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Google appears to have disabled access to Google Translate in parts of China, redirecting visitors to the Hong Kong domain — which isn’t accessible from the mainland. According to users on Reddit and site archives viewed by TechCrunch, Google swapped the Google Translate interface at translate.google.cn with a generic Google Search page at some point within the last 24 hours.
The change is reportedlyimpacting the translation features of apps like KOReader, a document viewer, for China-based users, as well as Chrome’s built-in translation functionality. Google hasn’t responded to a request for comment; we’ll update this piece if we hear back.
Google has a long and complicated relationship with the Chinese government. In 2006, the company entered the Chinese market with a version of its search engine that was subject to government censorship rules. But after state-sponsored hacks and government-ordered blocks on Google services in response to YouTube footage showing Chinese security forces beating Tibetans, Google shut down Google Search in the mainland and briefly rerouted searches through its uncensored Hong Kong domain.
The current Google Translate homepage in many parts of China.
Google reportedly explored relaunching Google Search in China in 2018 and 2019 as part of a project code-named Dragonfly, which would’ve censored results and recorded users’ locations as well as their internet browsing histories. But those plans were scuttled following clashes within Google led by the company’s privacy team, according to The Intercept.
In 2020, following the enactment of a national security law in Hong Kong that gave local authorities greatly expanded surveillance powers, Google said it wouldn’t directly respond to data requests from the Hong Kong law enforcement and instead would have them go through a mutual legal assistance treaty with the U.S.
Assuming it’s not a technical issue, the disabling of Google Translate in much of the mainland could be related to the upcoming National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which takes place October 16. The Chinese government has previously blocked Google services around major political events and politically sensitive anniversaries like that of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Embedded insurance — selling coverage at the same time as another product or service — is on the rise. According to data platform Dealroom, it accounts for a growing share of all policies sold, and startups in this space raised nearly $800 million in 2021 alone.
Having recently polled investors on all things insurtech, we were curious to know if the market remained as bullish on embedded insurance as last year — and whether it was warranted.
“Personally, I remain bullish on embedded insurance,” Brewer Lane Ventures general partner Martha Notaras told TechCrunch. “Many insurance purchases are difficult, so rolling insurance into another transaction makes a lot of sense.”
While seeing clear value in the ability to bundle insurance with another purchase, Notaras and other investors we talked to also had reservations.
“We believe in the concept of embedded insurance, but a more measured approach would suit investors well when analyzing these businesses,” Distributed Ventures partner Adam Blumencranz said.
Tesla AI Day is here — the company’s second-annual event designed to show off its progress in AI and robotics.
Viewers should expect demos and updates on the Optimus robot, the Dojo supercomputer as well as its “Autopilot” advanced driver assistance system, along with the $15,000 upgrade known as FSD, or “Full Self Driving.” (Tesla vehicles are not self-driving.)
CEO Elon Musk has billed Tesla AI Day as a recruitment event. And what better way to reach the 80-hour workweek ride-or-die for Tesla crowd than scheduling this for a Friday evening?
Note, this event is meant for recruiting AI & robotics engineers, so will be highly technical https://t.co/BcxAEv6qJd
Tesla AI Day is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. PT September 30 (that’s today). If past is prologue then Tesla AI Day will not start promptly at 5 p.m. — Elon tends to run late. Like the company’s other events, Tesla AI Day 2022 should be livestreamed on the Tesla YouTube channel.
Last year, Tesla AI Day covered computer vision, the Dojo supercomputer and the Tesla chip. But it was the dancing human dressed in a white body suit with a shiny black mask as a face that got the most attention. That stunt introduced the world to Musk’s plan to build a humanoid robot called the Tesla Bot or Optimus.
The Tesla bot was described as a non-automotive robotic use case for the company’s work on neural networks and its Dojo advanced supercomputer.
Will this year’s event give us another human dressed in a robot costume, or an actual working humanoid robot?
Between recent drama around gambling and its controversial decision to take a bigger slice of the subscription revenue pie, it’s been a dramatic couple of weeks for Twitch. Now, the company says it’s testing one new way for streamers to bring in cash from their most committed followers in the form of “elevated chats,” which let viewers pay to highlight a chat message and keep it visible for a set amount of time.
Twitch’s elevated chats look a lot like YouTube’s “super chats.” Like that feature, paying more will get your message featured for a longer interval, starting at $5 for 30 seconds and going up to $100 for 2.5 minutes in the spotlight. Those time intervals aren’t customizable for the time being.
We're experimenting with a new way for viewers to pay to support their favorite streamers!
Elevated Chat will be available on select channels today. Keep your messages visible in chat a for a longer period of time!
Twitch notes that streamers will get a 70/30 cut of revenue from elevated chats “after taxes and fees,” not the contentious 50/50 revenue share that it takes from most creators’ subs but also not the 80/20 it’s tried out in other chat test features either. It’s worth noting that Twitch also isn’t covering credit card processing fees, which YouTube does in its equivalent feature and since people are buying elevated chats directly rather than purchasing bits first, the creator would shoulder that cost.
Streamers in the test, which runs for four weeks and is out in the wild now, will notice a new chevron icon in chat next to the cheer button. Since it’s an experiment, Twitch is running two versions: One features elevated chats at the top of chat and another will display paid messages at the bottom of the video player. Elevated chats go into a queue and will face the same moderation standards that any other chat would. The test is desktop only for now, so the option won’t show up in the app, even in channels where the experiment is in effect.
Elevated chat is just a test for now, but it adds a more direct way for viewers to pay their favorite streamers in chat and one that doesn’t involve buying bits (Twitch’s virtual currency) like cheering does, for better or worse.
Raising a Series B for any startup is challenging right now, with many VCs pulling back on investments — funding for Series B rounds across all sectors fell 55% in August compared to a year earlier, for example.
But raising a Series B for a hardware startup can be even tougher. It has simply always been more difficult to get venture investors to fund a robotics project compared to a software-only venture, given robotics’ high capital requirements and the greater risk.
However, the climb uphill can get much easier if a robotics startup can showcase a solid business model, measurable metrics and a plan for the next 18 months. As an investor in AI and automation companies for over 20 years, I’ve backed dozens of robotics companies, and I continue to be bullish on the space.
You need to show that customers are deriving real value from your robots — saving time, money or both.
Here are several strategies founders can use to prepare their robotics companies for a successful Series B.
Show how your robot works
Robots are inherently visual (can anyone forget that video of Boston Dynamics robots dancing?) So when you pitch VCs on your automation company, it pays to demonstrate your robots in action.
If your robots are large installations in warehouses or on manufacturing lines, invite VCs to come to see them working. If they are small enough to transport, bring them with you to the pitch meeting. And always have high-quality video available to share on a computer or tablet during in-person pitches or online for virtual meetings. Seeing your product in action is critical to getting investors excited about it.
The demand for some services can be so high, it can insulate their providers against the vagaries of the market. During an economic downturn, consumers don’t cut back on pet food or toilet paper. Similarly, everyone needs insurance.
Between 2016 and 2022, insurtech startups received around $43 billion in funding, and despite the downturn, most of the investors that reporter Anna Heim recently surveyed said they’re still positive about the sector’s prospects:
Martha Notaras, general partner, Brewer Lane Ventures
David Wechsler, principal, OMERS Ventures
Stephen Brittain and Rob Lumley, directors and co-founders, Insurtech Gateway
Florian Graillot, founding partner, Astorya.vc
Clarisse Lam, associate, New Alpha Asset Management
Hélène Falchier, partner, Portage Ventures
Adam Blumencranz, partner, Distributed Ventures
Full TechCrunch+ articles are only available to members. Use discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription.
“We are simply seeing a reality check happen,” said Wechsler. “Unfortunately, there are many companies that should not have raised as much as they did, or perhaps don’t have sustainable business models. These companies will struggle to survive.”
Their responses contain valuable insights for early-stage founders still in fundraising mode, as well as those who are hoping to find an exit in this down market.
“From an M&A perspective, it’s a matter of price versus positioning,” said Graillot. “If you are solving a real pain point as an enterprise software company, tech providers or insurers might be interested in acquiring you.”
Thanks very much for reading TC+ this week. Have a great weekend.
Investors have embraced “asset-light” companies like Rent the Runway, Uber and Airbnb that don’t own the hardware that generates their revenue.
Companies that generate billions from assets they don’t own “typically require less capital — and therefore less dilution for their investors,” writes Daniel Hoffer, managing director of Autotech Ventures.
“But some asset-light marketplaces struggle to satisfy their customers because not all the assets they can make available are equally appreciated by their demand-side customers.”
Dear Sophie: Is it OK to use a visitor visa while holding an H-1B?
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
Dear Sophie,
I’m in Toronto, Canada, and I was approved for an H-1B, which was recently stamped in my passport. I plan to move to the U.S. next year. Can I visit the U.S. on a previous B-1/B-2 visa this November?
Would it raise any red flags if I were to visit as a visitor while holding an approved/stamped H-1B visa?
A strong sales organization is the tip of the spear for every SaaS startup, but because so few founders have meaningful experience in this arena, they don’t know how to set their teams up for success.
In this TC+ article, contributor Kevin Varadian explains how to chart a sales coaching journey that boosts retention and increases revenue.
“It’s important to recognize that today’s sales teams are more problem-solvers than deal-closers — soft skills are more important here than technical capabilities,” he says.
Jakob Balslev, CEO and co-founder of Danish animation and motion capture company Rokoko, describes the $3 million round that boosted his company to an $80 million valuation as “strategic.”
“True digital presence requires natural human motion,” the deck states, explaining that the company’s total addressable market encompasses everything from automotive robotics to safety and security.
To show TC+ readers how Rokoko persuaded investors to inject more cash at this stage of its development, Balslev shared the deck in full.
Treepz founder Onyeka Akumah on how to succeed in transportation tech
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin
Overall, quality of life for Africans has improved dramatically in recent decades, but the continent still suffers from weak public transportation infrastructure.
In Europe and North America, three-quarters of the urban population can ride a bus or train, but in Africa, that figure falls to one-third. To fill the gap, Nigerian startup Treepz is building a bus-hailing service that co-founder and CEO Onyeka Akumah wants to traverse the sub-Saharan region.
“We can’t continue to complain about the downturn,” said Akumah. “I’d say it’s helping us become sturdier.”
It’s demo day season. This morning marked the kickoff of VC firm 500 Global’s Fall 2022 Demo Day, which saw over a dozen startups give their best pitches to prospective investors — and customers. Participants ran the gamut from fintech and sustainability to edtech and developer tools, and several stood out from the rest of the pack.
The event comes just weeks after Y Combinator had its bi-annual Demo Day, its first since moving operations back to in-person. 500 Global, formerly branded under 500 Startups, has an accelerator that competes with YC. Both outfits look to back early-stage founders with money and advice in exchange for equity. YC has backed over 3,500 founders, while 500 Global has backed more than 2,800 founders, according to each institution’s websites. Unlike YC, 500 Global has geographic-specific accelerator programs, similar to Techstars, with focus on areas like Aichi, Japan, Cambodia, and Alberta, Canada.
That said, today’s debut from 500 Global is from its first and flagship program, hailing back from 2010 and, fittingly, including companies from all around the globe. All companies go through a four-month program but start at different times, thanks to 500 Global’s somewhat new rolling admissions strategy. Let’s dig into some of the moonshots of the batch and end with some notes from Clayton Bryan, partner and head of 500 Global’s Accelerator Fund.
The moonshots
For example, there’s Taiwan-based Rosetta.ai, an ecommerce startup tapping AI to let customers search for products — particularly apparel and cosmetic — through specific attributes. Rosetta’s AI algorithm “sees” which attributes (e.g., sleeveless, ruffled, microbeads) a shopper might want as they browse an online store and builds a “preference profile” for them, which merchants can use to cross-sell or set up promotions that trigger if it seems likely the shopper will abandon their cart.
Image Credits: Rosetta.ai
It’s early days for Rosetta. But the company, which was founded in 2016, has raised $2.4 million in capital to date and claims to have customers including Shu Uemura, in which L’Oréal owns a majority stake. The trick will be continuing to win customers over rivals like Lily AI, which similarly attempts to match customers with products using attributes and AI models.
Elsewhere on Demo Day, Lydia.ai walked through its health assessment service for insurance carriers. Designed to do away with lengthy medical exams and forms, Lydia has insurance plan applicants answer a few questions about their health — e.g., whether they have a chronic illness, have recently been hospitalization and so on — via their smartphones. The platform then generates an abstracted health score supposedly devoid of sensitive medical details, which insurers can use for risk management and underwriting.
Image Credits: Lydia.ai
Lydia isn’t the first to attempt this. Health tech startup Fedo also algorithmically generates health scores, quantifying a person’s risk for diseases and their propensity to claim. The opaqueness of Lydia’s approach also raises questions, like whether its algorithms account for demographic differences and historic biases in health care. But if the startup remains true to its mission — insuring the next billion people — it could be one to watch, particularly given the capital (~$13 million) already behind it.
One of the more unique Demo Say startups that presented was BetaStore, a supplier for the “informal” retail outlets common in Africa. Informal retailers are unlicensed and unregistered retailers that don’t report to tax agencies, typically operating out of open markets and shops. BetaStore serves as a goods marketplace for informal retailers, providing access to staples such as dish soap, laundry detergent and all-purpose cleaner at wholesale prices and delivering them to the retailers (within 48 hours).
Image Credits: BetaStore
BetaStore customers can order products via chat, text message or WhatsApp. On the backend, the platform provides sales analytics to manufacturers, which BetaStore notes can be leveraged to make “data-driven” decisions to scale up shipments.
BetaStore appears to be off to a strong start. Founded in 2020, the Nigeria-based startup claims to have distributed over 140,000 goods to retail customers in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal and fielded over 20,000 orders. Recently, BetaStore began offering financing to retailers and plans to launch a buy now, pay later product in the coming months.
One year after the rebrand
Minutes after Demo Day ended, Bryan spoke to TechCrunch about 500 Global and how it’s growing within an increasingly volatile (and competitive) market.
“It’s been kind of gloomy, but we’ve told our companies time and time again that the silver lining is that 2021 was a phenomenal year for venture funds raising financing,” he said, fitting into the news that U.S. based investors are sitting on $290 billion in dry powder right now. The accelerator’s top advice was to start fundraising earlier, ready the company more before going out to the market, and stay smart on managing expenses. His advice these days is that startups should be preparing for at least 18 months of runway.
It has been almost a year since 500 Global rebranded from 500 startups, a move that Bryan said was meant to reposition the institution as less of an accelerator, and more of a venture firm. Its more than semantics; former batch participants have come back to 500 for follow-on funding, during their Series A but up till their series D.
“Historically, we haven’t had any any optionality, but now we’re going multi-strategy and we’re working on later stage funds,” he said. “We have the demand with our founder community, we have a demand even within our partner community that they want to have access to more de-risked companies.”
He added: “We’re very proud of our accelerator. It is a key vantage…but now it’s helped unlock other opportunities for us as a firm that we’re exploring with a lot of enthusiasm.”
“We’re not immune to the the changes that are happening in our ecosystem, we’re aware of what other funds are doing and other programs are doing,” he said. “Our program has been operating strongly for the last 10 plus years. But at the same time, we can’t rest on our laurels, and we’ve got to make sure that we have compelling deal terms.”
When insurtech company Metromile went public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in February last year, it was valued at over $1 billion. A year and five months later, Lemonade acquired the company for less than $145 million.
As the markets turned early this year, insurtech left most generalist investors’ playbooks almost as fast as Metromile and its peers’ plummeting valuations. Yet, the sector is very much alive, and the “correction” of these companies’ valuations presents an opportunity for those who have cash left on their balance sheets, investors told TechCrunch.
“Just like how not every insurtech was a unicorn last year, not all of them are worth zero today,” said Florian Graillot, founding partner at Astorya.vc.
The insurtech market has been through a rough time this past year, so we reached out to eight active investors in the space to get a read of what’s been cooking as the markets aggressively recalibrated what an insurtech startup is worth.
We’re widening our lens, looking for more — and more diverse — investors to include in TechCrunch surveys where we poll top professionals about challenges in their industry.
If you’re an investor who’d like to participate in future surveys, fill out this form.
“From an M&A perspective, it’s a matter of price versus positioning,” Graillot said. “If you are solving a real pain point as an enterprise software company, tech providers or insurers might be interested in acquiring you. For DTC players offering personal or commercial insurance policies, if you’ve cracked the online acquisition challenge, you are worth something, and corporates might be interested in you to boost their own internal initiatives,” he said.
The players involved in these deals might go beyond the usual suspects, too. On one hand, private equity funds won’t be interested in companies that don’t have a clear path to profitability. On the other, “the growing interest and value of embedded insurance may bring nontraditional companies into the acquisition arena,” David Wechsler, principal at OMERS Ventures, said.
The bulk of the buyers, however, would likely be companies involved in insurance themselves – either insurtechs acquiring some of their peers or legacy players. For Clarisse Lam, associate at New Alpha Asset Management, this makes sense: “The repricing represents a great opportunity for incumbents to make strategic acquisitions and accelerate their digital transformation. This may actually be a great moment for insurtechs to nurture their relationship with incumbents to work on synergies and potential trade sales.”
VC money is definitely drying up for some, such as neo-insurers whose unit economics are under scrutiny. But other insurtech business models are seeing increasing interest.
“I see investor enthusiasm for B2B insurtechs with a recurring revenue model,” Martha Notaras, a general partner at Brewer Lane Ventures, told TechCrunch. “Many of these startups are delivering efficiency and cost savings to traditional insurers, and those existing insurers have become more receptive to bringing in startups to solve difficult operating problems.”
Read the full survey to understand where insurtech-focused venture capitalists are placing their bets, how to pitch to them, and where they expect startups to innovate next.
Here’s a question for you: How seriously should we take Amazon’s home robotics play? Perhaps a better way of framing it is: When do we take Amazon’s home robotics play seriously? I realize these sound like pointed questions, and I should specify that they’re not really specific to Amazon. They’re more a result of having been burned in the past.
The road to the home robot is littered with fine intentions from companies large (Sony) and small (Anki, etc.). For decades, robots have been a kind of industry shorthand for forward-thinking innovation. Want the world (and, more importantly, shareholders) to know you’re focused on the future? Roll a robot out at your press conference, and who cares if it ever comes out?
Amazon’s obviously addressed that last bit of potential criticism. Astro came out. Announced a year ago this week, the company launched the robot as part of its “Day One Edition” program, offering it up with limited availability at a steep price ($1,500). During a call before yesterday’s Alexa event, the company’s head of consumer robotics, Ken Washington, bristled when I implied that the Astro rollout found the company testing the waters of piloting the robot.
Image Credits: Amazon
“[Day One] is a way for us to put these products in their hands quickly,” the executive told me. “Not for us to — not learn their interest — learn what they want to see most to be added to it.… We’ve had hundreds of thousands of inbound requests and we continue to manufacture and deploy Astros to those customers who make those requests. I can’t share the actual sales quantity because we don’t share the data. But we’re off to a great start.”
To a certain extent, I think the pushback is about framing. I see Astro’s early run as an attempt to determine whether people ultimately want this manner of home robot. Amazon appears to take that want as a kind of foregone conclusion and instead looks at the program as a way to determine precisely why people want Astro. With the announcement of a new SDK being offered to the University of Michigan, Georgia Tech and the University of Maryland this year, it’s probably time to start thinking of Astro as a platform first.
Image Credits: irobot
There’s a sense in which the company is almost working backward from the iRobot model. The company determined a need (vacuuming) and made a purpose-built robot for that function. iRobot tends to be extremely deliberate in its approach. That’s why it took so long for the firm to introduce a proper two-in-one vacuuming/mopping robot.
“The customer is very excited about the convenience of a two-in-one robot, so we needed to build one,” CEO Colin Angle tells TechCrunch. “But, being iRobot, we needed to actually build one, as opposed to doing it in a way that doesn’t deliver on the promise. Right now, most two-in-one robots are really one-plus-one.”
Of course, assuming the FTC doesn’t put the kibosh on the deal (not yet a foregone conclusion), the two are about to be part of one big, happy family. If iRobot does end up rolling into Amazon’s consumer robotics line, it will be impossible not to take the company’s ambitions seriously. Certainly the way the company has accelerated the warehouse and fulfillment robotics categories are a clear indication of what the company is capable of doing with essentially unlimited resources. And while it’s already built its own home robot, it’s easy to imagine the Roomba serving in a similarly foundational capacity as Kiva for its consumer robotics play, going forward.
We got a whole bunch of news to get through this week. Gonna kick things off with a fun one. Back in July 2021, we covered the news that Agility Robotics’s Cassie ran a 5K. It was an impressive feat and a nice feather in the cap of the OSU spinoff. The company has, of course, become better known for Cassie’s follow-up, Digit, but the original ostrich-inspired robot is still involved in some interesting locomotion work in a handful of universities.
Agility CTO Jonathan Hurst tells TechCrunch:
Many dynamic behaviors are hard to represent mathematically, especially any physical interaction like walking or running. Machine learning techniques have the potential to represent that complexity, but so far have struggled to find good solutions or to translate from a simulation to a real machine. We’re figuring out how to use our expertise and knowledge of legged locomotion to guide the machine learning process, and getting results that outperform other techniques. That’s exciting! There’s no free lunch — a machine learning system likely won’t discover useful new behaviors on its own; we have to understand the goals and guide it well.
This week, the Amazon-backed startup announced that the ’bot has captured a world record, running 100 meters in 24.73 seconds (it’s a feat the company teased during a panel at our July Robotics event). That’s still a ways from Usain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds, but is still an extremely impressive feet for a bipedal robot nonetheless (there’s also something to be said for knowing that we can still outrun them for a bit longer).
Avidbots’ NEO in action Image Credits: Avidbots
Big raise for Avidbots this week. The Canadian firm announced a $70 million Series C for its industrial floor-cleaning robots. The round was led by Jeneration Capital and features True Ventures, Next47, SOSV, GGV Capital, BDC Capital, Golden Ventures and Kensington Capital. It brings the company’s total raise up to $107 million.
Avidbots plans to add an additional 100 people in product, engineering, sales and marketing over the course of the next year. Says CEO Faizan Sheikh:
We are very excited about the future as this financing allows us to accelerate our timelines for bringing new products to market as well as continuously improve our autonomous driving software and service for existing customers to deliver an even better experience and greater value.
Image Credits: Livin Farms
One of the more interesting users for robotics I’ve come across in recent weeks is Livin Farms. The Austrian firm raised $5.8 million for its Hive Pro system, which rears black soldier fly larvae for sustainable protein powder.
“[O]ur customers contribute massively to fixing the broken food system and therefore saving the planet,” CEO Katharina Unger said in a comment to TechCrunch. The process takes around 11 days, at which point the larvae “will become half a ton of biomass plus half a ton of fertilizer.”
Natasha has an interesting bit of news out of Europe this week. The EU recently updated liability laws to include artificial intelligence. The new AI Liability Directive will make it easier to sue systems like drones, robots and smart devices.
“The principle is simple,” justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, told TechCrunch. “The new rules apply when a product that functions thanks to AI technology causes damage and that this damage is the result of an error made by manufacturers, developers or users of this technology.”
Meanwhile, Rita wrote about an initiative designed to break China’s reliance on U.S.-designed semiconductors. It’s easy to understand the motivation here, given how much U.S. sanctions during the Trump administration sidelined Huawei in the past few years. Horizon Robotics is leading the way with a massive $3.4 billion in funding thus far.
Image Credits: Tesla
And finally, we’re ramping up for Tesla’s AI day. The event is tomorrow, and I plan to stay up late to help Kirsten cover it — and get a sneak peek at the company’s long-teased Optimus robot. Let’s just say my expectations are sufficiently tempered, but I’m open to being pleasantly surprised.
As more and more traditional institutions begin to dabble in digital assets, some believe the best way for both old-school finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) to grow together is through a cross-chain world and tokenization.
At Chainlink’s SmartCon 2022 conference, the “Bridging Traditional Finance and DeFi” panel discussed how interoperability could drive greater success for crypto in traditional markets. (Blockchain interoperability is when different chains communicate with each other. Tokenization is turning assets into digital tokens so investors could own fractional bits of the underlying asset.)
“By default, I’m definitely bullish on tokenization,” Victor O’Laughlen, managing director of head of enterprise tokenization at BNY Mellon, said. “We’re actually looking at tokenizing all different types of assets internally and, really, tokenization for me is an enabler for interoperability.”
Historically, financial institutions haven’t connected well, O’Laughlen said. “We have our own islands and try to operate in the best way that we can, but there’s always fear and uncertainty if we connect … but there’s a lot of integration that needs to happen within banks.”
Consumers reduced their mobile app spending in the third quarter of 2022 by roughly 5%, but the social video app TikTok just delivered another record-breaking quarter on this front. For the fourth straight quarter in a row, TikTok continued its streak as the app that has ever generated the most revenue in a quarter.
These new findings, in a report published today by Sensor Tower, see TikTok again becoming the highest-grossing app in the world even as the overall market is seeing a slight decline. However, the report does combine TikTok revenue with its Chinese version, known as Douyin — so it’s technically the revenue generated by the two apps offering the same feature set of short-form, vertical videos — not one.
TikTok’s global app along with Douyin on iOS together retained the position as the top-grossing non-game app across the App Store and Google Play combined, with approximately $914.4 million in consumer spending in the quarter.
Reached for comment, Sensor Tower explained that Douyin alone had generated approximately $433.5 million in consumer spending, or about 47% of that total.
On the App Store, TikTok was the No. 1 top-grossing non-game app, while it was No. 2 on Google Play, behind Google’s own storage subscription service, Google One, which had generated just over $330 million in the quarter.
To date, TikTok and Douyin’s apps have generated around $6.3 billion in total revenue, the report notes.
Across the broader app market, the trends weren’t quite as positive.
Consumer spending across in-app purchases, subscriptions and paid app downloads on both the App Store and Google Play dropped by 4.8% year-over-year to $31.6 billion in Q3, while app downloads fell a slight 1% to 35.3 billion.
Image Credits: Sensor Tower
The App Store continues to contribute to the vast majority of consumer spending, at more than double that of Google Play. In Q3, Apple’s App Store pulled in $21.2 billion, which was down 2.3% year-over-year from the $21.7 billion seen in the year-ago quarter. Google Play’s decline was even sharper, down $9.6% year-over-year from $11.5 billion to now $10.4 billion.
In the games segment, specifically, consumer spending fell 12.7% year-over-year to $19.3 billion. On the App Store, game spending was down 9.8% year-over-year to $11.9 billion while Google Play revenue was down 16.9% to $7.4 billion.
Image Credits: Sensor Tower
Meanwhile, app installs only dropped slightly. But as Google Play is responsible for driving downloads, the nearly 1% decline in terms of app installs was largely due to its 2.2% drop to 27 billion downloads in the quarter. The App Store had actually saw app installs grow by 3.8% to 8.2 billion, but this couldn’t cancel out Google Play’s larger decline.
Image Credits: Sensor Tower
TikTok was again the most downloaded non-game app with 196.5 million installs across both app stores combined and on iOS. But when Google Play is examined alone, Facebook moved into the No. 1 spot with 150.3 million installs, replacing Instagram.
The Tesla Cybertruck is not yet in existence thanks to multiple delays. But when it does come, Elon Musk promises it will also have the ability to “briefly” act as a boat — if the need arises.
“Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppy.” the tweet reads.
Musk’s reasoning behind the waterproof functionality is that the Cybertruck will need to be able to travel from Starbase — a SpaceX’s facility located at Boca Chica, Texas — to South Padre Island, which requires crossing the channel.
Needs be able to get from Starbase to South Padre Island, which requires crossing the channel
Musk did not expound upon what “briefly” means. And some Tesla owners may scoff at the waterproof claims. Tesla Model Y vehicles have been criticized by owners and reviewers for their leaky front trunks.
There are examples of other EVs, including Tesla vehicles being able to drive through several feet of water. For instance, Rivian recently posted a video on Twitter showing the R1T truck driving through a deep lap pool as part of a test.
Putting in a little work at the lap pool.
Driving video was filmed with professional drivers on a closed course designed for testing purposes. Be responsible. Drive safely. pic.twitter.com/gpcdjIAnIU
Tesla first unveiled the Cybertruck in November 2019. Consumers had a mixed reaction to the Cybertruck, with some hailing it as a triumph and others highly critical of its size and design. Even the harshest criticism didn’t prevent thousands of people plopping down the $100 reservation fee for truck.
At the time, Musk said production would begin in late 2021. A tri-motor AWD version was expected go into production in late 2022. Neither one has yet to be produced. While prototypes have been spotted on public roads since 2019, details have been scant and production has been repeatedly delayed.
This spring, Google announced it would expand the types of personal information users could request to have removed from Google Search results to include contact information, like a phone number, address or email. At Google’s “Search On” event today, where the company unveiled a number of announcements related to its Search products and services, it said this feature would now be rolling out widely to users in the U.S. and would later expand to include alerts.
Originally, Google had said the feature would arrive in the Google App in the “coming months” without giving an exact launch date. Today, Google says the “Results About You” tool will become accessible to all English language users in the U.S. within the next few weeks. It will also introduce a new feature, yet unreported, that will allow users to receive proactive alerts about their contact information appearing in Search results.
When available, users will be able to find the tool in the Google App or by clicking on the three dots next to an individual Google Search result.
Of course, a few users already discovered a partial launch of feature in earlier phases of this rollout. Last week, for example, some people reported already seeing the “Results About You” option appear in the Google app for Android.
Image Credits: Google
When making a request, you can ask Google to remove a result because it shows your personal contact information, because it shows your contact information with an intent to harm you, because it shows other personal information, because it contains illegal information, or because the information is outdated.
After making a removal request, you can also follow its progress in the app where you can filter between the requests being processed and those that have been approved.
The new alerting feature, meanwhile, won’t arrive until early next year. However, when available, users will be able to receive notifications about new Google Search results that contain their contact information so they can quickly act to request its removal, if they choose.
The service arrives at a time when there’s been much discussion about the threats associated with doxing — a way to threaten or harass someone by revealing their personal information to the public without their permission. This is often done to silence someone because of their beliefs or opinions, and is considered a form of cyberbullying. But unlike traditional online trolling, where bad actors can simply be blocked and reported, doxing can invite real-world harm as people’s home addresses and contact information is exposed.
Image Credits: Google
A 2017 Pew Internet study indicated there’s been a slight increase in online harassment, including doxing, since its prior analysis in 2014, with some 41% of U.S. adults experiencing harassment, it said. That number has stayed consistent over the years, as Pew noted last January that roughly four in ten Americans continue to experience online harassment, with many citing politics or religion as the reason why they were targeted. (Doxing-related harassment would represent a subset of these numbers, we should note.)
In recent years, online platforms have taken stronger positions on doxing, with Reddit enacting subreddit bans over the practice, and YouTube in 2019 releasing an updated harassment policy that took a stronger stance on threats and personal attacks, including those associated with doxing. This year, Meta’s Oversight Board also pushed the company to tighten its rules around doxing, noting the practice disproportionately affects groups such as women, children and LGBTQIA+ people. Meta later updated its policy as a result of that guidance.
Image Credits: Google
Prior to the launch of “Results About You,” Google offered other removal options that would allow users whose banking and credit card details had been published online. It also allowed people under 18 or their parents to request to delete their photos from search results and had protections that allowed users to request nonconsensual explicit imagery (aka “revenge porn”) to be taken down. And in Europe, Google has to comply with local laws around takedown requests related to the “right to be forgotten.”
This change isn’t the U.S. equivalent of that, however, Google notes.
“Even though removing these results doesn’t scrub your contact information from the web overall, we’re doing everything we can to safeguard your information on Google Search,” said Danny Sullivan, Google’s public liaison for Search.
“That’s why we’re also making it easier for you to keep tabs on new results about you. We know that keeping track of your personal information online can sometimes feel like a game of whack-a-mole, so starting early next year, you’ll be able to opt into alerts if new results with your contact information appear so you can quickly request their removal. That way, you can have peace of mind that we’re helping your personal information stay personal,” he added.
In early April, software engineer Dmitri Kyle Brereton published a blog post — “Google Search Is Dying” — that struck a nerve. Now among the most upvoted threads of all time on Y Combinator’s Hacker News forum, the piece argues many users have become so dissatisfied with Google search results that they now append “Reddit” to the end of their queries — repurposing Google Search as a souped-up search engine for Reddit and its communities.
Brereton blamed the trend on sites’ drive to optimize pages for Google Search and Google’s preferential treatment of its own properties, like Google Flights. But he asserted that Google Search has historically been poor at answering more open-ended questions whose answers tend to be diverse, like which laptop is the best on the market. In an effort to address this second shortcoming, Google is today introducing a feature called “Discussions and forums” that will incorporate search results from discussion forums, including Reddit, Quora, and Edmunds.com in response to “searches that might benefit from … diverse personal experiences.”
“Forums can be a useful place to find first-hand advice, and to learn from people who have experience with something you’re interested in,” Google News product manager Itamar Snir and Google Search product manager Lauren Clark wrote in a blog post. “We’ve heard from you that you want to see more of this content in Search, so we’ve been exploring new ways to make it easier to find.”
How the “Discussions and forums” feature works in Google Search results. Image Credits: Google
Available for English users on mobile platforms in the U.S. to start, “Discussions and forums” will show content from forums and online discussions across the web in line with other Google Search results. For example, a search for “the best cars for a growing family” will yield standard web links in addition to links to forum posts that include advice from people, like their experiences with minivans transporting multiple children.
It’s unclear which specific queries will trigger “Discussion and forums” beyond those generally phrased in an open-ended way. But Google says that it’ll monitor usage of the feature over time and might tweak it in the future in response to feedback.
“[Discussions and forums] will help bring you even more viewpoints, so you can have additional context and choices when you search,” Snir and Clark continued. “These … new features will bring more perspectives to your search, helping you make informed choices and learn more about what’s going on around the world.”
Depending on how you look at it, “Discussions and forums” — which can’t be switched off — is either an admission of defeat on Google’s part or a natural progression for Google Search. By formalizing a practice that’s becoming widespread, as Brereton alleged, Google is tacitly acknowledging that web-based search results — the product on which it built its ad empire — aren’t adequately answering users’ questions. On the other hand, some within Google perceive any use of its search engine over alternatives, like Reddit’s built-in search, as a win.
I’m in the latter camp. Assuming “Discussions and forums” works as advertised, Google stands to reap the benefits of retention — namely more data about users and the searches that they’re performing — while delivering better, if different, results. Toxicity on the forums from which it sources might pose a problem down the line. But clearly, Google believes it’s worth the effort.
Google is adding several new sustainability features for Search, the company announced today at its Search On event. The search giant will start showing the annual fuel cost for cars in search results to help people who are in the market for a new car. Google will also show emissions estimates for cars, so you can get a better understanding of how a particular car model you’re interested in compares to similar ones. These new features are going to roll out over the next few days, Google says.
If you’re in the market for an electric vehicle, Google will soon show estimated costs, range and charging speeds for different EVs. You will also be able to quickly find public charging stations nearby that are compatible with the specific EV you are looking to buy, which should make your purchasing decision a bit easier. Users in the United States will also soon see available federal tax incentives on Search when looking to make the switch to an EV.
Image Credits: Google
In addition, Google is going to start highlighting which products are pre-owned in search results. Later this year, there will be a new “pre-owned” label that will be displayed next to shopping items that are second-hand. The company says this feature is designed to make it easier for users to make sustainability choices and possibly even save some money.
The search giant is also adding ingredient-level emissions information when you search for recipes. Soon, when you search for certain recipes like “bean recipes” or “broccoli chicken,” you can see how one ingredient compares to others. For example, you can compare the average greenhouse gas impact for beef vs. lamb. The information that is displayed is sourced from the United Nations, Google says. The feature will soon be available worldwide to English language users.
Google says search interest in terms like “electric vehicles,” “solar energy” and “thrift stores” reached new highs globally over the past year, which indicates that people are looking for ways to practice sustainability. The new features revealed today aim to give users new ways to be more sustainable.
The announcement comes as Google has been adding new tools to help users choose more sustainable options. Last week, the company announced that it’s adding a handful of new features that allow travelers to better filter their searches to make sustainable choices when booking flights or hotels as well as improved options for trains. With this expansion, users will be able to directly filter their flight and hotel searches to remove non-sustainable options from their search results entirely.
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