Crunch Hype

In this week's newsletter: Munchery, Scaled Inference, Unicorn and the other startups that folded this year.

On Friday, China announced that it would complete its competitor to the U.S.-operated global positioning system network by the first half of next year, increasing the pace of its decoupling from U.S. technologies. China’s Beidou network of satellites — named after the “Big Dipper” constellation — will be the first service to compete with the […]

Salesforce turned 20 this year, and the most successful pure enterprise SaaS company ever showed no signs of slowing down. Consider that the company finished the year on an $18 billion run rate, rushing toward its 2022 revenue goal of $20 billion. Oh, and it also spent a tidy $15.7 billion to buy Tableau this […]

The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, Denis Pombriant and Steve Gillmor . Recorded live Sunday, December 22, 2019. Most likely the last show of 2019, an analysis of 2020 in streaming media, the primaries and the influence of old and new tech. Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor @fradice, […]

The last episode of the first season of Disney’s ‘The Mandalorian’ is available to stream on Disney+ today, and showrunner Jon Favreau wasted very little time confirming when we can expect season 2 of the smash hit to land: next fall. Favreau tweeted the anticipated timeline for the sophomore series of “The Mandalorian” on Friday, […]

Ever since the run up to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election (and, arguably, well before that), political ads have become a major sticking point on social media sites looking to crack down on misinformation. Facebook has grappled with the issue to the satisfaction of virtually no one, while Twitter has shut them down altogether. Ad […]

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Remembering the startups we lost in 2019 This year’s batch doesn’t include any story quite as spectacular as last year’s big […]

These days it’s easy to bemoan the state of innovation and the dynamism coming from America’s cradle of technological development in Silicon Valley. The same companies that were praised for reimagining how people organized and accessed knowledge, interacted publicly, shopped for goods and services, conducted business, and even the devices on which all of these […]

Each year the TechCrunch staff gathers together to make a big ol’ list of our Favorite Things from that year. As always, we’re keeping the definition of “thing” very… open. Maybe it’s a physical thing. Maybe it’s a thing you listen to, or watch. Maybe it’s a thought, or a genre, or a mode. We […]

Digital books may have a few advantages over ordinary ones when it comes to kids remembering their contents, according to a new study. Animations, especially ones keyed to verbal interactions, can significantly improve recall of story details — but they have to be done right. The research, from psychologist Erik Thiessen at Carnegie Mellon University, […]

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. This morning we’re dialing into some late-stage venture activity in Utah. Why? Because Utah has become a hotbed of startup activity, yielding both IPOs and huge acquisitions. And as Utah isn’t a media hub in […]

The nearly seven-year-old, New York-based fitness subscription app ClassPass is reportedly trying to raise $285 million in a new funding round that would push its valuation to more than $1 billion. The company will issue 22.7 million Series E shares as part of the funding round, according to a securities filing obtained by Reuters from […]

Tesla will start making the first deliveries of its Shanghai-built Model 3 sedans on Monday, Bloomberg reports. The cars are rolling off the assembly line at the new Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory, which is operational but which also will be expanding in the future thanks to a fresh $1.4 billion injection in local funding reported earlier […]

Elon Musk spent some time over this past holiday week answering questions posed by fans on Twitter, and one addressed the growing catalog of entertainment options available in-car via the Tesla Theater software feature: Musk said that Disney+ will be “coming soon” to the list of available streaming services drivers can access in their cars. […]

In September 2019, President Emmanuel Macron was about to wrap up a speech on late-stage investment in France. According to a press briefing and some discussions with a source, everything that he was supposed to announce had been announced. But he dropped an unexpected number. “I’ll leave you with a goal: there should be 25 […]

Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that operates Wikipedia and a number of other projects, has urged the Indian government to rethink the proposed changes to the nation’s intermediary liability rules that would affect swathes of companies and the way more than half a billion people access information online. The organization has also urged the Indian […]

Latin America’s startup and investment ecosystem has likely more than doubled this year as compared to 2019.

It’s gotten to the point now where a handful of angel investors can put a space company on the map. But the same changes that have made the industry accessible have made it increasingly complex to track its trends. By default, all space startups are exciting, but companies vary widely in risk, capital intensity and […]

Russia has begun testing a national internet system that would function as an alternative to the broader web, according to local news reports. Exactly what stage the country has reached is unclear, but certainly the goal of a resilient — and perhaps more easily controlled — internet is being pursued. The internet, of course, is […]

The Federal Aviation Administration this week issued proposed rules for the remote identification of drones in the U.S. The “next exciting step in safe drone integration” (their words) aims to offer a kind of license plate analog to identify the some 1.5 million drones currently registered with the governmental body. The document is currently available […]

If you haven’t noticed, Europe’s startup scene is in full bloom, with more than $30 billion deployed in startups across the continent over the last 12 months and more than 20 countries now home to a so-called unicorn company. Investors around the globe are jumping into the pool, too. Consider that the Ontario Municipal Employees […]

Since roughly 2012, billionaire Bill Gates has been participating in Reddit’s annual Secret Santa gift exchange, which matches Reddit users with internet strangers who give them presents. He seems to relish the role. For example, in 2017, he was matched with a cat lover, sending off a giant load of feline-themed gifts, including a large […]

Two and a half years after being blocked by the Turkish government, Wikipedia appears to have received a reprieve. The country’s constitutional court this week ruled that the April 2017 ban violated freedom of expression laws. The Wikimedia Foundation has been arguing the ban since May of that year, winning in a 10-6 court decision […]

2019 was a momentous year for gig workers. While the likes of Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash rely on these workers for their respective core services, the pay does not match how much they’re worth — which is a lot. It’s this issue that lies at the root of gig workers’ demands. “This past year […]

All manner of startups fail for all manner of reasons. But there’s one constant: this is an incredibly difficult business. Launching a successful company isn’t just a matter of drive and finding the right people (though both, clearly, are important). Doing well in this business requires the stars to align perfectly on a billion different […]

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re peeking at what’s gone on in the world of altcoins recently, the other cryptocurrencies aside from bitcoin. As 2016 came to a close, altcoins like ether and XRP saw their value soar. Toward […]

For those following Huawei’s substantial rise over the past several years, it’ll come as no surprise that the Chinese government played an important role in fostering the hardware maker. Even so, the actual numbers behind the ascent are still a bit jaw-dropping. Huawei reportedly had “access to as much as $75 billion in state support,” […]

The second season of the Penn Badgley romantic murder drama “You” launches on Netflix today — and along with it, a new project called Cosmopolitan Watch Party. You can hit play on the Watch Party website at the same time as you hit play on each episode, kicking off an experience that runs alongside the show. […]

Apps from Chinese developers have been gaining popularity on Indian app stores for some time. Last year, as many as 44 of the top 100 Android apps in India were developed by Chinese firms. But things have changed this year as local developers put on a fight. According to app analytics and marketing firm AppsFlyer, […]

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Uber founder Travis Kalanick is leaving the company’s board of directors Uber founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick will officially resign […]

Modern agriculture involves fields of mind-boggling size, and spraying them efficiently is a serious operational challenge. Pyka is taking on the largely human-powered spray business with an autonomous winged craft and, crucially, regulatory approval. Just as we’ve seen with DroneSeed, this type of flying is risky for pilots, who must fly very close to the […]

A security researcher said he has matched 17 million phone numbers to Twitter user accounts by exploiting a flaw in Twitter’s Android app. Ibrahim Balic found that it was possible to upload entire lists of generated phone numbers through Twitter’s contacts upload feature. “If you upload your phone number, it fetches user data in return,” […]

3D printing has proven itself useful in so many industries that it’s no longer necessary to show off, but some people just can’t help themselves. Case in point: this millimeter-tall rendition of Michelangelo’s famous “David” printed with copper using a newly developed technique. The aptly named “Tiny David” was created by Exaddon, a spin-off company […]

The holiday season can be a lot. You might need something to make you feel better. This post doesn’t have it. But it does have some pretty terrible bitcoin Christmas music parodies that you can endure! Enjoy: In fact, the same account has made a bunch of similar pieces of musical fanfiction, proving the point […]

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today, something short. Continuing our loose collection of looks back of the past year, it’s worth remembering two related facts. First, that this time last year SaaS stocks were getting beat up. And, second, that […]

Uber founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick is leaving the company’s board of directors, the ride-hailing company announced today. Kalanick will officially resign from the board as of December 31, to “focus on his new business and philanthropic endeavors,” according to a press release issued by Uber. Kalanick, who was forced out as Uber CEO […]

DJI is easily the leading brand when it comes to camera drones, but few companies have even attempted a ground-based mobile camera platform. The company may be moving in that direction, though, if this patent for a small off-road vehicle with a stabilized camera is any indication.

Social media influencers have been known to promote events around the world for the right price — decisions that sometimes prove to be mistakes. Bella Hadid, who promoted the failed Fyre Festival by vacationing in the Bahamas with other models for a video designed to sell tickets, later apologized for her involvement. Not everyone is […]

WHOOPS. You forgot to buy a gift for someone on your list. Maybe you've been too busy at work. Maybe you just found out that the cousins are coming after all. It happens. What can you do?

SpaceX is closing out the year with an achievement that should help it keep on track to fly astronauts on board one of its spacecraft next year. The Elon Musk-led space company finished its tenth consecutive successful parachute system test yesterday, an important safety system milestone that should be a good indication that the latest […]

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Boeing CEO out following 737 Max fiasco, will be replaced by current board chairman Boeing’s CEO Dennis A. Muilenburg is CEO […]

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. Typically, the holiday season is a slow one in the tech industry — but space tech is different, and this past week saw a flurry of activity, including one of the most important […]

One odd thing in 2019 has been Slack’s falling share price contrasted against the rising value of the Nasdaq composite, a tech-heavy index that many use as shorthand for the US tech market. Why one of tech’s hottest, and fastest-growing companies was losing altitude while tech stocks themselves broadly rose has been interesting to unpack. […]

Last week, Spotify sent a number of USB drives to reporters with a note: “Play me.” It’s not uncommon for reporters to receive USB drives in the post. Companies distribute USB drives all the time, including at tech conferences, often containing promotional materials or large files, such as videos that would otherwise be difficult to […]

A year from now, this is likely to have all blown over. A year from now, the Samsung Galaxy Fold’s turbulent takeoff may well be a footnote in the largest story of foldables. For now, however, it’s an important caveat that will come up in every conversation about the nascent product category. How history remembers […]

Dating app Plenty of Fish has pushed out a fix for its apps after a security researcher found they were leaking information that users had set to “private” on their profiles. The app was always silently returning users’ first names and Zip postal codes to the app, according to The App Analyst, a mobile expert […]

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today the big news that falls into our orbit is about DraftKings, a sports betting service focused on fantasy sports that will go public via a reverse merger. Not too long ago DraftKings and its […]

Just in time for Christmas, Lyft has brought back its pedal-assist e-bikes. The plan is to roll out hundreds of bikes each week until it hits 4,000 by the end of April 2020. This comes after Lyft had to pull its e-bikes in light of battery-related fires in July. “After identifying the root cause of […]

American automotive technology startup Rivian has raised $1.3 billion in new funding, the company announced today. The new investment is the fourth round of capital announced by the company in 2019 alone, following prior announcements of $700 million led by Amazon, $500 million from Ford (which includes a collaboration on electric vehicle technology) and $350 […]

Mastercard announced today that it is acquiring RiskRecon, a Salt Lake City startup that uses publicly available data to build security assessments of organizations. The companies did not share the purchase price. It’s become increasingly important for financial services companies like Mastercard to help customers navigate cyber security and RiskRecon will give customers an objective […]