Pioneered by WeChat almost four years ago, mini-apps are now common in China and India, and gaining traction in other markets, too. Mini-apps, or lightweight apps designed for integration into host apps, allow smartphone users to access several services through one app, saving them data and storage space. They also give host apps more ways to make revenue. But most mini-app ecosystems are currently tied to a specific app or company. Appboxo, a Singapore-based startup, wants to make mini-apps more accessible by allowing any developer to turn their app into a “super app.”

Appboxo announced today it has closed $1.1 million in seed funding, led by FF APAC Scout, a Founders Fund vehicle; 500 Startups’ Southeast Asia-focused 500 Durians fund; Plug and Play Ventures; and Antler. The new funding will be used on product development and to add more mini-apps to Appboxo’s ecosystem.

The startup currently works with about 10 host apps, including Booking.com, Klook and Zalora, and has about 80 mini-apps on its platform. Examples of how host apps have used mini-apps include travel apps that added hotel, restaurant and activities bookings; and mobile wallets that integrated insurance-buying and e-commerce services.

Appboxo was founded in 2019 by chief executive officer Kaniyet Rayev and chief technology officer Nursultan Keneshbekov while participating in Antler’s Singapore incubator program. Rayev told TechCrunch that the two initially wanted to build an all-in-one travel app, with different travel-related services integrated into one platform.

“But when we actually started developing it, we realized there is no easy way to plug in third-party services,” Rayev said. They began thinking of ways for developers to create and offer mini-apps as a plug-and-play solution.

The mini-app economy is currently siloed, with apps or companies like WeChat, ByteDance, Meituan, Paytm, PhonePe, Grab and Go-jek either developing mini-apps for their own use, or running mini-app marketplaces for their users. But last year, the W3C Chinese Web Interest Group started looking at ways to standardize mini-apps. The group, including people from Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, Intel, Xiaomi and China Mobile, published the first working draft of its white paper in September 2019 about how mini-apps can be created to work across platforms.

“It was a really perfect time for us to read that paper, because it was around the time we started our platform,” said Rayev.

Adding mini-apps can increase engagement because users open apps more frequently if they can access different services through it. It also gives app developers more ways to generate revenue through affiliate partnerships, commissions or transactions fees.

But many native app developers simply don’t have the resources to develop their own mini-apps, so Appboxo simplifies the process with an SDK that allows them to integrate any of its platform’s mini-apps. A second barrier for many app developers is working out business and development partnership deals with mini-apps, so AppBoxo helps guide them through the process, too.

Since Appboxo is based in Singapore, a lot of its current users in Southeast Asia, and it also plans to target India, too. While mini-apps are less common in Europe and the United States, where most smartphone owners still use apps with one core offering, Rayev said that is starting to change. For example, Uber announced it was merging its ride-hailing and food delivery service, Uber Eats, into one app, last year, while Snap introduced Minis a few months ago.

AppBoxo already has partners in Europe, and “the whole super app concept is coming to the Western world,” Rayev added. “Hopefully we can find some new partners in the rest of the world as well.”

Ola said on Monday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Tamil Nadu to set up what it claims would be the world’s largest scooter manufacturing facility in the South Indian state as the Indian ride-hailing firm begins a new push with electric vehicles.

The SoftBank-backed Indian ride-hailing firm said it will invest about $327 million in setting up the factory, which it says will create almost 10,000 jobs and have an initial capacity to produce 2 million electric vehicles in a year.

The move comes as Ola plans to launch and expand its two-wheeler electric vehicles in several markets in the next two quarters, according to a person familiar with the matter. Ola Electric, which spun out of the startup last year, acquired Amsterdam-based Etergo earlier this year. The Dutch firm has built a scooter that uses swappable, high energy battery that delivers a range of up to 240 km (149 miles). The company plans to replicate production of similar model of vehicles, the person said.

In a statement, Ola said the new factory will improve India’s electric vehicle ecosystem and will serve customers in Europe, Asia, and Latin American among other markets.

“We are excited to announce our plans to set up the world’s largest scooter factory. This is a significant milestone for Ola and a proud moment for our country as we rapidly progress towards realising our vision of moving the world to sustainable mobility solutions across shared and owned mobility. This will be one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the world. This factory will showcase India’s skill and talent to produce world class products that will cater to global markets,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and Group CEO of Ola, in a statement.

When California voters passed Proposition 22 with 58.6% of the vote, they agreed with Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates that gig workers should not be employees who are entitled to myriad labor rights. The proposition they passed stated that gig workers should be independent contractors who receive the limited benefits proposed by those companies.

“The first feeling I had was shock, disbelief and hurt,” Vanessa Bain, a worker-organizer with Gig Workers Collective, told TechCrunch. “It didn’t feel good to think that my fellow Californians voted to strip people like myself and my co-workers of our labor rights.”

But Prop 22 does not mark the end of the battle of the status of gig workers. Gig workers, lawyers and activists affiliated with Gig Workers Rising, Gig Workers Collective, the National Employment Law Project and the Working Partnerships for Families are all gearing up to redouble their efforts in the New Year. But the same goes for gig companies. Uber and Lyft are ready to take legislation similar to Prop 22 into other parts of the country and the world.

“We didn’t have time for more grieving because as soon as it passed, every company signaled they’re looking to expand this model to the national level, which means our organizing needs to adjust accordingly,” Bain said.

So, really, the fight has just begun. In the year ahead, we will likely see lobbying efforts from both gig companies and gig worker organizations alike, as well as more lawsuits.

---

In 2019, the California state legislature passed Assembly Bill 5, which became law in January 2020.

AB 5 mandated that companies apply the ABC test to determine how to classify their workers. According to the ABC test, in order for a hiring entity to legally classify a worker as an independent contractor, it must prove the worker:

• A — is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity.
• B — performs work outside the scope of the entity’s business, and
• C — is regularly engaged in an “independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the work performed.”

Many have argued that gig economy companies do not pass the ABC test, while the companies themselves have, of course, argued that they do. As AB 5 made its way through the state legislature, gig companies banded together with their competitors to fight a collective enemy: labor rights for their respective workforces.

In August 2019, Uber and Lyft kicked off that fight with an initial $60 million put toward the ballot measure now known as Prop 22. Between August 2019 and November 2020, that number skyrocketed to around $205 million and brought in contributions from other companies like Postmates (now owned by Uber), Instacart and DoorDash. All that funding makes Proposition 22 the most expensive ballot measure in California since 1999.

On the other side, major donors in opposition of Prop 22 included Service Employees International Union, United Food & Commercial Workers and International Brotherhood of Teamsters. They collectively contributed $15.9 million.

The ballot measure, which goes into effect this month, implements a few key benefits:

• An earnings guarantee of at least 120% of minimum wage while on the job.
• 30 cents per engaged mile for expenses.
• A healthcare stipend.
• Occupational accident insurance for on-the-job injuries.
• Automobile accident and liability insurance.

---

Ahead of the Prop 22 vote, Cherri Murphy, a ride-share driver for Uber and Lyft and lead organizer at Gig Workers Rising, was heavily involved in Gig Workers Rising’s efforts to combat the millions of dollars tech companies put into ensuring gig workers would be classified as independent contractors.

“We had a hell of a fight,” Murphy told TechCrunch. “We were up against a $205 million campaign but I still had to believe that we could win.”

“Mank” is a change of pace for director David Fincher — instead of exploring the world of startup backstabbing (“The Social Network”), political backstabbing (“House of Cards”) or actual stabbings (“Seven,” “Zodiac,” “Gone Girl,” “Mindhunter” etc.), Fincher takes us back to ’30s and ’40s Hollywood.

Working from a script by Fincher’s late father Jack, the movie is shot and edited to pay homage to the classic studio films of that era — especially “Citizen Kane,” whose co-writer Herman Mankiewicz (played by Gary Oldman) is the “Mank” of the film’s title.

The story jumps back-and-forth in time, showing how Mank became acquainted — and then disillusioned — with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) and his mistress Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried), and how he drew on that knowledge while writing “Kane” for Orson Welles (Tom Burke).

That might not sound like a particularly dramatic setup for a film — as we acknowledge in the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, “Mank”‘s self-consciously old-fashioned filmmaking and its making-of-a-movie premise can make it feel a bit insider-y, like it’s footnote to another film.

But ultimately, the movie works whether or not you’ve seen “Citizen Kane.” Fincher captures both the glamor and the ugliness of the studio system, while Oldman delivers a mesmerizing performance as a talented writer who’s been content to joke and drink away his talent — until he finds himself driven to write one of the greatest movies of all time, which will turn many of his former friends and allies into enemies.

In addition to reviewing “Mank,” we also discuss the ambitious streaming plans that Disney outlined at its investor day this week.

You can listen to our review in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also follow us on Twitter or send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

The place we’re in, the valley of the dolls between the vote and the Inauguration, is overshadowed by the battle to save our lives. The vaccines look promising, and so does the persistence of the Trumpster to play his games. Somehow we have to live with that, on both sides. In the business we’re in, the technology industry, broadband has penetrated to the point we can survive with a reasonable degree of fidelity to the world COVID erased.

This week’s move by WarnerMedia to release all 2021 pictures on HBO Max and in theaters is both a capitulation to reality and a political gambit to negotiate with theater owners. Disney, with their theme parks and investments in streaming crescendoing in layoffs and rebuilding, announced a mix of 80% streaming with only 20% theatrical. Trump’s TikTok deadline has already passed, and the administration is pretending to not pay attention in order to keep negotiations for a buyout alive. The incoming government talks of a working bromance between Biden and McConnell. It’s the opposite of reality TV, or TV reality.

Newsletters straddle mainstream and social media, rolling up links that blur the credibility of publications with the Wild West of uncredentialed freelancers. Some of these voices are playing the newsletter sweepstakes, choosing to move from a salaried position to their own subscription model. For those publications funded in part by a paywall, the transition to a newsletter comes with opportunity and risk. Selling a subscription for a single voice competes with the bundled voices of a paywall publication eventually diluting potential readers’ available funds. We’re seeing this same subscription saturation dynamic in the rise of streaming networks.

Another trend, notification-based news, is making inroads with live streaming over social networks. The pandemic has forced many students into working from home over Zoom for interactive sessions mixed with traditional lecture-type webinars. Events normally covered by trade publications have yielded at least for now to influencer and analyst driven watch parties. Podcasts forego subscription and advertiser revenue for lead generation and industry traction. The 24/7 nature of work from anywhere fights for eyelid time with binge viewing, listening, and reading.

Beyond the virus’s impact on audiences, the productions themselves have new challenges. The FX series Fargo ceased production in March, as did ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. When you see the completed shows, it’s fascinating to try and guess which scenes were shot under the much tighter strictures of the fall. Grey’s Anatomy used the pandemic as a plot point, but it took a few shows for the actors to settle into a more relaxed rhythm. Pre-pandemic footage from the abbreviated series’ previous season lived uncomfortably alongside the new material to cover the transitional story line.

Citizen Kane, considered broadly as the best film Hollywood ever made, spawned a Netflix production about the author of the screenplay, one Herman J. Mankiewicz. Presented in black and white with Kane-like musical scoring and the original film’s innovations in deep focus photography and low angle shots that include the ceilings of sets, the story uses flashbacks and time-jumping to great effect. It’s streaming meets MGM’s catch phrase from the time: All the stars in the heavens. Director David Fincher tells the New York Times how he overshoots by 20% the number of pixels so he can post process and polish the rough edges and camera jiggles into a precise reflection of the intricate vision of his cinema universe.

40 years ago this week John Lennon was murdered by a troubled fan. I was watching Monday Night football when Howard Cosell broke in with the news. What was left of my childhood vanished in that moment. I was newly divorced, struggling to keep my momentum going, no idea of what our world would become, and stupid with sadness over someone I’d never met. The Beatles was this magic machine, a coalition of the fleeting imperfection of the group and the unifying perfection of what they had accomplished.

The days tick by. The vaccine trucks roll. The Supreme Court denies another desperate move to overturn the will of the people. Nobody told me there’d be days like these. Strange days indeed.

__________________

The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, Denis Pombriant, Brent Leary, and Steve Gillmor . Recorded live Friday, December 4, 2020.

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

@fradice, @mickeleh, @denispombriant, @kteare, @brentleary, @stevegillmor, @gillmorgang

For more, subscribe to the Gillmor Gang Newsletter and join the backchannel here on Telegram.

The Gillmor Gang on Facebook … and here’s our sister show G3 on Facebook.

Welcome back to Human Capital, where I break down the latest in diversity, equity and inclusion, and labor in tech. This week, Twitter dropped its latest diversity report and Tesla released its first one ever. Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized for the way things went down with Dr. Timnit Gebru, a prominent researcher in artificial intelligence ethics.

Sign up here to get this as a weekly newsletter in your inbox every Friday at 1 p.m.

Google’s Sundar Pichai will investigate events that led up to Dr. Timnit Gebru’s exit

In light of artificial intelligence researcher Dr. Timnit Gebru’s exit from Google last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent a memo to staffers, obtained by Axios, saying the company would investigate “the circumstances that led up to Dr. Gebru’s departure, examining where we could have improved and led a more respectful process.”

In Pichai’s memo, he said the company needs to “accept responsibility for the fact that a prominent Black, female leader with immense talent left Google unhappily.” He also noted how it’s had a “ripple effect” through underrepresented communities at Google.

In response, on Twitter, Gebru said she didn’t see any plans for accountability. Instead, she said she saw “further gaslighting.” In an interview with Venture Beat, Gebru said Pichai’s memo is “dehumanizing” and makes her “sound like an angry Black woman.”

They paint me as this angry Black woman because they put you in this terrible workplace, and if you speak up about it, then you become a problem, and then they start talking about de-escalation strategies.

You write emails, they get ignored. You write documents, and they get ignored. Then you discuss how it’s being done and then they talk about you as if you’re like some angry Black woman who needs to be contained.

More Black women and Latinas are founding startups, according to Project Diane

Since 2018, the number of Black women and Latina founders doubled from 334 startups to more than 650, according to Project Diane. These women have also raised more money than they did in 2018, but they’re still raising less than the national average. 

This year, Black women and Latina founders raised $3.1 billion compared to just $1 billion in 2018. Still, the median seed round for Black women is $125,000 and $200,000 for Latina founders, while the national median seed is $2.5 million.

Tesla finally released a diversity report

Tesla released its first-ever diversity report, showing the company is 34% white, 22% Hispanic, 10% Black, 21% Asian and 7% “additional groups” in the United States. Those breakdowns are not bad, but it’s worth noting Tesla employs many of those folks in its factories, which are notoriously problematic and have been the subject of allegations around racism and discrimination.  

At the leadership level, Tesla is 59% white, 25% Asian, 4% Black and 4% Hispanic. Just 1% of those in leadership roles are from “additional groups.”

Meanwhile, Tesla’s gender diversity is objectively bad. Men account for 79% of Tesla’s overall workplace and 83% of its leaders in the United States.

Twitter shows slight improvement in latest diversity report

Twitter released its latest quarterly diversity report showing an increase in the representation of women, Black, Latinx and multiracial employees across the whole company. Additionally, representation of women and Black people increased at the leadership level. Despite those gains, Twitter is still 56.7% male and 41% white. 

Uber wants drivers and delivery workers to get priority access to COVID-19 vaccine

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sent a letter to all 50 governors asking them to prioritize giving drivers and delivery workers the vaccine as essential workers. In the letter, Khosrowshahi argues that the work of drivers and delivery people has become essential. That’s why Uber wants them to get the vaccine “quickly, easily and for free,” he wrote in the letter. Additionally, Uber has offered to help share information about the vaccine and encouraging those who are eligible to get vaccinated.

Apple was reportedly complicit in violating Chinese labor laws

Three former Apple Supplier Responsibility employees recently said the company did nothing when its suppliers violated the temporary worker labor law in China. That law required that no more than 10% of a factory’s workforce be temporary workers. According to The Information, Apple didn’t take action because it was worried about an increase in costs, a drain on resources and delays in product launches. 

Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s broadly based on the daily column that appears on Extra Crunch, but free, and made for your weekend reading. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Subscribe here. 

Ready? Let’s talk money, startups and spicy IPO rumors.

 

 

Editor’s note: Get this free weekly recap of TechCrunch news that any startup can use by email every Saturday morning (7 a.m. PT). Subscribe here.

Maybe it is a stock market bubble, or a tech-stock bubble at least. And maybe DoorDash, Airbnb and C3.ai and their bankers should have priced higher regardless to take advantage of all of the enthusiasm. It’s hard to avoid reactions like that, after DoorDash, for example, doubled its final private share price to $102 for its public debut on Wednesday — only to see the price climb to $175 at the end of the week.

Or maybe none of this will matter, because the future is way bigger and the companies are going to get there regardless. That’s what Saar Gur tells Connie Loizos this week about DoorDash, which he had invested in many years ago:

I actually started my career at Lehman Brothers on the investment banking team, and so having seen the IPO process, while I can appreciate [frustration that a] company left some money on the table based on the pricing, the tactical challenge [is that] it’s very hard to predict. You know what the market will bear once it moves to retail investors.

What’s exciting to me is [that] DoorDash is raising money because they are just getting started. I do think this could be a $500 billion-plus company. There’s so much to be excited about. As for the capital-raising event, I think it’s hard for the bankers to know where it will land with the broader market, so I’m not as negative as maybe some others.

Here’s the blow-by-blow coverage of the craziest tech IPO week in the craziest (IPO) year in decades, resuming from where I left off last Friday:

DoorDash amps its IPO range ahead of blockbuster IPO (EC)

The IPO market looks hot as Airbnb and C3.ai raise price targets (EC)

Wish wants to be the Amazon for the rest of us; will retail investors buy it?

DoorDash said to price at $102 per share, doubling its final private price

Airbnb said to price IPO between $67 and $68

While several marketplace unicorns prepare IPOs, a VC digs into the data (EC)

DoorDash, C3.ai skyrocket in public market debuts

How DoorDash and C3.ai can defend their red-hot IPO valuations (EC)

Airbnb’s first-day pop caps off a stellar week for tech IPOs (EC)

In public and private markets, cloud earnings and valuations heat up (EC)

Meet Natasha Mascarenhas, your future Startups Weekly newsletter author

The year is coming to a close for my time writing this newsletter, too. I’m going to be returning full-time to my regular job editing Extra Crunch and stuff in the back offices here at TechCrunch virtual HQ. My colleague Natasha Mascarenhas will be taking over starting next week.

You’re in good hands. In fact you may have noticed many of her articles and her weekly contributions to Equity showing up here already. Since joining us from Crunchbase News earlier this year, she’s been covering early-stage startups and the San Francisco tech scene in general, with a big focus on edtech. We have a lot more planned across Equity, Extra Crunch and more, and she’ll be able to tie it all together around her daily coverage. Stay tuned for an action-packed 2021 (and follow her on Twitter in the meantime).

How to bootstrap to $200m+ in revenue

Alex Wilhelm hears from one startup founder who has taken a bit of an alternative approach to building a SaaS company. Here’s more:

Now north of $200 million in revenue, [Nextiva] is a quiet giant and, notably, has not taken venture capital funding along its path to scale. Chatting with CEO and co-founder Tomas Gorny, I got to dig a little under the skin of the company’s history. It goes a little something like this: After moving to California in 1996 at the age of 20, Gorny eventually founded a web hosting company in 2001 after working for tech companies during the dot-com boom. The web hosting company wound up selling to another company called Endurance International in 2007, which sold as a combined entity for around a billion dollars in 2011, later going public before being taken private last month for $3 billion — you can read this TechCrunch piece that mentions Endurance from 2010 for a bit of the historical record.

Gorny founded Nextiva in 2008, focused on what it describes today as “UcaaS,” or unified communications as a service. The startup grew to about $40 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), at which point it ran into issues with a third-party system that would integrate hardware, and support and services software, which sparked a shift in its thinking. The company set out to build a platform.

Nextiva expanded horizontally, adding CRM software, analytics and other functionality to its broader suite as it scaled. And it grew efficiently; starting with money from its founding team, Gorny told TechCrunch that even if he had used someone else’s money, he would have built the company in the same manner.

So why does TechCrunch cover so many early-stage funding rounds, anyway?

Here’s Natasha’s take, from a little explainer we did this week following some Twitter conversations:

The reason I love writing about tech and do the sometimes formulaic funding-round story is because I meet people who are crazy enough to bet their entire legacy on a napkin-stage idea. That’s the story, and the surprise and the tension. The dollar sign is just the first way in.

Having raised fundings that got covered in TechCrunch, and having written many many funding round articles over the year, I agree. The funding round is often the only way to prove that you have traction, if you are trying to get more attention.

The Klarna founding story

Swedish fintech decacorn Klarna pioneered new ways for users to buy online without credit cards over the decade, and is now battling rivals large and small across the world. How did it all happen? Steve O’Hear sits down with founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski for an exclusive in-depth interview that Extra Crunch subscribers have been eating up this week. Here’s his description:

In a wide-ranging interview, Siemiatkowski confronts criticisms head on, including that Klarna makes it too easy to get into debt, and that buy now, pay later needs to be regulated. We also discuss Klarna’s business model and the balancing act required to win over consumers and keep merchants onside.

We also learn how, under his watch and as the company began to scale, Klarna missed the next big opportunity in fintech, instead being usurped by Adyen and Stripe. Siemiatkowski also shares what’s next for the company as it ventures further into the world of retail banking after gaining a bank license in 2017.

Here’s a painfully fascinating excerpt from Siemiatkowski:

One of the drawbacks that we had at the company was that none of the three co-founders had any engineering background; we couldn’t code. We were connected to five engineers that by themselves were amazing engineers, but we had a slight misunderstanding. Their idea was that they were going to come in, build a prototype, ship it, and then leave for 37% of the equity. Our understanding was that they were going to come in, ship it, and if it started scaling they would stay with us and work for a longer period of time. This is the classic mistake that you do as a startup.

Those Facebook antitrust lawsuits

It seems that the US government has finally had enough of Facebook’s aggressive expansion and acquisition practices. After years of light regulation, the Federal Trade Commission and, separately, 49 state attorneys general are suing to break up social networking company. You can find lots of commentary about the details on TechCrunch and elsewhere.

But here’s my take for you to remember, as you watch headlines about this continue into next year: Facebook was always ready. I covered the company closely during its early years, and even back then it was talking about being the operating system for the internet, like Microsoft Windows was for desktop. The implied and whispered goal was to get as big as possible before regulations inevitably hit, like what Microsoft did. Here we are, with Facebook in a leading market position, with a massive army of lawyers who have been preparing for years. Without getting further into the lawsuits or political landscape where it’s all happening… I don’t expect a breakup. But maybe new restrictions on acquisitions or something could limit growth potential? Its big wins this decade have been from acquisitions.

One boring scenario I don’t see discussed much is simply that its products remain the phone book of the era for much of the world. Somewhat regulated this way or that way in various jurisdictions and banned outright in some — and very big and successful still.

Around TechCrunch

TC Sessions: Space 2020 launches next week

Announcing the final agenda for TC Sessions: Space 2020

Don’t miss the university research showcase at TC Sessions: Space 2020

Hear the latest from Kayhan Space and Firehawk Aerospace at TC Sessions: Space

Give the gift of Extra Crunch for 25% off

Extra Crunch Partner Perk: Find peace of mind with ‘Spotify for Mindfulness & Sleep’ app Aura

Across the week

TechCrunch

Survey: Americans think Big Tech isn’t so bad after all

Despite the pandemic, small business optimism persists

Mixtape podcast: Making technology accessible for everyone

Macron promotes European tech ecosystem in an interview with Zennström

Equity Monday: Airbnb pricing, Sequoia makes money and early-stage rounds

Extra Crunch

What to expect while fundraising in 2021

3 ways the pandemic is transforming tech spending

Why Sapphire’s Jai Das thinks the Salesforce-Slack deal could succeed

China watches and learns from the US in AR/VR competition

Is 2020 bringing more edtech rounds than ever, or does it simply feel that way?

#EquityPod

From Alex:

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

What a week, yeah? Instead of the news cycle slowing as the year races to a close, things are still as hot as ever. We have funding rounds big and small, IPOs, first-day extravaganza and more.

Luckily we had the whole crew around — Chris and Danny and Natasha and me. Here’s the rundown:

• Career Karma raised $10 million, and we have thoughts and concerns.
• Skyflow raised $17.5 million in an effort to try to get the Equity team to understand the nuances of different encryption types.
• Calm raised $75 million, which felt pretty reasonable given reports and its fundraising history.
• Squire tripled its valuation in a new round that included $45 million in equity capital along with some debt.
• We also talked about the DoorDash and C3.ai IPO pops, where Airbnb priced, and who is coming next.
• We rounded off with what’s up with TikTok stars investing in tech startups. Danny was not a fan.

And that’s that! If you aren’t tired, have you even been paying attention?

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST and Thursday afternoon as fast as we can get it out, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads and $120 billion in global consumer spend in 2019. Not including third-party Chinese app stores, iOS and Android users downloaded 130 billion apps in 2020. Consumer spend also hit a record $112 billion across iOS and Android alone. In 2019, people spent three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Due to COVID-19, time spent in apps jumped 25% year-over-year on Android.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.

Top Stories

Apple defends its consumer privacy moves

Apple SVP Craig Federighi took aim at the adtech industry in a speech to European lawmakers this week, where he downplayed and dismissed the industry backlash against the forthcoming app tracking changes as “outlandish” and even “false.” He said that online tracking is privacy’s biggest challenge and that Apple’s forthcoming App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is the front-line of defense.

“The mass centralization of data puts privacy at risk — no matter who’s collecting it and what their intentions might be,” Federighi said, reiterating that Apple aimed to have as little data on its customers as possible.

This has been the company’s line to date, and it’s not necessarily the whole truth. Apple has so far characterized its decision to allow consumers to opt-out of being tracked as one that’s solely focused on consumer privacy. It positions Apple as consumers’ savior and the only one fighting for our privacy. But the changes are also an example of Apple leveraging its platform power, potentially in an anticompetitive way, to give itself a seat at the table of a multi-billion-dollar market today dominated by its competitors Google and Facebook.

In this case, Apple is inserting itself in the world of mobile advertising by forcing a shift from IDFA to its own SKAdNetwork, which limits the individualized data advertisers can access. This is good for consumers who don’t want to be targeted and tracked just because they’re using an app. Publishers, however, have argued they won’t be able to charge as much for ads where users opted out of tracking. This could have a snowball effect of hurting ad-supported businesses beyond the tech giants like Facebook.

Meanwhile, Apple does get to collect a lot of consumer data which it uses to personalize ads. Its own App Store and Apple News apps personalize ads unless consumers opt out in their iPhone’s Settings (and not through a scary pop-up warning like third-party apps have to display). Apple says what it does in terms of personalization doesn’t count as “tracking” because it doesn’t share the data with others or follow customers around websites and apps.

But as Apple moves into its own services businesses, the amount of data that can be used to personalize its own ads grows. Today, Apple’s ad targeting system includes users in segments based on the music, books, TV shows and apps they download, as well as in-app purchases and subscriptions. It also tracks users as they search the app search with keywords and tap to read App Store stories, and tracks location if permission has been granted to Apple News or the App Store.

In related news, Facebook-owned WhatsApp criticized Apple’s forthcoming privacy label requirements this week, saying that the labels are anti-competitive because they won’t apply to first-party apps, like iMessage, that come pre-installed on iPhones. WhatsApp also argued that they don’t allow companies to share enough details about the measures they’re taking to protect consumer data.

Apple responded by saying labels for its own apps will be on its website for those apps not distributed through the App Store.

Facebook antitrust lawsuits

Forty-eight attorneys general across 46 states, the territory of Guam and the District of Columbia have filed an antitrust lawsuit that accuses Facebook of suppressing its competition through monopolistic business practices. The states are asking the court to restrain Facebook from making further acquisitions in excess of $10 million without notifying the plaintiffs, and is asking for additional relief, including “the divestiture or restructuring of illegally acquired companies, or current Facebook assets or business lines.”

The FTC also voted to pursue its own antitrust suit against Facebook at the federal level.

While the lawsuits are much larger than an app story alone, they do have the potential to impact the app ecosystem if the plaintiffs prevail, as they ask for the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, and maybe others, to be retroactively judged to be illegal and divested. This would allow for increased competition among the social app market, where Facebook leverages its power to maintain its dominant position. For instance, Facebook just integrated its messaging platform with Instagram’s, meaning users can now message friends across two of the largest social platforms via just one app — either Messenger or Instagram. WhatsApp could be integrated in the future, as well.

Twitter buys Squad

Twitter on Friday announced the acquisition of the screen-sharing social app Squad. The startup’s co-founders, CEO Esther Crawford and CTO Ethan Sutin, along with the rest of Squad’s team will be joining Twitter’s design, engineering and product departments. The Squad app, which had heavily relied on Snap’s Snap Kit developer tools, will shut down.

Twitter may be shuttering Periscope as well, code reveals, which leaves some wondering what Twitter’s plans are in terms of streamlining its services. The company has more recently been experimenting with its own version of Stories, aka Fleets, and an audio-based networking product for group conversations.

This Week in App News

Platforms: Apple

• Reminder: Apple’s App Store Holiday shutdown is coming. The App Store will not accept new apps and app updates from December 23-27 (Pacific Time) for its annual holiday break.
• Reminder: App privacy questions requirement starts December 8.
• The iOS 14.3 Release Candidate arrives, adding support for the new ProRAW photo format on iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, a new Apple TV+ tab that makes it easier to find Apple’s Originals, readies the platform for Fitness+, and makes a change to bypass launching the Shortcuts app when using custom app icons, among other things.
• Apple Watch Family Setup arrives in Canada on December 14.
• Apple Fitness+ launches December 14.

Platforms: Google

• Google is working on an ambitious project to improve GPS accuracy in apps. In dense urban areas, it’s often hard to get an accurate GPS reading — leading to issues like wrong-side-of-the-street and even wrong-city-block errors, which greatly impact ridesharing and navigation apps. Google’s new solution uses 3D mapping-aided corrections, comprised of 3D building models, raw GPS measurements and machine learning. Its Pixel Feature Drop in December adds these corrections to Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G), which Google says will reduce wrong-side-of-street occurrences by approximately 75%. Other Android phones (Android 8+) have version 1 implemented in the FLP (Fused Location Provider API), which reduces those occurrences by around 50%. Version 2 will be available to the entire Android ecosystem (Android 8 or later) in early 2021.
• Google Play Pass arrives in 7 new countries, including key Latin American markets. The subscription-based apps and games service came to Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Russia and Saudi Arabia. This brings the total number of markets where the service is live to 42.
• Google’s Pixel Feature Drop adds Adaptive Sound, Hold for Me (where Google Assistant waits on hold for you), Extreme Battery Saver Mode, screen sharing on Duo calls and more.

Gaming

• Microsoft confirms its Xbox cloud gaming service will launch on iOS in 2021. However, the company will route around the App Store rules by bringing the service to the iPhone and iPad in a web browser. This cuts Apple out of any revenues the game service can generate. Amazon’s Luna and Google’s Stadia are also planning to use the web browser on iOS to avoid the App Store. 
• Google’s cloud gaming service Stadia is rolling out YouTube live streaming, allowing gamers to share their gameplay to YouTube. 
• Apple asks for Epic Games’ Fortnite lawsuit in Australia to be thrown out because Epic had promised to settle disputes and litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Government and policy

• The U.S. National Weather Service just saw a record year of weather-related disasters like the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record and California’s wildfires. Now the agency says it’s running out of Internet bandwidth and will need to throttle the amount of data its clients and users can access. The move would impact weather consumers who get their weather from apps on their smartphones, as much of the forecasts and alerts they receive are based on Weather Service output and data.
• California’s CA Notify contact-tracing app for COVID-19 now reaches the full state. The app uses Apple and Google’s exposure notification API.
• Cydia files anti-competition lawsuit against Apple. Third-party App Store maker Cydia, home to jailbreak apps that often added functionality beyond what Apple permitted through its terms, is suing Apple for using anticompetitive means to destroy its rival app store. There are good examples of how denying third-party app stores a home on iOS may have been anticompetitive, but Cydia’s lawsuit may not be it. The store in its early days distributed pirated apps, not just those that fell outside Apple’s rules.

Augmented reality

• Instagram partnered with museums in the U.S. and France, including the Smithsonian, Palace of Versailles and Le Grand Palais, to bring AR versions of their exhibits to its camera’s AR effects lineup.
• Snap partnered with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on a multi-year augmented reality project, “LACMA x Snapchat: Monumental Perspectives.” The initiative will pair local artists chosen by the museum to create site-specific monuments and murals that can be viewed in AR in the Snapchat app.

E-commerce & food delivery

• Instagram launches shopping in Reels, its TikTok rival. The feature is now one of many ways users can shop via video, including through video in Feed, Stories, Live and IGTV. Facebook Pay powers checkout for many sellers, allowing Instagram to generate revenue through transaction fees.
• WhatsApp adds carts to make shopping easier. Facebook-owned WhatsApp added a new shopping feature that lets consumers buy multiple items from a business, and makes it easier for sellers to track orders.
• DoorDash shares popped 92% in their trading debut to reach as high as $195.50 after raising $3.37 billion during its IPO.
• E-commerce app Wish to price IPO between $22-$24 per share at up to $14 billion valuation.

Fintech

• Robinhood is losing thousands of day traders to China-owned Webull, reports Bloomberg. Founded by Alibaba alum Wang Anquan, Webull has increased brokerage clients by 10x in 2020 to reach more than 2 million by offering free stock trades. Robinhood has 13 million, for comparison. Webull is expected to raise a round from private U.S. investors and expand into roboadvisor services.

Travel

• Vacation rental app Airbnb began trading this week on public markets. After raising its range, the company opened at $146 per share on Thursday, more than double its $68 IPO price and valuing the company at over $100 billion. The stock closed at nearly $145.
• China’s Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced it was banning 105 mobile apps for violating Chinese regulations. The majority of the apps were made by Chinese developers but the U.S.-based travel booking and review site Tripadvisor was also on the ban list, causing its shares to drop. Tripadvisor works in partnership with Nasdaq-listed Chinese travel firm Trip.com (previously called Ctrip).

Social & Photos

• Snap and Twitter worked together to make it possible for users to post their tweets to Snapchat through a native integration instead of screenshots. When Twitter users who are logged into Snapchat now share a tweet using the Snapchat icon from the share sheet in Twitter, they’ll be able to share, react or comment on the post, then send it to a Snapchat friend or post to their Story. The feature is live on iOS with Android in the works.
• Triller says it can reach 250 million users through partnerships with Samsung and others. The app, which hosted a Pay Per View boxing match between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. this year, is planning more events for 2021, including a concert with K-pop group Blackpink.
• A second federal judge rules against the Trump administration’s TikTok ban, saying the government “likely exceeded IEEPA’s [the International Emergency Economic Powers Act] express limitations as part of an agency action that was arbitrary and capricious.”
• Instagram partnered for the first time with lyrics site Genius on “Lyric Reels,” a sort of variation of Spotify’s “Behind the Lyrics” feature. The addition will see artists break down their songs’ lyrics and meanings. Participants include Megan Thee Stallion​, ​24kGoldn and ​Tate McRae.
• Tinder makes it easier to report bad actors who use “unmatch” to hide from victims. Rival Bumble had just done the same. But in Tinder’s implementation, it’s only making it more obvious how to access its help documentation while Bumble had included a button for reporting users who had already unmatched you.
• Google’s Photos can now sync your “Liked” images with Apple’s Photos service on iOS.

Streaming & entertainment

• Netflix’s StreamFest, a free trial weekend in India, boosted installs by 200% week-over-week, reaching approximately 3.6 million global installs, reports Sensor Tower.
• Stitcher, recently acquired by SiriusXM, revamped its app for the first time in years. The new version offers a dedicated “My Podcasts” tab, better search filters, result sorting, user-curated groups of shows and more.
• HBO Max is fastest-growing SVOD in U.S. According to Apptopia, the app hit a lifetime high for daily downloads three days after its debut, at 225,000. Since its May launch, DAUs have grown 242%.
• Spotify had to reset an undisclosed number of user passwords after a software vulnerability exposed private account information to its business partners, including things like “email address, your preferred display name, password, gender, and date of birth.”

Health & fitness

• Nike Run Club app adds home screen widgets for iOS 14+. The widgets can show your Run Level, post-run progress and make it easier to start your next run.

Productivity

• Google Drive users on iOS and Android will be able to see and re-run desktop and mobile searches; view and select intelligent selections as they type, including suggestions for people, past searches, keywords and recently accessed files. 

Funding and M&A

• Meditation app Calm raises $75 million more at $2 billion valuation, in a round led by prior investor Lightspeed Venture Partners.
• Twitter buys video app Squad. (see above) 
• AI financial assistant Cleo raises $44 million Series B, led by EQT Ventures. The app and chatbot aimed at Gen Z connects to bank accounts to give proactive advice and timely nudges.
• Mexican challenger banking app albo raises $45 million to expand into lending and insurance products.
• Sweden’s MTG acquires mobile racing game studio Hutch Games, based in London, for up to $375 million. The studio produces titles like Rebel Racing, F1 Manager and Top Drives.

• Seattle’s Freespira raises $10 million for its therapeutic device for panic attacks PTSD that worked with a connected app and proprietary software.
• Banking app for teens GoHenry raises $40 million to build out its business in the U.S. and U.K.
• Retail loyalty app Fetch Rewards raises $80 million Series C led by Iconiq Growth. The app offers rewards to users who scan their receipts after shopping.
• Pear Therapeutics raises $80 million in a round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. The company makes prescription apps aimed at treating substance use disorders, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis. The FDA has already approved its treatments for substance abuse, opioid use and insomnia.
• Reface raises $5.5 million in seed funding led by a16z for its viral face-swapping video app.

Downloads

Google Health Studies

Google takes on Apple’s Research app with an alternative for Android users. The new Google Health Studies app will work in partnership with leading research institutions, which will connect with study participants through the app. The first study is timely, as it focuses on respiratory illnesses, including the flu and COVID-19. The study will use federated learning and analytics — a privacy technology that keeps a person’s data stored on the device.

Google Look to Speak

Google launched an accessibility-focused app, Look to Speak, that lets people use their eyes to choose pre-written phrases for their phone to say out loud. To use the app, people have to look left, right or up to select what they want to say from the phrase list and navigate the app. Look to Speak can also be personalized by letting users edit the words and phrases they want to say and adjust the gaze settings to their needs.

Retro Widget

Gaming via a home screen widget? The fun Retro Widget 2 ($1.99) has been updated to bring the classic Snake II game from old Nokia handsets to the iPhone’s home screen. The app includes five mazes and nine levels and lets you play Snake II using the 1, 3, 7 and 9 keys.

Barter

Barter is an app designed for app developers alone. From the maker of the HomePass and HomeCam apps, Barter offers a way for app developers to view their app sales in a widget on iOS 14+ devices. The app includes no analytics or tracking beyond what Apple builds in to protect developer data. In the future, Pearce says he’ll expand the app to be able to show things like downloaded units, by product and more. The current version was an MVP to see if Apple would allow the app to pass App Review. Since it passed, it will soon be upgraded.