Year: 2020

Hollywood studios continue to rush theatrical films to streaming as the COVID-19 pandemic closes theaters.

Last weekend, Disney released “Frozen 2” (which had already finished its theatrical run) ahead-of-schedule on Disney+.

Then NBCUniversal went even further, announcing that movies still in-theaters, including “The Invisible Man” and “The Hunt,” would go on-sale digitally today, at a higher-than-normal rental price of $19.99. It’s a move that broke the theatrical window (the period of time when movies can only be seen in theaters) in a way that would have been unthinkable before the outbreak.

Disney’s strategy for the Pixar film “Onward” is a combination of both approaches. Starting today at 8pm Eastern, you’ll be able to buy “Onward” from the major digital marketplaces for $19.99. Then on April 3, it will launch on Disney+ in the United States.

“Onward” tells the story of teenage elf brothers voiced by Tom Holland and Chris Pratt, who go on a quest after their father’s death. The film opened just a couple weeks ago, on March 6, but like every other movie, its theatrical revenue plummeted this past weekend.

“While we’re looking forward to audiences enjoying our films on the big screen again soon, given the current circumstances, we are pleased to release this fun, adventurous film to digital platforms early for audiences to enjoy from the comfort of their home,” said “Onward” director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae in a statement.

Waymo has extended the partial suspension of its autonomous vehicle service pilots to include fully driverless vehicle testing, the company confirmed on Friday. While Alphabet-owned Waymo had already stopped operation of the autonomous driving vehicles in its fleet that have safety drivers on board, in the interest of minimizing the potential spread of coronavirus, it was still going to go ahead with rides in its fully driverless test vehicles.

These fully driverless vehicles are used in it Phoenix pilot program for public ride-hailing customers, as well as for its local delivery services. The company’s decision to cease even these operations likely reflects the consistently heightened nature of the COVID-19 situation in the U.S., which has resulted in increasingly strict travel and working restrictions across various states since Waymo made its original decision on Tuesday.

Along with Waymo, other companies that have paused their AV testing include Cruise, Argo AI, Pony.ai, Uber and others.

In a press conference today, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced orders for residents to stay at home amid rising COVID-19 concerns. The Governor was careful to avoid terms like “quarantine” and “shelter in place” during the otherwise typically blunt presser, but noted a “100% Workforce Reduction,” with the exclusive of services deemed essential.

“This is the most drastic action we can take,” Cuomo said, following the yesterday’s lead of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Cuomo went on to note that things like “solitary exercise” would be excluded from the ruling, but the state will be aggressive in making sure that citizens adhere to the rules.

“These are legal provisions,” Cuomo said. “They will be enforced.” The state will issue fines for those ‘non-essential’ business that fail to abide by the decision. 

Developing…

Yelp announced this morning that it’s making a number of changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, it says it will be providing $25 million to local restaurants and nightlife businesses that are seeing a massive drop in business as a result of the crisis. This will take the form “waived advertising fees, and free advertising, products and services,” including free page upgrades for access to advanced promotional features.

This might not seem quite as helpful as cash grants that allow businesses to pay their bills, but Yelp’s data suggests that businesses are going to need help reaching customers, as consumer interest in restaurants has fallen by 54%, and 60% for nightlife businesses.

That drop, of course, is the correct response to the urgent need for social distancing, but Yelp says that as businesses shift their models — whether that’s to delivery/takeout or to virtual offerings — they need ways to tell their customers about it. So it will be offering new products to help them do that:

As many businesses transition to a virtual or online service model, we’ll soon be releasing new service offering selections for businesses to indicate if they offer virtual consultations, classes, tours, shows and performances, along with search functionality that will make these virtual services easy for people to find. Most businesses that offer a virtual service – such as yoga classes, therapy sessions, tax services, or tutoring sessions – will be able to let people know that they’re still open for business and available to the consumers that rely on their services.

And on the delivery side, Yelp says it will be adding support for contact-free delivery in its check-out process (through its partnership with Grubhub, which already offers this option).

The company also says it’s taking steps to ensure that businesses don’t suffer from unjustified “reputational harm” during the outbreak. For example, Yelp says it will have “zero tolerance for any claims in reviews of contracting COVID-19 from a business or its employees, or negative reviews about a business being closed during what would be their regular open hours in normal circumstances.”

Lastly, Yelp says it has mandated that all of its office employees work from home — which you’d think would be a no brainer, but apparently there are some companies that disagree.

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

Uber and Lyft have been on quite a ride this year. After enjoying modest gains earlier this year thanks to an improved profitability forecast from Uber, the two companies saw their share prices gain ground after a difficult 2019. Then COVID-19 began to shutter the world, pushing its share prices so low that we recently felt compelled to write about their declines; losses that steep are material and can negatively impact private, on-demand startups as they hunt for new capital or an exit.

But then, late this week, it all turned around. Yesterday, Uber’s shares rose 38% and are up another 9% in pre-market trading. Similarly, Lyft rose 29% yesterday and is up nearly 8% this morning. What drove the up for American ride-hailing? An analyst call that Uber held yesterday, in which it told analysts that it has enough cash to get through just about anything in 2020. Ingrid Lunden covered the news as it happened for TechCrunch.

This morning let’s unpack what the company said and ask if it’s reasonable that investors are pushing Lyft higher alongside Uber. Then we’ll check the two firm’s new revenue multiples and think about what they mean for on-demand startups looking for capital or an IPO. Let’s go.

Following moves by Netflix and YouTube, Amazon announced today that it, too, will be throttling streaming bitrates in Europe in an effort to conserve bandwidth. The online giant confirmed the move in a statement to TechCrunch, writing,

We support the need for careful management of telecom services to ensure they can handle the increased internet demand with so many people now at home full-time due to COVID-19. Prime Video is working with local authorities and Internet Service Providers where needed to help mitigate any network congestion, including in Europe where we’ve already begun the effort to reduce streaming bitrates whilst maintaining a quality streaming experience for our customers.

The European Union yesterday called on streaming services — Netflix in particular — to switch to SD streaming during peak hours. The request comes as sheltering in place populations have begun taxing internet bandwidth on the continent. Increasingly, users are turning to teleconferencing and other remote interfaces in order to maintain social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Switching from HD and higher streaming rates could help alleviate some of the stress on infrastructure. YouTube made a similar announcement earlier today, noting “We are making a commitment to temporarily switch all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default” in a statement provided to the press.

At-home diagnostics startup Scanwell, which produces smartphone-based testing for UTIs, is working on getting at-home testing for the novel coronavirus into the hands of U.S. residents. The technology, which was developed by Chinese diagnostic technology company INNOVITA and has already been approved by China’s equivalent of the FDA and used by “millions” in China, can be taken at home in 15 minutes with the guidance of a medical professional via telehealth, and produces results in just hours.

Scanwell’s test will require FDA clearance, but the company tells me that it’s in the process of securing approval through the FDA’s accelerated emergency certification program. The FDA guidance says that this approval process should take 6-8 weeks (though that “could be faster,” Scanwell says), and Scanwell is aiming to be ready to go with shipping these as soon as it receives that approval. While the U.S. drug regulatory agency previously had only included PCR tests in its protocols, it updated that guidance to include serological tests earlier this week. Scanwell further says they “don’t anticipate any issues with FDA approval.”

The test that Scanwell is aiming to launch uses what’s called a ‘serological’ technique, which looks for antibodies in a patient’s blood. These are only present if someone has been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, since as of right now researchers haven’t found any evidence that natural antibodies to this particular virus exist without exposure. By contrast, the types of tests that are currently in use in the U.S. are “PCR” tests, which use a molecular-based approach to determine if the virus is present genetically in a mucus sample.

The PCR type of test is technically more accurate than the serological variety, but the serological version is much easier to administer, and produces results more quickly. It’s also still very accurate on the whole, and is much cheaper to produce than the PCR version. Plus, it could help expand efforts beyond testing only the most severe cases with symptoms present, and do a much better job of illuminating the full extent of the presence of the virus, including among people with mild cases who have already recovered at home, and those who are asymptomatic but carrying the virus with the possibility of infecting others.

Also, while other, PCR-based at-home testing options already exist, like one from Everlywell that will start going out on Monday, require round-tripping test samples, adding time, complexity and cost and relying on testing materials like swabs that are in short supply globally.

Once the test is available, people deemed eligible via Scanwell’s screening process in their Scanwell Health app will be sent the test via next-day delivery. They’ll be guided by telehealth partner Lemonade’s licensed doctors and nurse practitioners, and they’ll then receive results and further guidance about those results via the app within a few hours. The whole testing process will cost $70, which Scanwell says just covers its costs (it’s also looking at ways to provide free service to those who need it), and will be deployed first in Washington, California and New York, as well as other areas depending on the severity of their coronavirus situation.

That the tests will take potentially 6-8 weeks to come to market seems like a long time, given the current state of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation and testing. But we’ll likely still be very much in need of testing options at that time, especially ones that can serve people who aren’t necessarily meeting the criteria for other available testing resources.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week’s episode was a testament to making do, as we’ve had to cancel some trips, juggle a few guests, and get up and running as a podcast that have guests dial in without losing our stride. So, this week Danny and Natasha and Alex were joined by Unshackled VC’s Manan Mehta.

And it went pretty ok, aside from a hiccup or two, expect Equity to still feature guests as often as it makes sense, even if we’re currently locked out of our own studio. Anyhoo, a combo of local recording, remote video setups, and Chris handling the dials meant that we were able to talk over all the good stuff:

• Hashicorp raises $175 million at a $5 billion valuation. It was nice to see a round so large take place when the rest of the sky in tech was busy falling onto itself.
• Deepgram raises $12 million. Alex covered this company’s funding, winding up pretty excited about the technology itself.
• Edtech startup Teachable exits after good GMV growth. Nice exit for this New York City-based startup, and we chatted about the early-stage edtech market, which was good fun.
• VC firms offer group therapy for founders due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It marks another data point in the small, but growing, cohort of venture capitalists thinking about mental health services beyond an investment opportunity.
• Remote Year, which helps you work while traveling the world, lays off 50% of staff. It’s one of an incoming flurry of layoffs we’re expecting to see from travel-related startups.
• Danny advised founders to announce their rounds now to reassure their employees and customers that they are ready for the coming recession
• And finally, what’s up with Airbnb’s direct listing timing? We tried to sort that out before we ran short of time.

All told there were some laughs, and we spent a good few minutes before mentioning COVID-19. It was good fun to have the crew on for a classic Equity episode, and a big thanks to Manan for coming aboard under less-than-optimal circumstances.

YouTube has switched to standard definition streaming by default in Europe.

We asked the company if it planned to do this yesterday — today a spokeswoman confirmed the step. The move was reported earlier by Reuters.

It’s a temporary measure in response to calls by the European Commission for streaming platforms to help ease demand on Internet infrastructure during the coronavirus crisis.

Users can still manually adjust video quality but defaults remain a powerful tool to influence overall outcomes.

A YouTube spokesperson confirmed the switch, sending us this statement:

People are coming to YouTube to find authoritative news, learning content and make connections during these uncertain times. While we have seen only a few usage peaks, we have measures in place to automatically adjust our system to use less network capacity. We are in ongoing conversations with the regulators (including Ofcom), governments and network operators all over Europe, and are making a commitment to temporarily default all traffic in the UK and the EU to Standard Definition. We will continue our work to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good user experience.

Yesterday Netflix announced it would default to SD streaming in the region for 30 days for the same reason.

In recent days the EU’s internet market commissioner, Thierry Breton, has held discussions with platform executives to urge them to help reduce the load on Internet infrastructure as scores of Europeans are encouraged or required to stay at home as part of quarantine measures.

The Commission is concerned about the impact on online education and remote work if there’s a major spike in demand for digital entertainment services — and is pushing for collective action from platforms and users to manage increased load on Internet infrastructure.

Breton met with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcick to press the case for lowering the quality of video streams during the coronavirus crisis.

Today he welcomed YouTube’s move. “Millions of Europeans are adapting to social distancing measures thanks to digital platforms, helping them to telework, e-learn and entertain themselves. I warmly welcome the initiative that Google has taken to preserve the smooth functioning of the Internet during the COVID19 crisis by having YouTube switch all EU traffic to Standard Definition by default. I appreciate the strong responsibility that Mr Pichai and Mrs Wojcicki have demonstrated. We will closely follow the evolution of the situation together,” said Breton in a statement. 

Google’s spokeswoman told us it hasn’t seen much change in regional traffic peaks so far but said there have been changes in usage patterns from more people being at home — with usage expanding across additional hours and some lower usage peaks. (The company routinely makes traffic data available in the Google Traffic and Disruptions Transparency Report.)

YouTube, along with other major social platforms, has faced scrutiny over the risks of their tools being used to spread coronavirus-related misinformation.

Although, in the case of Google, the company appears to have taken a proactive stance in suppressing bogus content and surfacing authoritative sources of health information. YouTube’s spokeswoman noted the homepage directs users to the World Health Organization for info on COVID-19 or other locally relevant authoritative organizations, for instance.

She also noted the company is donating ad inventory to governments and NGOs to use for education and information — pointing to a blog post earlier this month in which Pichai discussed some of the measures it’s taking to shield users from misinformation that could be harmful to public health.

YouTube will be rolling out a campaign rolling across Europe that encourages people to follow health authorities’ guidance and stay home, she added.

Google’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic looks to be a far swifter and more aggressive to the threat posed to public health than its approach to other types of content that can also be harmful to people’s health — such as anti-vaccination content, which YouTube only moved to demonetize last year.

NASA has temporarily paused work on the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsule that will be used for its forthcoming Artemis missions, which will ultimately return the next American man and the first American woman to the surface of the Moon. The rocket and spacecraft were undergoing production and testing activities ahead of the first Artemis mission, which had been planned for no earlier than April 2021.

This move comes as a result of NASA moving its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and its Stennis Space Center location in Mississippi to what it terms ‘Stage 4’ of the agency’s four-stage “NASA Response Framework.” This is an emergency preparedness scale that NASA has in place as guidance for its response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, and it defines what actions the agency will take in terms of its staff and facilities at each of its physical sites depending on how the outbreak unfolds.

Stage 4 is the highest level in the framework, and imposes the most stringent restrictions. These include mandatory telework for all staff, as well as full closure of the physical facilities themselves, except “to protect life and critical infrastructure.” Employees can still meet and hold events, but strictly in a virtual capacity. Fully remote work is obviously not compatible with either building out a rocket, or performing key final checks on a spacecraft designed to eventually carry humans.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has been issuing daily updates about the status of the agency’s facilities and working conditions relative to the framework. All facilities have been escalated to Stage 3, which encourages mandatory telework but keeps doors open on facilities for mission-critical personnel only. Stage 4 has been instituted at specific facilities due either to personnel contracting the virus, or to local ‘shelter-in-place’ orders or high concentration of cases.

Bridenstine says that the facilities where the SLS and Orion are being worked on will be locked down and secured to make sure that everything is in a safe condition for the suspension, and ready for resumption of work once the Stage 4 condition is lifted. This will also result in “impacts to NASA missions,” he notes in the update, which sounds like an acknowledgement that dates will slip for the existing proposed Artemis missions timeline.