Sunday, June 19, 2022

Telegram surpasses 700M MAUs and unveils Telegram Premium, which will let users follow up to 1,000 channels, send files up to 4GB, and more for ~$5/month (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Telegram surpasses 700M MAUs and unveils Telegram Premium, which will let users follow up to 1,000 channels, send files up to 4GB, and more for ~$5/month  —  Telegram has amassed 700 million monthly active users and is rolling out a premium tier with additional features as the instant messaging platform makes …



Interviews with the members of Peter Thiel's inner circle describe how he came to the decision to leave Facebook's board (Elizabeth Dwoskin/Washington Post)

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Interviews with the members of Peter Thiel's inner circle describe how he came to the decision to leave Facebook's board  —  Inside the billionaire investor's journey from Facebook board member to an architect of the new American right  —  On a summer morning in 2019 …



Since bitcoin hit an all-time high in November 2021, ~$2T of cryptocurrency value has been erased, which is more than two-thirds of all the crypto that existed (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Since bitcoin hit an all-time high in November 2021, ~$2T of cryptocurrency value has been erased, which is more than two-thirds of all the crypto that existed  —  The cryptocurrency industry was built on swagger, enthusiasm and optimism.  All three are in short supply these days, as losses and layoffs mount.



India lifts ban on Mastercard from issuing new debit, credit, or prepaid cards after it demonstrated "satisfactory compliance" with the local data storage rules (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India lifts ban on Mastercard from issuing new debit, credit, or prepaid cards after it demonstrated “satisfactory compliance” with the local data storage rules  —  India has lifted business restrictions on Mastercard, nearly a year after imposing the ban, once again allowing …



Saturday, June 18, 2022

Beijing-based MegaRobo, which applies robotics and AI to life sciences research, has raised a ~$300M Series C led by GGV Capital and Asia Investment Capital (Coco Liu/Bloomberg)

Coco Liu / Bloomberg:
Beijing-based MegaRobo, which applies robotics and AI to life sciences research, has raised a ~$300M Series C led by GGV Capital and Asia Investment Capital  —  Six-year-old biotech startup MegaRobo Technologies has raised about $300 million from investors including an arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. …



We're not an entertainment platform, not a social network: TikTok

TikTok has clarified that it is not interested in copying Facebook as it is not a social network but an entertainment platform, as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeks to make Facebook and Instagram to be more like TikTok. https://ift.tt/6nmCysu

The US Treasury says Robinhood and BNY will work with the federal government to handle tax-sheltered "Trump Accounts" for children when they launch this summer (Stacy Cowley/New York Times)

Stacy Cowley / New York Times : The US Treasury says Robinhood and BNY will work with the federal government to handle tax-sheltered “Tru...