Journals

Financial Times: As Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft comply with the EU DMA ahead of March 7, experts are skeptical the rules will have the desired effect  —  This week is the deadline for large online platforms to… Read More »As Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft comply with the EU DMA ahead of March 7, experts are skeptical the rules will have the desired effect (Financial Times)

Matthew Martin / Bloomberg: At an event in Riyadh, AWS says the company plans to spend $5.3B in Saudi Arabia to create new infrastructure by 2026, DataVolt plans to invest $5B, and more  —  – Amazon’s cloud business to build… Read More »At an event in Riyadh, AWS says the company plans to spend $5.3B in Saudi Arabia to create new infrastructure by 2026, DataVolt plans to invest $5B, and more (Matthew Martin/Bloomberg)

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: Google outlines updates to comply with the EU DMA: changes to search to prioritize large intermediaries and aggregators, new tools for app developers, and more  —  Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google on Tuesday outlined changes to search… Read More »Google outlines updates to comply with the EU DMA: changes to search to prioritize large intermediaries and aggregators, new tools for app developers, and more (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)

Counterpoint Research: Chinese smartphone sales declined 7% YoY in the first six weeks of 2024; Huawei rose 64% YoY while Apple fell 24% YoY, OPPO fell 29% YoY, and Vivo fell 15% YoY  —  – Growth: China’s smartphone unit sales… Read More »Chinese smartphone sales declined 7% YoY in the first six weeks of 2024; Huawei rose 64% YoY while Apple fell 24% YoY, OPPO fell 29% YoY, and Vivo fell 15% YoY (Counterpoint Research)

Financial Times: UK digital bank Monzo raised $430M led by Alphabet’s CapitalG at a $5B valuation, up from $4.5B in December 2021, and plans to use funds to expand in the US  —  London-based digital bank raised $430mn from investors… Read More »UK digital bank Monzo raised $430M led by Alphabet’s CapitalG at a $5B valuation, up from $4.5B in December 2021, and plans to use funds to expand in the US (Financial Times)

Jane Zhang / Bloomberg: Sources: Chinese AI startup MiniMax raised $600M+ led by Alibaba at a $2.5B+ valuation; the round remains in progress and HongShan has committed funds  —  – Minimax scores funding from investors including HongShan  — Alibaba has… Read More »Sources: Chinese AI startup MiniMax raised $600M+ led by Alibaba at a $2.5B+ valuation; the round remains in progress and HongShan has committed funds (Jane Zhang/Bloomberg)

Financial Times: Q&A with the CEO of Grindr, whose stock fell 75% since its SPAC merger in November 2022, on future plans, including an “à la carte” travel payments service  —  CEO George Arison hopes new travel and networking features… Read More »Q&A with the CEO of Grindr, whose stock fell 75% since its SPAC merger in November 2022, on future plans, including an “à la carte” travel payments service (Financial Times)

Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Topsort, whose API allows small businesses to simplify their ad campaigns, raised a $20M Series A led by Upload Ventures, bringing its total raised to $28.6M  —  Regina Ye says she and Topsort co-founder Francisco Larrain… Read More »Topsort, whose API allows small businesses to simplify their ad campaigns, raised a $20M Series A led by Upload Ventures, bringing its total raised to $28.6M (Christine Hall/TechCrunch)

Matt Day / Bloomberg: A profile of Oregon-based Agility Robotics, which tests its humanoid warehouse robots in the real world and has named ex-Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson as its CEO  —  Agility Robotics has targeted the warehousing industry with… Read More »A profile of Oregon-based Agility Robotics, which tests its humanoid warehouse robots in the real world and has named ex-Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson as its CEO (Matt Day/Bloomberg)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Mews, which offers cloud-based hotel management tools, raised $110M led by Kinnevik at a $1.2B post-money valuation; the company says it’s not yet profitable  —  Tourism continues to bounce back in the wake of Covid-19, with… Read More »Mews, which offers cloud-based hotel management tools, raised $110M led by Kinnevik at a $1.2B post-money valuation; the company says it’s not yet profitable (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)