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 […]
InfoSum raises $65M Series B as organizations embrace secure data sharing
InfoSum, a London-based startup that provides a decentralized platform for secure data sharing between organizations, has secured a $65 million Series B funding round led by Chrysalis Investments. The investment comes less than a year after InfoSum closed a $15.1 million Series A round co-led by Upfront Ventures and IA Ventures. Since, the data privacy […]
Disney+ beats expectations to reach 116 million subscribers in Q3
Disney’s streaming service is seeing improved growth, after initially seeing slower numbers of subscriber additions in Q2 as COVID lockdowns and mask mandates came to an end. Today, Disney+ beat analyst expectations for subscriber growth in Disney’s blowout third quarter, reaching 116 million paid subscribers — above the 114.5 million Wall Street had expected — […]
Cent, the platform that Jack Dorsey used to sell his first tweet as an NFT, raises $3M
Cent was founded in 2017 as an ad-free creator network that allows users to offer each other crypto rewards for good posts and comments — it’s like gifting awards on Reddit, but with Ethereum. But in late 2020, Cent’s small, San Fransisco-based team created Valuables, an NFT market for tweets, and by March, the small […]
Britons spent third of time watching TV and online videos in 2020
Ofcom finds average UK resident spent five hours and 40 minutes a day watching video content Britons spent a third of their waking hours watching TV or online videos in 2020, according to research from the media regulator Ofcom that shows how we were d…
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine sold to new media firm from former Disney execs
Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s media company that has produced content for streaming services like Hulu, Apple and HBO, among others, has been sold to a yet-unnamed new media firm run by former Disney execs, Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, the company announced this morning. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the sale. Deal terms […]
Scarlett Johansson sues Disney, says Disney+ release of Black Widow broke contract
Lawsuit: Marvel star was promised exclusive theatrical release and cut of ticket sales.
Scarlett Johansson files suit over Disney+ ‘Black Widow’ release
With Scarlett Johansson’s time as an Avenger seemingly in the rearview, the “Black Widow” star has filed a breach of contract suit against Marvel-owner Disney. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court this week, alleges that the studio breached its agreement with the star when it released the film on Disney+ alongside its theatrical […]