Friday, January 20, 2023

Alphabet CEO lays off 12,000 people, says company 'hired for a different economic reality’  

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By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps

Friday, January 20, 2023

Happy Friday! Join us in wishing Lorenzo a very warm welcome to the team! He's joining our crack team of cybersecurity reporters, working alongside Zack and Carly. He just published his first article on TC, about T-Mobile reporting a hacker accessed personal data of 37 million customers. Welcome aboard!!

Enjoy your weekend! — Christine and Haje

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Image Credits: Drew Angerer / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • Alphabet spells out layoffs: With all that talk about tech layoffs in the past couple months, it was only a matter of time before we saw something from Google's parent, Alphabet. The search engine giant announced it was cutting 6% of its workforce, which impacts 12,000 people. And like the others, CEO Sundar Pichai took his turn explaining how the company "hired for a different economic reality," Paul writes.
  • Game off: With gaming being as popular as it is, this next layoff story is a bit of a surprise, though not totally unexpected since media companies are being hit hard. Entertainment company Fandom, which publishes content under Giant Bomb, GameSpot and Metacritic, laid off roughly 10% of its staff across those publications, Ivan reports.
  • It's all about the money, money, money: Social media influencers in India have to disclose promotional content, aka paid promotions, to the government, and now the Department of Consumer Affairs has released some guidelines on how to do that. Jagmeet has more.

Startups and VC

A $32 million seed round for Chris DeWolfe's newest gaming company may seem like a throwback to frothier times, like … 2021. But that's how much PLAI Labs just raised in a deal led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), reports Connie. She points out that that's a lot of moolah in a volatile market, even coming as it does from two separate a16z funds: the firm's $600 million debut games vehicle and its $4.5 billion crypto fund, both of which were announced last May.

Here's another handful for ya:

4 investors discuss the next big wave for alternative seafood startups

There’s a lot of hype around plant-based burgers and nuggets, but alternative seafood products are attracting more attention — and funding — from investors these days.

“More than $178 million was pumped into alternative seafood in the first half of 2022, and the market's value is poised to reach $1.6 billion over the next 10 years,” she reports.

To learn more about this maturing space, Christine Hall surveyed four investors to get their thoughts on regulation, the “unique challenges” companies face as they try to reach scale, and how they’re approaching growth and risk:

  • Kate Danaher, managing director of ocean and seafood, S2G Ventures
  • Friederike Grosse-Holz, director, Blue Horizon
  • Christian Lim, managing director, SWEN Capital Partners' Blue Ocean
  • Amy Novogratz, co-founder and managing partner, Aqua Spark

Three more from the TC+ team:

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

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4 investors discuss the next big wave for alternative seafood startups image

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Big Tech Inc.

Okay, no more layoff talk. We are going to have some fun, because it's Friday, damn it!

Are you still playing Wordle? Or perhaps you switched to its clone Quordle. Well, Quordle was acquired by Merriam-Webster, Paul reports. If you've never tried it, Quordle is similar to the basic Wordle concept, guessing a word in a certain amount of tries, except there are four five-letter words to guess at once, with just nine tries. It might be just the thing to warm you up on a cold winter's night.

Here's four more for your Friday enjoyment:

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Thursday, January 19, 2023

Amazon cancels charitable donation initiative so it can focus on 'programs with greater impact'

TechCrunch Newsletter
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The Daily Crunch logo

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Thursday! This week has just flown by, and we're still reeling from the excitement that a company is leaning into compliments. Compliments? In this day and age? Is there actually hope for us after all?! Well, we have a compliment for ya, Mike — thank you for spreading some joy into our day today! — Christine and Haje

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Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • Amazon turned that smile upside down: Shopping for charity is going to not be a thing for Amazon after February. Amid layoffs and other cuts, the delivery giant said it was ending its AmazonSmile program to focus on other philanthropic endeavors of its own, Romain reports.
  • Give 'em what they want: Mike writes that "German teens went crazy for Slay's app that gives compliments," and now venture capitalists are getting in on the fun and backing its next phase.
  • Storefront builder's gold mine: Oro, an open source e-commerce platform, is going against the grain of other platforms by targeting businesses. That approach is paying off as the company announces $13 million in new funding. Paul has more.

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Startups and VC

People are addicted to credit cards — and it's no wonder, given the lucrative rewards that many of them offer. But for merchants, credit cards tend to be less appealing, Kyle reports. Merchants are on the hook for interchange fees, or transaction fees a merchant's bank must pay whenever a customer uses a card to make a purchase. Link comes to the rescue, and the company raised $30 million to help merchants accept direct bank payments. You know, like consumers in Europe have been able to do since the 1990s.

In recent years, working for, or banking with, a traditional financial institution was decidedly uncool. Far cooler was working for or banking with one of the many fintech startups that seemed to thumb their nose at stodgy bank brands, Connie reports. A lot of fintechs "have to fix their business models," according to fintech-investing VCs.

And we have five more for you:

Teach yourself growth marketing: How to boot up an email marketing campaign

In the third article of a five-part series, growth marketing expert Jonathan Martinez (Uber, Postmates, Chime) explains how to create and optimize email campaigns that will “push consumers through your funnel and drive conversions.”

Martinez shares fundamentals for segmenting customers and anticipating where leaks will occur along the funnel you’re developing. Startups that recapture these users can eke out a higher ARR, and every little bit counts.

“It is crucial to distill user segments as much as possible because we must ensure that we're sending the right messaging to the right consumers.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Read More

Teach yourself growth marketing: How to boot up an email marketing campaign image

Image Credits: Jasmin Merdan / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc.

We know, it's hard to put that phone down, and all those distracting dings and buzzes don't help. Well, Instagram's got your back with a Quiet Mode that helps you take a break from the app and even tells your peeps you are on DND. Sarah writes that this is just one of several new changes on the app, including some other time management tools and expanded parental controls.

Meanwhile, fast fashion ain't what it used to be…valued at. Rita reports that Shein is reportedly accepting a lower valuation as it seeks to raise $3 billion in new funding. The company is said to be raising on a $64 billion valuation, down from the $100 billion price tag in April; however, "Shein denies the accuracy of some of the information," she writes.

And we have five more for you:

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

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