Techmeme
July 20, 2021, 9:50 PM

Top News

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q2 revenue of $7.34B vs. $7.32B est., up 19% YoY, global paid net additions of 1.54M vs. 1.19M expected; US and Canada region lost 433K subs QoQ  —  - Netflix reported earnings that missed on the bottom line.  — The company's revenue and global paid net subscriber additions beat estimates.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Netflix says its expansion into gaming will start with mobile games, which will be included with a subscription at no additional cost  —  Games will be included at no added cost with a Netflix subscription  —  Netflix revealed that its initial efforts in gaming will be focused on mobile games …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Verizon joins AT&T and T-Mobile in switching Android Messages default to RCS, raising questions about when or if Apple will swap its SMS default with RCS  —  That's all three big US carriers, is Apple next?  —  Beginning next year, Verizon will join AT&T and T-Mobile in preloading Android Messages …
Bloomberg:
Biden nominates Jonathan Kanter, a long-time foe of Google, to become the DOJ's antitrust chief  —  - Kanter has represented Microsoft, Yelp in anti-Google push  — Biden's appointments signal aggressive antitrust agenda  —  President Joe Biden plans to nominate Jonathan Kanter as head …
Dave Gershgorn / The Verge:
DuckDuckGo launches a new Email Protection service that scans emails for trackers then forwards them from a free “@duck.com” address to a user's regular inbox  —  This is your chance to get an ‘@duck.com’ email address  —  DuckDuckGo is launching a new email privacy service meant …
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Crypto derivatives exchange FTX raises $900M from SoftBank, Sequoia, and others, valuing it at $18B; CryptoCompare: FTX handles $10B+/day in trades on average  —  Investors include SoftBank, Sequoia Capital and Daniel Loeb's Third Point hedge fund  —  Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has raised money …
The Information:
Sources: Bolt, which offers a one-click checkout service, is raising a $333M Series D at a post-money valuation of $4B, nearly five times its December valuation  —  Bolt, a San Francisco-based startup that offers software for online shopping, is raising $333 million in Series D funding …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Twitter begins rolling out a preview of a revamped TweetDeck in the US, Canada, and Australia, featuring an option for wider columns, an Explore column, more  —  Twitter is beginning to test a completely redesigned version of TweetDeck, the company announced today.
Washington Post:
Top US Catholic Church official resigns after a Catholic media site obtained his alleged Grindr app and phone location data from an undisclosed data broker  —  The top administrator of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops resigned after a Catholic media site told the conference it had access …
Washington Post:
Phone numbers belonging to ten prime ministers, three presidents, and a king were among the list of 50K potential NSO targets, leaked to Amnesty International  —  Spies for centuries have trained their sights on those who shape destinies of nations: presidents, prime ministers, kings.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
YouTube debuts Super Thanks, which lets users tip creators for individual uploaded videos rather than livestreams and have their message highlighted in comments  —  YouTube announced its latest feature, Super Thanks, on Tuesday.  This is YouTube's fourth Paid Digital Good …
Jennifer Surane / Bloomberg:
Venmo says it is ditching its global social feed, making it so users can no longer see payments between people they don't know  —  - App, owned by PayPal, is removing its global transactions feed  — For years, Venmo has faced criticism for its privacy controls
Keith Barry / Consumer Reports:
Videos of Tesla customers using Full Self-Driving beta 9, rolled out to select users, show a system that seems dangerous for users to be testing on public roads  —  Consumer Reports' car safety experts worry that Tesla continues to use vehicle owners as beta testers for its new features, putting others on the road at risk
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Product Hunt's Josh Buckley and others launch Hyper, a $60M early-stage fund offering $300K fixed checks, a mentorship network, and Product Hunt distribution  —  Hyper is a $60M early-stage fund co-founded by Josh Buckley, Product Hunt's current CEO along with writer, founder and designer Dustin Curtis.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Samsung announces its next Galaxy Unpacked event will be held virtually on August 11, where it is expected to unveil new foldables  —  Samsung just sent out invites for its next Unpacked event.  There are those companies that like to sneak hints into their invites — and then there's Samsung.
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Kanishka Singh / Reuters:
Report: UK suspends grants to its largest fab, Newport Wafer Fab, which was bought by a Dutch firm owned by China's Wingtech, amid national security concerns  —  British ministers have cut off taxpayer-funded payments to Britain's biggest microchip factory after its sale to a Chinese-owned technology company …
Source: Telegraph
Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Sources: a group of Facebook data scientists asked for resources to measure COVID misinfo on Facebook at the start of the pandemic, but execs denied the request  —  The company doesn't know some specifics about how falsehoods about Covid-19 and vaccines for the virus spread on its social network.
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Titan, an investing app with ~30,000 users and ~$500M in assets under management, raises $58M Series B led by a16z, valuing the startup at $450M  —  Titan, a startup that is building a retail investment management platform aimed at the new generation of “everyday investors,” …
Liam Tung / ZDNet:
Google unveils a public preview of Google Cloud Armor Adaptive Protection, a ML-powered service for Google Cloud apps and sites to protect against DDoS attacks  —  Google Cloud customers can now test out Google's answer to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Forbes:
BlockFi CEO confirms it received an order from the New Jersey Bureau of Securities to stop accepting new Interest Accounts; existing users won't be impacted  —  I write about how digital assets are go  According to a draft press release from the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Revolut launches Stays, which lets users book hotels and other accommodations via its app, first in the UK followed by Europe and the US in the coming months  —  - Revolut launched a new feature Tuesday called Stays, which lets users book hotels and other accommodation through its app.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
How remote support can make your Christmas stress-free  —  As Christmas approaches, the air fills with the anticipation of joy, family gatherings, and gift-giving.  While the season brings immense happiness …
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) Calvin And Hobbes - With Daniel Kibblesmith
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:50 PM ET, July 20, 2021.

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

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Globe and Mail:

Earlier Picks

GOV.UK:
noyb.eu:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: