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Ticktock, TikTok: It’s been a wild week for TikTok. As the company begins testing its Twitter competitor in certain markets and opens its luxury second-hand store in the UK, it is encountering major tensions in the land of the free and the home of the brave: In an episode of “As the TikTok Turns “In a rare show of bipartisanship, the esteemed U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that gives TikTok’s parent company a nine-month ultimatum: sell or face extinction in the U.S. That’s like giving your teenager three extra months to clean their room before grounding them…forever!
The bill also includes a magic “90-day extension” button reserved only for the president. How considerate! It appears the move has appeased some skeptics in the Senate, and even President Biden is on board. Critics argue that this ban could violate free speech rights and harm businesses. (Who knew viral dances were so important to our economy?) On the other hand, as one lawmaker puts it: Think of it as less banning entertainment apps and more like spy balloon deflation.
How powerful Are Influencer?: The strangest mistake we saw this week was remembering that people don’t really understand how journalism or product reviews work. That means Humane Ai raised $230 million before the product even left the factory. The hype was real until the Ai Pin dropped to a hefty $699 plus monthly fees and people realized there was much ado about not much. Don’t shoot the messenger – in this case, popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee aka MKBHD, whose crime was “telling it like it is” with his review titled “Worst product I’ve ever reviewed… for now.”
Now, this YouTuber has more subscribers than some countries have people (18 million to be exact; if his YouTube channel were a country, it would actually be about the 69th most populous country. Nice.). Apparently honesty is tantamount to “potentially destroying someone else’s nascent project.” according to former AWS engineer Daniel Vassallo. Funny how an outsider with a fortune of $800 million can get hurt so easily! And by the way, this isn’t the first time; MKBHD has also been accused of bringing about Fisker’s downfall with another truthful review last month: “This is the worst car I’ve ever reviewed.” Dom and Amanda find it remarkable that a YouTuber is given the power over success or failure of a company.
The most interesting startup stories of the week
The poetry camera takes a photo and prints out a poem. Photo credit: Poetry camera
Next time you miss the good old days of squinting through a tiny viewfinder and praying your shot turns out good, think about Mood.camera. It is an iOS app that offers you all the uncertainties of analog photography without Trips to the photo lab. Created by developer Alex Fox, this app says no thanks to live previews and editing features, instead focusing on vintage filters and letting fate decide what your photos look like. Because who doesn’t love a little secret in their life? Just remember to stay still for about three minutes while it “develops.” For $1.99/month (or $14.99 one-time fee), you too can experience the thrill of accidentally overexposing every image on your beach vacation like it’s 1995.
Have you ever taken a photo of a tree and wished it were poetry? Well, neither does Joyce Kilmer. But in the age of AI technology, Kelin Carolyn Zhang and Ryan Mather have decided to bless us with their fascinating invention – the Poetry Camera! This is not your average Insta click creator; Instead of capturing duck faces and dinner plates, it creates thought-provoking (or as thought-provoking as AI can manage) poetry based on its visual encounters. The brain is a Raspberry Pi, while OpenAI’s GPT-4 produces verses worthy of Wordsworth (or not). And here’s the kicker: This camera prints your poetic masterpiece on paper – yes, paper. No digital storage for that extra touch of nostalgia or is it just an easy way to avoid privacy concerns? The jury is still out. But hey, if you’ve been longing for a physical memento of your digital existence… grab it!
- A shared date is a halved risk: Tinder has introduced a new feature called Share My Date that allows users to send details of their upcoming romantic escapades directly from the app. Now your friends can know where you are going, with whom and when. And let’s face it: who doesn’t love a good digital, remote-controlled third wheel?
- Good grief: Here’s something that might help you navigate this murky labyrinth of heartache and casseroles. DayNew is a new social platform for dealing with trauma and grief, brought to us by two widowed entrepreneurs who were fed up with the lack of appropriate resources available to them during their own grieving process.
- No loans for you, students: BloomTech (formerly Lambda School) has been served a big piece of humble pie by the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). After pulling back the curtain on its “not-so-risk-free” income-sharing loans and playing fast and loose with job placement statistics, the CFPB has imposed a 10-year ban on BloomTech’s consumer lending activities.
This week’s most interesting fundraisers
Photo credit: Betty Laura Zapata/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Latest news from the bling world: Pascal, the lab-grown diamond startup, is making waves with nearly $10 million in VC funding and a high revenue forecast. Who needs Drake’s $400,000 diamond-encrusted iPhone case when there’s affordable ice cream? These cultured gems are so shiny that they’ll make your TikTok videos sparkle like a disco ball. Even Andreessen Horowitz couldn’t resist putting some money into this jewel idea!
Well well well! Last week we learned that Rippling was about to close a $200 million funding round at a staggering $13.4 billion valuation. Now founder Parker Conrad has confirmed the news and revealed some interesting details. They were looking for a way to provide some liquidity (read: cash) to early employees, but investor interest was so great that they had to expand their plans. As for the IPO? That’s somewhere over the rainbow, Conrad suggests.
More must-read TechCrunch stories…
Oh, Tesla. With profits falling faster than a Cybertruck with a stuck accelerator and electric vehicle sales coming under pressure, the automaker appears to be in a tough spot. A 55% drop in profits? Ouch! It seems that slashing EV prices like they were Black Friday deals didn’t work quite as well for them. Between wars, factory arson attacks, high-profile layoffs, and new models rolling off the assembly line slower than Los Angeles traffic, it seems Tesla is facing a long list of challenges. Let’s just hope Musk’s plans work out better than the Tesla semi-truck production schedule.
Here’s another handful of stories you might have otherwise missed:
- Form 4 Break Coverage from Formlabs: Formlabs has made desktop 3D printing less of a pipe dream and more of a reality. It’s been five years since Form 3 came out – and what better way to celebrate than releasing an updated version? Get to know the Form 4. This big boy features faster print times (under two hours for most prints), larger build volume (30% increase), and resolution that seemingly rivals injection molding (whatever). The means).
- Bezos’ bold idea saves California: Amazon Prime Air’s drone delivery service in Lockeford works faster than a poorly flown origami bird. Why? Well, Amazon has mumbled some vague reasons, but the experiment continues in Texas and will soon come to Arizona.
- The last post: Oh, Post News. We barely knew you…especially because we still had Twitter. The a16z-backed microblogging platform, which emerged like an eager newcomer after Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, is closing its digital doors.
- Wait, what did you say?: Remember when Rewind promised to help you record and search your digital life? Well, they’re rebranding themselves as “Limitless” and producing a pendant (or is it a necklace?) that records your conversations.
- Recruitment in Robotics: Dust off your circuit boards and get into the job market, folks, because Brian has compiled an extensive list of 74 robotics companies hiring! From four-wheel Advanced Construction Robotics to 17-wheel Exotec, there are plenty of options for all the wired geniuses out there.