com:

Hollywood, Florida-based ClassWallet, which offers a digital wallet-based purchasing and reimbursement service for public funds, raised $95M led by Guidepost

More: FinTech Global, South Florida Business Journal, ClassWallet, FinSMEs, and Refresh Miami. X: @classwallet

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:

GOP House Financial Services Committee lawmakers demand that SEC Chair Gary Gensler explain how Prometheum won its unique approval as a broker-dealer for crypto

More: The Block, Financial Services Committee, Coinspeaker, Inside Bitcoins, Crypto Daily, Unchained Crypto, CryptoSlate, Bitcoinist.com, Cryptopolitan, Decrypt, CoinGape, and Crowdfund Insider

X: @financialcmte, @brian_armstrong, and @repfitzgerald

Chelsey Cox / CNBC:

At a White House roundtable, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau touts Fair Credit Reporting Act rules to crack down on harmful data broker practices

More: Reuters, The Hill, SC Media, Techdirt, Nextgov/FCW, CNN, Forbes, Consumer Financial …, The Register, CyberScoop, Bloomberg Law, and PYMNTS.com

X: @slaterfe, @tonyajoriley, @tonyajoriley, @chopracfpb, @chopracfpb, @chopracfpb, @chopracfpb, @alfredwkng, and @juliaangwin

Earlier Picks

WABetaInfo:

WhatsApp beta for Android now lets a limited group of testers use generative AI to create custom stickers; inappropriate stickers can be reported to Meta

More: 9to5Google, Pricebaba.com Daily, Mashable, Livemint, PhoneArena, Gizchina, TechRadar, Ubergizmo, Laptop Mag, Neowin, MobileSyrup, Android Police, Android Headlines, XDA Developers, Engadget, The Verge, Android Authority, and Times of India

Patrick Sisson / New York Times:

Drones, cameras, apps, robots, and ML are helping speed up huge construction projects; one company expects to cut up to 5% off a UK railroad project's $11B cost

More: The Information and The Hill

X: @dustyrobotics and @kevinokeefe

Helene Braun / CoinDesk:

Binance plans to shut down its fiat-to-crypto service Binance Connect, formerly known as Bifinity, that supported payment methods including Visa and Mastercard

More: Cointelegraph, Coinspeaker, Cryptonews, Unchained Crypto, Blockworks, Crypto Daily, Bitcoinist.com, Watcher Guru, CryptoSlate, The Block, CoinJournal, and Financial Times

Bluesky: @caseynewton.bsky.social. X: @kshanft, @wublockchain, and @jops_sol. Forums: r/CryptoCurrency

Ash Parrish / The Verge:

Xbox debuts a strike-based enforcement program, to improve “player transparency” and clear up confusion; eight strikes over six months results in a one-year ban

Reed Albergotti / Semafor:

OpenAI says the company has been using GPT-4 to enforce its content policies and says some of its customers are already using the LLM for content moderation

More: OpenAI, Digital Trends, The Verge, MSPoweruser, Engadget, The Decoder, Android Headlines, WinBuzzer, Cointelegraph, Metaverse Post, TechCrunch, Social Media Today, Platformer, Reuters, The Messenger, PYMNTS.com, Bloomberg, VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, iTnews, Axios, and Popular Science

Mastodon: @AnnemarieBridy@mastodon …. X: @openai, @emollick, @rachelmetz, @caseynewton, @samhouston, @then_there_was, @marktenenholtz, @officiallogank, @reedalbergotti, @reedalbergotti, and @gdb. Forums: r/singularity

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google adds an experimental browsing feature that summarizes page content to Search Generative Experience, first in the Google mobile app for Search Labs users

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

YouTube updates YouTube Music on iOS and Android with Samples, a music discovery feed featuring vertically cropped, 30-second clips uploaded directly by artists

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Comcast launches the Xfinity Storm-Ready WiFi, a cellular backup internet device to weather storms and power outages, for $252, or $7 per month for 36 months

More: Comcast, Silicon Republic, Engadget, The Streamable, RCR Wireless News, TechSpot, TechCrunch, Neowin, Light Reading, Comcast, VentureBeat, ZDNet, and SlashGear. LinkedIn: Dave Puckett