TechCrunch is a group-edited blog that profiles the companies, products and events defining and transforming the new web.
To become a global fintech player, locate your company in San Francisco and Africa. That’s the approach of payments company Flutterwave, digital lending startup Mines, and mobile-money venture Chipper Cash—Africa-founded ventures that maintain headquarters in San Francisco and operations in Africa to tap the best of both worlds in VC, developers, clients, and the frontier […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 5:12 pm
Google’s lead data regulator in Europe has opened a formal investigation into its processing of personal data in the context of its online Ad Exchange, TechCrunch has learnt. This follows a privacy complaint pertaining to adtech’s real-timing bidding (RTB) system filed under Europe’s GDPR framework last year. The statutory inquiry into Google’s adtech that’s being […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 5:00 pm
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Apple announces new MacBook Pros with a keyboard fix, oh, and more powerful processors Apple says it’s taking three steps to […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 4:57 pm
Amazon shareholders have rejected two proposals that would have requested the company not to sell its facial recognition technology to government customers. The breakdown of the votes is not immediately known. A filing with the vote tally is expected later this week. The first proposal would have requested Amazon to limit the sale of its […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 4:52 pm
2019 is the year Facebook announced a ‘pivot to privacy’. At the same time, Google is trying to claim that privacy means letting it exclusively store and data-mine everything you do online. So what better time to sit down at Disrupt for a chat about what privacy really means with DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 4:31 pm
Apple’s WWDC keynote invites just went out, with only a couple of weeks to spare. The company’s graphic designers appear to be having some fun this time out, with a mind-blown rainbow unicorn, losing the Apple, Swift and App Store icons among others. iOS 13, watchOS 6 and macOS 10.15 are no doubt on the […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 4:22 pm
Early-stage startup ingenuity is one of the driving forces shaping the rapid, radical changes taking place in mobility and transportation. Come July 10, TechCrunch will host more than 1,000 movers, shakers and makers in San Jose for TC Sessions: Mobility 2019 for a day-long exploration of the technologies and challenges upending both industries. Talk about […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 4:00 pm
Fintech startup N26 received an order from BaFin, the German banking regulator. According to the regulator, N26 hasn’t been doing enough when it comes to money laundering and terrorist financing. The company has a specific period of time to implement changes and rectify its internal processes. “Today, BaFin published an order for N26 Bank GmbH. […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 3:39 pm
Google today unveiled a new look for its mobile search results which gives sites a way to showcase their own branding, instead of looking like every other blue link. Before, the search results were blue and the source — a publisher’s site, for example — would appear below in a smaller, green font. Now, it’s […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 3:33 pm
Thousands of TP-Link routers are vulnerable to a bug that can be used to remotely take control the device, but it took over a year for the company to publish the patches on its website. The vulnerability allows any low-skilled attacker to remotely gain full access to an affected router. The exploit relies on the […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 3:30 pm
Facebook’s former teen-in-residence Michael Sayman, now at Google, is back today with the launch of a new game: Emojishot, an emoji-based guessing game for iOS, built over the past ten weeks within Google’s in-house incubator, Area 120. The game, which is basically a version of charades using emoji characters, is notable because of its creator. […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 3:00 pm
At an event in Washington D.C. today, DJI unveiled plans to help avoid potentially life-threatening drone disasters. At the top of the list is the company’s promise to add AirSense technology to all of its models weighing more than 250 grams (~half a pound), which goes into effect January 1 of next year. The feature […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 2:57 pm
The dominoes continue to fall for Huawei in the wake of a Trump-led U.S. trade ban. An internal memo from ARM lays out the chip giant’s decision to hit pause on “all active contracts, support entitlements, and any pending engagements,” per the BBC. While based in Cambridge, England, the company believes itself to be impacted […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 2:05 pm
Projector, the brainchild of two Twitter alums, is emerging from stealth with $13 million to reimagine visual communication.
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 2:00 pm
While Android and iOS have locked up the market for smartphone operating systems, a feature phone platform that has the distinction of being the world’s third biggest mobile OS is announcing a hefty round of funding to continue its expansion. KaiOS, which makes the OS that powers devices like Nokia’s feature phones and Jio’s devices […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 1:04 pm
Roku has been getting more serious about its ad business, and today it’s launching a new tool designed to make advertisers comfortable with moving their spending over from traditional TV. Alison Levin, Roku’s vice president of ad sales and strategy, pointed to data from Magna Global estimating that while over-the-top viewing accounts for 29 percent […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 1:00 pm
For years, the web has been largely free thanks to online ads. The problem is that nobody likes them. When they’re not obnoxiously taking over your entire screen or autoplaying, they’re tracking you everywhere you go online. Ads can track where you go and which sites you visit and can be used to build up […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 1:00 pm
Don't worry, it's encrypted.
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 1:00 pm
One of the bigger developments in customer services has been the impact of social media — both as a place to vent frustration or praise (mostly frustration) and — especially over messaging apps — as a place for businesses to connect with their users. Now, customer support specialist Zendesk has made an acquisition so that […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 12:30 pm
Loot, the digital current account aimed at students and millennials, has called in administrators after appearing to have run out of cash. According to sources, the U.K. fintech was unable to raise additional funding in time after a potential sale to banking giant RBS fell through. Intriguingly, Royal Bank of Scotland Group indirectly owned a […]
Posted on 22 May 2019 | 12:01 pm