Arab springs and AI winters

 Remember the Arab Spring? “Revolution 2.0”? Remember how we imagined, full of triumphal optimism, that social media would become the web that knit the oppressed masses better, would empower them to join together and overthrow their oppressors and stride shoulder-to-shoulder together into a better world? Yeah, those were the days. But now — “disillusioned”… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Uber’s new Asia chief wants to work with governments and taxi firms not against them

 New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been vocal in pledging to reform Uber’s toxic culture to take the business to the next level — and ultimately an IPO — but, over in Asia, another recent arrival is presiding over a revamped approach which includes turning those who were once enemies into friends. Brooks Entwistle, a former Chairman of Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia, joined… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

What it’s like cooking with meal kit startup Chef’d

 I’ve tried both Blue Apron and HelloFresh before, but I don’t like being locked into some subscription, so I decided to go with Chef’d this time around. Chef’d, which raised $35.2 million in August from strategic investors like pork producer Smithfield Foods and online grocer Fresh Direct, is different in that you don’t need to subscribe to anything, ever. There… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Physical storage startup Makespace has a new CEO to represent it

 Makespace, one of the many startups that launched to give consumers a new option for storing their stuff, has a new chief executive, TechCrunch has confirmed. The company’s thirty year-old co-founder and chief executive Sam Rosen is stepping down to make room at the top for Rahul Gandhi, Rosen’s fellow founder and Makespace’s chief operating officer. News of the change at the… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

These are the US startups that Russian investors are backing

 A taxi-hailing app. A transplant device developer. An online mortgage provider. Those businesses may have little in common, but one shared thread is that U.S. startups in these sectors have all secured large funding rounds led by Russia-based investors. They’re not alone. Over the past seven years, Russia-based e investors have participated in more than 300 funding rounds for… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Imagining Instagram: Stories-first

 Time spent by people watching Instagram Stories — which is temporary sharing with private replies — could someday significantly surpass time spent in the Instagram Feed, which is the permanent stream of photos and videos with comments. Although numbers comparing sharing and time spent between Stories and Feed are not available, there’s more to be done. Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Robin goes all in on robotic lawn care and focuses on franchising

 Robin, which pitched a combined “Uber for lawn care” and robotic-lawnmower-as-a-service at Disrupt SF’s Startup Battlefield last year, is making some big changes. It quietly sold the first part to Porch earlier this year, and is now focused on expanding the robot service nationwide via a franchising plan. (And they’re going to be on Shark Tank.) Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

China’s second largest e-commerce firm just showed Alibaba has serious competition

 Alibaba invented China’s biggest shopping day — 11/11 aka Single’s Day — and it dominates the headlines with record sales year-on-year, but another company just stepped out to remind us that others are busy trying to close the gap. JD.com, the perennial challenger to Alibaba’s e-commerce empire in China, just revealed its 11/11 figures for the first time. While… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Alibaba smashes its Single’s Day record once again as sales cross $25 billion

 Alibaba has set another Single’s Day record after the e-commerce giant sold over $25 billion of product on the Chinese biggest online shopping date. The full number comes in at 163.8 billion RMB, that’s roughly $25.3 billion, in GMV — that’s “gross merchandise volume” which is used to measure a dollar value for all sales on a platform. In Alibaba’s… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch