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Ian Bogost / The Atlantic:
Opponents wonder if WHO's bid to add gaming addiction as a disorder, while not mentioning internet or smartphone addiction, was made under political pressure — The World Health Organization has proposed a behavioral addiction pathology for excessive video-game playing.
TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF (Sept. 5-7) is our most ambitious event ever. And if we’re sure of one thing, it’s that people in the startup scene will extract more insights and inspiration from this Disrupt than any before. Here’s why…
Rick Merritt / EE Times:
DARPA to invest $100M over the next four years to create the equivalent of a silicon compiler aimed at significantly lowering the barriers to design chips — Two programs aim to craft ‘silicon compiler’ — SAN JOSE, Calif. — The U.S. will pour $100 million into two research programs …
These days, it seems like everyone with extra cash has some kind of pricey drinking habit. It might be fine wine, craft beer or cocktails. Or it could come in the form of coconut water, cold-pressed juice or the latest frothy caffeinated concoction.
No matter what your preference, startups and their backers likely have you covered.
In a follow-up to our story earlier this month about food startups gobbling up venture funding, Crunchbase News is taking a look at beverage companies guzzling capital. We found that while drinkables receive a smaller portion of funding than edibles, it’s still a sector that draws hundreds of millions of dollars in annual investment.
Where are investors pouring all that money? Some unlikely places. For instance, it appears the largest funding recipient so far this year is a China-based chain called Hey Tea that’s well known for a specialty called cheese tea. (An unfortunately named, slightly salty iced drink that a Crunchbase News team sampling determined was actually pretty tasty.)
Besides cheese tea, we found startups are also raising millions to bottle deep ocean water, customize instant coffee and make your party punch more portable.
Bottom line: So long as there are profit margins to squeeze out, the quest continues for new ways to get you drunk, hydrated or caffeinated. Below, we look at what’s trending on all these fronts.
Venture investors and startup entrepreneurs are betting there are highly scalable businesses to be built in doling out more exotic varieties of water, coconut-based beverages and other drinks to hydrate calorie-conscious consumers.
An analysis of Crunchbase data unearthed at least a dozen companies developing new varieties of water and fitness drinks that have raised funding in recent quarters.
Funding data reveals that investors still see the potential for significant returns from coconut water. The largest round in the hydration category went to Harmless Harvest, a seller of fair trade, organic coconut water and probiotic drinks that recently raised $30 million. The funding comes as the sector is on a tear, with the U.S. spending alone on coconut water projected to reach $2 billion next year.
We also saw a couple of deals involving startups offering alternatives to bottled or tap water. The most heavily capitalized one to receive funding in the past couple of years appears to be FloWater, a Denver-based startup that provides pure water refill stations and has raised about $8 million to date. Meanwhile, bottled water is still generating attention, too, as evidenced by the $5.5 million round late last year for Kona Deep, a bottler of deep ocean water.
You may need water to survive, but if you’re looking to secure venture capital, it helps to throw in a bit of alcohol.
Since last year, venture investors have poured more than $300 million into an assortment of companies providing alcoholic beverages, drinking gadgetry and services to connect consumers with booze. Crunchbase News highlighted about a dozen that raised sizable rounds, along with one hangover cure startup.
Some of the larger funding rounds are for companies that don’t make alcohol; instead, these startups offer easier ways to select and buy it. These include Vivino, a popular wine rating app, as well as Drizly and Saucey, two ordering and delivery services.
There are emerging brands in the mix, too, including BeatBox Beverages, a purveyor of party punch in portable packages; Milestone Brands, a producer of organic tequilas and other spirits; and Plum, which has a gadget for dispensing good wine by the glass.
If too much drinking makes you sleepy, let caffeine come to the rescue. Venture investors, known to be heavy consumers of caffeine, also seem to like investing in the stuff.
Using Crunchbase data, we highlighted more than a dozen companies in the coffee and tea space that have secured good-sized rounds in roughly the past year. They range from fast-growing chains, like China’s Hey Tea, to packaged drinks, like non-dairy blended drink maker Willow Cup, to instant beverage innovators, like Sudden Coffee. We even found a blockchain company in the mix, Crypto N Kafe, which aims to connect coffee farmers and consumers directly.
It’s not a bad area for exits, either. The most recent significant exit was Blue Bottle Coffee, a venture-backed brand known for really, really strong brews that sold a majority stake to Nestlé last September at a valuation of over $700 million.
One additional beverage category in which we saw a high level of activity was in meal-replacement and nutrition drinks. Overall, we found at least a half-dozen companies developing nutritional drinks that have raised funding in recent quarters.
In this sector, probably the best-known startup name is Soylent, which has raised over $70 million for a line of drinks marketed to consumers who don’t have the time or inclination to sit down for a traditional meal. We also found a potential rival, meal-replacement beverage maker Ample, which secured angel funding last month.
The biggest round in the past couple of months for the space, however, went to REBBL, a startup that raised $20 million in May for its line of bottled drinks featuring health-promoting herbs, protein and coconut.
Beverage investments, like everything else, aren’t always a home run for VCs. The demise of juicer startup Juicero last year offers a cautionary tale that large rounds don’t always translate into compelling business models.
That said, beverage purveyors don’t have to worry much about demand drying up. People will always be thirsty. And while we typically quench our thirst with simple tap or filtered water, where’s the fun (or the massive exit potential) in that?
Our analysis focused primarily on companies that have secured funding in the past year; however, we also included some rounds outside those parameters that were exceptionally large or noteworthy in other ways.
Scott Porch / Fast Company:
A look at the efforts of podcast platforms like Stitcher and Castbox to supplement their free ad supported offerings with premium content — Your favorite free podcast probably won't charge you anytime soon. But CastBox's premium-content platform is among the new ways podcasters are getting paid.
Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Alastair MacTaggart, a semi-retired real estate developer who spent $3M on the ballot measure that led to California's tough data privacy bill — After a disturbing cocktail party chat, Alastair MacTaggart bankrolled the push that led to California's landmark data-privacy bill
Whether you’re traveling a short distance or on a long haul trip, you want to be comfortable, right?
Suzanne LaBarre / Co.Design:
Blue light, prevalent in modern UIs, is aesthetically pleasing, but poses health risks; designers should switch to deep red/orange as the military did long ago — The cold blue light of modern touchscreens may be aesthetically pleasing, but it poses health problems.
Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg:
Chinese social commerce startup Pinduoduo files for $1B US IPO; Pinduoduo's revenues tripled to $278M in 2017 while losses grew 55% to $79.5M — - Pinduoduo was valued at $15 billion in previous funding round — Tencent-backed Pinduoduo made $79.5 million loss in 2017
Amazon Prime Day 2018 is almost here. It feels like Christmas, doesn’t it? We just need Jeff Bezos to turn up in a red suit.
2017’s Prime Day saw sales in excess of $1 billion. This year’s event is expected to be even bigger as Amazon is primed to offer more discounts than ever before.
Keeping reading to learn about Amazon Prime Day 2018 and to discover how to get the best deals.
It’s not been officially confirmed, but it’s now widely expected that Amazon Prime Day 2018 will be on Monday, July 16.
The news leaked after TechRadar spotted an errant advertising banner on Amazon’s UK website which showed the date. The banner was quickly removed, and there has been no further word from Amazon itself.
In practice, Amazon Prime Day runs for more than 24 hours. Assuming the dates in Amazon’s banner were correct, it will begin at midday EST on July 16 and run until midnight PST on Tuesday the 17th, giving it a total duration of 39 hours.
We’ll update you as soon as we hear more. But until then, here are 10 more details that’ll help you get acquainted with and prepare for Amazon Prime Day.
Amazon Prime Day launched in 2015 as part of the company’s 20th birthday celebration. From a shopper’s standpoint, the first edition was beset with issues. Demand outstripped supply, the website slowed to a crawl, and the discounts were often on non-alluring items.
However, from a company standpoint, the 2015 Prime Day was a resounding success. It sold 398 products per second and saw the company make higher revenues than on Black Friday.
By last year’s 2017 event, Amazon has smoothed out the customer issues and the day went off without a hitch. The company saw a 60 percent rise in sales compared to 2016. Amazingly, revenues eclipsed its 2016 Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
Only Amazon Prime members can take advantage of the massive discounts.
However, if you’ve never been a Prime member before, you can cheat the system and sign up for a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial. Of course, you’d need to remember to cancel your trial before Amazon sends you a bill.
A new membership to Amazon Prime costs $12.99/mo or $119/year. In addition to Prime Day deals, you receive access to Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Music, free 2-day shipping, and many more Amazon Prime benefits.
In 2017, Amazon’s own products often enjoyed the most significant discounts. The Echo speaker dropped by 50 percent as Amazon let them go for $89.99, while the smaller Echo Dot was given a $15 discount to bring the price down to $34.99. As a result, the Dot became the most-bought item of the day.
You’ll also find considerable discounts on Amazon Fire sticks, Kindle ereaders, and items in the Amazon Basics range.
But it’s not just Amazon products that see bargain prices. In 2017, the TP-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug, the Sony PlayStation 4, the Nintendo Switch, and the OnePlus 5 phone were all big sellers.
Away from technology, estimates suggest Amazon sold 3.5 million toys, 200,000 dresses, 52,000 kitchen items, and 37,000 power tools.
Lightning Deals are a standard part of the Amazon shopping experience for Prime members. Every day, Amazon offers a limited number of products at a massive discount. The quantity of any item is limited, and deals are only available for a short amount of time.
On Amazon Prime Day, Lightning Deals are more common, with often hundreds of deals running at any moment. If you keep your eyes open, you might find a saving above and beyond standard Prime Day discount.
And if the Lightning Deal you want sells out before you get a chance to buy it, you can join a waiting list. If the people with the item in their cart fail to complete the purchase, it will automatically be offered to you.
To beat the crowds to the best deals on Prime Day, you need to shop using your voice with Amazon Alexa.
In 2017, Amazon gave voice shoppers a two-hour head start on new deals. During the last Black Friday, that increased to seven hours.
We’d expect Amazon to offer the same benefits during this year’s Prime Day. You just need to say “Alexa, what are your deals?” to enjoy the advanced notice. If you hear something you want, say “Alexa, add [item] to my cart.”
Unbeknown to many, Amazon offers a browser extension. It’s available on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.
The extension—called Amazon Assistant— offers lots of benefits, including order tracking, product comparisons, and access to your various lists. It’s an extension that every online shopper needs.
However, from an Amazon Prime Day perspective, its best feature is the watch lists. You can receive desktop notifications when any deals you’re watching go live, meaning you’ll never miss out on a purchase you want.
Download: Amazon Assistant (Free)
How do you know the price you see on Amazon represents a good deal? We all know high street shops artificially bump up prices ahead of a big sale, and some Amazon vendors are no different.
To make sure you’re not being conned, check the item’s price history on CamelCamelCamel. You can enter the Amazon item’s URL or search for keywords and see how the price has changed over time.
If you see a steady rise in the weeks building up to Prime Day, you should probably give it a wide berth.
Lastly, it’s worth hanging out in some dedicated Amazon Prime Day forums. The best subreddit will probably be /r/PrimeDay, but don’t expect to see much activity until the day itself. There’s also a dedicated Amazon subreddit which is worth keeping an eye on.
You should also check the threads on SlickDeals. It’s consistently one of the best sites for finding bargains on the web, and on Prime Day it goes into overdrive.
Despite its impressive performances when compared to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon Prime Day is not the web’s biggest day of online shopping.
That award goes to Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sales. In 2017, it saw sales of $17.8 billion. That’s more than 17 times the amount of money spent on Prime Day.
Alibaba is yet to become a giant in Europe and the United States. But if you’re looking for cheap, unbranded electronics, it might be better to wait until Singles’ Day 2018 on November 11th (and don’t worry, Alibaba is a perfectly safe place to do your shopping).
Other stores have been looking enviously at Amazon piling up sales records. In response, an increasing number are running their own concurrent sales in an attempt to get involved in the buzz.
Last year, we saw Macy’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Nordstrom, and Dell provide discounts—many of which also offered free shipping.
On Amazon Prime Day 2018, you can expect to see Google, Newegg, Office Depot, and 1-800 Flowers join the list, along with several others.
So before committing to a purchase on Amazon, make sure you can’t find it cheaper on a competitor’s site.
Shopping responsibly is important. Events such as Prime Day are filled with temptation. Many people overspend and wake up with a head full of buyer’s remorse.
To make sure you don’t overindulge, you should make a budget before the big day arrives. There are lots of online tools that can help you budget or you could even use Microsoft Excel to create your own budget .
Read the full article: When Is Amazon Prime Day 2018? And 10 More Things to Know About It
YouTube has, suddenly, and with little fanfare, made its picture-in-picture mode available on Android for free. YouTube’s PiP mode was previously only available to YouTube Red subscribers, but with the switch to YouTube Premium times have changed.
Picture-in-picture allows you to view content in a small window while continuing to use the device in question. PiP has been common on TV sets and the like for years, and with the release of Android 8.0 (Oreo) it has been an option on your smartphone too.
YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode has, until now, only been available for people willing to pay for the privilege of watching YouTube. However, YouTube has now removed that barrier, making its PiP mode available for free on Android. Sorry, iOS users.
Unfortunately, YouTube isn’t making its PiP mode available to everyone. You’ll need to be resident in the U.S., and using the YouTube app on an Android device running Android 8.0 (Oreo) or above. So international users or anyone with an older phone is out of luck.
Even if you do qualify to use picture-in-picture for free, not all videos are available to watch. Any videos that contain music content will not work with PiP, at least for free. Instead, you’ll need to subscribe to YouTube Premium or YouTube Music to unlock them.
As detailed on YouTube’s support pages, using PiP mode is simple. When you’re watching a video, tap the Home button on your device. Instead of closing YouTube, as it would have done previously, the video will continue playing in a small window.
This is, admittedly, a small upgrade to the way YouTube operates. However, for those people (anyone under the age of 30) who have short attention spans, picture-in-picture lets you watch YouTube videos without actually watching YouTube videos.
Image Credit: Rego Korosi/Flickr
Read the full article: YouTube’s Picture-in-Picture Mode Is Now Free on Android
TechCrunch is excited to announce that the Startup Battlefield Latin America is coming to São Paulo on November 8 this year. This is the first event TechCrunch has ever held in Latin America, and we are all in to make it a memorable one to support the fast-emerging startup ecosystem in the region.
The Startup Battlefield is TechCrunch’s premier startup competition, which over the past 12 years has placed 750 companies on stage to pitch top VCs and TechCrunch editors. Those founders have gone on to raise more than $8 billion and produce more than 100 exits. Startup Battlefield Latin America aims to add 15 great founders from Latin America to those elite ranks.
Here’s how the competition works. Founders may apply now to participate in Startup Battlefield. Any early stage (pre-A round) company with a working product headquartered in an eligible Latin American country (see list below) may apply. Applications close August 6. TechCrunch editors will review the applications and, based on which applicants have the strongest potential for a big exit of major societal impact, pick 15 to compete on November 8. TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield team will work intensively with each founding team to hone their six-minute pitch to perfection.
Then it’s game day. The 15 companies will take the stage at São Paulo’s Tomie Ohtake Institute in front of a live audience of 500 people to pitch top-tier VC judges. The judges and TechCrunch editors will pick five for a finals round. Those lucky finalists will face a fresh team of judges, and one will emerge as the winner of the first-ever Startup Battlefield Latin America. The winner takes home $25,000 and a trip for two to the next Disrupt, where they can exhibit free of charge in the Startup Alley and may also qualify to participate in the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt. Sweet deal. All Startup Battlefield sessions will be captured on video and posted on TechCrunch.com.
It’s an experience no founder would want to miss, considering the opportunity to join the ranks of Battlefield greats from years past, including Dropbox, Yammer, Mint, Getaround, CloudFlare, Vurb and many more.
Get that application started now.
Here’s the need-to-know about qualifying to apply:
Tickets to attend Startup Battlefield Latin America will go on sale soon. Interested in sponsoring the event, contact us here
In partnership with TechCrunch, The Europas Conference & Awards, features smaller breakout sessions on key subjects for startups, followed by a glittering awards show for the hottest startups in Europe, based on voting by expert judges and the industry itself. Plus loads of networking opportunities with investors, and the super-fun Pitch Rolette pitch competition. See below for your special discount offer!
Just some of the investors coming to The Europas this Tuesday, July 3, in London include:
Alliott Cole, Octopus Ventures
Andrei Brasoveanu, Accel Partners
Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp
Damir Bandolo, Columbus Capital
Eileen Burbidge, Passion Capital
Eze Vidra, Reimagine Ventures
George McDonuagh, KR1 (Blockchain/Crypto)
Jamie Burke, Outlier Ventures (Blockchain/Crypto)
Jason Ball, Qualcomm Ventures
Jeremy Yap, Angel Investor
Joe White, Entrepreneur First
Maria Wagner, Beringea
Michael Jackson, Mangrove Capital Partners
Nancy Fechnay, Angel Investor (Blockchain/Crypto)
Paul Dowling, Dreamstake Ventures
Richard Muirhead, Fabric Ventures (Blockchain/Crypto)
Scott Sage, Crane Venture Partners
Sitar Teli, Connect Ventures
Stephanie Hospital, OneRagtime
Suzanne Ashman, LocalGlobe
Thomas Graham, TLDR Capital
Tugce Ergul, Angel Labs
Vishal Gulati, Draper Esprit
Wendy Tan White, BGF
Instead of thousands and thousands of people, think of a great summer event with a selected 800 of the most interesting and useful people in the industry, including key investors and leading entrepreneurs.
And here’s 14 reasons to attend The Europas:
• Ultra-high quality Investors, speakers & featured guests
• New startup founders brought into the eco-system
• New deal-flow for investors
• Our “Diversity Matters” Free pass bringing in more women and POC
• Expert speeches, discussions, and Q&A
• Intimate “breakout” sessions with key players on vertical topics
• The opportunity to meet almost everyone in those small groups, super-charging your networking
• Convivial, relaxed atmosphere conducive to networking
• Key press including WSJ, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, attending
• A stunning awards dinner and party which honors both the hottest startups and the leading lights in the European startup scene
• Content independently curated by journalists
• The only truly independent, industry-backed awards in Europe
• Percentage of profits will be donated to charity
• All on one day to maximize your time in London
Plus, as a special offer for TechCrunch readers, we have discounted tickets of up to 60% off:
• Daytime conference plus evening awards tickets (£250, 60% discount) (valid all day, July 3rd) – this ticket includes the daytime conference and the awards dinner with ceremony and after party. It includes refreshments and lunch during the conference, and the awards drinks reception and dinner.
• Daytime only, Unconference tickets (£75, 60% discount) – this ticket includes the afternoon Unconference only.
• Evening Awards-only tickets (£195, 60% discount) – this ticket is for the awards dinner with ceremony and after party. It includes the awards drinks reception and dinner.
If you wish to sponsor the events or to purchase a table for 10 or 12 guest or a half table for 5 guests, please contact petra@theeuropas.com
The conference and awards are supported by TechCrunch, the official media partner. Attendees, nominees, and winners will get deep discounts to TechCrunch Disrupt in Berlin, later this year.
