Techmeme
April 12, 2022, 2:55 AM

Top News

The Verge:
Meta rolls out a test for some creators to sell virtual items and effects in Horizon Worlds, which will take a 25% cut of any sale after app store fees  —  Horizon Worlds will take a 25 percent cut of any sale after app store fees  —  Meta is testing new features to let creators …
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Netflix is rolling out a Double Thumbs Up ratings option, which will appear next to the thumbs up and down buttons, to let it refine content recommendations  —  For nearly five years, Netflix has had simple thumbs-up and thumbs-down icons to express viewing preferences and help its algorithms provide better recommendations.
Brad Stone / Bloomberg:
Marc Andreessen has tweeted ~350 times in the past two weeks, often referring to “the current thing” meme, joined by Elon Musk and others  —  Three of America's top technologists are talking and tweeting with unusual fervor.  But first...  - Beijing is targeting tech companies' algorithms
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Fitbit receives FDA clearance for passive heart rhythm monitoring to detect signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and will roll out the feature in the US soon  —  The Food and Drug Administration has given Fitbit the green light to monitor users' heart rhythms in the background.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Over 14,000 Etsy sellers start a week-long strike over an increase in transaction fees from 5% to 6.5%, grievances with Etsy's Offsite Ads program, and more  —  If you're in the market for funky trinkets and unique, handmade clothing, you might want to put off your shopping until next week.
Omar Abdel-Baqui / Wall Street Journal:
Elon Musk appears to have deleted some tweets critical of Twitter and its leadership; Musk liked a tweet saying he was “told to play nice and not speak freely”  —  Elon Musk appears to have deleted some tweets taking aim at Twitter Inc. amid his decision not to join the social-media company's board of directors.
Axios:
New York Times:
In the absence of federal crypto regulations in the US, lobbyists and executives are helping draft and pass favorable bills at state level  —  In the absence of federal regulations, crypto lobbyists and executives are going state by state to get favorable rules enacted.  Many lawmakers have been willing partners.
Reuters:
Epic Games, which makes Fortnite, raises $2B from Sony and KIRKBI, the holding company behind LEGO, at a $31.5B post-money valuation  —  Epic Games said on Monday it had raised $2 billion from Sony Group Corp (6758.T) and the family owned holding company behind the Lego Group, giving the “Fortnite” maker a valuation of $31.5 billion.
Wall Street Journal:
Okta, IBM, and other companies are increasingly setting aside college degree requirements for US job applicants, opening up tech jobs to a range of new talent  —  The pandemic has helped catapult Americans in low-paying roles into more upwardly mobile careers
Teddy Amenabar / Washington Post:
Educators say esports infrastructure company PlayVS is misrepresenting itself as the exclusive provider of interscholastic high school esports for some games  —  For the past three years, the Washington State Scholastic Esports Association has been coordinating video game competitions for teams at different schools across the state.
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
Sources: Meituan plans to lay off 10%-20% of staff from its core business units, days after announcing that it added 17K jobs from July 2021 to mid-March 2022  —  Up to 20 per cent of Meituan's staff in core business units, including food and grocery deliveries have been affected The lay-offs come …
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Voyager Innovations, owner of popular Filipino financial app PayMaya and neobank Maya Bank, raises $210M led by SIG Venture Capital at a $1.4B valuation  —  Voyager Innovations, the owner of Philippines' payment and financial services app PayMaya and neobank Maya Bank, announced today …

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Earlier Picks

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Reuters: