Tech News
Tech News and Analysis from around the web
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Indian government rejects Walmart-owned Flipkart's proposal to enter the food retail business in the country — The Indian government has rejected Flipkart's proposal to enter the food retail business in a setback for Walmart, which owns majority of the Indian e-commerce firm …
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba debuts AliExpress Connect, a service to pair influencers with brands and merchants, hoping to attract 100,000+ creators this year with a focus on Europe — - AliExpress Connect links social media darlings with merchants — Model replicates China success of Taobao's live-streaming app
Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:
Tia Health, the developer of a network of digital wellness apps, clinics, and telehealth services focused on women's health, raises $24M Series A — Tia Health, the developer of a network of digital wellness apps, clinics and telehealth services designed to treat women's health holistically …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Facebook Shops integration with Shopify is good for Shopify merchants, but using Facebook Checkout limits the upside of Shopify's own payments offering — In the month since I wrote The Anti-Amazon Alliance, there has been two significant announcements from two of the principals in that alliance:
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
A look at recent statements by tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, and others, regarding racism in America — Comments Share 70 Tweet Share Reddit Email — Seattle tech giants Amazon and Microsoft issued statements this weekend in response to the outrage …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Tim Cook, in a memo to staff addressing racism in US, says Apple will give to non-profits like Equal Justice Initiative, match staff donations 2-to-1 in June — - Tim Cook writes letter to employees after George Floyd killing — Apple donating to equal justice, human rights groups, CEO says
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
YouTube says it will donate $1M to the Center for Policing Equity, a nonprofit think tank that works with police departments to change discriminatory practices — The nonprofit works with police departments to address discriminatory behavior — YouTube says it will donate $1 million …
Mark Kleinman / Sky News:
London-based freight forwarding and supply chain finance startup Beacon raises $15M Series A from investors including 8VC and Jeff Bezos — The Amazon chief is taking a stake in Beacon, a digital freight-forwarding and supply chain finance firm, Sky News learns. — City editor @MarkKleinmanSky
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Some Walmart staff claim AI-based tech used in stores to prevent shoplifting misidentifies innocuous behavior as theft and often fails to flag actual stealing — The retailer denies there is any widespread issue with the software, but a group expressed frustration—and public health concerns.
Stitcher Blog:
Stitcher releases its first podcasting report, with 10 years of data trends; a pandemic update shows a dip in listening at commute times and a lunchtime rise — What a decade of industry growth looks like from the app perspective. — It's been over a decade since we launched the Stitcher app.
Mike Allen / Axios:
Sources: President Trump and Mark Zuckerberg had a phone conversation on Friday that was described by both sides as productive — In the week that President Trump took on social media, Axios has learned that he had a call Friday with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that was described by both sides as productive.
Amy Feldman / Forbes:
Benchling, which makes software for tracking and managing data from biotech research, raises $50M at a $850M valuation, bringing its total raised to $114M — Sajith Wickramasekara started working on an idea for a cloud-based Crispr design tool for scientists during college at MIT eight years ago.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
US is taking a state-by-state approach to COVID-19 contact tracing apps, which could cause security and privacy issues in addition to hindering interoperability — With no nationwide Covid-19 notification software in sight, security and interoperability issues loom large.
Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
Experts discuss plans announced by Coinbase, Genesis Trading, and BitGo to become crypto's “prime brokers” and what that reveals about the state of the industry — It's probably no coincidence that three major crypto firms - Coinbase, Genesis Trading and BitGo …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Internet security group Shadowserver receives $600K over 3 years from Trend Micro and a $400K donation from Internet Society, says it can now operate into 2021 — Ten weeks ago, Shadowserver's main source of funding dried up. Now, it's back on level footing.
