1. Twitter To Bring Subscription Products And Charge For TweetDeck (Bloomberg)
Twitter is considering building subscription products to reduce its dependence on advertising. Some possible ways to generate revenue is charging to use services like TweetDeck or advanced user features like “undo send” or profile-customization options. According to EMarketer, the social platform has grown at a slower pace as compared to competitors like Facebook Inc. and Snap Inc. and its digital ad market remains at a lacklustre 0.8% globally.
2. The Washington Post Witnesses 40% Growth In Readership For Technology News In 2020 (TWP)
The Washington Post witnessed 40% growth in readership for technology coverage in 2020, which led to the expansion of its technology team, adding eight positions, taking the total team to 27 reporters, editors and video journalists. This move attains significance in the wake of growing importance of big-tech company news for the lawmakers and economy, according to David Cho, the business editor at The Washington Post.
The enterprise arm of WordPress.com, WordPress VIP (WPVIP) is acquiring Parse.ly. Parse.ly is a content analytics platform that is used by thousands of digital publishers. Automattic, the parent company to WordPress.com, is having its first large enterprise software acquisition. As a part of a Series D round from Salesforce Ventures in 2019, Automattic raised $300 million putting its valuation at $3 billion post-funding.
ILiveRamp announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DataFleets, a cloud data platform that enables data silos to be unified without moving data or compromising privacy. This acquisition “expands LiveRamp’s data protection capabilities to unlock greater data access and control for its customers. In addition, the deal opens up new use cases as well as new markets for distributed data collaboration through LiveRamp Safe Haven.”
5. Reddit Doubles Value To $6B Since February 2019 (The Wall Street Journal)
Reddit’s valuation has doubled to $6 billion since its last funding round in February 2019. The users for the social media company has been increasing since the pandemic and more recently, Reddit has gained attention for its role in the recent Wall Street trading frenzy. Reddit has raised a Series E of over $250 million led by venture capital firm Vy Capital.
6. TikTok Introducing New Features Aiming At The US Ecommerce Market (Financial Times)
TikTok is planning to introduce a number of new features for 2021 with a view to expand its base in the US ecommerce market, where it will go head-to-head with Facebook. The Chinese-owned viral-video app has briefed advertisers on its plans to introduce a tool that lets its most popular users share links to products and automatically earn commission on any sales. The app will also allow “live streamed” shopping, a mobile phone version of television shopping channels, where users can buy goods with a few taps after viewing the products the TikTok stars exhibit.
7. Goody Raises $4M With Mobile App That Sends Gifts Via Text (TechCrunch)
Goody, a startup backed by a recent $4 million fundraise, launched a mobile gifting app. Goody is unique in a way that it does not require the recipient to download the app, and the sender need not know anything other than a phone number of the person he wants to send a gift to. The serial entrepreneur and startup investor Edward Lando is the co-founder of Goody. The app was launched in mid-December 2020 and has sent around 10,000 gifts so far.
