Apps

Chris Farmer, a venture capitalist, doesn’t mind being labeled a cheap founder by employees. Farmer’s 10-year-old, seed-stage venture firm SignalFire lost frustrated employees who couldn’t compete for deals when the market was frothy, but holding the line on price appears poised to pay off. For one, SignalFire raised $900 million …

Mark Zuckerberg is putting guardrails around Meta Verified after seeing Twitter’s impersonation issues when Elon Musk relaunched Twitter Blue. The company announced its subscription plan for New Zealand and Australia this week. Meta Verified prevents profile name, username, date of birth, and photo changes. The company will stop them. Unsubscribe …

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has confirmed that the same hackers who attacked Twilio, Cloudflare, DoorDash, and more than a hundred other companies last year briefly compromised their systems. Coinbase claimed in a post-mortem on the incident that the so-called “0ktapus” hackers stole one of its employees’ login information in an …

WhatsApp’s iOS update adds picture-in-picture. This lets callers use WhatsApp or other apps without muting the video. The 23.3.77 iOS app introduced this feature. Previously, if you switched apps on your iPhone during a WhatsApp video call, the other person couldn’t see your feed. The new feature lets you respond …

TikTok launched its “Creativity Program” beta today. The company claims the program will increase creator revenue and opportunities. Invite-only creators can join the program today, with all eligible creators joining soon. TikTok didn’t disclose the program’s budget because it’s still in development. The company didn’t specify how many followers or …

On Sunday, Facebook-parent Meta launched Meta Verified, a subscription service that lets users add the blue check mark to their Instagram and Facebook accounts for up to $15 a month by verifying their identity, tapping a new revenue channel that has had mixed results for Twitter. Starting this week in …

As part of its streamlining efforts, Jumia cut managerial headcount by 60% in Dubai and over 900 positions across its 11 markets, affecting 20% of its staff. Jumia’s FY2022 financials show this happened in Q4 last year. This follows the Jumia Supervisory Board’s note on senior management shake-ups when it …

Today, TikTok announced “TikTok Trivia,” a 5-day live trivia game for U.S. users 18 years or older to win a share of a $500,000 prize pool by answering multiple-choice questions about beauty, lifestyle, music, and sports. Next week’s TikTok Trivia runs from February 22 to 26. TikTok Trivia will have …

Americans expect credit cards. Mexico makes it harder and less common. Fewer than 20% of people have credit, and only 10% have credit cards. In recent years, several startups have emerged to provide underserved Mexicans with more options to increase inclusion. Vexi is a startup. Rojo Blasquez, Gabriela Estrada, Cinthia …

Microsoft has acknowledged Bing’s strange responses to some queries since the updated search engine launched a week ago. Bing’s AI-boosted responses can be rude, manipulative, and unsettling. Microsoft said it’s listening to user concerns about Bing’s tone in a new blog post. The company didn’t intend Bing for “general discovery …