Tech Meme

Medha Singh / Reuters: CryptoSlam: Ethereum NFT sales jumped from $546.9M in December 2022 to $780.2M in January 2023, well down from ~$5B in January 2022; average prices were ~$372  —  It’s alive!  The NFT market is twitching out of its torpor, defying reports of its demise.  —  Total NFT sales on the ethereum blockchain … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Varsha Bansal / Wired: A look at the Modi administration’s attempts to strengthen government control over the internet in India and its battle with Big Tech, which keeps giving in  —  The Modi administration keeps giving itself new powers, and Big Tech keeps giving in.  —  Akash Banerjee isn’t sure whether he’s allowed … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Yogita Khatri / The Block: Geneva-based Taurus, which offers digital asset infrastructure to European financial institutions, raised a $65M Series B led by Credit Suisse  —  – Swiss digital asset infrastructure company Taurus raised $65 million in a Series B round led by Credit Suisse. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Financial Times: Sources: Apple’s India expansion has been slow due to logistics, tariffs, infrastructure, suppliers and officials lacking a “sense of urgency”, and other issues  —  Apple is hitting stumbling blocks in its effort to increase production in India, as the US tech giant faces pressure to cut its manufacturing reliance on China. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Olivia Poh / Bloomberg: Aspire, which provides Southeast Asian SMBs with international payments and other financial services, raised a $100M Series C led by Lightspeed and Sequoia  —  Aspire Pte, a fintech startup serving businesses, raised $100 million in a round that more than doubled its valuation, defying a market downturn for young tech firms. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal: Alibaba, Huawei, and Tencent each run more Southeast Asia availability zones than AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, and are investing hundreds of millions of dollars  —  China’s Alibaba, Huawei and Tencent are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in developing markets including Thailand, Indonesia Lees verder op Tech Meme

David Klepper / Associated Press: Google’s Jigsaw plans to test video ads in Germany to “prebunk” misinformation, after promising results with a pilot project in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia  —  After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Ernesto Van der Sar / TorrentFreak: E-book pirate site Z-Library relaunches with unique domain names for each user, after the US DOJ seized 200+ domain names connected to the site in November 2022  —  The U.S. Government’s crackdown against Z-Library late last year aimed to wipe out the pirate library for good. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg: Amazon’s Zoox says its fully autonomous vehicle carried staff between its two main buildings in Foster City, California on public roads for the first time  —  Zoox Inc., the self-driving startup owned by Amazon.com Inc., carried passengers in its fully autonomous vehicle on public roads for the first time. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India-based insurance marketplace InsuranceDekho raised a $150M Series A led by Goldman and TVS, including ~$40M debt, a source says at a $475M-$500M valuation  —  The Indian insurance platform InsuranceDekho has raised $150 million in a Series A funding round as the more than a decade old firm eyes merger … Lees verder op Tech Meme