Apple sneaks in a ‘Severance’ Season 2 teaser during its iPhone 14 event

So you’re sitting there watching all of the new gadget news from Apple this afternoon — a new Apple Watch Series 8, SE, Ultra, new AirPods Pro…and then, wait — is that Helly R.? If you’re a fan of the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” you might have caught a little easter egg or two during Apple’s iPhone 14 this afternoon. The Cupertino company teased viewers about the much-anticipated season two of the popular Apple TV+ show amid the deluge of hardware news by offering a couple of brief scenes that featured the show’s lead actress riding the subway — something we’ve never seen her do.

The scenes could possibly indicate we’ll get to follow Helly’s character further outside the office in the upcoming episodes.

If you haven’t caught on yet to “Severance,” the Emmy-nominated Outstanding Drama Series features a dark take on work/life balance. Instead of employees engaged in “quiet quitting,” the workers in this sci-fi series opt for a high-tech medical procedure — “severance” — that surgically divides your memories of work life from those of your real life — and vice versa.

But whatever is really going on at Lumon, the cult-like company they work for in the macrodata refinement division, remains a mystery for the time being.

At the end of season one, the employees had teamed up on a plan to try to figure things out, leading to some big reveals about who these people were outside their work personas. The newer employee Helly Riggs, played by actress Britt Lower, will certainly be a focus in the forthcoming episodes given what we learned about her in the season one finale. (No spoilers here, just go watch!)

Nice #Severance cameo in #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/EtAjTzHqZQ

— Greg Fischer (@Fischer_Greg_) September 7, 2022

Thanks to her distinctive red hair, Helly’s character was easy to identify in a couple of scenes during the iPhone event presentation today.

She first appears in a video following the introduction of the new AirPods Pro.

You can catch a glimpse of Helly shortly after Apple presenter and Senior Engineer Mary-Ann Rau touts the new device’s better noise cancellation capabilities while standing in a noisy subway car — double that of the original AirPods Pro, she says. As the clip ends, Rau steps out of the train car and onto the platform. And that’s when we spot Helly waiting to step on.

Image Credits: Apple

Later, Apple pulls a Marvel-like end credits tease. After Tim Cook bids us farewell, the camera pans up to the stars above Apple Park — in an Apple logo, of course. The scene fades and Helly appears again.

This time, she’s again about to board the subway, still dressed in her work attire and carrying a large brown tote. The image flickers a little here — could this mean someone is pulling the levers back at corporate to swap her brain from work mode to another? (As we learned later in the season, the medical procedure Helly underwent to become a so-called severed worker can do a few other things too!)

Just in: #AppleEvent shows #Severance season 2 teaser. pic.twitter.com/IEhc0MWkCl

— Jaron Durkee (@BlarnixYT) September 7, 2022

Apple hasn’t yet said when viewers will get more of “Severance,” only that it’s been picked up for a second season.

The workplace thriller hails from executive producer Ben Stiller and creator Dan Erickson, and features an ensemble cast including Academy Award and Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette, Adam Scott, Emmy Award winner John Turturro, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, Dichen Lachman, Jen Tullock, Tramell Tillman, Michael Chernus and Academy Award winner Christopher Walken. Its first season can be streamed from Apple TV+.

Apple sneaks in a ‘Severance’ Season 2 teaser during its iPhone 14 event by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

June 13, 2022

Yahoo appoints six new board members, including Jessica Alba

Yahoo announced six new members of its board of directors today, about a year after the internet brand was acquired by private equity firm Apollo for $5 billion [Disclosure: TechCrunch is part of Yahoo].

The new appointees include Jessica Alba, actress and founder of The Honest Company; Aryeh Bourkoff, founder and CEO of the independent global investment firm LionTree, an investor in Yahoo; Fouad ElNaggar, co-founder and CEO of Array and Sapho (acquired by Citrix); Michael Kives, founder and CEO of K5 Global, an incubator with investments in SpaceX, Coinbase, FTX and others; Cynthia Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks and 36-year veteran of AT&T; and Katie Stanton, founder and general partner at Moxxie Ventures.

#ANGELS founding partner raises $25M for debut fund Moxxie Ventures

The six tech veterans bring varied experience in industries including digital media, private equity, entertainment and more. They join representatives from Apollo and Verizon, as well as Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone, who joined the company last year after serving as CEO of Tinder.

Six appointees at once is a big change, but the company is already in a period of transition under its new ownership and leadership.

“As we enter into a new era of Yahoo, establishing a powerful board of directors with strategic knowledge of diverse industries will drive greater growth, innovation, and scale,” Lanzone said in a statement. “The intersection of media, tech, product, and content is more relevant than ever and this board represents the best minds in those categories.”

Lanzone told the New York Times that he envisions the company’s media properties as individual products — TechCrunch is TechCrunch, Yahoo Sports is Yahoo Sports. He added that he has gotten multiple offers to buy the assets formerly belonging to AOL that are housed under Yahoo, though this isn’t in Yahoo’s immediate plans. In the future, Lanzone said that he’s looking for potential acquisitions, but we probably won’t see that happen for at least another year.

“As a newly standalone company, Yahoo’s business has experienced incredible momentum, reflected in our financial performance, user engagement figures, and perhaps most importantly, the quality of talent that has joined the company over the last several months,” said Yahoo Chairman Reed Rayman.

Jim Lanzone breaks up with Tinder, swipes right to take the CEO job at Yahoo, Renate Nyborg takes Tinder CEO role

Jessica Alba on the past, present and future of The Honest Company

January 10, 2022

Netflix gets its first Golden Globe for best motion picture (drama) in a bizarre, live tweeted event

You didn’t miss last night’s Golden Globes — it wasn’t on. But you may have seen the tweets. NBC announced in May 2021 it wouldn’t broadcast the awards show this year after an investigation by The L.A. Times revealed the lack of diversity within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization that hosts the annual event, as well as evidence of some members receiving gifts that amounted to bribes. As the HFPA undergoes reforms, it hosted last night’s pared-down event privately — it was not aired on television, nor even live-streamed.

Instead, the event’s winners were live-tweeted in an often bizarre fashion.

It seems the HFPA could have benefitted from Twitter’s paid subscription offering which lets you undo tweets with mistakes. Last night, the HFPA’s Golden Globes Twitter account regularly forgot to note which TV or movie projects Globe recipients were winning for — like how Andrew Garfield’s win was for “tick, tick…BOOM!”, for example — when it was announcing the night’s winners on social media. The organization also oddly referred to “West Side Story’s” laughter (?) as being “the best medicine,” in a tweet it later deleted, only to be posted again to say that music was the best medicine — which is not how that saying goes.

Nowhere in these deeply chaotic Golden Globe tweets do they even mention the projects people are winning for pic.twitter.com/4Tt5CHaojE

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) January 10, 2022

Nevertheless, the event went on.

In addition to being an overall quieter year as the HFPA tries to reform its organization following the controversies, the winning networks also aren’t touting their victories as they would normally, despite some seeing some notable firsts and upsets.

In prior years, HBO would be happily promoting its sweep over rivals. The network led the night with six wins, including four for HBO and two for HBO Max. Several of these were for its TV series “Succession,” which won for best TV drama, TV drama actor (Jeremy Strong), and supporting actress (Sarah Snook.) HBO Max’s comedy “Hacks” also notably beat out Emmy winner “Ted Lasso” (Apple TV+) as best comedy, and saw its lead, Jean Smart, win for best actress in a comedy. And Kate Winslet won best TV actress in a limited series for HBO’s “Mare of Easttown”.

Meanwhile, though Netflix led the year by nominations — including for best dramatic film “The Power of the Dog” and drama series “Squid Game” — it had said it wouldn’t participate in the event until the HFPA institutes changes. That decision means it’s also now not bragging about a couple of notable firsts that resulted from last night’s awards.

Netflix’s big win of the night was for its original film, “The Power of the Dog,” which became the streamer’s first-ever movie to take home a Golden Globe for best motion picture (drama). The movie also won for best director (Jane Campion) and best supporting actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

In addition, Netflix’s runaway hit TV series “Squid Game” received three nominations this year, leading to the first-ever win for South Korea, as South Korean actor O Yeong-su won for his role in the series, beating out “Succession’s” Kieran Culkin (HBO) and “The Morning Show’s” Billy Crudup (Apple TV+).

Netflix also won for “tick, tick…BOOM!” when Andrew Garfield took the trophy for best actor in a motion picture (musical or comedy), though the tweet had forgotten to credit the project by name.

Apple TV+ took home one win last night as “Ted Lasso’s” Jason Sudeikis won best actor in a TV series (comedy). Hulu also got one Globe, as “Dopesick’s” Michael Keaton won best actor in a TV limited series or motion picture made for television, while Amazon Prime Video’s “The Underground Railroad” won the category. Amazon Prime Video’s “Being the Ricardos” was highlighted with Nicole Kidman’s win as best actress in a motion picture.

In another milestone, the first trans actress to win a Golden Globe, FX’s “Pose” star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, took home the trophy for best actress in a drama.

20th Century Studio/Disney’s “West Side Story” won best picture (musical or comedy) and its stars, Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose won best actress and supporting actress, respectively. Disney’s “Encanto,” which streamed on Disney+ just a month after hitting theaters, won best animated picture.

Warner Bros.’ “Dune” got the trophy for best score (Hans Zimmer), and Will Smith was named best actor in a motion picture (drama) for “King Richard.” The best non-English language picture award went to the Japanese film “Drive My Car.”

The full list of winners is here.

October 21, 2021

Spotify opens up access to video podcast publishing to Anchor creators

Spotify has already invested around $1 billion in podcasting between its acquisitions, exclusive deals, and other partnerships. Now, it wants people to do more than just listen — it wants them to watch, too. The company announced today it’s opening up access to a new tool for creators that will allow them to begin publishing their video podcasts to its service. The tool will be provided by the company’s podcast creation platform Anchor, and expands on the global launch of video podcasts last year which encompassed only a select group of creators.

At the time, Spotify said its debut lineup of video podcasts included Spotify Originals and Exclusives, as well as some third-party podcasts. But there wasn’t a way for any creator to publish video to the service. Instead, they would have to turn to other video platforms, like YouTube.

Now, that’s changing. With Anchor, creators will be able to upload their videos through their account, similar to how they create and publish audio episodes today. Once published, fans can listen to the podcasts across platforms, including through the Spotify mobile app, desktop app, web player, and on most smart TVs and game consoles. Creators will also be able to monetize their videos as they do their audio podcasts through the use of subscriptions.

While creators can set their pricing and determine what a subscription includes, Spotify suggests subscriptions could provide access to exclusive video content or even unlock the video portion of the creator’s podcasts. The video podcasts can also incorporate the creator’s existing advertising partnerships and soon, they’ll support the newer Automated Ads, too.

While Spotify is officially opening up access to Anchor creators, the feature is being rolled out gradually. That means interested creators will have to sign up for a waitlist for the time being.

In the meantime, Spotify’s video lineup will include video podcasts from its Originals and Exclusives, like The Ringer’s Higher Learning with Van Lethan and Rachel Lindsay and The Joe Rogan Experience; and it will include other video creators who will now publish on Spotify, including Philip DeFranco, Jasmine Chiswell, The WAN Show,
Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald, and more to come.

Spotify has tried and failed to expand into video in years past. Its first efforts in original video half a decade ago largely flopped, and the company shelved its video plans for some time. But more recently, the company signaled its potential interest in returning to video when it acquired sports network The Ringer, which came with a YouTube-based video operation. It then went on to make more deals that could translate to video, like the one with TikTok star, turned Netflix actress, Addison Rae.

The expansion of video to more podcast creators directly follows news that YouTube is now also considering investing further in its own podcasting efforts. Bloomberg this month reported the company is hiring its first executive focused on podcasts. This may have encouraged Spotify to promote its own video podcasting efforts, even though the actual access to start uploading is still blocked by a waitlist.

Currently, to find video content on Spotify, you’ll need to navigate to the episode page from the show you want to watch, then hit play to start the episode. From the play bar at the bottom of the screen, you can tap to view the video in full-screen mode. You can then choose to either listen or watch the program, depending on what you’re doing.

There isn’t yet an easy way to see all the podcasts that are video-enabled, however. Spotify also declined to share how many podcasts would be available as videos at launch, but said it expected to have rolled out access to “thousands” by year-end.

July 26, 2021

Mark Cuban-backed Eterneva raises $10M to turn your loved one’s ashes into diamonds

The loss of a loved one is perhaps one of the most traumatic things a person can experience.

When it comes to memorializing someone after their death, most people think of planning funerals and/or picking out caskets or tombstones. And those things are typically done with the help of a funeral home.

Enter Austin-based Eterneva, which is building a rare direct to consumer brand in the end-of life-space. The four-year-old startup creates diamonds from the cremated ashes or hair of people and pets. It’s a highly unusual business but one that seems to be resonating with people seeking a way to keep a piece of their loved ones close to them after their death.

Since its inception, Eterneva has seen triple-digit growth in sales — including in 2020, when it more than doubled its revenue, according to CEO and co-founder Adelle Archer. And today, the company is announcing an “oversubscribed” $10M Series A led funding round led by Tiger Management with participation from Goodwater Capital, Capstar Ventures, NextCoast Ventures and Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban. (For the unacquainted, Tiger Management is the hedge fund and family office of Julian Robertson from which Tiger Global Management descended.)

“It was an extremely competitive round,” Archer told TechCrunch. “We received three term sheets and were able to put together an all-star investment group.” That investment group included Capstar Managing DIrector Kathryn Cavanaugh, who also joined Eterneva’s board; Lydia Jett – one of the top female partners at Softbank overseeing their $100B Vision Fund and Kara Nortman, managing partner at Upfront Capital, one of the first women to make managing partner at a VC fund and co-founder of Angel City with actress Natalie Portman.

Empathy emerges from stealth with $13M for a digital assistant aimed at bereaved families

Archer and co-founder Garrett Ozar launched Eterneva in the first quarter of 2017 after working together at BigCommerce. The company’s origin story is a very personal one for Archer. Her close friend and business mentor, Tracey Kaufman, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and ended up passing away at the age of 47. With no next of kin, Kaufman left her cremated ashes to her aunt, best friend and Archer.

“We started looking into different options but all the websites we landed on were so lackluster, somber and overwhelming,” Archer recalls. “Tracey was the most amazing person, and I felt like when you lose remarkable people, you needed better options to honor and memorialize them.”

At the time, Archer was working on a lab-grown diamond startup. Over dinner with a diamond scientist during which she was discussing her mentor’s death, the scientist said, “Well, you know Adele, there is carbon in ashes, so we could get the carbon out of Tracey’s ashes and make a diamond.”

The thought blew Archer’s mind.

“I knew that I had to do that, 100%. Tracy was such a vibrant person, it suited her so perfectly,” she said. “And I’d have a part of her with me all the time.”

Image Credits: Eterneva; Co-founders Garrett Ozar and Adelle Archer

It was the first diamond ever created by Eterneva, and it gave Archer a chance to be a customer of her own product, which she believes has helped in building an experience for her other customers. Soon, she became “fully focused” on the idea, which she viewed as a way to give grieving people “brightness and healing and a beautiful way to honor their loved ones.”

Since inception, Eterneva has created nearly 1,500 diamonds for over 1,000 customers. It can do colorless or nearly any color including black, yellow, blue, orange and green. The entry price for an Eterneva diamond is $2,999 and that goes up based on the size and color. Pets make up about 40% of Eterneva’s business.

“We view ourselves as the complete opposite tone of everything else in this space,” Archer said. “A lot of people are trying to solve planning and logistics around the end of life. We’re about helping people move forward, and building a platform for the celebration of life.”

The process to create the diamond is intricate, according to Archer, taking 7 to 9 months. The intent is to bring the customer along the journey by sharing the process with them at each stage through videos and pictures.

“We do it in parallel with their processing grief, which is super isolating,” Archer said. “They are usually in a different place with their grief than when they first started.”

One of the plans with the new capital is to enable more people to participate in person with the process such as, starting the machine work, or telling the jeweler stories about their loved one and coming up with a custom design that might have little details that represent aspects of their loved one’s life.

The company also plans to use the money to scale their funeral home channel program nationwide via Enterprise partnerships and scaling its operations and capacity in Austin so it can keep up with demand.

Eterneva is banking on the fact that more and more “people don’t want traditional funerals anymore.”

“They want personalization and meaning,” said Archer. “We plan to evolve the platform with different products and services down the road.”

The startup also wants to continue to build awareness around its brand. Recently, it’s seen more than a dozen videos on TikTok about its diamonds go viral, according to Archer.

Prior to the Series A, Eterneva has raised a total of $6.7 million from angels and institutions. Its seed round was a $3 million financing led by Austin-based Springdale Ventures in 2020. Mark Cuban first became an investor in the company when Archer and Ozar appeared on Shark Tank. Cuban took a 9% stake in the company in exchange for a $600,000 investment. Despite claims that the company was a scam, Cuban has stood by the science behind it and put money in the latest round as well.

Via email, he told TechCrunch he views an Eterneva diamond as “a unique, socially responsible way to stay connected to loved ones.”

“There is still so much upside and growth in their future,” Cuban wrote. “So I doubled down.”

He went on to describe the creation of diamond from the hair or ashes of a loved one as “such an intense personal commitment.”

“Eternava takes a very emotional and difficult and helps people walk through their journey in a trusted way that I don’t think anyone else can come close to,” Cuban added.

6 VCs talk the future of Austin’s exploding startup ecosystem

June 16, 2021

Cannabis and digital health start-up Sanity Group closes $44.2M Series A led by Redalpine

Berlin-based cannabis and digital health start-up Sanity Group has closed a $44.2M Series A financing round led by Swiss VC Redalpine along with US-based Navy Capital and SOJE Capital. GMPVC also participated in the round. This appears to be the largest round of cannabis funding in Europe to date and brings total investment in Sanity Group to $73M.

The new capital will be used to expand the Group’s medical division in Europe as well as a EU-GMP-compliant research and production facility near Frankfurt.

Previous investors include HV Capital, TQ Ventures, Atlantic Food Labs, Cherry Ventures, Bitburger Ventures, and SevenVentures. In addition, Sanity Group has attracted celebrity angels including music producers will.i.am, Scooter Braun, and actress Alyssa Milano.

Sanity’s cannabis-based platform is for mental health and chronic pain management, allowing the tracking of cannabis-based therapy digitally with a medical device. This tells customers how much of the active ingredient (THC, CBD or other cannabinoids) is being administered. This is then registered in a therapy diary.

Finn Age Hänsel, founder and managing director of Sanity Group said: “A round of this magnitude shows that cannabis is increasingly moving into the mainstream of investor awareness, and represents an important milestone in our business expansion on our way to becoming Europe’s leading cannabis company.”

Over an interview, he added: “So we are fully legal and operated in Germany. We are just about to enter the Czech Republic and Poland. The UK is one of the biggest markets we want to enter going forward because, as you might know, the whole area of medical cannabis is slowly but surely opening all over Europe, with Germany being the largest market, about 80% of all the cannabis cannabinoid-based therapies today. But actually, the UK being the number two, which is a super attractive market for us but we look further into the Czech Republic and Poland, because those are the markets that have opened up from a regulatory perspective, at the most, over the last two years, and then France will open up next year, but that’s basically one after the other.”

Sean Stiefel, CEO at Navy Capital said: “The European cannabis market faces exciting developments in the coming months. Compared to the North American market, Europe is now where we were in the U.S. about four years ago. We want to bring our expertise and experience to the table. For our first investment in Europe, it was important for us to find a team that understands the market and has real industry experts in its ranks.”

June 10, 2021

Atomic-backed Jumpcut uses data to advance diversity in film

Jumpcut founder Kartik Hosanagar is a professor at the Wharton School, but about ten years ago, he spent his summer in an unlikely way: he wrote a screenplay. Set in India, his script garnered some interest from producers, but no one took the plunge to fund a film by a first-time Indian director.

Now, films featuring diverse casts are gaining traction – this year, Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color, and only the second woman ever, to win the Academy Award for Best Director. At the previous ceremony, Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” became the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Still, according to a recent report from McKinsey & Company, Hollywood leaves $10 billion on the table each year due to the industry’s lack of diversity.

“How do you make a bet on underrepresented voices or underrepresented stories?” asked Hosanagar. “While there’s awareness, there’s no action, because nobody knows how to do it. So that’s what got me into Jumpcut. It’s this rare company where 20 years of my work on data science and entrepreneurship meets with who I am outside of my work.”

At Wharton, Hosanagar is the Faculty Lead for the AI for Business program. He was a founder of Yodle, which was acquired by web.com for $340 million in 2016. But for this next venture, he wanted to tackle Hollywood’s homogeneity hands-on by using his experience with data science to de-risk media projects from underrepresented creators.

“The vision is to create a more inclusive era of global content creation,” he said to TechCrunch.

Hosanagar started working on Jumpcut in 2019, but today, the Atomic-backed company launches out of stealth as the first data science-driven studio working to elevate underrepresented voices in film. Already the studio has 12 TV and film projects in the works with partners like 36-time Academy Award nominee Lawrence Bender (“Pulp Fiction,” “Good Will Hunting”), Emmy Award-winning producer Shelby Stone (“Bessie,” “The Chi”), and showrunner Scott Rosenbaum (“Chuck,” “The Shield”).

Jumpcut models itself after Y-Combinator in its approach, pairing emerging talent with buyers and producers. First, Jumpcut uses an algorithm to scan hundreds of thousands of videos from platforms like YouTube, Reddit, and Wattpad to find promising talent. The algorithm narrows down the extensive field to locate creators who are consistently finding new audiences and increasing their engagement. Then, the Jumpcut team – including advisors and veterans from Netflix, Buzzfeed, CBS, Sony, and WarnerMedia – identifies who to connect with.

In one example of the algorithm’s success, Hosanagar pointed to Anna Hopkins, an actress who has appeared on shows like “The Expanse” and “Shadowhunters.” Though Hopkins has found some success in front of the camera, she also wants to write.

“We discovered some of her short films, and the algorithm identified it because people had strong emotional reactions in the comments, like, ‘heartwarming but in a positive way,’ or ‘give me a tissue,'” Hosanagar explained. Since Hopkins isn’t publicly known as a writer, she assumed that Jumpcut found her through a television network she had pitched a script to, but that wasn’t the case. “We said, ‘no, our algorithms found you.'”

Once a creator is identified by Jumpcut, they can A/B test their ideas with audiences of over 100,000 potential viewers, which helps the company prove to funders through data science that these ideas can sell.

“The idea there is that we don’t wait for creators to get discovered by the traditional Hollywood agencies, because that requires the creators to have access to the top agents, and that again brings you back to the old boys club,” Hosanagar said. “We’re automating a lot of that process and discovering these people who are creating great stories that are resonating with audiences, not waiting for some Hollywood agency to discover them.”

Once the creators have an idea that tests well with a wide audience, they’re invited to Jumpcut Collective, an incubator program that helps artists develop an idea from a concept to a pitch in 6 weeks. Then, Jumpcut helps match projects with producing partners and buyers.

So far, Jumpcut has hosted three incubator programs. Out of the twelve Jumpcut projects currently underway, Hosanagar says that nine or ten of them came out of the incubator. One project, for example, is now being developed in partnership with Disney’s Asia Pacific Division.

Jumpcut isn’t disclosing the amount raised in this round of seed funding, but confirms that Atomic is the only investor in their seed round.

Hosanagar is joined on the project by Dilip Rajan, his former student and a former product manager at BuzzFeed, and Winnie Kemp, a former SVP of Originals at Super Deluxe and CBS. There, she developed and executive produced “Chambers,” the first show with a Native American lead, and “This Close,” the first show with deaf creators and cast. Most of their funding will go toward payroll, which includes engineers, data scientists, and product managers on the product side of the company, as well as development executives on the creative side, who run the incubator.

January 23, 2021

This Week in Apps: TikTok viral hit breaks Spotify records, inauguration boosts news app installs, judge rules against Parler

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 is as hot as ever, 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 alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year.

This week, we’re looking into how President Biden’s inauguration impacted news apps, the latest in the Parler lawsuit, and how TikTok’s app continues to shape culture, among other things.

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

Apple stops signing iOS 12.5, making iOS 12.5.1 the only versions of iOS available to older devices.
A report claims Apple’s iOS 15 update will cut support for devices with an A9 chip, like the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s Plus and the original iPhone SE.
New analysis estimates Apple’s upcoming iOS privacy changes will cause a roughly 7% revenue hit for Facebook in Q2. The revenue hit will continue in following quarters and will be “material.”

Platforms: Google

Google adds “trending” icons to the Play Store. New arrow icons appeared in the Top Charts tab, which indicate whether an app’s downloads are trending up or down, in terms of popularity. This could provide an early signal about those that may still be rising in the charts or beginning to fall out of favor, despite their current high position.
Google appears to be working on a Restricted Networking mode for Android 12. The mode, discovered by XDA Developers digging in the Android Open Source Project, would disable network access for all third-party apps.

Gaming

Goama (or Go Games) introduced a way for developers to integrate social games into their apps, which was showcased at CES. The company focuses on Asia and Latin America and has more than 15 partners, including GCash and Rappi, for digital payments and communications.

Goama lets developers integrate a social gaming platform into their apps

Fortnite maker Epic Games is getting into movies. The animated feature film Gilgamesh will use Epic’s Unreal Engine technology to tell the story of the king-turned-deity. The movie is not an in-house project, but rather is financed through Epic’s $100M MegaGrants fund.

Augmented Reality

Patents around Apple’s AR and VR efforts describe how a system could be identified in a way that’s similar to FaceID, then either permitted or denied the ability to change their appearance in the game.
Pinterest launches AR try-on for eyeshadow in its mobile app using Lens technology and ModiFace data. The app already offered AR try-on for lipsticks.

Pinterest launches an AR-powered try-on experience for eyeshadow

Entertainment

The CW app became the No. 1 app on the App Store this week, topping TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, thanks to CW’s season premieres of Batwoman, All American, Riverdale and Nancy Drew.
Users of podcasting app Anchor, owned by Spotify, say the app isn’t bringing them any sponsorship opportunities, as promised, beyond those from Spotify and Anchor itself.
YouTube launches hashtag landing pages on the web and in its mobile app. The pages are accessible when you click hashtags on YouTube, not via search, and weirdly rank the “best” videos through some inscrutable algorithm.

YouTube launches hashtag landing pages to all users

Apple’s Podcasts app adds a new editorial feature, Apple Podcasts Spotlight, meant to increase podcast listening by showcasing the best podcasts as selected by Apple editors.

E-commerce

WeChat facilitated 1.6 trillion yuan (close to $250 billion) in annual transactions through its “mini programs” in 2020. The figure is more than double that of 2019.

WeChat advances e-commerce goals with $250B in transactions

Fintech

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, launched an e-wallet, Douyin Pay. The wallet will supplement the existing payment options, Alipay and WeChat Pay, and will help to support the Douyin app’s growing e-commerce business.
Neobank Monzo founder Tom Blomfield left the startup, saying he struggled during the pandemic. “I think [for] a lot of people in the world…going through a pandemic, going through lockdown and the isolation involved in that has an impact on people’s mental health,” he told TechCrunch.

Monzo founder Tom Blomfield is departing the challenger bank and says he’s ‘struggled’ during the pandemic

New estimates indicate about 50% of the iPhone user base (or 507 million users) now use Apple Pay.
Samsung’s newest phones drop support for MST, which emulates a mag stripe at terminals that don’t support NFC.

Social

Indian messaging app, StickerChat, owned by Hike, is shutting down. Founder Kavin Bharti Mittal said India will never have a homegrown messenger unless it bars Western companies from its market. Hike pivoted this month to virtual social apps, Vibe and Rush, which it believes have more potential.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri, in a Verge podcast, said he’s not happy with Reels so far, and how he feels most people probably don’t understand the difference between Instagram video and IGTV. He says the social network needs to simplify and consolidate ideas.
Facebook and Instagram improve their accessibility features. The apps’ AI-generated image captions now offer far more details about who or what is in the photos, thanks to improvements in image recognition systems.
TikTok launches a Q&A feature that lets creators respond to fan questions using text or videos. The feature, rolled out to select creators with more than 10,000 followers, makes it easier to see all the questions in one place.

TikTok’s new Q&A feature lets creators respond to fan questions using text or video

Health & Fitness

Health and fitness app spending jumped 70% last year in Europe to record $544 million, a Sensor Tower report says. The year-over-year increase is far larger than 2019, when growth was just 37.2%. COVID-19 played a large role in this shift as people turned to fitness apps instead of gyms to stay in shape.

Government & Policy

Biden’s inauguration boosted installs of U.S. news apps up to 170%, Sensor Tower reported. CNN was the biggest mover, climbing 530 positions to reach No. 41 on the App Store, and up 170% in terms of downloads. News Break was the second highest, climbing 13 positions to No. 65. Right-wing outlet Newsmax climbed 43 spots to reach No. 108. In 2020, the top news apps were: News Break (23.7 million installs); SmartNews (9 million); CNN (5 million); and Fox News (4 million). This month, however, News Break saw 1.2 million installs, followed by Newsmax with about 863,000 installs, the report said.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) sent a draft decision to fellow EU Data Protection Authorities over the WhatsApp-Facebook data sharing policy. This means a decision on the matter is coming closer to a resolution in terms of what standards of transparency is required by WhatsApp.

WhatsApp-Facebook data-sharing transparency under review by EU DPAs after Ireland sends draft decision

German app developer Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents filed a complaint with the EU, U.S. DOJ and other antitrust watchdogs around the world over Apple and Google’s rejection of his COVID-related mobile game. Both stores had policies to only approve official COVID-19 apps from health authorities. Mueller renamed the game Viral Days and removed references to the novel coronavirus to get the app approved. However, he still feels the stores’ rules are holding back innovation.

Productivity

Basecamp’s Hey, which famously fought back against Apple’s App Store rules over IAP last year, has launched a business-focused platform, Hey for Work, expected to be public in Q1. The app has more App Store ratings than rival Superhuman, a report found. Currently, Hey has a 4.7-star rating across 3.3K reviews; Superhuman has 3.9 rating across only 274 reviews.

Trends

Baby boomers are increasingly using apps. Baby boomers/Gen Xers in the U.S. spent 30% more time year-over-year in their most used apps, App Annie reports. That’s a larger increase than either Millennials or Gen Z, at 18% and 16%, respectively.

Funding and M&A

Curtsy, a clothing resale app for Gen Z women, raised an $11 million Series A led by Index Ventures. The app tackles some of the problems with online resale by sending shipping supplies and labels to sellers, and by making the marketplace accessible to new and casual sellers.
Storytelling platform Wattpad acquired by South Korea’s Naver for $600 million. The reading apps whose stories have turned into book and Netflix hits will be incorporated into Naver’s publishing platform Webtoon.

Wattpad, the storytelling platform, is selling to South Korea’s Naver for $600 million

On-demand delivery app Glovo partnered with Swiss-based real estate firm, Stoneweg, which is investing €100 million in building and refurbishing real estate in key markets to build out Glovo’s network of “dark stores.”
Pocket Casts app is up for sale. The podcast app was acquired nearly three years ago by a public radio consortium of top podcast producers (NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago and This American Life). The owners have now agreed to sell the app, which posted a net loss in 2020. (NPR’s share of the loss was over $800,000.)
Travel app Maps.me raised $50 million in a round led by Alameda Research. The funding will go toward the launch of a multi-currency wallet. Cryptocurrency lender Genesis Capital and institutional cryptocurrency firm CMS Holdings also participated in the round, Coindesk reported.
Bangalore-based hyperlocal delivery app Dunzo raised $40 million in a round that included investment from Google, Lightbox, Evolvence, Hana Financial Investment, LGT Lightstone Aspada and Alteria.
London-based food delivery app Deliveroo raised $180 million in new funding from existing investors, led by Durable Capital Partners and Fidelity Management, valuing the business at more than $7 billion.
Dating Group acquired Swiss startup Once, a dating app that sends one match per day, for $18 million.

‘Slow dating’ app Once is acquired by Dating Group for $18M as it seeks to expand its portfolio

Downloads

Bodyguard

Image Credits: Bodyguard

A French content moderation app called Bodyguard, detailed here by TechCrunch, has brought its service to the English-speaking market. The app allows you to choose the level of content moderation you want to see on top social networks, like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Twitch. You can choose to hide toxic content across a range of categories, like insults, body shaming, moral harassment, sexual harassment, racism and homophobia and indicate whether the content is a low or high priority to block.

Bodyguard is a mobile app that hides toxic content on social platforms

Beeper

Image Credits: Beeper

Pebble’s founder and current YC Partner Eric Migicovsky has launched a new app, Beeper, that aims to centralize in one interface 15 different chat apps, including iMessage. The app relies on an open-source federated, encrypted messaging protocol called Matrix that uses “bridges” to connect to the various networks to move the messages. However, iMessage support is more wonky, as the company actually ships you an old iPhone to make the connection to the network. But this system allows you to access Beeper on non-Apple devices, the company says. The app is slowly onboarding new users due to initial demand. The app works across MacOS, Windows, Linux‍, iOS and Android and charges $10/mo for the service.

Pebble founder launches Beeper, a universal chat app that works with iMessage and others

January 23, 2021

This Week in Apps: TikTok viral hit breaks Spotify records, inauguration boosts news app installs, judge rules against Parler

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 is as hot as ever, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020.

This week, we’re looking into how President Biden’s inauguration impacted news apps, the latest in the Parler lawsuit, and how TikTok’s app continues to shape culture, among other things.