Friday, May 31, 2024

Stripe says it will temporarily move to an invite-only model for new account sign-ups in India, as it navigates the country's evolving regulatory landscape (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Stripe says it will temporarily move to an invite-only model for new account sign-ups in India, as it navigates the country's evolving regulatory landscape  —  Stripe, the global fintech giant, said on Friday that it will temporarily move to an invite-only model for new account sign-ups in India …



Sources: TikTok pauses plans to launch its e-commerce business in major European markets to focus on growth in the US where it's fighting a divest-or-ban law (Zheping Huang/Bloomberg)

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Sources: TikTok pauses plans to launch its e-commerce business in major European markets to focus on growth in the US where it's fighting a divest-or-ban law  —  - ByteDance halts plan to roll out shopping from Spain to Italy  — Company aims to entrench itself in its most lucrative market



Sony says PS5 generated $106B in revenue in less than four years vs. PS4's $107B over seven years, PS5 in-game purchases spending up 176% over PS4, and more (Evgeny Obedkov/Game World Observer)

Evgeny Obedkov / Game World Observer:
Sony says PS5 generated $106B in revenue in less than four years vs. PS4's $107B over seven years, PS5 in-game purchases spending up 176% over PS4, and more  —  Sony has published its annual business briefing.  Here are the key takeaways about the performance of the PlayStation business and updates to the company's gaming strategy.



Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Chinese government data: foreign-branded smartphone shipments, most of which are iPhones, rose 52% YoY to ~3.5M in April, after stabilizing in March 2024 (Yuan Gao/Bloomberg)

Yuan Gao / Bloomberg:
Chinese government data: foreign-branded smartphone shipments, most of which are iPhones, rose 52% YoY to ~3.5M in April, after stabilizing in March 2024  —  - Official data for April showed Chinese mobile demand returning  — The iPhone's bad start to the year prompted retail price cuts



OpenAI begins training its new flagship AI model, a process that could take nine months or more, and creates a Safety and Security Committee to explore risks (Cade Metz/New York Times)

Cade Metz / New York Times:
OpenAI begins training its new flagship AI model, a process that could take nine months or more, and creates a Safety and Security Committee to explore risks  —  The advanced A.I. system would succeed GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT.  The company has also created a new safety committee to address A.I.'s risks.



How pro-Russian groups exploit Telegram, which has 41M MAUs in the EU, below the DSA's 45M threshold, to spread disinformation on Ukraine, immigration, and more (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
How pro-Russian groups exploit Telegram, which has 41M MAUs in the EU, below the DSA's 45M threshold, to spread disinformation on Ukraine, immigration, and more  —  Pro-Russian disinformation groups are exploiting the “very, very lax” rules on Telegram and there's little EU authorities can do about it.



Defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, which collapsed in 2014, moves 140K bitcoin, worth ~$9B, to an unknown address, likely part of a plan to repay creditors (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)

Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, which collapsed in 2014, moves 140K bitcoin, worth ~$9B, to an unknown address, likely part of a plan to repay creditors  —  Nearly 107,000 bitcoin have been moved since early Asian hours on Tuesday, with bitcoin shedding 1.2% on expectations of selling pressure.



Monday, May 27, 2024

A look at the growing importance of ads for video streaming services, as Antenna says that 56% of new subscribers chose the cheaper ad-supported tier in Q1 2024 (John Koblin/New York Times)

John Koblin / New York Times:
A look at the growing importance of ads for video streaming services, as Antenna says that 56% of new subscribers chose the cheaper ad-supported tier in Q1 2024  —  Ads are here, there — almost everywhere — on streaming services now.  —  Not long ago, streaming TV came with a promise …



Dating apps are trying to woo Gen Z women by boosting moderation tools and more; Tinder has consistently lost MAUs since 2021 and paid subs fell under 10M in Q1 (Stephanie Stacey/Financial Times)

Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times:
Dating apps are trying to woo Gen Z women by boosting moderation tools and more; Tinder has consistently lost MAUs since 2021 and paid subs fell under 10M in Q1  —  Gen Z is a priority for Tinder and Bumble but threats and unsolicited material from potential suitors often turn users off



Elon Musk says all of the $6B in xAI's Series B is new money rather than shares "given" to investors in Musk's takeover of Twitter (Axios)

Axios:
Elon Musk says all of the $6B in xAI's Series B is new money rather than shares “given” to investors in Musk's takeover of Twitter  —  - That said, there's plenty of overlap in the investor list, and it's unclear if the original Twitter/X backers also received additional equity in xAI …



Russian cryptocurrency payment network A7 expands to Africa, as Moscow builds an alternative payments system amid western sanctions after its Ukraine invasion (Financial Times)

Financial Times : Russian cryptocurrency payment network A7 expands to Africa, as Moscow builds an alternative payments system amid weste...