While commercial terms of the deal were not disclosed by London-listed Games Workshop, the move demonstrates Amazon’s push to make the most of a streaming boom and take on rivals including HBO Max and Netflix.
Twitter pulls its Spaces group audio feature after Musk run-in with banned journalists
Twitter has apparently pulled its Spaces group audio feature, at least temporarily, after Elon Musk joined a group conversation that included journalists that had been banned from the platform.
The latest drama comes after Twitter suspended several prominent journalists who had covered an earlier story about the Elon Jet Twitter account that was banned for using publicly-available data to track Elon Musk’s private jet.
As it turns out, Twitter seemingly has a quirk that allows banned users to still participate in Twitter Spaces and converse with other members, and some of those who had been banned did just that. BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos started a group chat yesterday evening, and was joined by a number of journalists whose accounts had been suspended by Twitter, including the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and Mashable’s Matt Binder, as well as Jack Sweeney, the creator of the Elon Jet Twitter account who had his own personal account suspended too.
Elon Musk joined the conversation, where he continued to criticize those who not only shared real-time location data of his private jet, but those who reported on it. The exchange is available in various places online, including YouTube here:
After being pressed by journalists over some of his inconsistencies, Musk abruptly left the conversation, and shortly after the entire Spaces feature itself started playing up.
At the time of writing, it’s not possible to start a new Spaces conversation or join an existing one, certainly based on the various tests TechCrunch has done internally. In response to one Twitter user wondering what was going on with Spaces, Musk replied that it was “fixing a legacy bug,” and that it should be working again tomorrow.
Whether Spaces returns tomorrow or not, Twitter’s recent grand proclamations around Twitter 2.0 and its “continued commitment to the public conversation” could not look any more out of kilter with the events of the past 24 hours.
Twitter pulls its Spaces group audio feature after Musk run-in with banned journalists by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch
Global mobile ad spend to reach $362 billion in 2023, claims report
According to the data.ai report, mobile will take over the share of the advertising wallet as more time than ever is spent in apps, with total hours on track to surpass four trillion on Android phones alone in 2022.
Tinder's new 'Relationship Goals' to help users match with more intention
The new feature has started to roll out globally to members in several countries and will be available to all members by January 5, 2023, said the company.
YouTube Music may allow users to create custom radio
Currently, it already lets users customise their current queue by familiarity, genre, mood, energy level, and more directly from the Now Playing screen.
Honda's new Accord to offer Google built-in
The 2023 Accord will be the company’s first vehicle with Google built-in, including Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Play, and will arrive at dealers next month, Honda said in a blogpost.
Google Chrome to give price drop alerts
Users don’t need to refresh the page every day to see the price of any product. They can opt-in to receive an email or mobile notification from Chrome if there is a price drop, the tech giant said in a blog post.
With Bling, the fintech startup revolution spreads even to pocket money
Today, banks and fintech startups tend not to provide products dedicated to families, specifically, and this has appeared as something of a gap in the market. Meanwhile the general lack of financial education and financial literacy means families are missing out on securing financial prosperity for their families.
GoHenry (which raised $121.2M), which bills itself as “smart banking for kids” has attempted to crack part of this market, but is aimed at kids not families, per say. Meanwhile others chew away at Gen-Zs and parents, such as Greenlight (USA), Spriggy (AUS), Ruuky (DE), Step (US), Current (US), Nosso (UK), Unest (US).
Into this fray has stepped Bling, a startup founded by a 20-year-old, that offers a finance platform aimed specifically at families, which is designed so that parents can do financial planning for their children, from pocket money to first investments.
It’s now raised a €3.5M Seed round of financing from Peak (based out of Amsterdam); La Famiglia ; angels such as Lea-Sophie Cramer, Verena Pausder, Felix Haas (co-founder IDnow), Jakob Schreyer (Co-Founder Orderbird), former ING-Diba CEO Ben Tellings, football world cup winner Andre Schürrle, family ‘influencer’ Carmen Kroll, Angel Invest and Prediction Capital .
The startup says it is is addressing the estimated €3.3B in pocket money given out in Germany every year, just for children aged six to 13 years, along with the €35B spent in the home market in Germany alone (German census).
The Bling product has educational modules for parents, offers a child payment card, can can cover allowances via chores, for instance.
Founder Nils Feigenwinter start Bling at only 20 years old, and created it because, he says, he was frustrated during his high school years by seeing classmates already getting into personal debt: “After twelve years of school, I looked back and realized: Nice, I can now recognize the Pythagorean theorem and mountain stones, but I have no idea about saving or handling money responsibly,” he said in a statement.
With Bling, parents sign up, but no KYC is necessary because it only operates in a first sub-€150 amount. They create a family account, receive a card, and set up their child’s account. Children learn via modules, set up savings pots, can earn money via errands and chores, and customize their cards.
After that, family members and the community join Bling via links, thus contributing to savings pots and investment plans, managing household spending and prepping for critical financial events.
Bling claims it now has 10,000+ children using a Bling Card as their first personal payment experience 6 months after launch, because it eventually taps into like grandparents, godparents, and friends, using network effects for growth.
The business model for Bling is direct subscription, transactions and fees from financial products, partnerships (first mobile phone plans, insurance etc).
Prior to Bling, Feigenwinter founded three other companies in the youth segment, including Switzerland’s largest student magazine, family merchandise and licensing house, as well as a consultancy agency specialized in young adult topics, leading him to be described as the ‘fintech wunderkind’ by German media. He’s joined by CTO and co-founder Leon Stephan.
With Bling, the fintech startup revolution spreads even to pocket money by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch
Instagram Guides: How to group your posts in one place
Instagram Guides offers users the ability to create guides for places, products, and posts. You can create a thread of Instagram posts using the Posts format, complete with eye-catching titles and descriptions. Further, you can promote products that are listed in the Instagram Shop by curating them using the Products format.
Crypto trader Amber raises $300M as it seeks protection for FTX-hit customers
Amber Group, a Sequoia- and Temasek-backed crypto trading firm, has closed a hefty $300 million Series C funding round as the collapse of FTX shakes the crypto world.
The news, which the Singapore-based firm announced on Twitter Friday morning, follows on the heels of a Bloomberg report claiming that the crypto trader has ditched a Chelsea FC sponsorship deal and is axing 40% of its staff amid market turmoil.
Like other crypto trading firms, Amber was exposed to the FTX implosion. Less than 10% of its total trading capital was with FTX at the time of the collapse, the company said, “but we did have to rebalance some positions.”
That rebalance strategy has come to light as Fenbushi Capital US, the lead investor in Amber’s latest round, pours money into the crypto market maker to keep its business afloat. Fenbushi Capital also backed Amber’s$100 million Series B round in June 2021.
“While the vast majority of our clients and products remain intact, a few of our specific products would have experienced significant drawdowns as an aftermath of the FTX default, unless we could find ways to further protect those affected clients,” Amber said in a tweet.
“That’s why we reacted quickly to adjust our fundraising strategy. The Series C investors came on board with the understanding that we will be laser-focused on providing best-in-class services to our client base of institutional and high-net-worth investors”
The Series C financing was joined by other crypto-native investors and family offices. Amber was last valued at $3 billion in its $200 million Series B extension round in February. Bloomberg reported Friday that the firm’s valuation has slid under $3 billion.
Amber, which provides liquidity and market-making services mostly in Asia, had traded $1 trillion worth of cryptocurrencies cumulatively as of February with assets under management exceeding $5 billion.
TechCrunch has reached out to Amber regarding the scale of its recent layoff. Sources told us that the trading platform, which provides a mix of institutional and retail services, is cutting a “sizable” portion of its staff.
Amber hinted in a tweet that the layoff would indeed be substantial, as it will be “scaling down our mass consumer efforts and non-essential business lines, in an effort to focus on our core businesses and clients. These have not been easy decisions, and we unfortunately have had to say goodbye to many of our excellent colleagues.”
Update from Amber’s comment: “Unfortunately, difficult but decisive adjustments were needed, and this included an organizational realignment to an estimated 300 staff as well as the prudent decision to cut management salaries, organization-wide annual bonuses and marketing expenses. This is so that we remain resilient amidst the current market environment.”
Crypto trader Amber raises $300M as it seeks protection for FTX-hit customers by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch