Tuesday, August 18, 2020
The Best Movies on Disney+ Hotstar
Cannabis dispensaries’ online sales are way up, and Dutchie, which connects them to their customers, is a major beneficiary
Dutchie, a nearly three-year-old, Bend, Ore.-based software company focused on connecting consumers with cannabis dispensaries that pay the startup a monthly subscription fee to create and maintain their websites, process their orders, and track what needs to be ready for pickup, has raised $35 million in Series B funding. The capital came both new investors Thrive Capital and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, along with earlier backers, including Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures and the cannabis-focused fund Casa Verde Capital.
The money comes fast on the heels of Dutchie’s first major round of funding — $15 million that it closed last September — and suggests that the cannabis industry has fared better during the COVID-19 pandemic than people outside the industry might imagine.
We we had a fast chat yesterday with the company’s cofounder and CEO, Ross Lipson, about the year that Dutchie is having.
TC: I’d seen recently that Dutchie has added contactless payments.
RL: Yes, we’re particularly proud that when the pandemic hit, virtually all of our dispensaries shifted to a curbside pickup model. We built a solution that not only allows customers to select curbside at checkout, but also includes a way to notify the dispensary when they arrive and provides them information on how to locate their vehicle.
TC: A year ago, there were more than 30 states where cannabis was either medically legal or that had legalized the recreational use of marijuana. How has that changed?
RL: We now work with over 1,300 dispensaries in 32 markets. By comparison, a year ago we were only operating in 9 markets. Nationwide, 47 out of 50 states now allow some form of legal cannabis, and 2020 could bring full legalization in major markets such as New Jersey and Arizona.
TC. Can you put that into context? How many dispensaries are there in the U.S.?
RL: Dutchie processes 10% of all legal cannabis sales worldwide and powers over 25% of dispensaries. That’s more than 75,000 orders a day.
TC: You had 36 employees the last time we talked. What’s that number now?
RL: We currently have 102 employees and we aim to double our team by the end of 2021.
TC: Aside from helping dispensaries shift to a curbside model, how has the pandemic impacted your business?
RL: Virtually all states deemed cannabis dispensaries as essential businesses [once COVID took hold]. Many still had to comply with state laws and close their physical stores, though, leaving only one option for sales – online ordering. We saw dispensaries shift from about 30% of overall sales coming from Dutchie to upwards of 100%, and our business grew 600% in roughly one month.
Overall, we’ve seen a 700% surge in sales volume during the pandemic. We had to scale quickly to deal with six times the load on our technology, but our team rose to the occasion.
TC: Think those numbers will shift around as some parts of the country open up?
RL: Dispensaries are poised to keep online ordering and e-commerce options available because it is part of what their customers now expect.
Pictured, left to right, above: Ross and Zach Lipson (Zach, Ross’s brother, is the company’s cofounder and chief product officer).
Hong Kong’s food e-commerce startup DayDayCook raises $20 million
The food blogging community in China is booming, and many creators have been cashing in big time by touting food products to loyal followers, a business model that has lured investors.
This week, Hong Kong-based startup DayDayCook announced that it has raised $20 million to expand its multifunctional food platform, whose users mainly come from mainland China. The company founded by banker-turned food blogger and entrepreneur Norma Chu offers a bit of everything: an app featuring recipes and food videos, cooking classes in upscale malls, and a product line of its own branded food products sold online, which makes up 80% of its revenues.
London-based Talis Capital led the funding round, with participation from Hong Kong’s Ironfire Ventures. The eight-year-old startup has raised a total of $65 million to date from investors including Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, the e-commerce giant’s not-for-profit effort to support young entrepreneurs in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The selling point of DayDayCook products is their carefully crafted brand stories. Users first consume the content put out by the startup across social channels, and then they become customers of DayDayCook’s ready-to-eat or to-cook food packs, kitchenware, and more.
“We really believe in the content-to-commerce model,” said Matus Maar, managing partner at Talis Capital.
He went on to explain that as content creation becomes easier thanks to an abundance of mobile editing tools, “even one person in rural China can make amazing content that creates a huge following.” He was referring to China’s reclusive influencer Li Ziqi who rose to stardom by posting videos on Youtube and domestic sites about her rural self-sufficiency.
“That goes hand in hand with people not wanting to see content that is super polished or comes out of mega agencies. People on the internet want to see authenticity. They want to see people doing real things,” suggested the investor.
While there is a legion of food influencers out there, not all are equipped to build a money-making venture. Matus believes DayDayCook has all the pieces in place: suppliers, distribution, logistics, and shipment. By developing its private label products, the startup is also able to sell at higher margins.
Chu said her company has amassed 2.3 million registered users on its own app. Its paid users, ordering through e-commerce channels like JD.com and Alibaba’s Tmall, grew 12 times year-over-year to 2.2 million.
DayDayCook’s content has a wider reach, garnering 60 million followers across microblogging platform Weibo, TikTok’s Chinese edition Douyin, Tencent’s video site, and more. That may not seem like a lot in the influencer era — Li Ziqi herself has nearly 12 million subscribers just on YouTube.
Reliance Retail, India's largest retail chain, has acquired a 60% stake in online pharmacy Netmeds' parent firm Vitalic for about $83.2M (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)
Reliance Retail, India's largest retail chain, has acquired a 60% stake in online pharmacy Netmeds' parent firm Vitalic for about $83.2M — Reliance Retail has bought a 60% stake in pharma marketplace Netmeds' parent firm Vitalic for about $83.2 million, it said today …
Instagram starts rolling out QR codes for user profiles globally, a feature that it had first launched in Japan last year; Instagram is deprecating Nametags (Ashley Carman/The Verge)
Instagram starts rolling out QR codes for user profiles globally, a feature that it had first launched in Japan last year; Instagram is deprecating Nametags — Don't open Instagram to find a profile — Instagram is bringing QR codes to the app. Users can now generate QR codes that'll …
Daily mobile use by Indians jumps to 5 hours
Redmi Note 9 Pro Max to Go on Sale Today via Amazon.in, Mi.com
Inside the work of the DNC and RNC digital teams for the conventions: building a robust network, ensuring a livestream, producing a broadcast, and more (Nick Corasaniti/New York Times)
Inside the work of the DNC and RNC digital teams for the conventions: building a robust network, ensuring a livestream, producing a broadcast, and more — Making sure livestreams don't lag. Sending out remote video kits. Showing speakers how to avoid microphone mishaps.
Take-Two Interactive has agreed to acquire NYC-based mobile game developer Playdots for $192M in cash and stock; Playdots had raised $10M Series A in 2014 (Matthew Handrahan/GamesIndustry.biz)
Take-Two Interactive has agreed to acquire NYC-based mobile game developer Playdots for $192M in cash and stock; Playdots had raised $10M Series A in 2014 — New York-based studio's entire team will join Take-Two in cash and stock deal — Take-Two Interactive has acquired the mobile developer Playdots in a deal worth $192 million.
Realme C11 Sale in India Today via Flipkart, Realme.com
At the first-ever virtual DNC, Democrats play it safe
The first all-virtual Democratic National Convention is in full swing, but don’t expect fireworks. The event runs through Thursday in a truncated-for-TV two hours a night that’s apparently not setting any viewership records, even with most Americans stuck at home.
It likely won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed former Vice President Joe Biden’s unlikely rise to the top of the party this year, but this year’s unusual DNC doesn’t inject any interesting social media twists or pull off any amazing technical feats of virtual presence.
Like we saw in the race for the Democratic nomination, what works appears to have prevailed — even if it doesn’t excite. And if the week continues without any viral gaffes or technical failures, the Democrats’ big event will serve as a solid virtual baseline for comparison with next week’s sure-to-be-wild Republican nominating convention. The main objective of the nominating event this year seems to be making it through without any notable catastrophes, which in 2020 is actually a pretty lofty goal.
This year the DNC is being held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but nearly all of its speakers are being beamed in from elsewhere in the country. Musical performances from Leon Bridges on a rooftop and an oceanside Maggie Rogers broke up some of the stiffer portions, but broadcasts still abruptly cut away from them for commentary.
The DNC’s first night relied heavily on pre-recorded video, from effectively dramatic montages about a nation in crisis to Michelle Obama’s emotional appeal against four more years of Trumpism. Large chunks of the programming were pre-recorded — a wise move for avoiding technical glitches but one that considerably dampened the electricity. In spite of the format challenges, a handful of powerful moments still managed to stir emotions for the sofa-bound.
"George should be alive today.
Breonna Taylor should be alive today.
Ahmaud Arbery should be alive today.
Eric Garner should be alive today.
Stephon Clark, Atatiana Jefferson, Sandra Bland …… So it’s up to us to carry on the fight for justice."#DemConvention pic.twitter.com/bZ7Nt4kn5J
— 2020 #DemConvention
(@DemConvention) August 18, 2020
In the first night’s early moments, the brothers of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man brutally killed by Minnesota police officers, called for the country to maintain momentum in the racial justice movement that followed their brother’s tragic death.
“We must always find ourselves in what John Lewis called, ‘good trouble’ for the names we do not know, the faces we’ll never see, those who can’t mourn because their murders didn’t go viral,” Philonise Floyd said, leading into a moment of silence.
The ever-fiery former Biden rival Sen. Bernie Sanders was another exception to the lull of a not-quite-live event. Addressing the nation live from a wood pile in his Vermont home, the senator warned of a dark future if the national slide into authoritarianism deepens through Trump’s reelection. “Nero fiddled while Rome burned,” Sanders said. “Trump golfs.”
Other moments managed to break through too. Michelle Obama’s words felt just as urgent and immediate as any live speech and are definitely worth watching. In another emotionally-charged moment, Kristin Urquiza, the daughter of a man who died from COVID-19, channeled national anger at the failed U.S. response to an epidemic that’s completely upended daily life and claimed more than 170,000 American lives.
“His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump,” Urquiza said of her father, her anger palpable.
While the first night of the DNC elevated the national protest movement against police violence and anti-Black racism, its second night lineup looks less inspired. But considering that Monday gave generous screen time to Republican John Kasich’s appeal against Trump, the convention’s focus on the center of the political spectrum likely won’t come as a shock.
In a weird moment for both tech and politics, Quibi CEO Meg Whitman, the Republican former chief executive of HP, made her own unlikely anti-Trump cameo.
“I’m a longtime Republican and a longtime CEO — and let me tell you, Donald Trump has no clue how to run a business, let alone an economy,” Whitman said. Tech didn’t have many other moments, unless you count the suitcase with the iPhone.
"I'm a longtime Republican and a longtime CEO – and let me tell you, Donald Trump has no clue how to run a business, let alone an economy." – @MegWhitman#DemConvention pic.twitter.com/UTvOKCKhjE
— 2020 #DemConvention
Between the lack of spontaneous moments and the scarcity of speakers further left, young and otherwise left-leaning viewers might only tune in for a few moments Tuesday. One of those is bound to be the controversially brief slot allotted to progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who will deliver one minute of prepared remarks. Tuesday will also feature Georgia’s Stacey Abrams, who ran for governor in 2018 and now continues her advocacy work with Fair Fight, her voting rights organization. Abrams won’t appear solo though — in lieu of a proper second night keynote, she’ll be joined by 16 other young rising figures in the Democratic party who will share the time.
Anyone wistful for Democratic eras gone by can watch former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter speak Tuesday along with former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The DNC’s second night also looks set to dive a bit deeper into policy, with two segments refreshingly focused on Joe Biden’s plans for governing, one on healthcare and one on national security.
If you can stomach some prime-time politics in the midst of colliding national crises, catch up on the first night here or tune in tonight when the stream begins at 6PM PT below.
India's main opposition party asks Facebook to look into reports of favorable treatment towards BJP by Facebook's India team, replace it while investigating (The New Indian Express)
India's main opposition party asks Facebook to look into reports of favorable treatment towards BJP by Facebook's India team, replace it while investigating — The Congress and other opposition parties have attacked the social media giant after a US media report alleged that Facebook did not apply its hate speech rules on BJP leaders.
Report: a look at the narrowing regulatory exemptions Apple has been operating under in China, such as running an App Store without a local partner (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)
Report: a look at the narrowing regulatory exemptions Apple has been operating under in China, such as running an App Store without a local partner — Amid continued tension between the United States and China, a new report from The Information details how Apple could be impacted by Chinese retaliation.
Monday, August 17, 2020
Microsoft says Teams support for IE 11 will end on Nov 30 and 365 apps on Aug 17, 2021; legacy Edge browser will not receive security updates after Mar 9, 2021 (Mary Jo Foley/ZDNet)
Microsoft says Teams support for IE 11 will end on Nov 30 and 365 apps on Aug 17, 2021; legacy Edge browser will not receive security updates after Mar 9, 2021 — Microsoft will begin the gradual phase-out of IE11 by ending Teams support for it this fall. Microsoft will stop providing security updates …
Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry anti-US views are taking root worldwide (New York Times)
New York Times : Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry ...
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The first project we remember working on together was drawing scenes from the picture books that our mom brought with her when she immigrate...
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Sohee Kim / Bloomberg : South Korean authorities are investigating a data leak at e-commerce giant Coupang that exposed ~33.7M accounts; ...
