After living through the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers are re-evaluating their career path. Stefan Heinrich Henriquez, a former Head of Global Marketing at TikTok and Chief Marketing Officer at Cameo, is one of them. “I have been thinking about music since my time at TikTok, and I was really thinking about […]
The time Animoto almost brought AWS to its knees
Today, Amazon Web Services is a mainstay in the cloud infrastructure services market, a $60 billion juggernaut of a business. But in 2008, it was still new, working to keep its head above water and handle growing demand for its cloud servers. In fact, 15 years ago last week, the company launched Amazon EC2 in […]
This Week in Apps: Another App Store settlement, Apple asks to personalize ads, Twitter launches Super Follows
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. […]
Instagram may not be a photo-sharing app anymore, but Glass is
Instagram made headlines (including this one) when product head Adam Mosseri said in June that the app is “no longer just a square photo-sharing app,” since it’s pivoting its focus to shopping and video. But where does that leave photographers who want a social photo-sharing experience? According to Tom Watson, a former product designer at […]
Playbyte’s new app aims to become the ‘TikTok for games’
A startup called Playbyte wants to become the TikTok for games. The company’s newly launched iOS app offers tools that allow users to make and share simple games on their phone, as well as a vertically scrollable, fullscreen feed where you can play the games created by others. Also like TikTok, the feed becomes more […]
Barbershop technology startup theCut sharpens its platform with new $4.5M round
The mobile app that provides information and reviews on barbers for potential customers while also managing appointments, mobile payments and pricing on the back end for barbers.
SimpliFed serves up $500,000 pre-seed toward infant nutrition support
SimpliFed’s platform is a judgement-free zone providing evidence-based information on nutritional health for babies.
Fintech startup Jeeves raises $57M, goes from YC to $500M valuation in one year
Last summer, Jeeves was participating in Y Combinator’s summer batch as a fledgling fintech. This June, the startup emerged from stealth with $31 million in equity and $100 million in debt financing. Today, the company, which is building an “all-in-one expense management platform” for global startups, is announcing that it has raised a $57 million […]
Apple announces new settlement with Japan allowing developers to link to external websites
Apple has made a settlement with Japanese regulator that it will allow developers of “reader” apps link to their own website for managing users account. The change goes to effect in early 2022. This settlement comes after the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has forced Apple to make a change its polices on the reader […]
How a Vungle-owned mobile marketer sent Fontmaker to the top of the App Store
Does this sound familiar? An app goes viral on social media, often including TikTok, then immediately climbs to the top of the App Store where it gains even more new installs thanks to the heightened exposure. That’s what happened with the recent No. 1 on the U.S. App Store, Fontmaker, a subscription-based fonts app which […]