When the news hit Monday that Qualtrics was being acquired, it wasn’t exactly surprising. SAP never seemed enamored with the company in spite of spending a hefty $8 billion to buy it in 2018. It took the German software giant just two years before it decided to spin Qualtrics out again as a separate company. After years of expecting it to happen, Qualtrics finally went public in 2021.

While Qualtrics was operating as a separate company with its own board of directors, budgeting and ability to set its own direction, SAP was still the power behind the throne, controlling a whopping 71% of its stock.

SAP always seemed to have some buyer’s remorse when it came to Qualtrics. It was hoping to get a dose of cloud savviness and access to crucial customer data, two things that Qualtrics easily provided, but the two companies never appeared to quite fit. Acquired when Bill McDermott was still SAP’s CEO, it’s possible that his replacement, Christian Klein, didn’t feel the same affinity for the company.

Whatever the reasons, the company began shopping Qualtrics at the end of January. That decision helped boost the value of the controlled company. The best offer it received for Qualtrics came to around $12 billion from a collection of buyers including Silverlake and the Canadian Pension Board. Considering SAP’s 71% stake, its cut of that dollar figure comes out to around $8.8 billion, basically the price it purchased the company for in 2018 and not much more.

Qualtrics filed an 8-K form with the SEC over the weekend, reporting the parameters of the deal, including that Silverlake and its investment partners offered $18.15 per share. That number represents just a 6% premium over Friday’s closing price, per the Financial Times. (Note, however, that Qualtrics already saw appreciation after news of its potential sale was announced earlier in the year; a sale was already priced-in.)

It’s also worth noting that this is not a done deal, although it feels unlikely that anyone will come along and beat the number on the table. Regardless, we wanted to look at this price and determine, is it fair? Is it as low as it feels at first glance? Let’s dig into the numbers and find out.

Fair or unfair

To answer our question regarding the potential sale price for Qualtrics, and whether it’s being sold on the cheap, we’ll need to interrogate its pre- and post-announcement value. While the premium over Friday’s close wasn’t large, it begins to look much better if we extend our time horizon.

Is $12.4B a fair price for Qualtrics? by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/qualtrics-sap-purchase-price-analysis/

Relativity Space will be attempting to make history with the first launch of the 110-foot-tall Terran 1 rocket tomorrow afternoon. The company, which was founded in 2015 by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone, is best-known for its innovative 3D printing technology: Terran 1 is 85% 3D-printed by mass, and that even includes the rocket engines. The company’s made big bets and has even bigger ambitions, with Relativity CEO Tim Ellis echoing SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Martian ambitions.

“Our long-term mission remains that we want to help build an industrial base on Mars and help make humanity multiplanetary,” Ellis told TechCrunch.

The company’s made a lot of headlines over its eight-year history. Here are the top 10 moments from the TC archives.

1. Our first story on Relativity (2017)

We wrote about Relativity for the first time back in 2017, when the company only had 14 (!) full-time employees. We note that the company wants to drive the cost of rocket launches down ten-fold using its 3D-print process.

2. Relativity lands its first launch facilities at Cape Canaveral (2019)

Relativity landed a multi-year contract from the U.S. Air Force to operate rocket launch facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida — the very site from which Relativity hopes to launch Terran 1 tomorrow.

3. Relativity’s economic gamechanger (2020)

TC’s Darrell Etherington spoke to CEO Tim Ellis about the economics behind Relativity Space, just a few months after the company raised $140 million. (TC+)

4. Long Beach expansion (2020)

Riding high on momentum, Relativity announced its new digs: a massive warehouse-style building in Long Beach, California.

5. Relativity raises $500 million as it sets its sights on Mars (2020)

The company announced the massive raise in November 2020, which was shortly followed by an aggressive expansion in workforce, facilities and, well…everything.

6. The unveiling of Terran R (2021)

Relativity finally revealed what comes after Terran 1: Terran R, a much larger and even more ambitious 3D-printed rocket — with full reusability.

7. Another monster funding round and a $4.2 billion valuation (2021)

Less than a year after closing on $500 million, the company managed to raise another $650 million to scale the development of Terran R.

8. Introducing the 1 million-square-foot factory (2021)

Relativity boosted its footprint by a factor of 10 with a new 1 million-square-foot facility in Long Beach.

9. A OneWeb deal and $1.2 billion in Terran R launch contracts (2022)

We broke news last year that Relativity inked a huge deal with British satellite constellation operator OneWeb, plus that it had $1.2 billion in firm Terran R launch contracts — contracts that the company managed to land before sending even a single rocket to orbit.

10. Last but not least: A mission to Mars with Impulse Space (2022) 

Relativity announced new plans with startup Impulse Space, founded by SpaceX’s former CTO of propulsion, to land a spacecraft on Mars as early as 2024 (yes, you read that right).

Relativity Space has had a wild ride to launch by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/relativity-space-has-had-a-wild-ride-to-launch/

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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Hellooooo, Crunchers! We’re back for another round of tech news from your very favorite news site. It’s been a busy news day, and Haje is on deadline trying to finish this week’s pitch deck teardown, so let’s not dilly-dally and get right to it! — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Like a student debt Superman: Candidly, a company that helps financial institutions and employers embed student debt and savings optimization products into employee benefits, swoops in with $20.5 million in new funding to pick up student debt relief where new U.S. policies leave off. Christine has more.
• Draw to your little heart’s contentDevin powers up reMarkable’s e-paper tablet and examined every inch to bring you a product review worthy of getting rid of paper for good.
• Then I saw your game, and now I’m a Believer: Believer scored $55 million in new funding from big names in venture capital, like Lightspeed and Andreessen Horowitz, to focus on a new approach to multiplayer gaming that Ingrid writes will start with “original IP and stories ‘where player choices matter.’”

Startups and VC

The economy is a bit better — kind of, maybe, sort of? While things appear to be trending in the right direction, it’s going to be a long road. Besides, if you’re unable to find work, positive macroeconomic trends are cold comfort. One of the nice things Brian enjoys about having a platform like TechCrunch is the opportunity to help people in that difficult position — so here is a list of robotics companies that are hiring.

The enterprise is about to get hit by the generative AI hype train, as Salesforce prepares to invest in startups developing what it calls “responsible generative AI,” Paul writes.

Here’s another fistful:

• I can see clearly nowBrian reports that Plus One raises $50 million for its parcel robotics vision systems.
• NFTs, get yer NFTsJacquelyn reports that Tensor raises $3 million for a Solana-focused NFT trading platform.
• What’s the catch?Christine reports that health benefits startup Catch is shutting down, according to its founders.
• This is the newsSarah takes a look at the tech behind Artifact, the newly launched news aggregator from Instagram’s co-founders.
• Wait, what was I doing?: Mike reports that ADHD startups are exploding, and now there’s even a dedicated browser.

Gatik’s Gautam Narang on the importance of knowing your customer

As the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, illustrates, our brittle legacy supply chains are long overdue for an overhaul.

Autonomous vehicle startup Gatik operates approximately 40 driverless heavy-duty semitrailer trucks on routes up to 300 miles long, connecting distribution centers with smaller hubs.

Rebecca Bellan interviewed Gatik CEO and co-founder Gautam Narang to learn more about the company’s operations and investor expectations, and how a shortage of human drivers is impacting growth.

“We have not done any free delivery ever,” he says. “So we have been doing commercial deliveries since 2019, meaning every trip that we have made, we have been paid for.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

• Modeling the future: The best way to start an AI project is to not think about the models, Eran Shlomo writes.
• Okay, fess upAlex wonders, Who’s to blame for all the SPAC implosions?
• Corporates march inDespite the downturn, CVC gains traction in Brazil’s startup ecosystem, Matheus Tavares Dos Santos writes.

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!

Big Tech Inc.

Sonos is getting ready to launch two new speakers, so Brian got the scoop from company CEO Patrick Spence on right to repair, spatial audio and those never-ending lawsuits.

Speaking of Sonos, Brian also wrote about the company replacing its One with a spatial audio speaker called Era 100. Also, Sonos is adding support for spatial audio on Apple Music, Aisha reports.

Thank you for reading, and have a Sonos day!

It’s a busy day, so how about six more:

• Is that a banana in your pocket?: For those of you who like sunshine, daffodils and lemons, Apple has a new yellow iPhone 14 and 14 Plus that you need to get your hands on, Ivan writes.
• Talk to me: Ever wanted to chat face-to-face with photorealistic AI? Give D-ID’s new web app a whirl. Aisha has more.
• Smarty pants: Salesforce is getting into generative AI with some new technology it is calling “Einstein GPT,” Ron reports.
• App inside of an app: Even Facebook wants a redo every now and again. It’s testing bringing back in-app messaging, Aisha writes.
• Healthy competition: Kenya’s competition regulator is looking at online food delivery platforms to make sure they aren’t delivering more than just their orders, Annie writes.
• More job cuts: Atlassian cuts 5% of its workforce following a reorganization. Frederic has more.

Daily Crunch: AI-driven fintech Candidly nabs $20.5M Series B to help consumers ‘crush debt’ by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/daily-crunch-ai-driven-fintech-candidly-nabs-20-5m-series-b-to-help-consumers-crush-debt/

Google just revealed that its annual developer conference, I/O, will be returning to the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, on May 10. Like last year’s event, the in-person event is set to be fairly intimate, though the company will be streaming the keynotes for free. In pre-pandemic years, I/O was a large event with multiple days of keynotes and workshops.

This scaled-down event appears to be largely focused on public-facing talks, which bring key updates to Google’s various operating systems like Android and Wear OS. AI has been a cornerstone of the show as well in recent years, and given all of the hype we’ve seen for services like ChatGPT and Google’s own Bard, I’d say there’s a good chance the company will be leaning even more strongly on the category at this year’s event.

Hardware, on the other hand, has always been a bit of a crapshoot. The budget Pixel 7a appears to be looming on the horizon, and Google didn’t offer much in the way of Nest smartphone hardware in H2 of last year, so that’s also a possibility.

Google notes,

Google I/O returns to Mountain View May 10 by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/google-i-o-returns-to-mountain-view-may-10/

Walt Disney Imagineering, the workshop that makes all of the cool things you experience at the Disney Parks, is bringing back a veteran to co-lead the division. Bruce Vaughn was previously at WDI for 22 years, leaving for VR experience company Dreamscape before landing at Airbnb.

Vaughn will take the role of Chief Creative Officer and co-lead of WDI. This news is likely to be shockwave-level (in a good way) among Imagineers present and past and those of us who follow the Parks and the people that create them. 

Vaughn has been at Airbnb for a year and a half leading its Experiential Creative Product team. He was hired to develop more ‘immersive’ experiences at Airbnb, who had also hired former Disney Parks exec Catherine Powell to help them build out packages of excursions for Airbnb guests in an effort to go beyond lodging bookings. 

Vaughn previously co-lead WDI as Chief Creative Executive for 9 years where he worked on projects across the company — including the renovation of EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth early on in his career.

“I’ve remained an Imagineer at heart, so I’m thrilled to join Barbara and reunite with this phenomenal global team of creators and innovators during this pivotal time,” Vaughn said in a provided statement. 

Imagineering is a unique organization with a very different way of working. Leads inside the division pool resources across a group of people that blend a melange of art, engineering, organization, supply chain and storytelling into environmental works that are inhabited by millions of people a year. The internal process for creating and maintaining a flow of unique ideas balances fiscal restrictions, personalities and revenue goals against the much more nebulous questions of art and emotion.

It’s a startup that was born in 1952 and still manages to maintain a sense that the projects being built are somehow being formed organically from chaos. It’s a rare environment that draws really talented people, but has also been shedding them rapidly.

WDI has seen a huge shakeup in recent years under the company’s previous CEO, Bob Chapek. Long-time Imagineers which led huge projects and carried an enormous amount of institutional knowledge like Joe Rohde, Jon Snoddy, former Imagineering co-President Bob Weis and others have all moved on recently – along with a spate of departures surrounding Disney’s stop-start move of WDI to Florida.

Effective leaders of that organization have to understand them and how to perform that balancing act. Weis was co-President with Barbara Bouza – a project executive who rose to the role in 2021. Bouza will now be the solo President but co-lead of Imagineering with Vaughn in the CCO role. Both will report directly to Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Parks. He officially joins on March 20th.

“With so many exciting projects under way and tremendous opportunities ahead of us, I look forward to partnering with Bruce to fuel creativity and deliver next-level experiences,” said Bouza in a statement.

Disney is betting here that a veteran, respected, leader who previously worked as a co-lead will offset some recent brain drain and loss of history. Though it’s easy to ascribe every movement made since Bob Iger resumed the CEO role as ‘fixing problems’ – this move seems to be more of a maintenance and upkeep maneuver that will offset Weis’ departure and pair Bouza with an (almost) equally experienced leader for WDI.

D’Amaro sent an internal note to Imagineers today as well:

DATE: March 7, 2023
TO: DPEP Executives, All WDI
FROM: Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products
SUBJECT: WDI Organizational Announcement: Welcome Back Bruce Vaughn

As Bob Iger often says, creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at
Disney. In fact, as we look at our company’s 100-year history of bringing captivating and
memorable storytelling to life, the consistent thread that binds us together as a company
across all segments is our ability to drive innovation through creative projects.

In Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, we continue to invest in new endeavors
that deliver the most compelling experiences, immersing our guests around the world in
the stories they love most. In the past few years, we have found ourselves at the
crossroads of a wave of new technology and a seemingly unlimited amount of new
stories and franchises, allowing us to develop groundbreaking new experiences. Of
course, none of this comes to life without a strong commitment to creativity and
innovation by the amazing team at Walt Disney Imagineering.

With this in mind, I’m pleased to share that effective March 20, Bruce Vaughn is
returning to Walt Disney Imagineering as the Chief Creative Officer. Bruce will co-lead
the organization with WDI President Barbara Bouza, with both leaders reporting
directly to me.

Together, Bruce and Barbara will partner closely to connect visionary creative thinking
with project opportunities and flawless execution and delivery. With significant
developments under way and more on the horizon, this dedicated focus toward
creativity and innovation will help us deliver next-level experiences well into the future.
To best accomplish this, they will be working together to swiftly identify the most
effective way to structure Imagineering.

Many of you have had the opportunity to work with Bruce previously. He has a deep
history with Imagineering, serving for more than two decades in leadership roles
including with WDI R&D, as well as co-leading the entire WDI organization as Chief
Creative Executive for nine years. Bruce left Disney in 2016 to become CEO and CCO
of Dreamscape Immersive where he worked with teams to advance virtual reality
technologies for mainstream location-based entertainment, and most recently was with
Airbnb where he developed and led the Experiential Creative Product team.

Please join me in welcoming Bruce back to Disney.

Walt Disney Imagineering snags Chief Creative Officer Bruce Vaughn back from Airbnb by Matthew Panzarino originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/walt-disney-imagineering-snags-chief-creative-officer-bruce-vaughn-back-from-airbnb/

Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups.

This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Matt Rogers, the founder and CEO of Mill, a startup that helps its customers turn their food scraps into farm feed. The former founder of Nest talked about what compelled him to jump back into entrepreneurship after years of investing, why he decided to focus on food waste, and how they built the startup’s closed-loop system. Plus, Matt talks about how his days designing the original iPhone influenced his design choices now.

Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.

Connect with us:

1. On Twitter
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3. Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Talking trash with Matt Rogers from Mill by Rebecca Szkutak originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/talking-trash-with-matt-rogers-from-mill/

The global downturn has impacted every sector, but fintech bore the brunt of it as public-market valuations fell off a cliff last year.

However, it appears that even though VCs are proceeding more cautiously than before and taking their time with due diligence, they are still investing.

CB Insights recently found that two of the largest global VC firms, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, actually backed more fintech companies in 2022 than any other category. In both cases, about 25% of their overall investments went into fintech startups.

And, while global fintech funding slid by 46% to $75.2 billion in 2022 from 2021, it was still up 52% compared to 2020 and made up 18% of all funding globally, proving that investors still have faith in fintech’s future.

You could even say some are bullish: “If anything, I expect our investment pace to increase this year as early-stage fintech companies prioritize operational discipline and product differentiation,” said Emmalynn Shaw, managing partner of Flourish Ventures.

We’re widening our lens, looking for more investors to participate in TechCrunch+ Surveys, where we poll top professionals about challenges in their industry.
If you’re an investor and would like to participate in future surveys, fill out this form.

The tougher conditions created in the past year has resulted in down (and smaller) rounds, M&A, and an emphasis on fundamentals. Gone are the days of investing on a whim.

But for Ansaf Kareem, venture partner at Lightspeed, the tough times can be seen as a good thing because they often create the best companies. “If you study previous compression periods in the ecosystem (e.g., 2008 and 2000), not only have we seen outstanding companies being formed, we’ve also witnessed great venture firm performance during these windows,” he said.

“The last two years in the venture ecosystem were an anomaly, but I believe we are coming back to a healthy ‘normal.’ Diligence cycles have extended, better relationships with founders can be formed, investors can enter new spaces with more preparation, and a thoughtful approach to early-stage venture capital can emerge,” Kareem added.

So whether you’re seeking to raise your first round or your third, make sure you focus on fundamentals, save cash and don’t shy away from raising a down round if you think your idea may change the world, several investors said.

“Grow in a way that’s smart and sustainable for the long run,” advises Michael Sidgmore, a partner at Broadhaven Ventures. “We can’t control the macro environment, and today’s geopolitical climate means that there may always be the threat of exogenous shocks on the market. But the markets will bounce back at some point. So just grow in a manner that lets you focus on unit economics and profitability so that you can control your own destiny no matter what market we are in.”

To help TechCrunch+ readers understand what fintech investors are looking for right now (and what they’re not!) as well as what you should know before approaching them, we interviewed seven active investors over the last couple of weeks.

Spoiler alert: B2B payments and infrastructure remain on fire and most investors expect to see more flat and down rounds this year. Plus, they were gracious enough to share some of the advice they’re giving to their portfolio companies.

We spoke with:

• Charles Birnbaum, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
• Aunkur Arya, partner, Menlo Ventures
• Ansaf Kareem, venture partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
• Emmalyn Shaw, managing partner, Flourish Ventures
• Michael Sidgmore, partner, Broadhaven Ventures
• Ruth Foxe Blader, partner, Anthemis
• Miguel Armaza, co-founder and general partner, Gilgamesh Ventures

Charles Birnbaum, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners

Many people are calling this a downturn. How has your investment thesis changed over the last year? Are you still closing deals at the same velocity?

We continue to invest in great companies regardless of the market. However, many entrepreneurs have opted to remain heads down and build more efficiently instead of testing this new valuation environment.

While our investment theses are always evolving, the shift in the macro environment has not changed which areas we are most excited about.

Do you expect to see more down rounds in 2023? Are you seeing more companies raising extensions or down rounds compared to 2021 and 2022?

We do expect more flat and down rounds to come later this year as runway tightens for many companies that raised more than two years ago.

Private market valuations, at any point in time, are not only a reflection of a team’s hard work and progress, but are also impacted by the financing environment.

What are you most excited about in the fintech space? What do you feel might be overhyped?

We see tremendous opportunity for innovation in the world of B2B payments. The infrastructure groundwork laid by modern developer platforms over the past decade and the upcoming catalysts in the real-time payments world, with the launch of FedNow, could spark much faster adoption.

We are excited to see how entrepreneurs leverage these tools to enhance our archaic B2B payments ecosystem.

Consumer fintech businesses without long-term, durable customer acquisition advantages are overhyped and will continue to struggle to live up to the lofty expectations set by investors over the past several years.

We’re expecting to see significant consolidation across the consumer fintech landscape this year.

What criteria do you use when deciding which companies to invest in? Would you say you are conducting more due diligence?

We look deep into all areas of innovation, including fintech, and focus on startups that align with our theses. We try to predict where there will be opportunities for seismic innovation before we find the entrepreneur. This helps us with diligence, as we work to understand the market before we make any investments.

We also work hard to perform due diligence on every investment opportunity we pursue by spending significant time with the company, with a deep market study, and as many references as possible on the teams we back.

Have fintechs gotten close to growing into their 2021 valuations? How many will not manage the task in 2023?

Given the sharp run up in valuation over the past few years in the private market and the precipitous fall in the public market over the past year, it is difficult to say how many companies have grown into 2021 valuations.

For the top tier of companies that were able to raise larger rounds, the reality is they don’t need to answer that question for quite some time.

What advice are you giving to your portfolio companies?

The most important thing for me is to not give the same advice across different companies. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every business is at a different point along their journey to find product-market fit, prove the sustainability of a business model, execute on a repeatable go-to-market motion, etc.

Rethinking growth targets, in light of the rising cost of capital, to focus more on efficiency in this environment is a consistent thread in board meetings these days.

How do you prefer to receive pitches? What’s the most important thing a founder should know before they get on a call with you?

From my experience, you often have to find the most exciting companies and earn the right to invest. We are always reaching out proactively to founders building in the areas where we have active investment theses.

We are also always looking at exciting opportunities that come in through referrals from entrepreneurs we work with or have worked with in the past, and other investors in the ecosystem. We do our best to review and evaluate inbound messages we receive.

Aunkur Arya, partner, Menlo Ventures

Many people are calling this a downturn. How has your investment thesis changed over the last year? Are you still closing deals at the same velocity?

We’re definitely seeing the reset we expected to see after a decade of operating in a macro environment where the cost of capital was near zero. It’s a difficult but very healthy reshuffling of the deck.

I’d say that our core theses within fintech have largely remained the same: we’re investing in developer infrastructure and embedded finance APIs, vertical banking, end-to-end consumer and business financial services, and the Office of the CFO. We’re also looking at thoughtful enterprise applications of AI that intersect with each of these segments of our fintech thesis.

We continue to avoid balance-sheet heavy businesses that take undue risk to generate revenue, and ultimately look less like pure technology companies and more like insurance companies or lenders. These are the first businesses to suffer during a downturn because they’re heavily indexed to the macro environment.

We were less active in 2022, but are already seeing an uptick in deal flow in fintech in the first few months of 2023.

7 investors reveal what’s hot in fintech in Q1 2023 by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/7-investors-reveal-whats-hot-in-fintech-in-q1-2023/

Facebook head Tom Alison announced today that the company is testing the ability for users to access their Messenger inbox within the Facebook app. Back in 2016, Facebook removed messaging capabilities from its mobile web application to push people to the Messenger app, in a move that angered many users.

Now, the company is testing a reversal of this decision. In a blog post, Alison said the social network is currently testing this change, and noted that Facebook plans to expand the test soon. The change comes as Facebook, and other Meta-owned platforms, are looking to compete with TikTok.

“Over the coming year, we’ll build more ways to integrate messaging features in Facebook,” Alison said in the blog post. “Ultimately, we want it to be easy and convenient for people to connect and share, whether in the Messenger app or directly within Facebook.”

Over the past year, Facebook has been moving away from focusing on being an app for close friends and family, and has instead been positioning itself as a discovery platform. Last June, the social network revamped its “Home” feed to enhance content discovery. At the time, Facebook said the Home feed serves as a discovery engine for users to find new content and creators through algorithmic recommendations.

The move indicated Meta’s continued desire to chase TikTok, its greatest threat. Given that Facebook has been focusing on being a discovery engine, it’s not surprising that it’s looking to bring back in-app messaging. By doing so, it can present itself as a place for users to directly discuss content after discovering it. Alison notes that it’s important for Facebook to make it easier for people to share what they discover on Facebook via messaging, without having to switch to another app. Since TikTok surfaces new content to its users, and also provides a place to discuss it via DMs, Facebook likely thinks it needs to the same to compete with it.

As part of today’s announcement, Alison said that Facebook is off to a great start this year and that the social network is “thriving.”

“Contrary to reports otherwise, Facebook is not dead nor dying, but in fact alive and thriving with 2 billion daily active users,” Alison wrote. “People are using Facebook for more than connecting with friends and family, but also to discover and engage around what is most important to them.”

In its fourth-quarter earnings reported last month, the company reported revenue of $32.17 billion in Q4, topping estimates, though still down 4% year-over-year and representing the third straight quarter of declines. However, the stock popped after its earnings beat thanks to Meta’s promises of “a year of efficiency” and its deemphasized focus on the metaverse in favor of AI work.

Facebook’s latest test brings back in-app messaging by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/facebooks-latest-test-brings-back-in-app-messaging/

It’s a glorious day for football fans. Amazon announced that the exclusive Black Friday NFL game is set to be free to watch on Prime Video, regardless of if you aren’t a subscriber.

This is the first time that the NFL has had a game the day after Thanksgiving, which the league announced in October. So, to celebrate the occasion, Amazon is letting viewers watch it for no cost whatsoever.

The Black Friday game is expected to kick off at 3 p.m. ET on November 24. The NFL will announce the competing teams later this year when the full 2023 schedule is released.

“We’re excited to expand our relationship with the NFL and build a new holiday tradition for our customers with the first Black Friday NFL game,” Jay Marine, vice president of Prime Video and global head of Sports, said in a statement. “As families look to spend time together over the holiday weekend, we are excited to provide an opportunity for everyone to enjoy this new day of NFL action.”

The NFL is notorious for its Thanksgiving games. For instance, the Las Vegas Raiders vs. Dallas Cowboys mashup in 2021 delivered a whopping 38.5 million viewers. It’s likely that the new Black Friday game will deliver impressive numbers since everyone will be at home during the holiday weekend.

The NFL and Amazon have had a relationship since 2017 when Prime Video broadcasted Thursday Night Football (TNF) games alongside NBC, CBS and the NFL Network. In 2022, Prime Video became the first streaming service to get exclusive rights to the sports package, becoming the home of TNF. The 15 regular-season broadcasts were only available to paid subscribers, with the first game garnering 15.3 million viewers.

The first-ever Black Friday NFL game will stream for free on Prime Video by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/the-first-ever-black-friday-nfl-game-will-stream-for-free-on-prime-video/

Today Reddit announced updates to its platform, including the test of a TikTok-like feature that separates text and video content into individual feeds. Dubbed “Read” and “Watch,” the two split-view feeds will allow users to switch from browsing text-based posts to videos, depending on their mood.

The new feeds are currently being tested but will roll out fully in the coming weeks, a Reddit spokesperson told TechCrunch. As part of the test, both the “Read” and “Watch” feeds will include posts that users are subscribed to as well as recommendations, at least for now, the spokesperson added.

The update is an attempt to simplify the discovery experience for Reddit users and let them choose the feed that they actually want to see (or read).

“By focusing on the core tenets of Reddit, new and existing users coming to Reddit will be greeted by better experiences and options to discover new and interesting content and communities in uncluttered spaces,” Pali Bhat, chief product officer of Reddit, said in an official statement.

Reddit wrote in its official blog post today that it also plans to launch updates to its video player to let users “easily engage in conversations while watching.” The company launched its native video platform in 2017.

Other updates coming soon to Reddit include a re-organized interface to decrease clutter as well as chat upgrades, storefront improvements and more. The most recent feature to launch was a new search capability, where users can search comments within a post on desktop and iOS and Android devices.

For the past few years, Reddit has incorporated video on its platform in many ways to try and compete with TikTok. In 2020, the company acquired a short-form TikTok-like video platform, Dubsmash, to integrate its video creation tools into Reddit. In August 2021, Reddit rolled out a TikTok-style video feed on its iOS app.

The company confirmed last year that it was exploring the idea of bringing more user-generated video content to its online discussion forums as well as a feature that would allow users to react to other videos.

A lot of companies have videofied their apps, including Amazon, SoundCloud and Spotify, which has been spotted testing vertical video feeds. Instagram and YouTube have also launched TikTok-style features, “Reels” and “Shorts,” respectively. Snapchat launched its “Spotlight” feature in 2020.

Updated 3/7/23 at 1:35 p.m. ET with responses from a Reddit spokesperson.

Reddit gets a TikTok-style feature that introduces a separate video feed by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/reddit-gets-a-tiktok-style-feature-that-introduces-a-separate-video-feed/