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Meta is making some changes to how its apps handle advertising and young users. Under the new rules, advertisers on Instagram and Facebook won’t be able to leverage as much personalized data to target ads to teens. Users under age 18 will also be newly empowered with more choices about what ads they see and why.

Starting next month, Meta will remove the option for targeting advertising to teen users based on gender. The company will also end advertisers’ ability to target personalized ads to under-18 users based on their in-app activity, including who they follow on Instagram and what Facebook pages they like.

After the changes, personalized ads on those apps will only draw on a user’s age and location to determine relevance. According to Meta, location is necessary to assess which products and services are available in a user’s area.

In two months, Facebook and Instagram will also roll out new controls for teen users (kids under age 13 aren’t allowed on those apps — technically). Teens will be given an option to “see less” of a given topic, shaping what ads the platform will serve them.

These changes are the latest effort to build in some after-the-fact privacy protections for Meta’s youngest users. In 2021, Instagram blocked advertisers from targeting teens based on their interests or online activity outside of the app.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission conducted a two year investigation into how Instagram handled user accounts for kids aged 13 to 17, particularly the company’s practice of making those accounts public by default and allowing minors who opted into business accounts to share their phone numbers and other contact info.

Meta was fined around $400 million for those infractions. At the time, the company said that it planned to appeal and criticized the Irish regulator for punishing the company for its past policies (ones that were likely only changed in the face of looming regulation, it should be noted). Kids on Instagram weren’t opted into private accounts or prompted to switch from public to private until well into 2021.

Meta’s incremental changes obviously stop short of turning off ads altogether for teens, a solution that wouldn’t be unreasonable given the risks involved. The company’s decision to stay the course suggests that its youngest users are valuable enough from an advertising perspective that Meta is willing to risk future regulatory wrangling rather than going cold turkey.

Instagram and Facebook introduce more limits on targeting teens with ads by Taylor Hatmaker originally published on TechCrunch

Amazon announced this morning it’s expanding its Buy with Prime service to U.S.-based merchants by the end of the month. The service, which allows third-party merchants to offer Prime benefits like free shipping and returns on their own apps, was initially only available to those merchants who were already using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to handle their shipping and logistics.

The service was first introduced in Spring 2022, with FBA merchants and other select merchants on an invite-only basis.

With Buy with Prime, consumers get fast, free delivery, similar to Amazon.com’s Prime service, plus seamless checkout, and easier returns, allowing merchants to establish their own direct relationships with customers, Amazon says.

Since its April debut, Amazon claims the offering has increased shopper conversion by an average of 25%.

It notes that it measured Buy with Prime’s success by comparing conversions on the sites where Buy with Prime was offered as a purchase option to those where it was not during the same time period. In a press release, Wyze confirmed it was seeing a 25% higher conversion rate on Buy with Prime and noted it has added the option to all items in its catalog. Meanwhile, skincare brand Trophy Skin said the option to check out using Buy with Prime had resulted in a conversion rate increase of over 30%. An electrolyte drink mix brand, Hydralyte, meanwhile reported a 14% increase in conversion.

In addition to the expansion, the retail giant also introduced another new feature, Reviews from Amazon, which will allow Buy with Prime merchants to showcase reviews on their own online stores to help further increase conversions and consumer trust. The feature will offer the ability to display ratings and reviews from Amazon customers at no additional cost. After a shopper leaves a review on Amazon.com, that review will then appear on the merchant’s site wherever Buy with Prime is enabled.

“We’ve been working closely with merchants since the launch of Buy with Prime and have been thrilled to hear the results it’s helped drive for them so far,” said Peter Larsen, Amazon vice president of Buy with Prime, in a statement. “We’ll continue innovating and investing in new features, such as Reviews from Amazon, to help merchants of all sizes succeed and give Prime members the shopping benefits they love, whether it’s on Amazon or beyond.”

Haircare brand Sustainable Glam is already planning to offer the feature, it said.

BigCommerce said it will launch the Buy with Prime app in the first quarter, as well, allowing merchants on its platform to add the option without needing to write code.

Buy with Prime will open up to all interested U.S.-based merchants on Jan. 31, 2023 and no invitation will be required at that point.

Buy with Prime, which brings Prime to third-party sites, officially launches in U.S. on Jan. 31 by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

I have recently been a part of a few M&A processes at companies I work closely with. These transactions involved private companies selling to larger companies (public and private) and were all-cash transactions.

This inspired me to chronicle best practices and considerations for founders who are selling their company. In doing so, I hope that founders take away at least one useful insight.

I am grateful and fortunate that I could solicit input on this article from several people, including Theresia Gouw and Mark Kraynak; a few of my partners at Acrew; Ed Zimmerman and Meredith Beuchaw from the law firm Lowenstein; Shan Aggarwal, VP of corporate development, Coinbase; and Art Levy, chief strategy officer at Brex. I hope to also hear from more founders as they read through this.

First, some observations

M&A can be a great outcome for all parties, especially for startup founders and their team. Founders may have conflicting emotions when thinking about selling their company. That is perfectly understandable; in the beginning, many founders hope to build an enduring company.

However, it’s important to acknowledge that there are plenty of good reasons to sell: You can join a “larger rocketship” where 1+1=3; there could be a strong match with an acquirer; burn-out in the startup team; the team or investor wants liquidity; and so on. Further, myriad long-term, standalone companies have been founded by founders who sold or exited their prior companies.

During downturns, think of M&A as a game of musical chairs. The companies that test the market earlier in the cycle (before things have gotten particularly bleak) tend to see better outcomes.

In markets where incumbents are playing catch-up, there is a window when a few companies will get bought. By the time those deals settle, the rest will likely decide to build instead of buying.

Below, I’ve outlined the key steps of a M&A process.

From a timing point of view, founders should plan to conclude a sale in up to nine months. That isn’t to say it can’t happen sooner, but we would counsel that amount of cash buffer. This may require companies to raise bridge financing and/or consider reducing burn. As one of my partners counseled, “Every week you wait to cut spend makes the cuts you will need hurt that much more.”

Sourcing offers

This entails months of building relationships. Before a process, finding offers could take anywhere from several weeks to a few months to get all parties engaged and working.
You’ll want to share any offers with your board and key investors to make sure you’re atop all governance requirements.
It’ll be useful to build relationships with bankers as well, because they are in the market and talking to acquirers frequently. This will help you stay top of mind in your industry and be included for everything from conference invites to market maps.

Pre-LOI and evaluating bids

Again, this can take several months. A highly motivated acquirer running a tight process should be able to get through diligence in two to four weeks, but that would be fast in any market. You need to account for competing priorities at the acquirer, any other deals that might come up for their corporate development and personnel schedules.
Your leverage declines after you sign a LOI. In many cases, the LOI puts you into a period of exclusivity with the buyer. That’s why it’s important to nail down the details on the terms right away.
Consider getting representation and warranty insurance (RWI). This will influence how much of the deal consideration is paid upfront and how much is “at risk,” where selling shareholders will be at risk of losing proceeds earmarked or distributed to them.

Post-LOI confirmatory and legal diligence

Generally, diligence at this point should be less strategic and more operational. Legal diligence, however, will be exhaustive, and you may find that more detailed terms are being either negotiated or renegotiated via definitive long-form deal documents. It’s important to plan for this process with your legal counsel.
If you opted for an RWI, the insurer will also run diligence on the company.

A timeline for startup M&A processes: Key steps and factors to consider by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

Match Group, the parent company to dating apps Tinder, Hinge, Match, Plenty of Fish, Meetic and OurTime, among others, announced today the launch of a new campaign that will introduce in-app messages and email notifications to give users tips on how to prevent being scammed online.

Tinder and French online dating app Meetic will prompt users with in-app messages with tips and common behaviors to watch out for. Suggestions include making sure potential matches have their profile picture verified, video chatting with them before meeting in person and learning how to recognize scammer red flags.

Meanwhile, Match, Hinge, Plenty of Fish and OurTime will send out emails and message notifications to users with the same scam-related tips. Starting today, the global public awareness campaign will roll out in over 15 countries, including the United States, Canada, the U.K., India, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. It will last throughout the month of January, but Match Group told TechCrunch it will work to continue pushing the messages to users periodically.

“Scammers will often play the long game,” Buddy Loomis, Senior Director of Law Enforcement Operations and Investigations at Match Group told TechCrunch. “They want to really capture the victim’s confidence and trust, and they’ll spend a lot of time with them talking back and forth…that’s how scammers build a relationship with that person and make them feel safe. [Then] they’ll ask for money for either a child’s medical bill, visa or plane ticket.”

Another red flag is when a scammer wants to chat via third-party platforms, which usually means they want to chat on an app that isn’t as moderated. Match Group recently launched a feature across its apps that send users popup messages with safety tips if certain words are detected in the conversation.

More and more online daters become victims of romance scams, and the number only continues to rise. In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost a staggering $547 million. The Global Anti-Scam Organization provided data showing that the average reported loss in the U.S. was $186,169 in 2022, up from $120,754 in 2021, Match Group wrote in today’s announcement.

While there are many tools that Match Group dating apps use to catch fraudulent and suspicious profiles, there are still people using these apps to scam and steal from users.

Loomis points out that romance scams and other related incidents are significantly underreported, so hopefully the new message alerts with help that side of the issue too. “One of the big messages here is to raise awareness around this type of scam and remove that stigma of reporting. We want members to feel safe and have more come in whether that’s proactive where they haven’t been victimized and had any loss of monetary value, or after,” she added.

Match Group encourages users to report incidents on the platform they’re using as well as contact local law enforcement.

The company’s new dating safety campaign comes almost a year after Netflix released “The Tinder Swindler,” a true crime documentary that centers around Israeli conman Simon Leviev tricking women on the dating app to send him money. Since the documentary premiered in February 2022, Tinder has launched various safety features, such as Garbo-powered background checks and a feature that prevents bad actors from using the “unmatch” feature to hide from victims.

Tinder and other Match dating apps will offer in-app tips on avoiding romance scams by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

In partnership with AiFi, a startup that aims to enable retailers to deploy autonomous shopping tech cost-effectively, Microsoft today launched a preview of a cloud service called Smart Store Analytics. A part of Microsoft’s Cloud for Retail product suite, Smart Store Analytics provides retailers using AiFi’s technology with shopper and operational analytics for their fleets of “smart stores.”

AiFi’s “smart stores” are grocery stores, sport stadiums and convenience stores equipped with cameras that track what customers pick up and place in their carts, automatically charging their payment cards when they’re ready to check out. It’s similar to Amazon’s Just Walk Out tech; digital video captured by AiFi’s cameras feed a computer vision algorithm that recognizes shoppers’ behaviors, including when they pluck individual products from the shelves.

Once installed, Smart Store Analytics — which was also co-developed by Zabka Polska, a chain of Polish convenience stores — pulls store data from the AiFi platform to deliver insights that let retail managers better adjust store layouts and inventory. Smart Store Analytics shows how much customers shop, interact with products and move through aisles, displaying foot traffic as a heat map and tracking how much money each customer spends on average. The service also plots how long customers dwell in front of certain displays and the “unit sales-to-shopper height” ratio to help dial in on optimal shelf placements.

It might sound like a lot of personal data Smart Store Analytics is collecting. But Microsoft and AiFi claim that the service doesn’t use facial recognition or biometrics, only creating a virtual avatar of customers as they enter retail stores.

With Smart Store Analytics, AiFi will handle store setup, logistics and support while Microsoft will deliver models for optimizing store payout, product recommendations, inventory and so on. Żabka plans to use Smart Store Analytics in its 50-plus “Nano” stores to predict individual store demands, build ordering schedules for replenishment and react faster when a product is out of stock.

“Digital technology is what will make the difference between retailers that thrive during this period of economic, societal and technological change, and those that get left behind,” Shelley Bransten, CVP of worldwide retail and consumer goods industries at Microsoft, said in a statement. “Honestly, there’s not a retailer out there who doesn’t want to reimagine the store experience, but until now it’s not really been possible.”

Why’s Microsoft working with AiFi as opposed to rival startups like Sensei,Standard Cognition,Zippin,GrabangoandTrigo? Besides being an Azure customer, AiFi’s market share could well have something to do with it. The california-based company claims to be the world’s largest provider of autonomous shopping solutions with a platform that’s deployed in 100 retail spaces across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. In addition to having autonomous shopping tech in grocery stores, AiFi’s brought it to college campuses, sports venues and workplaces including the Miami Dolphins stadium and the University of Denver; over 800,000 shoppers have used it to make 1.5 million purchases to date.

“Our platform is way more flexible than a lot of our competition because we don’t have to touch the shelves at all,” AiFi CEO Steve Carlin said in a press release. “You can take a space that already exists and retrofit it. And you can move the shelves. You can’t do that with weight sensors, which require digging a trench in the floor, running cable to the shelf and electrifying the shelf. And once you’ve done that, that shelf isn’t moving.”

Interestingly, Microsoft was reportedly once developing a Just Walk Out-like system for tracking what people place in their shopping carts. The effort seemingly bore fruit in Dynamics 365 Connected Store, Microsoft’s service that uses a combination of computer vision, cameras and internet of things sensors to spotlight customers inside stores and personalize recommendations based on their behaviors.

Microsoft’s explorations in the space make sense given that so-called cashierless checkout systems stand to become quite a lucrative venture in the coming years.

A 2017 report from Juniper Research predicted that automated checkout systems would process more than $78 billion in transactions by 2022 across as many as 5,000 retail outlets. Juniper estimated that these technologies would drive an average increase in revenue of more than $300 per shopper per year, in part because they’d allow store associates to provide more personal service.

In a separate survey published in 2019, RBC Capital Markets estimated that Amazon’s cashierless Amazon Go stores bring in about 50% more revenue on average than typical convenience stores. The average Go store generates an estimated $1.5 million in revenue a year (excluding days when they’re closed), according to RBC, while a regular convenience store of the same size brings in just over $1 million a year in sales.

Microsoft partners with AiFi to launch Smart Store Analytics, a tracking service for cashierless outlets by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Coinbase plans to cut 950 jobs, or about 20% of its workforce, and shut down “several” projects as the U.S. crypto exchange giant looks to reduce its expenses to increase its “chances of doing well in every scenario.”

This is the second round of major layoff at the crypto exchange, which eliminated 18% of its workforce, or nearly 1,100 jobs last June, but there was “no way to reduce our expenses significantly enough, without considering changes to headcount,” Coinbase co-founder and chief executive Brian Armstrong wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

The moves are part of the company’s efforts to cut its operating expenses by about 25% quarter over quarter, he said. The company estimates that it will incur approximately $149 million to $163 million in total restructuring expenses, consisting of approximately $58 million to $68 million in cash charges related to employee severance and other termination benefits, it disclosed(PDF) in a 8K filing with SEC Tuesday.

In the filing, Coinbase also disclosed that it expects its adjusted EBIDTA losses for the year ending in December 31, 2022 to be within “the negative $500 million loss guardrail” it set last year.

As with firms in other industries, crypto firms are aggressively undertaking major decisions to survive the downturn in the broader market, which has reversed much of the gains from the 13-year long bull run. Kraken said in November that it plans to lay off 1,100 people, or 30% of its workforce.

Armstrong said the crypto industry is reeling from the fallout from “unscrupulous actors,” likely referring to Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX (which stole billions of dollars of customer funds), and disgraced crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital founders Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, and warned that “there could still be further contagion.”

“As we examined our 2023 scenarios, it became clear that we would need to reduce expenses to increase our chances of doing well in every scenario. While it is always painful to part ways with our fellow colleagues, there was no way to reduce our expenses significantly enough, without considering changes to headcount,” he wrote.

“Dark times also weed out bad companies, as we’re seeing right now. But those of us who believe in crypto will keep building great products and increasing economic freedom in the world. Better days are ahead, and when they arrive, we’ll be ready. Thank you for everything you’ve done to get us this far, and everything you will do to carry us forward.”

Shares of Coinbase are down 83% in the past one year.

Armstrong did not specify which all projects the firm plans to shut down, but said those projects had a “lower probability of success.”

Coinbase to cut 20% jobs, abandon ‘several’ projects to weather downturns in crypto market by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

Fragmentation has been a longstanding complaint about the Android ecosystem. Often users miss out on features of the latest Android version because they are using older devices that are no longer updated. To reduce the gap, Google has released the first public version of the Extension SDK, which aims to bring features of the latest Android version to older iterations.

As a part of this announcement, Google is opening up Photo Picker API support to Android 11 and Android 12. Photo picker lets users give access to select photos from their library to an app — right now, only Android 13 users can use the latest photo picker interface.

Notably, as this is an SDK app developers will have to include this functionality in their apps. But users won’t need a system update to use the photo picker.

The Extension SDK also brings support to implement AdServices APIs to prepare for the launch of the Android Privacy Sandbox. The Android Privacy Sandbox is Google’s new ad stack to replace cookies in Chrome. Currently, Google is testing Privacy Sandbox on a limited number of devices running Android 13 with a wider beta launch expected this year. With components like the Extension SDK, Google will aim to roll out Privacy Sandbox support to devices running older versions of Android.

Google has tried to compress feature rollout times through programs like Project Mainline, which was introduced with Android 10 to make the operating system more modular and push features through Google Play. So users don’t have to wait for phone makers to issue a software update. The Extension SDK is another step in that direction.

Google’s Extension SDK aims to bring latest features to older Android versions by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Unacademy said on Tuesday that Relevel, its upskilling product, is shifting focus to tests product and the newly launched LinkedIn-rival NextLevel, the latest in a series of changes from the Indian edtech unicorn as it scrambles to aggressively find the next breakthrough.

As part of the move, about 40 people at Relevel will be let go “because of lack of availability of roles,” Unacademy co-founder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal wrote to employees on Tuesday. About 80% of Relevel’s team will be absorbed by other businesses within the Unacademy Group, he said in the note, reviewed by TechCrunch.

Those enrolled in Relevel’s cohorts won’t be impacted and the parting team members will be offered severance pay for their notice period and two additional months, said the Indian edtech, which is backed by SoftBank, Tiger Global and Sequoia India.

“We are very grateful for the hard work and contributions of the Relevel team. Their hard work and hustle allowed us to scale revenues quickly but unit economics proved challenging,” wrote Munjal.

“Our culture is to pursue novel and creative ideas but we are also disciplined about holding ourselves to a high bar to continue the projects we start. Again, this decision doesn’t take away from them their positive contributions especially towards improving the learning trajectory and job prospects of our customers.”

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Unacademy launched Relevel in 2021, hoping to bank on the rising popularity of creators by giving them a platform to launch cohort-based live courses. The product, in which the edtech giant invested over $20 million, crossed $10 million in annualized recurring revenue last year.

The startup launched NextLevel, its take on LinkedIn last month.

Unacademy has eliminated about 1,400 full-time and contract positions since last year as the startup has sought to cut costs and become more disciplined.

The Bengaluru-headquartered startup “always raised more money than what was needed” to “continuously experiment and grow our platform without worrying about when we will run out of money,” Munjal told employees last year. “But now we must change our ways. […] Winter is here.”

Indian edtech Unacademy cuts upskilling service to double down on tests product and LinkedIn rival by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

ChatGPT is the hottest topic of discussion in the tech industry. OpenAI’s chatbot that answers questions in natural language has attracted interest from users and developers. Some developers are trying to take advantage of the trend by making dubious apps — both on the App Store and the Play Store — that aim to make money in the name of pro versions or extra credits to get more answers from AI.

It’s important to remember that ChatGPT is free to use for anyone on the web and OpenAI hasn’t released any official mobile app. While there are plently of apps that take advantage of GPT-3, there is no official ChatGPT API.

As Macrumors noted, an app named “ChatGPT Chat GPT AI With GPT-3,” has managed to reach the top charts in the productivity category in multiple countries.

While the app is free, it offers weekly ($7.99) and monthly ($49.99) packs to have unlimited chats with the AI bot. Some of the reviews of the app suggest that the subscription doesn’t add any value and the app appears to be fake. There is no way to tell if the app produces any tangible results because I couldn’t get past the loading screen.

Notably, the developer had a similar app on the Play Store with more than 100,000 downloads (archived link), but it has been removed now.

Over the weekend, CEO of edtech startup Bloomtech Austen Allred tweeted that the App Store is full of apps — with no association with OpenAI — that are trying to charge money for using ChatGPT.

Google Play Store is also filled with sketchy ChatGPT apps with thousands of downloads that don’t offer any usable functionality.

The playbook of these apps is to include ChatGPT in the app name and appear favorably in search results by bolstering their own ratings. Some folks are also developing multiple apps with similar names in hopes that one of them catches users’ attention.

It’s not clear if Apple and Google are actively taking any action on these apps. We have asked the companies for a comment, and we will update the story if we hear back.

App developers cloning websites or other popular apps is not a new trend. Previously we have seen both Apple’s and Google’s app stores being flooded with clones of Wordle, Threes, and Flappy Bird. The question is about how swiftly and stricly these platform gatekeepers act on them, if at all.

App Store and Play Store are flooded with dubious ChatGPT apps by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Sam Zeloof is a popular name on YouTube and tech Twitter. For years, he has been documenting his impressive journey of building silicon chips at his garage. What most people don’t know is that Zeloof has been working to take this expertise to its next logical level.

Zeloof has partnered with engineering veteran Jim Keller to found Atomic Semi, a startup that seeks to manufacture chips, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The startup is using “radically” simplified and miniaturized semiconductor fabs and prototyping integrated circuits to produce “much more affordable” chips in hours, instead of the typical months-long timeframe, the sources said.

The duo’s startup has received attention from investors, too. OpenAI is in advanced stages of deliberations to invest in Atomic Semi, participating in a seed round of about $15 million at a valuation of $100 million, the people said, requesting anonymity sharing non-public information.

The deliberations have not been finalized and the terms of the deal may change, they said. OpenAI declined to comment last week. Zeloof did not respond to a request for comment. Keller could not be reached.

The startup’s existence, the duo’s partnership and their fundraising efforts have not been previously reported.

OpenAI in talks to back Zeloof and chip legend Keller’s startup at $100 million valuation by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch