Welcome, people, to Week in Overview (WiR), TechCrunch’s common column that rounds up the week in tech information. Dunno about y’all, nevertheless it’s felt like a protracted one — and I’m grateful for the prolonged weekend. For these observing Memorial Day, do get pleasure from. These not, take the day without work the place you’re in a position. All of us want relaxation right here and there.
First, a couple of PSAs.
This week, TechCrunch Stay hosted Flint Capital and Sensi.AI, a startup utilizing audio-based software program to watch sufferers and help medical workers and relations with care. To these of you who tuned in, many thanks. However if you happen to missed it, to not fear — we’ll have the recording up shortly.
Then, in September, there’s Disrupt, TC’s annual convention. Whether or not you’re a startup rookie studying the ropes, a seasoned investor trying to find the following massive factor or a founder hell-bent on altering the world, Disrupt will ship the instruments, information and connections that will help you make it occur.
Now, on with the information.
most learn
After 28 years, Home windows beneficial properties RAR assist: Devin writes about Microsoft bringing native assist for the RAR archive format to Home windows. Miraculously, it took the higher a part of three a long time for the .rar file to lastly be supported in Home windows with none type of extra software program. That’s longer than I’ve been alive, pricey readers — to not date myself!
Netflix begins password crackdown: After a delayed launch, Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing is now starting to roll out to U.S. subscribers and different world markets. The streamer had initially deliberate to introduce “paid sharing” to U.S. subscribers within the first quarter of this 12 months however pushed the beginning date again to the summer time after seeing cancellations in markets the place it had already launched the adjustments.
Extra layoffs at Meta: Meta is waging its newest spherical of layoffs on Wednesday, estimated to influence about 6,000 folks. These cuts are a part of the corporate’s so-called 12 months of Effectivity, by which Meta is being massively restructured to save cash and flatten the group construction.
EU orders Meta suspension: In different Meta information, Meta was hit this week with a proper suspension order requiring it to cease exporting EU person knowledge to the U.S. for processing. In the present day, the European Knowledge Safety Board introduced that Meta has been fined €1.2 billion (near $1.3 billion), which the Board confirmed is the biggest tremendous ever issued below the bloc’s Common Knowledge Safety Regulation (GDPR).
Meta compelled to promote: Meta, dominating the headlines as soon as once more this week, offered Giphy — the animated GIF search engine it acquired for $400 million three years in the past — to Shutterstock. The sale wasn’t voluntary, essentially; seven months in the past, the U.Okay.’s antitrust authority issued a closing order for Meta to promote Giphy, on the grounds that the merger lowered competitors.
WhatsApp provides message enhancing: WhatsApp introduced one of many app’s most anticipated options this week — message enhancing. WhatsApp customers can now modify a message inside quarter-hour of sending the message. The edited messages can have an “edited” tag subsequent to the time stamp to mark the change.
The issue with paid verification: The faux Pentagon assault hoax that went viral this week exhibits the perils of Twitter’s paid verification scheme. The gist? The mix of paid blue checks and generative AI makes all of it too straightforward to unfold misinformation — and rapidly.
Investing in India: Amazon plans to take a position $12.7 billion into its cloud enterprise in India by 2030, the e-commerce group mentioned Thursday, because it pushes forward to scale up the AWS infrastructure in the important thing abroad market at a time when it has pared again a number of different providers within the area.
Larger and higher: Amazon launched its greatest pill this week. Referred to as the Hearth Max 11, it has an 11-inch display screen. The corporate is pricing the machine at $229.99 — providing a less expensive choice for customers than the ten.9-inch iPad and the brand new Pixel pill with a similar-sized display screen.
AI to construct web sites: This week at its annual Construct convention, Microsoft launched Copilot in Energy Pages — an AI-powered assistant for Microsoft’s low-code enterprise web site creation instrument — in a preview for U.S. prospects. Given prompts, Copilot can generate textual content, varieties, chatbots and net web page layouts and might create and edit picture and web site design themes.
TechCrunch (nearly) in Atlanta
Picture Credit: Bryce Durbin (opens in a brand new window)
On June 7, TechCrunch will host Metropolis Highlight: Atlanta. We’ve got a slate of fantastic programming deliberate, together with a fireplace chat with Ryan Glover, the co-founder of the fintech Greenwood, in addition to a panel that examines the enterprise ecosystem throughout the Atlanta area and identifies one of the best methods to lift and meet with native enterprise capitalists. However that’s not all. If you’re an early-stage Atlanta-based founder, apply to pitch to our panel of visitor traders/judges for our stay pitching competitors; the winner will get a free sales space at TechCrunch Disrupt this 12 months to exhibit their firm in our startup alley. Register right here.
audio
In want of a podcast (or a number of)? You’ve come to the appropriate place — there’s no scarcity of choices out of TC HQ. This week on Discovered, the crew was joined by Sarah Sandnes, the co-founder and CTO of SafetyWing, which is creating a worldwide security web for distant staff. TechCrunch Stay, in the meantime, featured Mark Rostick from Intel Capital and Garima Kapoor from MinIO, a startup that discovered a distinct segment promoting object storage whereas competing straight with Amazon S3.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get entry to in-depth commentary, evaluation and surveys — which you understand if you happen to’re already a subscriber. In case you’re not, contemplate signing up. Listed here are a couple of highlights from this week:
Profitability over progress: On this piece by Kate, 5 traders defined their mantra for South Korean startups. Kate spoke to pick out traders who make investments within the South Korean market to listen to their predictions for 2023, their funding technique, which sectors excite them and extra.
Cybersecurity downturn: Alex writes about how, on the again of fairly sturdy earnings studies and valuations, public cybersecurity corporations are outperforming the broader expertise section. But, funding for cybersecurity startups has flatlined.
Startups within the enterprise AI race: One other piece by Alex explores whether or not startups have a shot in enterprise AI. Given how profitable promoting software program to giant companies can show, he notes, the gamers aren’t chasing a small market.