Crunch Hype

You know the deal: a console is nothing without games. Same goes for streaming plans. Google jumped the gun on E3 this week with its Stadia Connect, a livestream that takes more than a page or two from Nintendo’s Direct offering. The event offered a little more insight into pricing, availability and specs — and, […]

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. Google to acquire analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion Google Cloud has been mired in third place in the cloud infrastructure […]

Spotify just announced a partnership with Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground. Through this deal, Spotify says the Obamas will “develop, produce, and lend their voices to select podcasts, connecting them to listeners around the world on wide-ranging topics.” Higher Ground was founded in 2018 as the Obamas signed a content partnership with […]

It’s not quite a “Netflix for games” but Google Stadia is making an aggressive sell for their service that’s aiming to kill game consoles. We got the full rundown on Google’s Stadia game-streaming platform this morning in the company’s livestream launch ahead of E3 next week. The Stadia platform will let you play console-quality games […]

Google is introducing more about the launch of its Stadia streaming gaming service today, and VP Phil Harrison gave us performance specifics today so you can see exactly how the company thinks the service will perform based on what kind of internet connection you have. It tops out at an impress 4K resolution, with HDR […]

Manifold, a startup known for providing all of the tools developers need in a single marketplace, has decided to make its core product available as a service, so that other companies can build a catalogue of related services without a fuss. Everyone wants to be a platform these days, but creating the infrastructure to offer […]

David Krane has a very big job. He’s the CEO and managing partner of GV, and he oversees the fund’s global activities, investing in tech companies including Uber, Nest, and Blue Bottle Coffee among hundreds of others. Yet the journalism major and former director of global communications and public affairs for Google maintains a surprisingly […]

Customers have described Ampush as the “McKinsey of growth marketing,” and in many ways, it’s apt. Ampush has a relentlessly quantitative, full-funnel approach to growth marketing, and they’ve built proprietary software to back it up. Co-founder and CEO Jesse Pujji explains why Ampush exclusively works with direct to consumer companies, and why they went from serving […]

Google doesn’t want to wait for E3 to unveil more details about Stadia, its cloud gaming platform. The company is holding a live stream conference to talk about its service, including pricing, games and launch details. The conference starts at 9 AM Pacific Time, 12 PM Eastern Time, 5 PM in London and 6 PM […]

The City of Paris has had enough. There are currently 12 (yes, twelve) scooter startups in Paris. As reported by Le Monde, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo announced in a press conference a series of restrictions to regulate the space. First, there are just too many scooter startups — Bird, Bolt, Bolt by Usain Bolt, […]

Google Stadia is arriving with competitive pricing later this year but 2020 will be the platform’s ultimate test. Details of the service’s pricing and availability were being shared by Google at 9am PT today, but were leaked Thursday morning by Canadian newspaper La Presse, a post which has since been taken down but was translated […]

TechCrunch Disrupt SF (October 2-4) is coming up fast, and we’re very pleased to announce that for a second year we’re partnering with All Raise, a startup nonprofit that’s accelerating the success of female founders and funders, to provide a great opportunity for women entrepreneurs to spend time with some of the most admired leaders […]

Uber is adding regular helicopter air service to the heaviest users of its platform with Uber Copter — a new service line launched today that will provide on-demand transportation from Lower Manhattan to JFK airport for, on average, between $200 and $225 per person, which includes car service to and from the helipad at each […]

Despite the seemingly fantastical demonstration of walking and jumping robots, today’s robots are often stupid, brittle and inflexible, only capable of working in carefully engineered environments, and unable to respond dynamically and sensibly in unexpected circumstances. Deep learning has been spectacularly successful in certain problems (facial recognition, object recognition, etc.) but the “smart robots” that […]

Security researchers said a security lapse at IT giant Tech Data allowed them to access customer and billing data. The Fortune 500 information technology giant secured an exposed server shortly after researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar found and reported the leaking data. The server was running a database used for logging internal company events […]

The smartphone revolution has well and truly disrupted the world of banking. A wide range of startups have cropped up that have completely removed the need to make visits to physical branches to open accounts, make deposits, pay for things, and ask for loans: you can now do all of these on the go by […]

Following months-long intense regulatory setback in India, Amazon is moving back to spending big bucks to grow its business in the world’s second largest internet market. Amazon has infused Rs 2,999 crores ($404 million) in its India business, according to a regulatory filing published this week. Amazon periodically deploys cash to its business in India, […]

Google made a big splash this morning when it announced it’s going to acquire Looker, a hot analytics startup that’s raised over $280 million. It’s paying $2.6 billion for the privilege and adding the company to Google Cloud. Thomas Kurian, the man who was handed the reins to Google Cloud at the end of last […]

One of Richard Branson’s space companies (yes, he has more than one) is looking to bring satellite launches to British soil, with a new Virgin Spaceport based in Cornwall. The project now has buy-in from the UK Space Agency, which intends to put £7.8 million (around 9.94 million USD) into developing the facility. The goal […]

India is doubling down on its push to replace gasoline and diesel vehicles on its streets with environmentally friendly electric cars. The government plans to order ride-hailing firms such as Uber and Ola, that operate hundreds of thousands of cars in the nation, to convert 40% of their fleets to electric by April 2026, Reuters […]

Bain Capital Ventures bets on fertility.

Apple is potentially seeking to acquire Silicon Valley autonomous driving startup Drive.ai, according to a new report from The Information. The report describes the acquisition as in process, and says it will be an ‘acqui-hire,’ which means it’s primary goal is to bring in the talent of Drive.ai – with presumably special focus on the […]

Urban-X, the startup accelerator for companies focused on solving the problems facing the world’s urban environment, has selected the latest seven companies for its sixth cohort. Backed by the design arm of BMW’s Mini division and the venture capital firm, Urban.US, the seven companies will receive $150,000 in financing and participate in the Urban-X 20-week […]

Zyper, the London-based marketing platform that connects brands with their ‘superfans’, has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding. The new round, which brings Zyper’s total funding to date to $8.5 million, is led by Talis Capital, with participation from Forerunner Ventures and Y Combinator. Founded by Amber Atherton, Zyper has built a platform that […]

I’d spare you the ‘wanna feel old?’ but you probably will anyway: Tetris turns 35 today. Tetris is a deceptively simple game in which you rotate blocks made up of four squares each arranged in different configurations as they fall, trying to arrange them in a rectangular play area in such a way that you […]

Messaging app Line has partnered with Visa to bring traditional financial clout to its mobile payment service. The deal will see Line Pay become compatible with Visa’s 54 million merchant partner locations worldwide, boosting the service outside of its native Japan, where it has been pitched heaviest so far and where Line claims 80 million […]

Pratilipi, an app that is uniting writers in India and encouraging others to try their hand at storytelling, has just raised $15 million to expand its network in the nation. The Series B financing round was led by Qiming Venture Partners. Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network India, Shunwei Capital, Contrarian Vriddhi Fund, and […]

Fintech startup Bunq provides full-fledged bank accounts. But if you’re happy with your existing bank, the company is launching a new free tier so that you can cut down on banking fees. The Bunq Travel Card is a Mastercard without any foreign exchange fee. The company uses the standard Mastercard exchange rate but doesn’t add […]

What is the world to do with the graveyards of dockless bicycles left over after China’s bike sharing startups retreated from global markets? One man has come up with the best idea to date: donate them to students who need them. Entrepreneur Mike Than Tun Win has bought 10,000 bikes from bike-sharing companies which he […]

After a series of tweets that made it seem as if YouTube was contradicting its own anti-harassment policies, the video platform published a blog post in an attempt to clarify its stance. But even though the post is supposed to “provide more details and context than is possible in any one string of tweets” and […]

It’s official. After much anticipation, China named the first companies to receive 5G licenses for commercial use on Thursday. The announcement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the country’s telecoms authority, came as Huawei, the Chinese company that captured nearly 30% of the world’s telecom gear revenues in 2018, faces mounting scrutiny in […]

It’s easy to be skeptical of lending companies. They uniformly rely on customers who don’t have enough money to cover their bills and are willing to pay interest on money borrowed in exchange for capital they can spend sooner — sometimes immediately. Unfortunately, those consumers with the worst credit, or no credit at all, are […]

The wheels are turning on Didi Chuxing’s first major expansion in Latin America after the Chinese ride-hailing firm announced moves into Chile and Colombia to double its presence in the region. Didi said it rolled into Valparaiso, Chile’s third largest metropolis, and Colombian capital city Bogota this week. The company plans to expand beyond those […]

'Socially Inept,' a new traveling comedy company, is making a business out of mocking techies.

Just in time for your road trip to LA for E3, Square Enix has suddenly made the soundtracks to every main Final Fantasy game available for free to listen to online. Just log into Spotify or Apple Music and search for "Final Fantasy original soundtrack."

Apple is closing a loophole that allowed app developers to access users’ potentially sensitive and private data. With the launch of iOS 13, apps that request access to users’ Contacts will no longer be able to read the data in the “Notes” field of those address book entries. For years, security professionals have warned people […]

A proposed merger between Fiat Chrysler -Renault, which would have created the third largest global automaker, is off. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles withdrew its offer, The Wall Street Journal reported. FCA confirmed to TechCrunch that it has withdrawn its offer, largely due to political conditions. “FCA remains firmly convinced of the compelling, transformational rationale of a […]

Consolidation is afoot in the micromobility industry.

BMW Group and Jaguar Land Rover have agreed to partner on the development of future electric vehicles, the latest in a string of collaborations between automakers to bring advanced, and often expensive technology, to the mass market. The two automakers confirmed the collaboration Wednesday, which they said is central to the industry’s transition from traditional […]

From dark mode in iOS 13 to a redesigned user interface in tvOS to the dismantling of iTunes to the coming of iPadOS, Apple made a slew of announcements at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday in San Jose. And accessibility was there in full force.

Why is an adtech startup going after the flooring industry? That was my big question when I got on the phone with AdHawk CEO Todd Saunders and COO Dan Pratt. The company announced earlier this week that it’s raised a $13 million Series B round of funding in conjunction with the launch of a new […]

Uber (NYSE: UBER) closed up 5 percent Wednesday.

YouTube has made the weakest, least courageous response to mass backlash regarding its ruling yesterday that right-wing personality Steven Crowder’s racist and homophobic attacks on Vox video producer Carlos Maza didn’t violate its policies. Now YouTube says it’s demonetized Crowder’s channel because his “pattern of egregious actions has harmed the broader community” …but it will […]

Google has employed its network of street-view vehicles to also measure street-level air quality in recent years, through an initiative it calls “Project Air View.” Today, it’s making available to scientists and researcher organizations more of the resulting data from that ongoing initiative. The company is releasing an updated version of its air quality data […]

Amazon is serious about robotics. For most other companies, the technology may still feel like some distant novelty, but the e-commerce giant has already begun to deploy robotics systems en masse. Robotics VP Brad Porter noted onstage today at the re:MARS conference in Las Vegas that the company has deployed 200,000 robotics drives globally. Earlier […]

ICYMI: As Peloton files for IPO, can its live fitness gamification model extend to other verticals? Peloton confidentially filed for its IPO today, and the juggernaut fitness company is positioned to be one of the most interesting consumer debuts in the upcoming IPO season now that Uber has cleared the hurdle. Extra Crunch’s media columnist […]

E3 2019 is shaping up to be a bit of an in-between year. Nintendo Switch sales have finally started slowing, but the company’s a ways off from its next-generation console. Microsoft and Sony will be offering info on theirs soon, but we likely won’t be seeing much — especially from the latter, which has opted […]

The promise of today's nascent communications satellite constellations is real: connecting everyone on the globe, no exceptions. But the dark side, or rather bright side, of these satellites threatens to pollute the sky with innumerable points of moving light. Astronomers warn that this may pose a "debilitating threat" if not addressed by regulators or industry.

As YouTube garners heat for failing to take action on purported hate speech, the company is trying to shift the narrative all while reminding the public that after 14 years it’s still writing the rough drafts of some of its core rules of engagement. The company announced in a blog post today that it was […]

I have a confession to make. It’s something that I live with daily. It’s not that I’m not proud of it...it’s just that I’m never sure how people will see me after they know my “secret.” Here goes nothing.