Author: azeeadmin

Microsoft announced today that it’s released Azure Stack for Azure Government at a time when it’s battling rivals at Amazon and other cloud companies for the massive winner-take-all $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract known as JEDI.

Azure Stack provides customers with a similar set of cloud services that they would get in the public cloud, but inside the cozy confines of the customer data center. For Azure cloud customers who are looking to manage across public and private environments, often referred to as a hybrid approach, it gives a common look and feel across both public and private.

“As a cornerstone of Microsoft’s hybrid cloud approach, consistency means government customers get the same infrastructure and services with Azure Stack as they do with Azure — the same APIs, DevOps tools, portal, and more,”Natalia Mackevicius, Program Director, Microsoft Azure Stack wrote in a blog post announcing the new program.

In addition, the company announced it had passed a third-party FedRamp certification. FedRamp is a government program that provides a standardized way for government procurement officials to assess cloud security.

“Azure Stack for Azure Government directly addresses many other significant challenges our top federal government customers face. This includes tough regulatory, connectivity and latency requirements,” Mackevicius, wrote in a blog post announcement.

While this product is geared for any government customer, this news could certainly be appealing to the Pentagon, which is looking for one vendor to rule them in its latest mega cloud RFP. While Microsoft wouldn’t comment on JEDI specifically because it’s in the midst of answering that RFP, the timing can’t be a coincidence.

Microsoft, along with other competitors including Oracle and IBM, have been complaining bitterly that the one-vendor contract process unfairly favors Amazon. These companies have recommended that the Pentagon go with a multi-vendor approach to prevent lock-in and take advantage of innovation across sellers. The complaints so far has fallen on deaf ears at the Pentagon.

Regardless, Microsoft is still battling hard for the massive contract and today’s release certainly bolsters their approach as they continue to fight to win the JEDI deal — and other government business.

Netflix announced this morning its Chief Financial Officer David Wells would be stepping down from his role after helping the streaming service choose his successor. The company says it will be considering both internal and external candidates to fill the position. Wells has been with Netflix for fourteen years, and has served as CFO since 2010.

“It’s been 14 wonderful years at Netflix, and I’m very proud of everything we’ve accomplished,” Wells said, in a statement about his plans. “After discussing my desire to make a change with Reed, we agreed that with Netflix’s strong financial position and exciting growth plans, this is the right time for us to help identify the next financial leader for the company. Personally, I intend my next chapter to focus more on philanthropy and I like big challenges but I’m not sure yet what that looks like.”

Wells has seen Netflix grow from a U.S.-only streaming service to an international streaming giant, capitalizing on consumers’ desire for on-demand, subscription programming delivered over the internet. Today the service has over 130 million members across over 190 countries, but it’s more recently been challenged by a host of competitors not only in on-demand – like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and HBO – but also from streaming TV services that are attracting subscribers who want access to cable TV-like programming and sports.

During its last earnings, Netflix fell short of subscriber forecasts, which panicked Wall Street sending the stock crashing. It could be that the years of rapid growth are now behind it, and the company needs to focus on what gives its service long-term staying power: its original content. Netflix may spend up to $8 billion this year on 700 original series, in fact.

“David has been a valuable partner to Netflix and to me. He skillfully managed our finances during a phase of dramatic growth that has allowed us to create and bring amazing entertainment to our members all over the world while also delivering outstanding returns to our investors,” said Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO in a statement about Wells’ departure. “I look forward to working with him during the transition as we identify a new CFO who will help us continue to pursue our ambitious goals.”

Samsung today is announcing an updated version of its Wifi product line. The company partnered with Palo Alto-based Plume Design to provide software that powers the devices. According to Samsung, Plume’s platform uses artificial intelligence to allocate bandwidth across connected devices while delivering the best possible wifi coverage throughout a home. Plus, by using Plume, Samsung gets to say its Wifi system uses AI, which is a big marketing win.

The system also includes a SmartThings Hub like the previous generation allowing owners to build a connected IoT home without having to buy another box.

“Integrating our adaptive home Wi-Fi technology and a rich set of consumer features into SmartThings’ large, open ecosystem truly elevates the smart home experience,” said Fahri Diner, co-founder and CEO, Plume, said in a released statement. “Samsung gives you myriad devices to consume content and connect, and Plume ensures that your Wi-Fi network delivers a superior user experience to all of those devices.”

Plume Design was founded in 2014 and was one of the first to offer a consumer-facing mesh network product line. Since then, though, nearly every home networking company has followed suit and Plume has been forced to find new ways to make use of its technology. In June 2017, Comcast invested in Plume and later launched xFi using Plume technology to power the mesh networking product. According to Comcast at the time of xFi’s nationwide launch, Comcast licensed the Plume technology, then reconfigured some aspects of it to integrate xFi. It also designed its own pods in-house — which sounds similar to what Samsung is doing here too.

Plume Design has to date raised $42.2M over three rounds of funding.

Samsung’s new SmartThings WiFi Mesh Router is priced competitively with comparable products. A three pack of the units cost $279 while a single unit is $119.

Samsung today is announcing an updated version of its Wifi product line. The company partnered with Palo Alto-based Plume Design to provide software that powers the devices. According to Samsung, Plume’s platform uses artificial intelligence to allocate bandwidth across connected devices while delivering the best possible wifi coverage throughout a home. Plus, by using Plume, Samsung gets to say its Wifi system uses AI, which is a big marketing win.

The system also includes a SmartThings Hub like the previous generation allowing owners to build a connected IoT home without having to buy another box.

“Integrating our adaptive home Wi-Fi technology and a rich set of consumer features into SmartThings’ large, open ecosystem truly elevates the smart home experience,” said Fahri Diner, co-founder and CEO, Plume, said in a released statement. “Samsung gives you myriad devices to consume content and connect, and Plume ensures that your Wi-Fi network delivers a superior user experience to all of those devices.”

Plume Design was founded in 2014 and was one of the first to offer a consumer-facing mesh network product line. Since then, though, nearly every home networking company has followed suit and Plume has been forced to find new ways to make use of its technology. In June 2017, Comcast invested in Plume and later launched xFi using Plume technology to power the mesh networking product. According to Comcast at the time of xFi’s nationwide launch, Comcast licensed the Plume technology, then reconfigured some aspects of it to integrate xFi. It also designed its own pods in-house — which sounds similar to what Samsung is doing here too.

Plume Design has to date raised $42.2M over three rounds of funding.

Samsung’s new SmartThings WiFi Mesh Router is priced competitively with comparable products. A three pack of the units cost $279 while a single unit is $119.

OYO Rooms, the India-based budget hotel network that’s backed by SoftBank’s Vision fund, has prioritized expansion into China this year but that’s not all it’s up to. Back home in India, it just moved into the event hosting space through the acquisition of a wedding banquet company.

Today, OYO said it has acquired Weddingz.in, a three-year-old company that claims to be India’s largest wedding planner with 4,000 venues across 15 cities. The company had raised over $1 million from investors, and it says that it handles 1,500 weddings per quarter.

The deal is undisclosed and it is OYO’s third acquisition to date, all of which have come this year. Previously it snapped up a boutique apartment operator and then IOT startup AblePlus, but this transaction marks its first move outside of its core hotels and homes segment. The company said it is making the move because wedding banquets are “a fragmented, low yield, broken customer service business” that OYO believes matches with its experience of digitizing hotels and real estate.

“At OYO, our experience ranges from end-to-end management of homes, villas, small asset to hotels with 100+ rooms while running successful businesses for our asset partners and all these facets will be of utmost importance while operating in the wedding industry that in the dire need of fundamental changes and improvements,” OYO CSO Maninder Gulati said in a statement.

OYO hinted in its announcement today that it has other real estate projects in mind to expand further beyond hotels. That core focus is its affordable hotel network that it says spans 5,500 exclusive hotels in over 160 cities across India, China, Malaysia and Nepal.

OYO announced its move into China this summer and in two months it claims to have reached 1,000 chains across 28 locations in the country with a focus on serving middle-income customers.

The company has been linked with an investment from internet giant Tencent to push on in China, but so far nothing has been confirmed. OYO does count NASDAQ-listed China Lodging, which was formerly known as Huazhu Hotels and is valued at $6.8 billion, as a strategic partner on the ground there though. China Lodging invested $10 million last year as a follow-on to OYO’s $250 million Series D, which was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund.

OYO Rooms, the India-based budget hotel network that’s backed by SoftBank’s Vision fund, has prioritized expansion into China this year but that’s not all it’s up to. Back home in India, it just moved into the event hosting space through the acquisition of a wedding banquet company.

Today, OYO said it has acquired Weddingz.in, a three-year-old company that claims to be India’s largest wedding planner with 4,000 venues across 15 cities. The company had raised over $1 million from investors, and it says that it handles 1,500 weddings per quarter.

The deal is undisclosed and it is OYO’s third acquisition to date, all of which have come this year. Previously it snapped up a boutique apartment operator and then IOT startup AblePlus, but this transaction marks its first move outside of its core hotels and homes segment. The company said it is making the move because wedding banquets are “a fragmented, low yield, broken customer service business” that OYO believes matches with its experience of digitizing hotels and real estate.

“At OYO, our experience ranges from end-to-end management of homes, villas, small asset to hotels with 100+ rooms while running successful businesses for our asset partners and all these facets will be of utmost importance while operating in the wedding industry that in the dire need of fundamental changes and improvements,” OYO CSO Maninder Gulati said in a statement.

OYO hinted in its announcement today that it has other real estate projects in mind to expand further beyond hotels. That core focus is its affordable hotel network that it says spans 5,500 exclusive hotels in over 160 cities across India, China, Malaysia and Nepal.

OYO announced its move into China this summer and in two months it claims to have reached 1,000 chains across 28 locations in the country with a focus on serving middle-income customers.

The company has been linked with an investment from internet giant Tencent to push on in China, but so far nothing has been confirmed. OYO does count NASDAQ-listed China Lodging, which was formerly known as Huazhu Hotels and is valued at $6.8 billion, as a strategic partner on the ground there though. China Lodging invested $10 million last year as a follow-on to OYO’s $250 million Series D, which was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund.

It’s almost unheard of to see three unicorns join forces to fund a startup, but that’s exactly what has happened in Indonesia.

Ride-hailing company Go-Jek, e-commerce firm Tokopedia and travel booking startup Traveloka — each of which is valued in the billions of U.S. dollars — have come together to provide a Series A funding round for PasarPolis, a digital insurance startup in Indonesia aiming to tap Southeast Asia’s growing internet economy.

PasarPolis started out as an insurance comparison site but today it offers micro- and modular-insurance online. Go-Jek, Tokopedia and Traveloka are three of its major clients through which it offers ‘click box’ policies that are bundled with ride-hailing trips, e-commerce sales and travel deals.

The round itself is undisclosed but TechCrunch understands that it is in range of $5-8 million, as was earlier reported by Deal Street Asia.

PasarPolis founder and CEO Cleosent Randing told TechCrunch in an interview that the deal was strategic and aimed at developing new products with the three companies, which he estimates provide “access to 100 million insurable hits per month.” He said that the startup could be picky because it is already cash flow positive.

“We were very very selective with this round, it’s something we are keeping quite low profile,” he explained. “It’s more of how we can be the provider of choice for the largest digital companies in Indonesia… we feel it’s a strategic investment and collaboration to advance micro insurance via the internet.

“Do they believe in the vision and can they help make the vision a reality but giving customers much cheaper, more modular insurance which is more relevant in today’s digital economy?” he added.

Beyond obvious consumer-focused products, PasarPolis has developed programs such as life insurance for Go-Jek drivers, and health care initiatives for SMEs that sell product on Tokopedia. In the travel space, he pointed out that growth in insurance revenue for companies like Expedia is outstripping ticket sale growth which bodes well for Traveloka.

PasarPolis is currently waiting on the result of an application for an insurance license which will give it new options for products beyond its current setup of working with insurers on underwriting. That’ll take some time, however, and right now the focus is on developing new insurance products, cementing its position in the market and also expanding into new markets in Southeast Asia — which now has more internet users than the entire population of the U.S., according to a report co-authored by Google.

Its work with Go-Jek will take it into markets like Vietnam and Thailand — where Go-Jek is expanding its ride-hailing business — but Randing said he is also in talks with other companies and insurance providers to offer more modular options for consumers. That could take the form of usage-based car insurance, or cover for public transport-based delays, he explained.

“Our goal is to make insurance less expensive than half of cup of a Starbucks coffee,” Randing said. Adding that the company may look for new funding in early 2019 as it grows its regional footprint.

Interestingly, PasarPolis has already gone overseas by tapping India for talent — which is something Go-Jek and others have also done. Randing said the company has 15-20 engineers in Bangalore, while the core team, partner support and tech integration staff are housed in Indonesia.

In a very unusual move, WikiLeaks has been subpoenaed via Twitter. In a tweet on Friday, a law firm representing the Democratic National Convention in its civil lawsuit against WikiLeaks and other defendants served legal documents formally notifying the non-profit that it is being sued. The lawsuit also names a long list of other people and organizations, including the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, that the DNC claims worked together to sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.

@wikileaks By Court order, you are being served with the following legal documents: https://t.co/ICg8qWnsUy, https://t.co/ZP2tTPJ4pb, https://t.co/RKue30s4hM, https://t.co/q5g0G1rQpQ.
All of these documents may be found here: https://t.co/NOCgvQhh2j.

— Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll Process Server (@ProcessServiceC) August 10, 2018

The Twitter account has no other tweets and appears to have been set up this month by Cohen Milstein, the DNC’s law firm, for the purpose of serving papers to WikiLeaks.

The DNC filed a motion in federal court in Manhattan last month, asking for permission to subpoena WikiLeaks on Twitter after several unsuccessful attempts by email. The DNC argued that the WikiLeaks Twitter account is very active and an April tweet appeared to confirm that the organization was aware of the lawsuit.

Though using Twitter to serve legal documents is unusual, it has legal precedent, with the DNC noting that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California had previously decided that Twitter could be used to notify defendants who had an active account.

In addition, another social media network, Facebook, has also been used to serve legal documents before.

WikiLeaks was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, who is currently living under asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The DNC lawsuit argues that the massive trove of internal DNC emails released by WikiLeaks in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, including ones written by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta, was part of a conspiracy to damage Clinton’s presidential run and “destablilize the U.S. political environment.”

“Instant booking” apps that let tourists sign up for activities on very short notice have been in the news a lot lately, partly because of Klook’s new unicorn status, but also because of the proliferation of startups in the space, especially in Asia. With so many instant booking apps, are there any niches left to fill? FunNow thinks so. Instead of targeting tourists, FunNow serves locals who want to find new things to do in their cities. The Taipei, Taiwan-based startup announced today that it has raised a $5 million Series A led by the Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund, with participation from CDIB, a returning investor, Darwin Venture and Accuvest. The capital will be used to expand FunNow into Southeast Asian and Japanese cities.

Along with a pre-A round closed last July, its newest funding brings FunNow’s total raised since its launch in November 2015 to $6.5 million. FunNow currently claims 500,000 members and 3,000 vendors, who provide more than 20,000 activities and services daily. Co-founder and CEO T.K. Chen says the startup will focus on building its presence in Hong Kong, Okinawa, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Osaka and Tokyo.

One noteworthy fact about its Series A is the participation of Alibaba, which is beefing up its online-to-offline (or O2O, the business of enabling users to book and pay for offline services) offerings as competitor Meituan-Dianping prepares to go public in Hong Kong. A roster of Alibaba apps, including Koubei for local bookings, food delivery platform Ele.me and travel app Feizhu, compete against Meituan-Dianping, which describes itself as a “one-stop super app” because it offers all those services.

A not-for-profit initiative, the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund supports startups that might eventually contribute to the tech giant’s ecosystem. While Alibaba’s O2O apps are focused on capturing a bigger share away from Meituan-Dianping in China, Chen says future synergies may include listing FunNow’s activities on Koubei so Chinese tourists can continue using the app when they travel. (Chen added that Alibaba wants FunNow to expand in Southeast Asia as soon as possible.)

Even with a backer like Alibaba, however, the obvious question is how does FunNow compare with other instant booking apps? The most notable ones are Klook and KKday, but other players include Headout, Voyagin, GetYourGuide, Culture Trip, Peek and even Airbnb’s new “Experiences” feature.

Chen, who notes Klook’s Series A in 2015 was also $5 million, says FunNow’s deep dive into the local market sets it apart. Its biggest categories are last-minute hotel bookings, like hot spring resorts in Taipei that offer rooms for blocks of several hours in addition to overnight stays; restaurants and bars; massages and other spa services; and events like music festivals and parties.

Chen adds that catering to locals looking for fun stuff to do in their own cities means FunNow’s user engagement is high, with 70% of each month’s gross merchandise volume from repeat customers. The rest comes from first-time users and about 60% of people make another booking within 30 days after their first purchase. FunNow expects to make revenue of $16 million in 2018, three times what it made in 2017.

Most of FunNow’s users are young, in the 25-to-35 age bracket. “We are like Uber, but for booking restaurants, massages, hotels or other kinds of activities around you. We are also targeting spontaneous consumers, because almost all of our bookings are for the next 15 minutes to hour. If you look at our data, 80% of our bookings are for the next hour,” says Chen.

The company tailors its technology platform to local users, too, and relies on a patented algorithm that makes real-time availability calculations to prevent overbookings by syncing with merchant databases. Chen says users can see all available slots based on their location and search perimeters in less than 0.1 seconds and updates in real-time, so people don’t click on something only to find it’s no longer available.

FunNow also screens vendors before adding them to the platform and will delist businesses that rate below 3.5 stars. The convenience is what draws users back to FunNow instead of, say, just reading reviews on Google or asking friends for recommendations and then messaging or calling for a reservation.

Another challenge that potentially arise in the future is if Klook, KKday or other instant booking apps for tourists decide to start serving locals as well. Chen says he believes those startups will continue focusing on the growing tourist market and demand for half-day or all-day tours.

“If they want to cut into our play, they need to first find merchants one by one and also deploy strong systems to the merchant side,” says Chen. “However, once merchants use our system, it’s unlikely for them to use two systems to control availability, because you’d need to update all of them to avoid overbooking.”

Despite its first mover advantage, FunNow is also constantly improving its tech, Chen says. “Even in a minute, a business might have sold the seat to a walk-in customer, causing a overbooking and that’s the worst thing to see.”

Disenchantment is the latest animated series from Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama.

The show premieres on Netflix on August 17, and we talk about our initial impressions on the latest episode of the Original Content podcast. Our guest host Brian Heater is a big fan of Groening’s previous creations, and he also interviewed Groening for TechCrunch.

While Disenchantment brings Groening’s funny, skewed approach to a medieval fantasy setting, it isn’t a parody, exactly. It’s packed with jokes, but they rely more on the characters and on general zaniness, rather than references to (say) The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.

Some of us weren’t completely won over the first couple episodes. The most promising aspect of the show is its central trio of characters, including the rebellious princess Bean (voiced by Broad City‘s Abbi Jacobson), her personal demon Luci (Eric Andre) and the runaway elf Elfo (Nat Faxon).

We also discuss recent streaming headlines, including a new show for Apple from the team behind It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and new details emerging about Disney’s plans for its yet-to-be-named streaming service.

You can listen 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 also can send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

Thanks to Anchor for letting us record in their Manhattan podcasting studio before it officially opens.