News

Jesusegun Alagbe / Rest of World: Filmmakers, critics, and users detail why Prime Video failed in Africa; Amazon laid off staff and scaled back operations on the continent in January 2024  —  Filmmakers, critics, and users blame the platform’s struggle… Read More »Filmmakers, critics, and users detail why Prime Video failed in Africa; Amazon laid off staff and scaled back operations on the continent in January 2024 (Jesusegun Alagbe/Rest of World)

The Information: Source: HeyGen, which uses AI to generate avatars and voices for videos, is raising $60M at a $440M pre-investment valuation, amid concerns about its China ties  —  HeyGen, a three-year-old startup that uses artificial intelligence to generate avatars… Read More »Source: HeyGen, which uses AI to generate avatars and voices for videos, is raising $60M at a $440M pre-investment valuation, amid concerns about its China ties (The Information)

Chris Stokel-Walker / Fast Company: Q&A with ex-CEO of CrowdTangle Brandon Silverman about the founding principle of the research tool, Meta’s decision to close it in an election year, and more  —  Meta announced this month that in August it… Read More »Q&A with ex-CEO of CrowdTangle Brandon Silverman about the founding principle of the research tool, Meta’s decision to close it in an election year, and more (Chris Stokel-Walker/Fast Company)

Reuters: Didi Q4: revenue up 55.4% YoY to ~$6.83B, a ~$113.15M net income, up from a ~$131.8M loss YoY, as the company continues its recovery after regulatory challenges  —  Didi Global, China’s largest ride-hailing company, on Saturday reported a fourth-quarter… Read More »Didi Q4: revenue up 55.4% YoY to ~$6.83B, a ~$113.15M net income, up from a ~$131.8M loss YoY, as the company continues its recovery after regulatory challenges (Reuters)

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Redis, the popular in-memory data store, switches from the open source 3-clause BSD license to a controversial dual-license model  —  Redis, the popular in-memory data store, is switching away from the open-source three-clause BSD license.  Instead,… Read More »Redis, the popular in-memory data store, switches from the open source 3-clause BSD license to a controversial dual-license model (Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch)

Steven Sinofsky / Hardcore Software: A look at the US DOJ’s lawsuit against Apple, comparisons to Microsoft suit in the 90’s, basic factual errors, why it is clearly a political case, and more  —  March 21, 2024 the United States… Read More »A look at the US DOJ’s lawsuit against Apple, comparisons to Microsoft suit in the 90’s, basic factual errors, why it is clearly a political case, and more (Steven Sinofsky/Hardcore Software)

Reuters: Source: Spain’s High Court orders the suspension of Telegram after media companies complained it was allowing users to upload their content without permission  —  Spain’s High Court has ordered the suspension of messaging app Telegram’s services in the country… Read More »Source: Spain’s High Court orders the suspension of Telegram after media companies complained it was allowing users to upload their content without permission (Reuters)

M.G. Siegler / Spyglass: BeReal’s challenges show the difficulty for new consumer apps to break out absent a big platform shift, as users lack the time to try additional consumer apps  —  The recent reports that BeReal is struggling with… Read More »BeReal’s challenges show the difficulty for new consumer apps to break out absent a big platform shift, as users lack the time to try additional consumer apps (M.G. Siegler/Spyglass)

Yuichi Shiga / Nikkei Asia: The Philippines’ new undersea internet cable network is expected to bring jobs to remote islands, boosting the country’s BPO sector, which employed 1.7M in 2023  —  Project expected to bring stable internet and new jobs… Read More »The Philippines’ new undersea internet cable network is expected to bring jobs to remote islands, boosting the country’s BPO sector, which employed 1.7M in 2023 (Yuichi Shiga/Nikkei Asia)

New York Times: Study finds that China produced almost 50% of the world’s top AI researchers, compared to ~18% from the US, thanks to China’s heavy investment in AI education  —  China has produced a huge number of top A.I.… Read More »Study finds that China produced almost 50% of the world’s top AI researchers, compared to ~18% from the US, thanks to China’s heavy investment in AI education (New York Times)