Alibaba is continuing its expansion into offline retail after the Chinese e-commerce giant bought up more than one-third of one of Chinese most prolific operators of hypermarket stores. The firm announced today it has spent HK$22.4 billion (around US$2.88 billion) to acquire of 36.16 percent in Sun Art Retail Group, a Hong Kong-listed business that operates 446 hypermarkets across 224… Read More
Business news network Cheddar has been partnering with social media platforms and OTT services in the U.S. And Cheddar is now looking at international markets. The media company is partnering with French startup Molotov so that French viewers can watch Cheddar from all their devices. Cheddar first launched 18 months ago. Unlike many new media companies, the startup has been focusing on live… Read More
London-based Glint has been pretty stealthy about what it planned to offer, despite several funding rounds and a vague description that it wanted to a create new “global currency” based on gold. Well, today the fintech startup is finally de-cloaking with a staggered launch of its multi-currency account, app and card that does indeed let you store your money in gold and convert it… Read More
Pact Coffee, the U.K. subscription service that delivers freshly roasted “specialty coffee” to your door, has seen a change of leadership as the company plans to focus more on the B2B side of its business. After 5 years running Pact, TechCrunch understands that founder Stephen Rapoport has stepped down from his role as CEO and instead will act as Chairman going forward.… Read More
Two weeks ago today, 26 people were killed by a gunman at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Two phones were discovered at the scene: older push-button LG and what local news described as a “blood spattered” Apple iPhone SE. Now local law enforcement has served Apple with a search warrant in order to retrieve information from the smartphone. The news has echoes of… Read More
I promised myself I wouldn’t read any work email (I failed), wouldn’t tweet (failed) and wouldn’t bring along any homework — I failed there too, but that one I don’t actually feel bad about. We’ve been following the progress of Nura headphones since they were an unsightly jumble of wires, with an exterior control box that did most of the heavy lifting.… Read More
This year’s STEM gift guide reflects the boom in ‘educational’ techie toys — featuring programmable and controllable robots of all stripes and shapes, as well as some fully fledged learn-to-code computers and a few lower tech alternatives for variety. Read More
This list describes cryptocurrencies. Each gets four words. There are many. Some are landmarks. Some are scams. Hopefully this provides orientation. Read More
The social networking platform splashed onto the tech scene promoting itself as an ad-free rival to Facebook. Soon millions of people (including yours truly) signed on just to see what all the fuss was about. The platform quickly ballooned to nearly 3 million community members in a short few months. The problem was no one knew what the hell this thing was. The logo was just a black dot with a… Read More
Companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon happily take our data in exchange for convenience, lower prices or free services, but individuals and businesses are beginning to understand the value of controlling their data instead of simply handing it over to the world’s largest technology companies. The battle to regain control over that data could be starting in earnest. I saw a couple… Read More
Ten years ago this week, Amazon released the first Kindle. It was big and clunky and kind of ugly, with an awkward physical keyboard and 250 MB of on-board storage. It sold out in less than six hours and would remain that way until the following April. Amazon, it seemed, was really onto something. Read More
Don’t worry; I’m not getting all moralistic on you here. When I talk about cultural decay I’m talking about something I think we need more of. We have too much culture to have a culture, you see, and that’s basically all tech’s fault — but it’s not necessarily a problem. No, stop, wait, listen, I can explain. Have you noticed that it’s a whole… Read More
Zego, the London-based startup that appears to have spotted a gaping insurance hole in the so-called gig economy, has raised £6 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing backers, including LocalGlobe and unnamed angel investors in the insurance sector. The company plans to use the new capital to increase engineering and other… Read More
In recent years, the SEC has had greater success policing wrongdoing due in large part to the implementation of its whistleblower program. But the whistleblowers’ crosshairs are not limited to Wall Street. Individuals are beginning to come forward in a new sphere of the business world, one with its own reputation of a problematic, win-at-all-cost culture: Silicon Valley. Read More
There are very few black and Latinx investors, with only 2 percent of investment team members at VC firms identifying as black and just 1 percent identifying as Latinx, according to the National Venture Capital Association. This is where HBCU.vc comes in. HBCU.vc, a pivot from HBCU to Startup, aims to diversify the white, male-dominated world of venture capital. HBCU.vc’s program works… Read More
We are now walking through a media desert. While access to content is astronomically high, the content that we read is dead, lifeless, and derivative. Yes, I see the irony in posting my criticism of the state of online media on, well, online media, but I want to explore how we got here and what we can do about it. We begin in about 1983. The education necessary to interact with media of that… Read More
The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Esteban Kolsky, Kevin Marks, Denis Pombriant, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Sunday, November 12, 2017.
G3: Safe Sex — Elisa Camahort Page, Lisa Padilla, Francine Hardaway, and Tina Chase Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, November 10, 2017.
@stevegillmor, @fradice, @ekolsky, @DenisPombriant, @kevinmarks
Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor… Read More
GoCater is a marketplace with hundreds of catering companies accessible from a single platform. It makes it much easier to organize events in your company. As for caterers, it’s a great way to find clients and optimize your workflows. The startup first started as a spinoff from La Belle Assiette. I’ve covered La Belle Assiette multiple times over the years. and the company is… Read More
Tesla’s Semi is off to a promising start, despite there being no official pricing information available yet: In addition to a Walmart pilot, Canadian grocery giant Loblaw is purchasing 25 of the heavy duty all-electric transport trucks (via Canadian Press), with a $5,000 deposit for each upfront even though pricing is TBD for the vehicle, which is supposed to start shipping in 2019.… Read More
Today’s Stories Apple pushes back on the release of the Homepod Twitter tests a new tweetstorm feature Tesla unveils a new semi truck Walmart will pilot the new Tesla Semis Credits Written by: Sarah Buhr Hosted by: Sarah Buhr Filmed by: Chris Gates Edited by: John Murillo Notes: Tito continues his journey in the Outback this week so you’re with me til Friday. Let’s… Read More
