🎙️ Batman, Wonder Woman & Superman Start Podcasting
We may be biased, but we think that this is by far the most interesting issue we’ve done so far. The tech industry has been front-and-centre in this week’s news. With the influx of relevant & thought-provoking stories, this is a monster issue - enjoy.
This week - Apple’s dominance is under threat, Facebook goes into maps, Robinhood comes under fire (and fairly so), while countries like Australia, the UK & Hong Kong address their own unique challenges 🤯
The Grapevine Newsflash 🔥
14 tech & startup stories in 222 seconds.
🌶️What’s TikToks Secret Sauce? The video sharing giant has nailed its recommendation engine, weighing up several factors to show you the exact content it knows you’ll like. How does it work? Read TikToks blog on the topic here. This comes as they announced the commission of hundreds of experts and institutions to create ‘micro-learning’ educational content to expand its offering.
Tech Tragedy ‼️ A 20-year old user of Robinhood, the free stock trading app, committed suicide last week. In a letter, he blamed the app for allowing him to rack up $730k in leverage. This highlights the risks associated with the business that has democratised investing to less affluent and younger audiences who often have little knowledge of the markets & investment mechanisms. Tragically, it seems like the app’s ‘gamified’ user interface may be to blame and the negative balance may have only been temporary and was to be corrected. This is worth reading - expect to see public pressure on this space.
Stock Spiral 📉 Keeping on Robinhood, the failing car rental company Hertz, has targeted their users to sell $1bn of stock. Having filed for bankruptcy in May, they are attempting to raise money via stock instead of taking loans. Over 170k Robinhood users, for some reason, piled on taking the share price from $0.56 to $5.54 in a matter of days. The biggest loser - billionaire Carl Icahn who sold his 39% share of the company just before the rally, losing $1.6bn on his 6 year bet.
WhatsApp Pay? 💸 WhatsApp has released a new feature enabling users in Brazil to pay each other in just a couple of clicks. The service will be free to use and is powered by Facebook Pay.
📱 UX Wars! Interested to see how the UK Challenger Banks compare to the traditional players? Peter Ramsay has written five incredible reports on account opening, freezing cards, domestic payments, international payments and Open Banking. Expect plenty of case studies are cool graphs. Have a read here.
🚗 Uber as a Service! Uber is moving into the software business, making the technology that powers its ride-hailing business available to others! Find out more here.
Acquisition Denied! Facebook has acquired Mapillary, a mapping technology company that collects images from tens of thousands of contributors to build immerse and up-to-date maps. 🗺️ This news comes shortly after the UKs Competition Authority has announced its investigation of Facebook’s $400m acquisition of GIPHY last month.
👩🎓35 Under 35: MIT has released its 2020 edition of its 35 innovators under the age of 35. Our favorite? Dongjin Seo, who is designing computer chips to connect human brains and machines as part of Elon Musk’s Neuralink project. Check out the full list of innovators here. Surprisingly, no mention of The Grapevine 😉
Betting on Podcasts 🎤 Spotify continued its big spending on podcasts, adding to the $100m Joe Rogan deal and a series from Kim Kardashian, by signing a deal with DC Comics & Warner Bros to have their characters do fictional podcasts. This could include Batman, Harley Quinn, Superman & Wonder Woman.
A Bite out of the 🍏? ‘Hey’ is a new viral email service that’s becoming highly sought after in Silicon Valley. However, the news has shifted from their launch to their fight against Apple. The Hey team has been outspoken in Apple’s reluctance to let them update their app, citing that Apple is upset they’re unable to take their usual 30% revenue share from in-app purchases. This comes as European regulators opened an investigation into the company’s rules and the app store comes under attack for monopolistic behaviour.
Down(time)-under 🦘 The Australian Prime Minister yesterday announced various levels of government have been fighting against a ‘state-based cyber attack’. He wouldn’t name the suspected country but it’s largely expected to be China, as part of the worsening relationship between the two countries.
💾 Govs Try Digital The UK government ditched its own Covid contract-tracing app in a move to a joint venture between Google & Apple. It’s a big U-turn but seems to be for the best as the tech giants’ solution has better accuracy in initial tests. Meanwhile, in the US, Washington state was found to have overcounted negative coronavirus tests due to one line of missing code. Good job.
FortKnox 💰 Creator of popular first-person-shooter game, Fornite, is raising $750m at a huge $17bn valuation. A big winner from shift to work-from-home and the need for ‘essential distractions’.
Digital Blackout ⚫ Hong-Kong is bracing itself for stricter digital controls including becoming part of the famous Chinese ‘Great Firewall’ that’ll prevent it’s 7m citizens from accessing apps like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and other services that are often used to communicate and organize movements. China has 8/10 of the most surveilled cities in the world and Hong Kong may be about to join them. In reaction, one VPN provider saw 120x more downloads than the day before the announcement.
A Positive Spin
We don’t need to tell you about what’s going on in the world this week; but we do want to highlight companies, startups and technology that’s being used to positive effect people and movements across the globe today.
📹 Amazon is using augmented reality to promote social distancing – take a look here.
🌍 Pale Blue Dot is a venture capital firm that invests in companies that use technology to solve climate problems. The fund has just announced a €53 million to invest in 40 climate focused companies
🏦 SoftBank announced it will invest in 14 companies run by diverse founders that are currently in their ‘Emerge’ accelerator program. The cheques will be at least $150k and the program will also expand to Europe and become bi-annual.
📹 One developer has created a Siri shortcut that will start recording video from your front facing camera once you say ‘Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over’. It can also send your current location and a copy of the video to an emergency contact. This could really help identify misconduct by law enforcement.
Bonus Story 🔥
The Zoom era has created a new category of startups taking advantage of video conferencing to carve out their own niches. Check out a great report on it here 📷
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Over & Out,
Nick & Louis