Evil Geniuses CEO on the path toward esports ubiquity

The pandemic brought a new class of gamers online for the very first time, and the gaming space has never been larger or more diverse. At the same time, while esports saw some viewership gains in the past year, it still had to deal with plenty of hurdles tied to pandemic restrictions on physical ev

TikTok starts flirting with NFTs

The NFT space has had quite the year, and while it can be difficult to separate the billions of dollars in crypto speculation from the potential infrastructure shifts, plenty of mainstream tech companies are dipping their toes into the space and signaling future interest. This time it’s TikTo

Clubhouse adds clips, replays for asynchronous listening, better search and spatial audio for Android

Clubhouse announced today that it is unveiling four new features: Clips, Replay, Universal Search and spatial audio for Android (which already exists on iOS). All of these features will launch today, except for Replay, which will roll out in October. These additions will help expand Clubhouse’

South Korean ISP SK Broadband counterclaims against Netflix for bandwidth usage fees

South Korean internet service provider SK Broadband, a subsidiary of South Korean telco company SK Telecom, has filed a counterclaim against Netflix to demand payment for the bandwidth the streaming platform has used for the last three years. This case comes in the wake of the South Korean court si

Facebook grilled in Senate hearing over teen mental health

Last night, Facebook published two annotated slide decks in an attempt to contextualize the documents that The Wall Street Journal published this month, which reported evidence that the company is aware of its negative impact on teen mental health. These documents were released in anticipation of t

TikTok’s new ad products invite users to interact with taps, swipes, likes and more

TikTok this week presented its new plan to ramp up advertiser investment in its video platform with the expansion of e-commerce, a new promise of “brand safety” and the launch of several new and interactive ad formats, ranging from clickable stickers to “Choose Your Own Adventure&

Mobile gaming company Voodoo acquires Beach Bum

French startup Voodoo has made a significant acquisition in the casual mobile gaming market. The company is acquiring Beach Bum, a game studio based in Israel and specialized in tabletop and card games. It's hard to get a clear number for this acquisition as Voodoo is offering both cash and sha

Facebook Messenger releases cross-app group chats, further integrating with Instagram

Facebook Messenger is releasing a bundle of products this morning — most notably, including cross-app group chats. Last year, the company introduced cross-app messaging between Messenger and Instagram, but now, users will be able to start group chats among Instagram and Messenger contacts. Ot

Spotify rolls out podcast polls and Q&As to creators and users worldwide

Spotify earlier this year began beta testing new features to make podcasts more interactive through the use of listener polls and Q&As. Today, the company says these features will become publicly available to all creators through its podcast creation app, Anchor. To use the new options, creator

Seeking to respin Instagram’s toxicity for teens, Facebook publishes annotated slide decks

Facebook has quietly published internal research that was earlier obtained by The Wall Street Journal — and reported as evidence the tech giant knew about Instagram’s toxic impact on teenaged girls’ mental health. The two slide decks can be found here and here. The

Indian social commerce Meesho raises $570 million at $4.9 billion valuation

Meesho has more than doubled its valuation in less than six months, to $4.9 billion, as a growing number of high-profile investors back the Indian social commerce startup that is reporting strong growth despite the pandemic. The Bangalore-headquartered firm said on Thursday it has raised $570 milli

Ben Rubin explains why the Web3 era of social media will help everybody get paid

After a decade of a handful of dominant social media companies trading what are essentially publishing tools in exchange for serving us all an endless deluge of ads, the winds of change are finally blowing — in a few different directions at once. Content creators (arguably either a special echelo

TikTok Shopping expands with more partnerships, LIVE Shopping, new ads and more

TikTok is expanding its investment in e-commerce. Earlier this year, the video platform began piloting TikTok Shopping in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, in partnership with Shopify. The deal allowed Shopify merchants with a TikTok For Business account to add a Shopping tab to their TikTok profiles and

Twitch adds phone-verified chat, expands email authentication settings as users face ‘hate raids’

Twitch announced today that it will add new channel-level security features to help curb harassment on the platform. Now, creators and moderators can enable verified chat, requiring chatters to validate their phone and/or email before they can send messages. These settings can be toggled to enable