Daily Crunch - Google Play halves commission on first $1M

TechCrunch Newsletter

Tuesday, March 16, 2021 • By Anthony Ha

Google is letting developers keep more of their Play revenue, Instagram adds teen safety features and we examine the global distribution of venture funding. This is your Daily Crunch for March 16, 2021.

The big story: Google Play halves commission on developers' first $1M Following a similar move by Apple last year, Google said that it will be reducing its fee from 30% to 15% for the first $1 million that developers earn through Google Play annually. This is slightly different from Apple’s approach, in that it applies to all developers — although the fee goes back to 30% for any money earned beyond that first million dollars. "We've heard from our partners making $2 million, $5 million and even $10 million a year that their services are still on a path to self-sustaining orbit," wrote Google’s Sameer Samat. "This is why we are making this reduced fee on the first $1 million of total revenue earned each year available to every Play developer that uses the Play billing system, regardless of size.” Read more Image Credits: Lyu Liang / VCG / Getty Images

Creating early warning systems for operational resilience Sponsored by Ernst & Young LLP Many factors affect service delivery—from technology, to facilities, people, and more. On March 18 join EY as we discuss how you can use data, systems and processes to manage—and possibly avoid—operational disruption. Register now. Read more

The tech giants Instagram adds new teen safety tools as competition with TikTok heats up — Instagram says it’s rolling out new safety features that will restrict adult users from being able to contact teens who didn't already follow them. Google's Soli radar returns to track sleep on the new Nest Hub — We haven't heard a peep from Project Soli since the technology was introduced with the Pixel in late-2019. China wants to dismantle Alibaba's media empire: reports — Over the years, Jack Ma has accumulated a media portfolio in China that rivals that of Jeff Bezos in the United States. Image Credits: NurPhoto / Getty Images

Startups, funding and venture capital Socure raises $100M at $1.3B valuation, proving identity verification is hotter than ever — Socure uses AI and machine learning to verify identities. Overwolf raises $52.5M for its platform to build, distribute and monetize in-game, user-generated content — The company's platform has some 30,000 creators, 90,000 mods and add-ons, and 18 million monthly users across thousands of games. Aiming to become the definitive source for location data, SafeGraph raises $45M — While there are plenty of companies selling data about physical locations, SafeGraph CEO Auren Hoffman said his startup is "one of the few companies to sell this data to data science teams." Image Credits: DKosig / Getty Images

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch The global inequity in venture financing is staggering — There’s been a boom in Latin American and European fintechs, as well as a general rise in VC activity in a host of Asian countries, but the landscape remains imbalanced. The NFT market is just getting started, but where is it headed? — Part one in a three-part series. Farmland could be the next big asset class modernized by marketplace startups — Startups like AcreTrader and others including Tillable, FarmTogether and Harvest Returns are bringing marketplace models to the farming world. (Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Image Credits: DNY59 / Getty Images

Everything else Ford expands robotics research into $75 million University of Michigan facility — Ford Motor Company will be embedding 100 of its researchers and engineers in a new robotics and mobility facility on the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. Talking product-market fit with Sean Lane, whose company tore through 28 products to become a unicorn — Occasionally, it's easy for startups to achieve so-called product-market fit, but more often, it's a struggle. Get feedback on your pitch deck from tech leaders on Extra Crunch Live — The importance of the pitch deck can't be underestimated. Image Credits: David Becker / Getty Images

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Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Senior Backend Engineer at The Micah Group (Minneapolis, MN, USA) Information Technology Director at Loudoun County (Loudoun County, VA, USA) Senior Software Engineer at Administrate (USA) Vice President of Engineering at RocketRez (Winnipeg, MB, Canada) Product Manager at Obsidian Systems LLC (New York, NY, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

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Daily Crunch - Stripe valued at $95B

TechCrunch Newsletter

Monday, March 15, 2021 • By Anthony Ha

Stripe gets a mind-boggling valuation, Facebook promotes COVID vaccines and Elon Musk has an interesting new title. This is your Daily Crunch for March 15, 2021.

The big story: Stripe valued at $95B That’s right: The popular payments company has raised $600 million in new funding at a $95 billion valuation. It says it will use the money to expand in Europe while also growing its global payments and treasury network. "Whether in fintech, mobility, retail or SaaS, the growth opportunity for the European digital economy is immense,” said president and co-founder John Collison in a statement. Meanwhile, over in Extra Crunch, Alex Wilhelm takes a closer look at the company’s new growth numbers, like the fact that it’s now working with more than 50 companies that are each processing more than $1 billion annually. Read more Image Credits: Mix3r / Shutterstock

Ericsson's smart factory brings 5G revolution to the U.S. Sponsored by Ericsson Ericsson's Texas smart factory is producing equipment for rapid 5G deployments in the U.S. The facility is also a working example of how the latest in mobile broadband can bring innovation to industry. Read more

The tech giants Facebook to label all COVID-19 vaccine posts with pointer to official info — The company says it has also implemented some "temporary" measures aimed at limiting the spread of vaccine misinformation/combating vaccine hesitancy. His Majesty Elon the First, Technoking of Tesla — In Musk-speak, his new title still translates into the chief executive officer of the electric car company. Netflix gets 35 Oscar nominations, including 10 for 'Mank' — Of course, this is a streaming-centric year for movies overall.

Startups, funding and venture capital Airtable is now valued at $5.77B with a fresh $270 million in Series E funding — Airtable is a relational database that many describe as a souped-up version of Excel or Google Sheets (and there’s at least one TechCrunch editor who swears by it). WeWork unbundles its products in an attempt to make itself over, but will the strategy work? — The pandemic presented WeWork with challenges, but also, some might say, opportunity. ElevateBio raises $525M to advance its cell and gene therapy technologies — The company’s business model focuses on both developing and commercializing its own therapies, while also working through long-term partnerships with academic research institutions. Image Credits: Airtable

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch Julia Collins and Sarah Kunst outline how to build a fundraising process — Collins is the first Black woman to co-found a venture-backed unicorn, so it should come as no surprise that investors lined up to bet on her latest venture. Olo raises IPO range as DigitalOcean sees possible $5B debut valuation — It’s a busy day in IPO-land. (Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Everything else US e-commerce on track for its first $1 trillion year by 2022, due to lasting pandemic impacts — The COVID-19 pandemic boosted U.S. online shopping by $183 billion, according to a new report by Adobe's e-commerce division. BMW debuts the next generation of its iDrive operating system — With its new system, BMW is expanding the center dashboard display all the way through the cockpit. 4 signs your product is not as accessible as you think — Bringing decades-long legacy code and design into the future isn't easy. Image Credits: Kmatta / Getty Images

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Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Senior Software Engineer at Administrate (USA) Vice President of Engineering at RocketRez (Winnipeg, MB, Canada) Product Manager at Obsidian Systems LLC (New York, NY, USA) Assistant Professor, Halicioglu Data Science Institute at University of California San Diego (San Diego, CA, USA) Operations Engineer (IT) at Filestage (70199 Stuttgart, Germany) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

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Daily Crunch - Marco Rubio sides with Amazon workers

TechCrunch Newsletter

Friday, March 12, 2021 • By Anthony Ha

A prominent Republican senator weighs in on Amazon’s labor disputes, Microsoft reports a security vulnerability in Exchange and we examine ByteDance’s gaming strategy. This is your Daily Crunch for March 12, 2021.

The big story: Marco Rubio sides with Amazon workers Senator Marco Rubio published an op-ed in USA Today declaring his support for workers in Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, as they seek to unionize. It’s surprising for a Republican senator to throw his weight behind a nascent labor union, but it seems that Rubio’s position has as much to do with his feelings about Amazon as his labor politics. In fact, his op-ed warned of the “dangers posed by the unchecked influence of labor unions,” while also arguing that Amazon is guilty of “uniquely malicious corporate behavior." Read more Image Credits: Scott R. Galvin / AP

Free O'Reilly eBook: Infrastructure as Code Sponsored by Linode Learn how to effectively use principles, practices, and patterns pioneered by DevOps teams to manage cloud-age infrastructure. Read more

The tech giants Hackers are exploiting vulnerable Exchange servers to drop ransomware, Microsoft says — This puts tens of thousands of email servers at risk of destructive attacks. How ByteDance plans to crack the gaming industry — The company’s strategy consists of a genre-spanning portfolio, a hiring spree, a proven monetization scheme, and a focus on both the domestic and overseas markets. Elon Musk, Tesla board sued in lawsuit alleging 'erratic' tweets violate fiduciary duty — A Tesla investor is suing the company board and Musk for continuing to send "erratic tweets" that violate a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that requires oversight of his social media activities. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch /

Startups, funding and venture capital Assembled, an operating system for support teams, raises $16.6M — The round was led by Emergence Capital, a VC that specializes in enterprise startups. Eying sustainability gains for its supply chain, BMW backs Boston Metal's CO2-free iron production tech — The Boston startup had targeted a $50 million raise earlier in the year, and BMW's addition closes out that round. Legl gets $7M to help law firms upgrade to digital workflows — The Legl platform offers tools to streamline core business processes such as customer onboarding, due diligence and payments. Image Credits: Nora Carol Photography / Getty Images

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch How nontechnical talent can break into deep tech — Tactical advice for finding, reaching out to, cultivating relationships with, and working at deep tech companies. US-listed SPACs have a new target: Latin American tech companies — There has been an unprecedented IPO boom of tech companies in the Brazilian stock exchange. Why I'm hitting pause on ARR-focused coverage — Alex Wilhelm says that ultimately, he was getting similar notes from each company. (Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Image Credits: abzee / Getty Images

Everything else Big Tech companies cannot be trusted to self-regulate: We need Congress to act — Thoughts from Color of Change’s Arisha Hatch. Here are the new features and upgraded virtual Startup Alley experience at TC Disrupt 2021 — This year, we're shaking things up a bit to help exhibiting founders make the most of a virtual environment. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

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Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Product Manager at Obsidian Systems LLC (New York, NY, USA) Assistant Professor, Halicioglu Data Science Institute at University of California San Diego (San Diego, CA, USA) Operations Engineer (IT) at Filestage (70199 Stuttgart, Germany) Software Developer at Lowers Risk Group LLC (Virginia, USA) IS Business Analyst at City & County of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

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