TECH CRUNCH - Jan 25 - Buzzy live voice chat app Clubhouse has confirmed that it has raised new funding - without revealing how much - in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz through the firm's partner Andrew Chen. The app was reported to be raising at a $1B valuation. This funding round will also support a 'Creator Grant Program' being set up by Clubhouse, which will be used to "support emerging Clubhouse creators." Clubhouse has confirmed it will be introducing products to help creators on the platform get played, including subscriptions, tipping, and ticket sales.
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Clubhouse Announces Plans for Creator Payments and Raises New Funding
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Italy Takes Action Against TikTok Following a Girl's Death
ASSOCIATED PRESS - Jan 25 - Italy's data protection authority said it was imposing an immediate block on TikTok's access to data for any user whose age has not been verified. The authority said it was acting with "urgency" following the death of a 10-year-old girl in Sicily, who died while participating in a so-called "blackout" challenge while using TikTok. The block will remain in place at least until Feb 15, when further evaluations will be made.
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Parler Responds to Judge's Refusal to Restore Website
NEWSWEEK - Jan 25 - Parler has said it was "disappointed" by a judge's refusal to help restore access to hosting via Amazon Web Services (AWS). Parler lost a bid to obtain a preliminary injunction against the tech giant, which suspended Parler's account over alleged failures in moderating extreme content from its users. Parler said that it had not been acknowledged that other social media companies also host extreme user content, suggesting that it had been unfairly targeted. Parler said it has developed an AI-based enforcement system which, it believes, can be rolled out to reduce unwanted user content. Judge Barbara J. Rothstein ruled that granting an injunction was not yet viable despite Parler's claims about a new AI-based moderation tool.
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Twitter's Decentralized Social Network Project 'Bluesky' Is Hiring
INPUT - Jan 25 - Bluesky, Twitter's project to build a decentralized social networking protocol, is still alive and kicking, and it's picking up steam. First announced in 2019, the company just released a review evaluating the state of existing decentralized social media projects, like Mastodon and Diaspora. It also says it's looking to hire Bluesky's first project manager. CEO Jack Dorsey envisions Bluesky as an open-source protocol that would power Twitter - and other social networks.
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TikTok's New Q&A Feature Lets Creators Respond to Fan Questions
TECH CRUNCH - Jan 22 - TikTok is testing a new video Q&A feature that allows creators to more directly respond to their audience's questions with either text or video answers. The feature works across both video and livestreams (TikTok LIVE), but is currently only available to select creators who have opted into the test, we understand. The feature was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who posted screenshots of what the feature looks like in action, including how it appears on users' profiles. During the test, the new Q&A feature is only being made available to creators with public Creator Accounts that have ~10k followers and who have opted into the feature within their Settings. Participants in the test include some safe-listed creators from TikTok’s Creative Learning Fund program.
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VKontakte Urged to Suppress Involvement of Minors Into Wrongdoing
RAPSI - Jan 22 - Russia's communications agency Roskomnadzor has sent a request to the management of VKontakte social network demanding to immediately suppress involvement of minors into unauthorized rallies. Based on the demand of the Prosecutor General's Office, Roskomnadzor asked the social network to prevent distribution of information involving children into illegal actions dangerous for their lives.
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How TikTok Has Users in India Despite the Ban
MONEY CONTROL - Jan 21 - TikTok despite the ban saw more monthly active users on the platform than the social networking platform Instagram. This happens because the immediate ban was for new installs. New users could not download TikTok and if anybody had deleted the app could not re-install it. However, those who have the app can still access the platform. The app can still be downloaded from various websites, which provide the .apk file (this file format allows installation from sources other than trusted ones). Then there is the possibility of the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
by Maryam Farooqui & Swathi Moorthy
See full article at Money Control
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Parler Tries to Survive With Help From Russian Company
NEW YORK TIMES - Jan 21 - Parler, the social network popular with Trump supporters, is trickling back to life after went offline since Amazon booted it from its computer servers for not consistently removing violent posts. Parler now has entered into business with DDoS-Guard, a Russian firm that routes internet traffic and protects websites from cyberattacks. With its help, visitors to Parler.com now find a basic webpage with a promise from Parler's chief executive, John Matze, that "our return is inevitable." But the use of a Russian company is worrying some researchers who study the internet and Russia. If Parler routes its web traffic through DDoS-Guard when its full website returns, Russian law could enable the Russian government to surveil Parler's users.
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Umwuga: Social Network for Employers to Get the Best Trade and Service Workers
TECH IN AFRICA - Jan 21 - Umwuga (based in South Africa) is a worker-first social network helping semi and mid-skilled workers build their reputations so as to enable them to get easily hired. Meanwhile, employers get people they can also trust. Umwuga was launched in Dec 2020 by Nasi Rwigema and targets cleaners and other handy persons across Johannesburg. Since its launch, the company remains laser-focused on serving domestic housekeepers, handymen/women, and the household individuals who employ them in Johannesburg. The company's expansion plans are now geared towards occupations it supports and regions that drive the market thickness. The startup’s regional expansion will maintain an emerging markets focus.
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Taimi Launches Versus Battles
EINPRESSWIRE - Jan 20 - The largest LGBTQ+ platform that features a dating app and social network introduces a new livestreaming tool - Versus Battles - meant to inspire friendly debates and discussions. The feature allows users to start friendly competitions with random people while livestreaming. Another streaming feature introduced to Taimi 2 months ago is Live Duet, which allows users to tune in and co-host other people's livestreams. Taimi launched livestreaming in late August 2020. During September-December 2020, ~550k unique streaming sessions were launched.
See full article at EINPresswire
This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch
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'Anti-Facebook' MeWe Social Network Adds 2.5M New Members in One Week
ZDNET - Jan 20 - MeWe, a privacy-first "anti-Facebook" platform, added 2.5M new members in a week since Facebook and Twitter users are getting fed up with relentless privacy violations, surveillance capitalism, political bias, targeting, and newsfeed manipulation by these companies. MeWe touted to be the ad-free future of social networking, is currently the No. 1 downloaded social app in the Google Play Store, and the No. 3 downloaded app out of all apps in the store. Since launching in 2016, it surged to 9M users in October 2020, doubling its membership during each of the last 3 years. The platform is currently sitting at 15.5M members - 50% of whom are outside of North America.
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ByteDance Steps Into Mobile Payments
MOBILE WORLD LIVE - Jan 20 - ByteDance launched a mobile payment service under the Chinese version of its TikTok brand placing the company head-to-head with dominant rivals Alipay and WeChat Pay. The company confirmed the availability of Douyin (TikTok) Pay in China, with a representative adding it planned to supplement local payment options while enhancing the range of services it offers users of its core app.
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Twitter Is Bringing Moments to Indian Social App Dailyhunt
TECH CRUNCH - Jan 19 - Five years after its launch, Twitter Moments is growing beyond the American social networking platform. Twitter had partnered with Dailyhunt to bring Moments to the Indian social app. Dailyhunt app now has a dedicated tab called "Twitter Moments India" to showcase curated tweets pertaining to news and other events in the world's second-largest internet market. The partnership will allow Twitter to extend its reach in India, where according to mobile insight firm App Annie, it had fewer than 75M monthly active users last month. Dailyhunt, which last month raised $100M from Google, Microsoft, and AlphaWave among others, in comparison, claims to reach ~285M users each day.
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Odnoklassniki to Pay RUB 3.3B to Gaming Developers for 2020
TELECOMPAPER - Jan 19 - Russian social network Odnoklassniki, controlled by internet company Mail.ru Group, plans to pay RUB 3.3B to gaming developers for games used on its gaming platform during 2020. The amount increased by 62% YOY, driven by the growth of html-games. About RUB 970M will be paid for mobile gaming developers.
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