It’s that time of the week again, folks. Welcome to Week in Review (WiR), JS’s regular recap of the past week in tech. New here? Not to worry – sign up here to get WiR delivered to your inbox every Saturday, then read on for the week’s recap.
This week we cover Netflix quietly scrapping its base plan in Canada, the IRL social app shutting down after most of its users were discovered to be fake, and the blockbuster sales of the Flipper hacking device. Also up for grabs is TC reporting on Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i dual-screen laptop, DeepMind’s next chatbot to rival ChatGPT, and Robinhood getting a credit card startup. Relief.
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Netflix scraps basic plan – in Canada: Netflix has quietly killed the $9.99 CAD per month basic plan in Canada for new subscribers. This simplifies the streaming company’s offerings, but leaves a big gap between the ad-supported plan and the Standard plan, Ivan writes.
A unicorn social app shuts down: Ironically, the social app IRL‘s users do not exist in real life. An internal investigation by IRL’s board of directors found that 95% of the app’s reported 20 million users were automated or from bots. So, after raising over $200 million in venture capital, IRL shuts down.
A laptop, but double: Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i drew both appreciative and skeptical glances at CES earlier this year when it made its official debut. With two 13-inch OLED screens attached with a central hinge, this is one of the most unusual laptop designs ever to see production. And according to Darrell, it’s the first to prove that the dual-screen paradigm can work — and work very well — for many people.
Flipper sells like hot cakes: Maybe you are the Flipper Zero hacking device that’s doing the rounds, including a ton of ways to manipulate the world around you – including RFID card systems, remote keyless systems, key fobs, access barriers and more. The company claims it is on track to sell $80 million worth of products this year after sales worth almost $5 million as pre-orders on Kickstarter — and claims it sold $25 million worth of devices last year.
Robinhood acquires X1: Robinhood announced Thursday that it would acquire free credit card startup X1 for $95 million in cash. X1, which offers an income-based rewards credit card, has raised a total of $62 million in venture capital backed funding since its inception in 2020 from investors such as Soma Capital, FPV, Craft Ventures and Spark Capital.
Shein’s stunt backfires: With Shein eyeing an IPO, the company’s image needs a serious makeover. From stealing work from indie designers to violating local labor laws, Shein has gone out of style on social media — so the company invited a group of influencers to tour one of its factories in Guangzhou, China. Critics point out that it was a highly curated brand journey where influencers were offered free travel opportunities and gifts, encouraging them to promote a favorable image of the company.
Databricks Acquires MosaicML: This week Databricks announced that it will pay $1.3 billion to acquire MosaicML, an open source startup with neural network expertise that has built a platform for organizations to train large language models and deploy generative AI tools based on them to make. Prior to that, MosaicML had raised just under $64 million from investors including Atlas, Playground Global, and Samsung Next.
ChatGPT gets Bing: ChatGPT on mobile can now surf the web. But only through Bing – for better or for worse. Open AI this week announced that subscribers to ChatGPT Plus, the premium version of the company’s AI-powered chatbot, can use a new feature in the ChatGPT app called Browsing that allows users to use ChatGPT to search Bing for answers to questions.
Audio
Hunting for a podcast to while away the hours? You’ve come to the right place. TC has you covered.
On Equity, the crew kicked off Honey Homes’ recent funding and Gusto’s partnership with Remote; they then dug deep into the latest wave of M&A, from Visa’s purchase of Pismo to Databricks’ deal with MosaicML.
In the meantime, Found it were the founders of Spout, a startup that makes a device that can extract fresh drinking water from the air.
In order to Chain reactionThis week’s episode welcomed Jack Lu, co-founder and CEO of NFT marketplace Magic Eden, to discuss the state of the crypto market.
And The JS Podcast capped Shein inviting several fashion influencers to his facilities in China. The internet was not happy with the stunt.
JS+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys – which you’ll know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
M&A is back: It has been a quiet year when it comes to technical M&A. But suddenly this week it’s like the M&A floodgates are finally opening up and we’re starting to see some movement.
Big Tech Embraces Generative AI: As the race to build generative AI tools for the enterprise degenerates into a battle royale, Big Tech companies are busy wielding their most powerful weapons: checkbooks. Will the trend continue? That’s an open question.
When companies have more influence than countries: According to the CIA’s World FactbookIf Apple were a country, its revenue would be number 50 on the list of countries by GDP. While it would lag behind the US, France and Egypt, as a country Apple would produce more wealth than Norway, Portugal or Greece, and only slightly less than Hong Kong, Peru or Israel. Should it be? Haje explores.
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