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streaming media

Roku was spun out of Netflix and is now pursuing the streaming giant’s playbook

Roku was spun out of Netflix in 2009. Today, it’s worth $50B+ and creating its own content.

Trung T. Phan • 15 hours ago

music

Songtradr raised $50m to help it become the leading B2B music marketplace

Songtradr matches artists with businesses looking to license music. After a flurry of acquisitions, it is valued at $300m+.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • 15 hours ago

Financial Tech

Stripe rolls out a super-fast ID verification tool

Stripe -- the $95B fintech startup -- is edging into another high-value business: identity management.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • 15 hours ago

Personal Tech

How PCs became giant smartphones

PC makers are offering thinner models, custom chips, and better cameras to woo the remote work crowd.

Trung T. Phan • 2 days ago

housing and real estate

Airbnb and Vrbo grapple for more hosts amid fresh demand

To woo homeowners onto its platform, Airbnb is offering mentorship, while Vrbo will let users transfer ratings.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • 2 days ago

International

Will advertisers’ gamble on the Tokyo Olympics pay off?

Tokyo raised $3B+ from local sponsors, while major global brands have chipped in $500m+. They probably won’t get their money’s worth this year.

Trung T. Phan • 2 days ago

Financial Tech

How Shopify became a payments company

Shopify’s payment solution (Shop Pay) will be available for Facebook and Google starting this summer.

Trung T. Phan • 3 days ago

clothing

Victoria’s Secret trades its Angels for a more inclusive ‘Collective’

To stay culturally relevant and compete with upstarts, Victoria’s Secret is embracing new trends, including athleisure and body positivity.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • 3 days ago

amazon

Digits: Erasing student debt, Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator, and shrooms

Rounding up this week’s most interesting news in numbers.

Ethan Brooks • 3 days ago

Big Tech

Facebook is quietly taking over VR

Facebook is on a VR acquisition spree and wants to beam ads into the Oculus headset. Nothing to see here.

Trung T. Phan • June 18, 2021

amazon

Amazon built a giant 3rd-party ecommerce business. Now others want in.

Older retailers like Express, J.Crew, and Urban Outfitters want to copy Amazon’s 3rd-party marketplace model.

Kolby Hatch • June 18, 2021

Emerging Tech

AI is here for car appraisals (finally)

Tractable’s computer vision tech makes the post-accident car appraisal much faster.

Trung T. Phan • June 18, 2021

Emerging Tech

So, are we getting flying cars or what?

Several companies are working on flying cars or taxis. But when can we ride in them?

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 17, 2021

fitness

Lululemon’s tech ambitions, explained

Lululemon acquired Mirror for $500m last year to enter the home fitness market. Recent patents suggest it may bring fitness sensors to the market next.

Trung T. Phan • June 17, 2021

podcast

2 ways to monetize a huge podcast audience

Alex Cooper (“Call Her Daddy”) gets a $60m deal from Spotify. Harry Stebbings (“The Twenty Minute VC”) raises a $140m venture fund.

Trung T. Phan • June 17, 2021

entertainment

Shocker: MoviePass was shady

MoviePass throttled user accounts so they couldn’t take advantage of the all-you-can-watch offering.

Kolby Hatch • June 17, 2021

Education

The $1.6T student debt problem

The student loan freeze ends this fall. Here’s what readers and experts say.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 16, 2021

Financial Tech

Fintech Klarna becomes Europe’s most valuable startup, worth $45B+

Klarna -- a leader in “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) -- has become Europe’s biggest startup, valued at $45B+. But its business model raises questions.

Kolby Hatch • June 16, 2021

International

China’s Uber, DiDi, files its US IPO

Didi owns 90% of China’s ride-share market and could go public at $70B+.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 16, 2021

Emerging Tech

Tech is turbocharging self-checkout grocery stores

A number of tech companies -- Grabango, Amazon Fresh, WalkOut, Main Street Market -- are rolling out some form of self-checkout technology for grocery stores.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 15, 2021

Big Tech

Meet cybersecurity’s nightmare fuel: Quantum hacking

Quantum hacking will completely compromise the existing security infrastructure of the internet. Arqit is building a solution.

Kolby Hatch • June 15, 2021

vehicles

How will Big Auto’s EV push affect car dealers?

An EV future means less services revenue for auto dealers (and upfront costs to become green certified).

Trung T. Phan • June 15, 2021

Big Tech

Here are 5 ways the US government is taking on Big Tech

5 proposed bills from US lawmakers will take on Big Tech -- Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google -- by making it harder for them to acquire new businesses and force them to even the playing field.

Trung T. Phan • June 14, 2021

coronavirus

How researchers are using VR to combat COVID

Virtual reality (VR) lets researchers “look” at the 3D structure of COVID proteins.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 14, 2021

economy

Digits: Women of the F500, a galactic short call, and a brand new ocean.

Numbers you should know from the week’s most interesting headlines.

Ethan Brooks • June 14, 2021

Emerging Tech

Using AI to write better, faster, smarter

Startups are using technology to learn your writing style and give you a better text editor.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 11, 2021

fraud and scams

It’s not just pipelines; everyday gig workers are getting phished too

Gig workers (e.g., DoorDash, Postmates) are victims of a new phishing scam. Their status as contract workers does not help.

Kolby Hatch • June 11, 2021

entertainment

In-game NFTs could be big business… and actually benefit gamers

Mythical Games raised $75m to create “Blanco Block Party,” an open-world game where players own the characters… as NFTs.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 11, 2021

Sports and esports

In-home boxing startup raises $20m as working out from home seems here to stay

Liteboxer is riding the home gym wave by offering an at-home boxing machine (priced at $1.5k).

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 10, 2021

International

El Salvador’s decision to make bitcoin legal tender could shake up US taxes, corporations

El Salvador’s decision to make bitcoin legal tender could change how the IRS taxes people and how corporations use bitcoin.

Trung T. Phan • June 10, 2021

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