Monthly Archives: June 2021

News: Why is Didi worth so much less than Uber?

• June 25, 2021
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The Chinese ride-hailing giant appears set to be valued at a discount to its U.S. counterpart. By several tens of billions of dollars, it turns out. And we can’t quite figure out why.

Years ago, U.S. ride-hailing giant Uber and its Chinese rival Didi were locked in an expensive rivalry in the Asian nation. After a financially bruising competition, Uber sold its China-based business to Didi, focusing instead on other markets.

The two companies are coming head-to-head again, however, as Didi looks to list in the United States. The company’s IPO filing was big news for the SoftBank Vision Fund, Tencent and Uber, thanks to its stake in Didi from its earlier transaction.

But Didi appears set to be valued at a discount to Uber. By several tens of billions of dollars, it turns out. And we can’t quite figure out why.

This week, Didi indicated that it will target a $13 to $14 per-share IPO price, with each share on the U.S. markets worth one-fourth of a Class A share in the company. In more technical language, each ADR is 25% of a Class A ordinary share in Didi, if you prefer it put like that.

With 288 million shares to be sold in its U.S. IPO, Didi could raise as much as $4.03 billion, a huge sum.

What’s Didi worth at $13 to $14 per ADR? Using a nondiluted share count, Didi is valued between $62.3 billion and $67.1 billion. Inclusive of shares that may be issued thanks to vested options and the like, Didi could be worth as much as $70 billion; Renaissance Capital calculates the company’s midpoint valuation using a fully diluted share count at $67.5 billion.

Regardless of which number you prefer, Didi is not set to challenge Uber’s own valuation. Yahoo Finance pegged Uber at $95.2 billion as of this morning.

Why is the Chinese company worth less than its erstwhile rival? Let’s dig around in their numbers and find out.

Didi versus Uber

As a reminder, Uber’s Q1 2021 included adjusted revenues of $3.5 billion, a gain of 8% compared to the year-ago quarter. Uber’s adjusted EBITDA came in for the period at -$359 million.

News: To end cyberterrorism, the government should extend a hand to the private sector

• June 25, 2021
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The reality is that while companies can get smarter about cyber defenses and users can get more vigilant in their cyber hygiene practices, only the government has the power to end this behavior.

It is said that the best way to lose the next war is to keep fighting the last one. The citadels of the medieval ages were an effective defense until gunpowder and cannons changed siege warfare forever. Battlefield superiority based on raw troop numbers ceded to the power of artillery and the machine gun.

During World War I, tanks were the innovation that literally rolled over fortifications built using 19th-century technology. Throughout military history, innovators enjoyed the spoils of war while those who took too long to adapt were left crushed and defeated.

Cyberwarfare is no different, with conventional weapons yielding to technologies that are just as deadly to our economic and national security. Despite our military superiority and advances on the cyber front, America is still fighting a digital enemy using analog ways of thinking.

This must change, and it begins with the government making some difficult choices about how to wield its offensive powers against an enemy hidden in the shadows, how to partner with the private sector and what it will take to protect the nation against hostile actors that threaten our very way of life.

Colonial Pipeline was one step forward, two steps back

In the aftermath of the ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, the Russia-linked hacking group known as DarkSide reportedly shuttered and the Federal Bureau of Investigation recovered part of the $4.4 million ransom that was paid. These are positive developments and an indicator that our government is taking these types of attacks seriously. But it does not change the fact that cyberterrorists, acting with impunity in a hostile foreign country using a technique that has been known for years, managed to shut down the country’s largest oil pipeline and walk away with millions of dollars in ransom payments. They will likely never face justice, Russia will not face any real consequences and these attacks will no doubt continue.

The reality is that while companies can get smarter about cyber defenses and users can get more vigilant in their cyber hygiene practices, only the government has the power to bring this behavior to a halt.

Countries that permit cybercriminals to operate within their borders should be made to hand them over or be subject to crippling economic sanctions. Those found providing sanctuary or other assistance to such individuals or groups should face material support charges like anyone who assists a designated terrorist organization.

Regulators should insist that cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets help track down illicit transactions and parties or be cut off from the U.S. financial system. Law enforcement, the military and the intelligence community should be aggressively working to make it so difficult, so unsafe and so unprofitable for cyberterrorists to operate that they would not dare attempt another attack against American industry or critical infrastructure.

Government must facilitate cooperation with private actors

Our biggest vulnerability and missed opportunity is the inability of public and private entities to form a unified front against cyberwar. It is essential from both a defensive and offensive perspective that the government and private sectors share cyber risk and incident information in real time. This is not currently happening.

Companies are too scared that in revealing vulnerabilities they will be sued, investigated and further victimized by the very government that is supposed to help them defend against attack. The federal government still has no answer for the problems of overclassification of information, overlapping bureaucracies and cultural barriers that provide no incentive to proactively engage with private industry to share information and technologies.

The answer is not to strong-arm companies into coming to the table and expect one-way information flow. Private actors should be able to come forward voluntarily and share information without having to fear plaintiff litigation and regulatory action. Self-disclosed cyber data made in real time should be kept confidential and used to defend and fight back, not to further punish the victim. That is no basis for a mutual partnership.

And if federal agencies, the military or the intelligence community have intelligence about future attacks and how to prevent them, they should not sit on it until long after it will do any good. There are ways to share information with private industry that are safe, timely and mutually beneficial.

Cooperation should also go beyond the exchange of cyber event information. The private sector and academia account for a massive amount of advancement in the cyber space, with total research and development spending split roughly 90%-10% between the private and public sector over the past two decades.

Our private sector — with technology companies employing the best and brightest spanning from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, to the technology corridor of Northern Virginia — has a tremendous amount to offer to the government yet remains a largely untapped resource. The same innovations driving private-sector profit should be used to strengthen national security.

China has already figured this out, and if we cannot find a way to leverage private-sector innovation and young talent in the United States, we will fall behind. If there has ever been a call to action where the Biden administration, Democrats and Republicans in Congress can set politics aside and embrace bipartisan solutions, this is it.

Look to the military-defense industry model

Thankfully, there is a model public-private dynamic that in many ways is working. Weapons systems today are almost exclusively manufactured by the Defense Industrial Base, and when deployed to the battlefield there is constant two-way communication with warfighters about vulnerabilities, threats and opportunities to improve effectiveness. This relationship was not forged overnight and is far from perfect. But after decades of efforts, secure collaboration platforms were developed, security clearance standards were established and trust was formed.

We must do the same between cyber authorities in the federal government and actors throughout the private sector. Financial institutions, energy companies, retailers, manufacturers and pharmaceuticals must be able to engage the government to share real-time cyber data in both directions. If the federal government learns of a threat group or technique, it should not only take the offensive to shut it down but also push that information securely and quickly to the private sector.

It is not practical for the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security or the military to assume the burden of defending private networks against cyberattacks, but the government can and should be a shoulder-to-shoulder partner in the effort. We must adopt a relationship that recognizes this is both a joint battle and burden, and we do not have years to get it right.

Call to action

When you look at the history of war, the advantage has always gone to those who innovate first. With respect to cyberwarfare, the solution does not lie solely in advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing or blockchain. The most powerful development in today’s war against cyberterrorism might be as simple as what we all learned in preschool: the value of sharing and cooperation.

The government, the technology industry and the broader private sector must come together not only to maintain our competitive edge and embrace advances like cloud computing, autonomous vehicles and 5G, but to ensure that we defend and preserve our way of life. We have been successful in building public and private partnerships in the past and can evolve from an analog relationship to a digital one. But the government must take the reins and lead the way.

News: Deep Science: Keeping AI honest in medicine, climate science and vision

• June 25, 2021
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This week, we’ll explore a number of projects aimed at identifying or confirming bias or cheating behaviors in machine learning systems, or failures in the data that support them.

Research papers come out far too frequently for anyone to read them all. That’s especially true in the field of machine learning, which now affects (and produces papers in) practically every industry and company. This column aims to collect some of the more interesting recent discoveries and papers — particularly in, but not limited to, artificial intelligence — and explain why they matter.

This week we have a number of entries aimed at identifying or confirming bias or cheating behaviors in machine learning systems, or failures in the data that support them. But first a purely visually appealing project from the University of Washington being presented at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

They trained a system that recognizes and predicts the flow of water, clouds, smoke and other fluid features in photos, animating them from a single still image. The result is quite cool:

Image Credits: Hołyński et al./CVPR

Why, though? Well, for one thing, the future of photography is code, and the better our cameras understand the world they’re pointed at, the better they can accommodate or recreate it. Fake river flow isn’t in high demand, but accurately predicting movement and the behavior of common photo features is.

An important question to answer in the creation and application of any machine learning system is whether it’s actually doing the thing you want it to. The history of “AI” is riddled with examples of models that found a way to look like they’re performing a task without actually doing it — sort of like a kid kicking everything under the bed when they’re supposed to clean their room.

This is a serious problem in the medical field, where a system that’s faking it could have dire consequences. A study, also from UW, finds models proposed in the literature have a tendency to do this, in what the researchers call “shortcut learning.” These shortcuts could be simple — basing an X-ray’s risk on the patient’s demographics rather than the data in the image, for instance — or more unique, like relying heavily on conditions in the hospital its data is from, making it impossible to generalize to others.

The team found that many models basically failed when used on datasets that differed from their training ones. They hope that advances in machine learning transparency (opening the “black box”) will make it easier to tell when these systems are skirting the rules.

Image Credits: Siegfried Modola (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

News: Like the US, a two-tier venture capital market is emerging in Latin America

• June 25, 2021
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Mega-rounds are no longer an exception in Latin America; in fact, they have become a trend, with ever-larger rounds being announced over the last few months.

Earlier this week, The Exchange wrote about the early-stage venture capital market, with the goal of understanding how some startups are raising more seed capital before they work on their Series A, while other startups are seemingly raising their first lettered round while in the nascent stages of scaling.

The expedition was rooted in commentary from Rudina Seseri of Glasswing Ventures, who said abundant seed capital in the United States allows founders to get a lot done before they raise a Series A, effectively delaying these rounds. But after those founders did raise that A, their Series B round could rapidly follow thanks to later-stage money showing up in earlier-stage deals in hopes of snagging ownership in hot companies.

The idea? Slow As, fast Bs.

After chatting with Seseri more and a number of other venture capitalists about the concept, a second dynamic emerged. Namely that the “typical” early-stage funding round, as Seseri described it, was “becoming atypical because of the rise of preemptive rounds [in which] typical expectations on metrics go out the window.”

The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on Extra Crunch or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.

Series As, she said, could come mere months after a seed deal, and Series B rounds were seeing expected revenue thresholds tumble in part to “large, multiasset players that have come down market and are offering a different product than typical VCs — very fast term sheets, no active involvement post-investment, large investments amounts and high valuations.”

Focusing on just the Series A dynamic, the old rule of thumb that a startup would need to reach $1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) is now often moot. Some startups are delaying their A rounds until they reach $2 million in ARR thanks to ample seed capital.

While some startups delay their A rounds, others raise the critical investment earlier and earlier, perhaps with even a few hundred thousand in ARR.

What’s different between the two groups? Startups with “elite status” are able to jump ahead to their Series A, while other founders spend more time cobbling together adequate seed capital to get to sufficient scale to attract an A.

The dynamic is not merely a United States phenomenon. The two-tier venture capital market is also showing up in Latin America, a globally important and rapidly expanding startup region. (Brazilian fintech startup Nubank, for example, just closed a $750 million round.)

This morning, we’re diving into the Latin American venture capital market and its early-stage dynamics. We also have notes on the European scene, so expect more on the topic next week. Let’s go!

What’s hot

Mega-rounds are no longer an exception in Latin America; in fact, they have become a trend, with ever-larger rounds being announced over the last few months.

The announcements themselves often emphasize round size: For instance, the recent $100 million Series B round into Colombian proptech startup Habi was touted as “the largest Series B for a startup headquartered in Colombia.” This follows other 2021 records such as “the largest Series A for Mexico ” — $65 million for online grocer Jüsto — and “the largest Series A ever raised by a Latin American fintech” —  $43 million for “Plaid for Latin America” Belvo.

News: Investors race to win early-stage startup deals in India

• June 3, 2021
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India may be grappling with the second wave of the coronavirus, rising unemployment, and a dwindling economy, but the South Asian nation’s burgeoning startup ecosystem has never had it better. High-profile investors in India have long aggressively chased growth-stage, and late-stage deals, pouring record amounts of capital into the country. But in a sign of

India may be grappling with the second wave of the coronavirus, rising unemployment, and a dwindling economy, but the South Asian nation’s burgeoning startup ecosystem has never had it better.

High-profile investors in India have long aggressively chased growth-stage, and late-stage deals, pouring record amounts of capital into the country. But in a sign of the growing investor bullishness regarding Indian startups, even early-stage companies that have largely been bereft of much similar attention in recent years are now sharing the limelight.

More than 70 early-stage Indian startups are currently in advanced stages of talks to raise money, according to sources familiar with the matter. The size of the investments vary from a few million dollars to up to $100 million. TechCrunch is reporting some of the more notable deals today.

The usual caveat that many of deals haven’t yet closed, and that their terms could change or the talks may not materialize into an investment applies in our reporting. The deals described below have not been previously reported.

Sequoia Capital India, the most prolific investing firm in the country, is in talks to place capital in over two-dozen Indian startups including Register Book, a firm that operates an eponymous bookkeeping app; Vah Vah, which runs an app to educate people about makeup from artists; SaaS platform BambooBox, and email marketing software provider MailModo.

The firm is also in talks to back, alongside venture fund Nexus, OneCode, a startup that runs an app to connect digital-first brands with sellers. Sequoia Capital India, which launched a dedicated fund for early stage startups called Surge two years ago, is also in talks to invest in Probo, an app that rewards users for sharing their opinion; and Rattle.

Vaibhav Domkundwar, who runs Better Capital, said the early-stage startup scene in India has never been this hot.

“Pre-seed and seed stage momentum is at its peak, but we are also seeing pre-emptive rounds at Series As and Bs now,” he told TechCrunch.

Domkundwar, who has backed over 140 startups including Khatabook and neobank Open, attributed some excitement to the new generation of founders in India, who he said are building product-first and distribution-first companies. “We are seeing the fastest pace of investment in these teams,” he said.

A different investor, who requested anonymity, said second time founders are able to raise on a deck or a Notion doc from elite angels, unicorn founders and microVCs. The pace at which these founders are able to close the deal, the investor said, was “stunning.”

The frantic pace of investments in early-stage deals come as many of the more mature bets have become unicorns in India and many established startups are finally exploring taking the public markets.

India has birthed 14 unicorns this year, up from 11 last year and just 6 in 2019. High-profile investors such as Tiger Global and Falcon Edge Capital have increased their focus on India this year and winning founders with their large size of checks, higher valuation, access to resources, and quick turnaround time.

Many established firms are now chasing early-stage deals.

GSV is in talks to invest in Filo, a startup that operates an eponymous tutor app; and payments stack startup Inai has closed a new round from Better Capital and others and will be part of Y Combinator’s next batch. (Speaking of which, Y Combinator’s previous batch featured its largest cohort of Indian startups in history.)

One-year-old startup BrightCHAMPS, which has built a coding and math platform for kids, is currently in talks with GSV and Tiger Global to raise about $70 million.

Indiagold, a startup that allows people in the South Asian nation to access credit against their gold reserve, is in talks to close a new round with two high-profile foreign investors that have traditionally backed growth and late stage deals.

Germany’s Razor Group is in late stage talks to invest in Upscale, a startup that is attempting to replicate the Thrasio model in India.

Fintech investor RTP is in talks to invest in Fleek, a startup that is building “a payments system for subscription economy.” Falcon Edge’s AWI is in talks to invest in fitness subscription platform Ultrahuman, while SaaS platform AccelData has been approached by Bessemmer and WestBridge.

For high-profile investors with billions in dry powder, there are many rewards for spotting a promising startup in its initial years. One can buy a much larger stake in a startup for lower prices before the valuation of the startup — assuming things work out well — soars. Investing early also reduces the amount an investor may lose should things with the portfolio firm goes south.

But not everyone is happy with the new dynamics.

An investor with a micro fund told TechCrunch — on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly — that involvement of bigger investors in early stage deals has made it tougher for smaller firms to source new deals as the bigger investors are now aggressively trying to close entire rounds by themselves.

The investor said there is an additional competition in the market now: groups of high-profile founders, who tend to collectively back startups.

The investor cited earlier in the story termed these investments as “optionality cheques.” These optionality checks — that usually back second time founders or first time founders who previously worked at a unicorn or soonicorn — started with the Series A crowd such as Sequoia Capital India, Matrix, Lightspeed India Partners, he said. Now, the investor said, Tiger and Falcon / AWI are doing it, too.

There are two implications of these optionality checks, the investor said. “They make life more difficult for microVCs / seed VCs as they cannot compete with the Tigers or Falcons or Series A funds who can cut “smaller” checks with impunity, and perhaps even dilute less.”

But the investor cautioned the founders who are raising such optionality checks. “If the same fund doesn’t back them in the next round, then the negative signal can imperil their chances of raising from other VCs. Second, the excess money that they get can sometimes encourage faster expansion and higher spends.

Lightspeed India Partners, best known for its investments in unicorns Oyo Rooms and e-commerce platform Udaan, is in talks to back Vegrow, a startup that partners with farmers; 100ms.live, which operates an eponymous tool to help developers add video conferencing features to their apps, as well as edtech startup Kalaam Labs.

Dyte, which is building a “Stripe for live video calls,” is in talks with Nexus and Sequoia Capital India. Elevation Capital, which is also in talks to invest in VeGrow, is inching closer to investing in FamPay, which offers credit cards to teens at about $150 million valuation. Bangalore-based Chiratae Ventures is in the final stages of talks to invest in AroLeap and analytics startup Locale.ai.

Fanplay, a platform for social media influencers to monetise via mobile games, has already raised from several American microVCs, but the round hasn’t closed yet. Mumbai-headquartered due diligence and monitoring platform Advarisk has been approached by “several investors” but has yet to close the round.

Trading signals provider Tradex is in talks to raise from Leo Capital. Audio social media app Frnd, radio and podcast aggregator app Kuku FM, and crop management platform Bharatagri are also in advanced stages of talks with investors to raise capital.

Plug and play payments provider Card91 has been approached by several investors, but hasn’t closed the round yet. Tournafest has closed a round from a clutch of angel investors, and so have Easy Eat and Stockgro. Kosh has raised from YC, and VentureSouq among others.

Tech veteran Nandan Nilekani’s firm Fundamentum is in talks to back Bijak, which operates a business-to-business marketplace to trade agricultural commodities, and supply chain startup Reshamandi.

A survey by InnoVen Capital, results of which were published on Thursday, said that over 80% of the investors it had surveyed said their dealflow for early-stage startups had increased this year, compared to last year.

Over 75% of the respondents in the same survey said the valuations in recent deals were on the “higher side” because of the “intense competition for high quality deals and entry of large established VCs in this space.”

“Early-stage investment activity has proven to be resilient despite the pandemic, with bigger transaction sizes and higher valuations, a clear sign of a maturing early-stage ecosystem,” said Tarana Lalwani, Senior Director at InnoVen Capital India.

News: Tuesday Capital, formerly Crunchfund, casts a wide net with a fourth, $30 million fund

• June 3, 2021
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Tuesday Capital, a 10-year-old seed-stage fund that was founded by longtime VC Patrick Gallagher and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, has changed considerably over the years. Arrington now leads a crypto hedge fund. Tuesday was formerly known as Crunchfund. Gallagher now runs the outfit with partner Prashant Fonseka, who joined the fund in 2015 as an

Tuesday Capital, a 10-year-old seed-stage fund that was founded by longtime VC Patrick Gallagher and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, has changed considerably over the years. Arrington now leads a crypto hedge fund. Tuesday was formerly known as Crunchfund. Gallagher now runs the outfit with partner Prashant Fonseka, who joined the fund in 2015 as an associate.

Tuesday has also formed a deep relationship over the years with the industrial design shop Frog Design, which is a limited partner in the fund and sold a portion of its venture portfolio to Tuesday early last year. (Tuesday obtained stakes in nine startups in the deal.)

Perhaps most meaningfully, ten years ago, Tuesday didn’t have stakes in so many portfolio companies. Now that it has backed 600 founders, it has exits to point to and networks to leverage, says Gallagher of why the firm, which recently closed its fourth fund with $30 million, is now investing all over the globe and could be in the market later this year.

Both make a huge difference in a frothy market, where everyone and her brother has become an angel investor — if not a pre-seed fund manager. Indeed, upwards of 30% of Tuesday’s deal flow now comes from referrals and 15% of its newest stakes are in portfolio companies whose founders have spun out of companies that Tuesday backed previously. Among those many portfolio companies is the cloud computing company DigitalOcean, which went public in March; the collaborative software maker Airtable, recently valued by its investors at nearly $6 billion; and the pet care marketplace Rover, set to become publicly traded via a SPAC.

As it happens, the pandemic itself has also changed the firm is unanticipated ways. Though the firm’s early bets included the buy-now-pay-later fintech Kueski in Mexico, for example, it is now seeing even more interesting startups outside the Bay Area because Fonseka has been “living like a nomad” since early last year — and talking with founders en route. (Recent stops include Tulum, Mexico; Costa Rica; Virginia; Miami; and Austin. “We’re not sure he’ll land,” laughs Gallagher. “He does enjoy this lifestyle.”)

Tuesday is also ratcheting up its far-flung bets thanks in part to Frog, which has offices around the globe and often introduces Tuesday to clients.

One recent check, for example, went to Applied XL, a 16-month-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based startup that’s developing real-time information systems powered by experts to track the health of people, places and the planet, and which raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Tuesday, with participation from Frog (which continues to fund the occasional startup off its balance sheet).

What hasn’t changed is the firm’s thinking about its place in the investing universe. While funds tend to get bigger, write larger checks, and lead deals as time passes, Tuesday is content to write initial checks of $250,000 to $550,000 and to be a syndicate partner.

While everyone has an angle these days, Tuesday has always been, and continues to be, a generalist fund.

“Our mandate is very broad,” says Gallagher. “Prashant is spending time around digital health. I’ve [long liked] e-commerce and space. But when someone asks, ‘Should we show you a B2B deal? Should we show you vertical SaaS?’ I’m like, ‘Yes.’

“Ultimately,” he says, “we love mission-driven founders, whether consumer or enterprise,” and whether in California or as far away as Israel.

Tuesday, which also includes associate David Jee, has now backed 29 startups altogether with its newest fund, including the nine it acquired through Frog.

News: CDK Global buys vehicle the e-commerce platform Roadster for $360 million

• June 2, 2021
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Roadster, the Palo Alto-based digital platform that gives dealers tools to sell new and used vehicles online has been acquired for $360 million by retail automotive technology company CDK Global Inc., according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. As part of the all-cash deal, Roadster is now a wholly owned subsidiary. Roadster’s business model

Roadster, the Palo Alto-based digital platform that gives dealers tools to sell new and used vehicles online has been acquired for $360 million by retail automotive technology company CDK Global Inc., according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

As part of the all-cash deal, Roadster is now a wholly owned subsidiary. Roadster’s business model has evolved since its founding in 2013. The online sales platform initially hosted dealers’ inventory on its site, but handled the entire sales process with customers. Roadster now works more directly with dealerships by providing its digital retail tools directly to these businesses through its “Express” products.

These digital tools have helped dealerships enter a modern era and serve customers who have become accustomed to completing retail purchases online, particularly in the last year.

“Consumers have shown they are increasingly more willing to purchase big ticket items online, and this trend has quickly accelerated during the pandemic,” said Brian Krzanich, CDK Global’s president and CEO, in a statement. “To meet their expectations, the automotive industry requires integrations of the right technology, data and infrastructure to better connect its online and in-store experiences.”

CDK is known for making the vehicle sales process easier with digital products like Connected Store, a digital quote, loan and payment tool, or Elead CRM, a leads generating software platform. Roadster’s assets will connect CDK to dealer back-end-systems for a more seamless end-to-end sales process.

“Automotive retailing is extremely complex, and the best way to create a truly frictionless, end-to-end buying experience is to fully integrate our technology with the back-end systems that power dealership sales, finance and operations, regardless of provider,” said Andy Moss, Roadster’s founder and CEO, in a statement.

News: Walmart accidentally unveiled its own bargain-priced FHD streaming stick and 4K player

• June 2, 2021
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Walmart accidentally scooped itself by publishing product listings for its own, onn-branded, low-cost Android TV streaming stick to the Walmart.com website ahead of its formal launch, where it was soon spotted, alongside an upcoming 4K streaming device. Both items are officially arriving next week in stores and online, Walmart told TechCrunch, but it seems the

Walmart accidentally scooped itself by publishing product listings for its own, onn-branded, low-cost Android TV streaming stick to the Walmart.com website ahead of its formal launch, where it was soon spotted, alongside an upcoming 4K streaming device. Both items are officially arriving next week in stores and online, Walmart told TechCrunch, but it seems the website revealed them a bit earlier than planned.

The entry-level device streaming stick had been leaked earlier this year thanks to its FCC listing, but its online listing caught people’s eye thanks to its almost absurdly low price point of just $24.88 — a figure that rivals or even undercuts other streaming sticks on the market, including some from Walmart’s partner, Roku.

Roku today makes a product line of Walmart exclusives, where its cheapest player is the Roku Express 4K at $34.99, currently. Otherwise, Roku’s most affordable streaming player is the Roku Express, at $24.99. Google’s entry-level Chromecast, meanwhile, is $29.99, and Amazon’s cheapest Fire TV stick is the Fire TV Stick Lite at $24.99.

The Walmart streaming stick, which is published under the retailer’s onn electronics brand, falls in line with the specifications you’d expect to find on a low-cost device like this. It support FHD (Full HD, meaning 1080p), Dolby Audio, and ships with an Android TV-style remote (with batteries included), 1 HDMI Extender, AC adapter, and 1 USB to Micro-USB cable.

Image Credits: Walmart

The system itself is powered by Android TV, which offers an easy way for consumers to turn a regular TV into a smart TV with access to streaming apps, voice control, and the ability to “cast” content like photos, video and music to the TV. Device owners can also ask Google Assistant to control their TV with their voice, and access over 700,000 movies and TV shows from the Android TV interface.

The included remote offers a Google Assistant button and dedicated buttons for YouTube, Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max.

The stick may not be the sort of thing you’d use in your living room for your big screen, but may make sense to add to another, less important TV — like the one in the kid’s room or guest room — where having the top specs isn’t as essential.

Meanwhile, Walmart is addressing the higher-end of the streaming market with its new 4K Android TV streamer the $29.88 Onn UHD Streaming Device, also published ahead of schedule.

Image Credits: Walmart

The overall concept here is the same, but offers an affordable upgrade to 4K streaming.

The retailer’s onn brand today carries a range of devices, including TVs, headphones, portable speakers, tablets, and other accessories. Roku has also produced lower-cost versions of its new Smart Soundbar and Wireless Subwoofer for Walmart under the onn brand, too.

Walmart confirmed the new streaming devices are preparing to launch in stores and online in the retailer’s full assortment starting next week. Despite the website saying only a few devices are in stock or are out of stock, Walmart assures us there is, in fact, plenty of inventory available. These are not considered “test” items.

The company offered the following official specs for the new devices:

Streaming Stick

• Android TV OS
• Use built-in Chromecast to cast Chromecast-compatible apps to your TV
• Streams up to Full HD resolution with Dolby Audio support
• Built-in Google Assistant to control the TV and search for content
• Access favorite streaming apps like Netflix, Youtube, Disney+, HBOMax, Hulu, Prime Video, and more
• WiFi: 2.4 GHz/ 5Ghz 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• Input: AC 100-240V, 50/60Hz, Output: DC 5V/1A

Comes with:

• 1FHD TV Streaming Stick
• 1 Remote control (batteries included)
• 1HDMI Extender
• 1 AC adapter
• 1 USB to Micro-USB cable 4.88 ft.
• Quick start guide

4K Streaming Device

• Android TV OS
• Use built in Chromecast to cast Chromecast compatible apps to your TV
• Streams up to 4K ultra high-def resolution with Dolby Audio Support
• Built-in Google Assistant to control the TV and search for content
• Access favorite streaming apps like Netflix, Youtube, Disney+, HBOMax, Hulu, Prime Video, and more
• WiFi: 2.4/5GHx 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac MIMO
• Input: AC 100-240V, 50/60Hz, 250mA MAX; Output: DC 5V/1A

News: Google hires former SiriusXM CPO/CTO to lead its Maps team

• June 2, 2021
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Almost exactly a year ago, Google announced a couple of leadership changes that saw Prabhakar Raghavan, who joined the company back in 2012, take over the lead of Search, Assistant and Maps. Now, sources familiar with the hiring tell us, the company has hired Christopher Phillips, who was previously the chief product and technology officer

Almost exactly a year ago, Google announced a couple of leadership changes that saw Prabhakar Raghavan, who joined the company back in 2012, take over the lead of Search, Assistant and Maps. Now, sources familiar with the hiring tell us, the company has hired Christopher Phillips, who was previously the chief product and technology officer at SiriusXM, to lead its geo team, which is responsible for products like Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Maps Platform, the company’s enterprise business around these products. Google has confirmed his hire but declined to share any additional information. Phillips will officially join the company later this month.

Image Credits: Christopher Phillips/LinkedIn

Phillips came to SiriusXM after the company acquired music service Pandora last year. Before the acquisition, he spent six years as Pandora’s CPO and head of Technology, a role he took after leading product and design for Amazon Music from 2012 to 2014 and executive roles at Workspeed and Intuit before that.

In his new role at Google, Phillips will lead both product and engineering for the Geo team and report directly to Raghavan, who will continue to oversee Search, Assistant, Geo, Commerce and Ads. Before last year’s leadership shuffle, Jen Fitzpatrick essentially played a similar role for the Geo team.

According to Search Engine Land, Dane Glasgow and Liz Reid became the leads for the Geo team after her departure. Glasgow has since departed Google and is now at Facebook, while Reid recently took on a new role to lead Google’s search experiences. That obviously left a bit of a vacuum, which Phillips will now fill.

While Phillips doesn’t have any direct experience in building geo products, he does bring with him extensive experience in managing product-oriented engineering teams. His hiring also comes at an interesting time for Google Maps, which only recently announced a number of major updates and which is becoming an increasingly important part of Google’s product portfolio.

News: Tinder tested group video chat ahead of Match’s move into social discovery with Hyperconnect deal

• June 2, 2021
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As dating app Tinder and its parent company Match explore the future of personal connection through apps, it’s interesting to see what sort of ideas it tested but later discarded. One such experiment was something called “Tinder Mixer,” which had briefly offered Tinder users a way to join group video chats, and “play games” with

As dating app Tinder and its parent company Match explore the future of personal connection through apps, it’s interesting to see what sort of ideas it tested but later discarded. One such experiment was something called “Tinder Mixer,” which had briefly offered Tinder users a way to join group video chats, and “play games” with others nearby.

The feature was tested for a short period of time last year in New Zealand, we understand, but will not be launching.

The Tinder Mixer experience was uncovered by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, who found references the product in the Tinder Android app’s code. He had not yet publicized the finding, as we worked to learn more about the origins of the product.

Image Credits: Alessandro Paluzzi (opens in a new window)

The resources he found in the dating app had given the appearance of a product in the midst of development, Paluzzi noted, but as it turns out it was one that had already been tested and quickly shut down as Tinder continued its other, ongoing experiments in the dating market.

According to Tinder, the Tinder Mixer test has no impact on its product roadmap this year, and the Tinder Mixer experience described here will likely never come into existence.

That said, what made the product particularly intriguing was that it saw Tinder venturing, however briefly and experimentally, into more of a social discovery space, compared with the usual Tinder experience. Typically, Tinder users swipe on daters’ profiles, match, chat and sometimes even video call each other on a one-on-one basis. But live video chatting with a group is not something Tinder today offers.

Image Credits: Alessandro Paluzzi (opens in a new window)

That said, the idea of going live on video is not new to Match.

This is an area where the company has experimented before, including with its apps Plenty of Fish, which offers a one-to-many video broadcasting feature, and Ablo, which offers one-on-one video chats with people around the world. These experiments constitute what the company considers “dating-adjacent” experiences. In other words, you could meet someone through these video interactions, but that’s not necessarily their main goal.

Image Credits: Alessandro Paluzzi (opens in a new window)

These video experiences have continued even as Match announced its $1.73 billion acquisition of Seoul-based Hyperconnect — its biggest acquisition ever, and one that puts the company more on the path towards a future that involves the “social discovery” and live streaming market.

The company believes social discovery an area with vast potential, and a market it estimates that could be twice the size of dating, in fact.

Match Group CEO Shar Dubey spoke to this point recently at the JP Morgan Technology, Media and Communications Conference, noting that on some of its bigger platforms, Match has seen that a number of its users were looking for more of “a shared experience and a sense of community among other like-minded single people on the platform,” she said.

She noted that technology has reached a point where people could now interact with others through richer experiences than the traditional dating flow of swipe-match-chat allowed for, including few-to-few, many-to-many, and one-to-many type of experiences.

Hyperconnect brings to Match much of the technology that would allow the company to expand in these areas.

Today, it offers two apps, Azar and Hakuna Live, which let users to connect with one another online. The former, launched in 2014, is focused on one-on-one live video and voice chats while the latter, launched in 2019 is in the online broadcast space. Not coincidentally, these apps mirror the live stream experiences that Match has been running on Plenty of Fish and Ablo.

Because these live streaming services are often more heavily adopted by younger demographics, it makes sense that Match may have wanted to also test out such a live stream experience on Tinder, which also skews younger, even if the test ultimately only served as a way to collect data as opposed to informing a specific future product’s development.

With the Hyperconnect deal soon to be finalized, the incoming apps will initially give Match an expanded footprint in the live streaming and social discovery market in Asia — 75% of Hyperconnect’s usage and revenue comes from markets in Asia. Match then plans to leverage its international experience and knowledge to accelerate their growth in other markets where they haven’t yet broken through.

But another major reason for the acquisition is that Match sees the potential in deploying Hyperconnect’s technology across its existing portfolio of dating apps to not only create richer experiences but also to cater to users in markets where the “Western” way of online dating hasn’t yet been fully embraced, but social discovery has.

“We think there is real synergy of bringing some of these experiences that are popular in social discovery platforms onto our dating platforms, as well as sort of enhance the social discovery platforms and help people get to their dating intent, should they choose to,” Dubey explained, at the JP Morgan conference.

What any of that may mean for Tinder, more specifically, is not yet known.