The very day in Feb. 2020 that Credit Karma planned to announce that it had been acquired by Intuit for over $7 billion, the stock market tanked, spooked by news that a virus could start a pandemic.
MrBeast’s ‘Real Life Squid Game’ and the price of viral stunts
First, everyone was talking about “Squid Game,” the Korean psychological thriller that became Netflix’s biggest series launch ever, with 142 million viewers. Now, everyone’s talking about YouTuber MrBeast’s recreation of the show’s titular fight-to-the-death, which racked up 142 million views in eight days. (Don’t worry, no one was killed). Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast), the 23-year-old who […]
Social app IRL makes its first acquisition with deal for digital nutrition company AaBeZe Labs
IRL, the SoftBank-backed social app and recent unicorn, is today announcing its first acquisition. The company is purchasing, for an undisclosed sum, the “digital nutrition” company AaBeZe Labs and its portfolio of IP with the goal of making IRL a healthier and more ethically designed social networking app. AaBeZe’s founders Michael Phillips Moskowitz, the former […]
AWS launches new services for the automotive industry
At its annual re:Invent conference, AWS today announced two new initiatives for the automotive industry. One is a new product, AWS FleetWise, a new service that makes it easier for automakers to collect and retrieve sensor and telemetry data from their vehicle fleets. The other is AWS Automotive, a broader, industry-specific initiative that brings together […]
Ludwig Leaves Twitch For YouTube Gaming
Twitch streamer Ludwig Ahgren, who in April set a world record for the highest number of subscribers—at over 270,000—has left the platform and will now be streaming exclusively at YouTube Gaming.Read more…
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will testify before the Senate on teen mental heath
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will testify before the Senate for the first time as part of a series of hearings about online safety for children and teens. Per The New York Times, Mosseri’s hearing will take place on December 6. Mosseri’s upcoming testimony comes after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote a letter to Facebook […]
GoDaddy says data breach exposed over a million user accounts
Web hosting giant GoDaddy has reported a data breach with U.S. financial regulators, and warns that data on 1.2 million customers may have been accessed. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, GoDaddy’s chief information security officer Demetrius Comes said the company detected unauthorized access to its systems where it hosts and manages […]
Facebook to penalize rule-breaking Groups’ members by demoting them in News Feed
Facebook has been steadily rolling out updates to Facebook Groups aimed at giving admins better ways to manage and moderate their online communities. Recently, this has included a combination of product releases — like access to automated moderation aids and alerts about heated debates — as well as new policies aimed at keeping Groups in […]
Co-streaming rolls out to all creators on Facebook Gaming
Co-streaming is rolling out to all users on Facebook’s game-streaming platform Facebook Gaming. The feature will allow users to team up and stream with one another, while enabling viewers to navigate between co-streams and choose which perspective they’d like to see the action from. The feature had previously only been available to streamers in the […]
Google Search update will provide more context about websites, including descriptions and what others say
Google is making a change to its search results with the goal of improving the media literacy of online users. The company is expanding the capabilities of its “About this Result” feature, launched earlier this year, to also now include information about the source itself, including its description from Wikipedia and what the site says […]