Category: UNCATEGORIZED

Amazon unveils a new biometric ID technology, the Biden campaign takes aim at Facebook and iRobot’s co-founder joins a robotic gardening startup. This is your Daily Crunch for September 29, 2020.

The big story: Amazon lets you pay with your palm

The company announced a new biometric device for Amazon Go stores. Called Amazon One, the first time you use it, you insert your credit card and scan your palm; after that, you can just hold your palm over the device when entering the store and Amazon can automatically charge you for the items you purchase.

If you’re worried about privacy and security, Amazon said the images are encrypted and stored securely in the cloud, and it also argued that palms are more private than other forms of biometric identification, since you can’t determine someone’s identity just by looking at their palm.

The technology is being tested in two Seattle-area Amazon Go stores. The company suggested that the technology could eventually be used by third parties, for example at stadiums and office buildings.

The tech giants

Ringing alarm bells, Biden campaign calls Facebook ‘foremost propagator’ of voting disinformation — In a new letter to Mark Zuckerberg on the eve of the first presidential debate, the Biden campaign slammed Facebook for its failure to act on false claims about voting in the U.S. election.

Serious injuries at Amazon fulfillment centers topped 14,000, despite the company’s safety claims — More than 14,000 serious injuries (requiring days off or job restrictions) were reported in fulfillment centers in 2019, according to a story in Reveal.

Pivoting during a pandemic — Facebook’s vice president of Messenger discusses how his team has responded to the new normal.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Starlink puts towns devastated by wildfires online for disaster relief workers — A couple small towns in Washington have received Starlink connections to help locals and emergency workers.

iRobot cofounder Helen Greiner named CEO of robotic gardening startup, Tertill — Launched as a 2017 Kickstarter, the product is essentially a solar-powered robotic weed whacker designed to live in the user’s garden and do routine maintenance.

Online course platform Thinkific raises $22 million — Thinkific is different from businesses such as MasterClass and Skillshare because it doesn’t create, distribute or monetize online classes itself.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Duolingo CEO explains language app’s surge in bookings — Luis von Ahn tells TechCrunch that Duolingo has hit 42 million monthly active users, up from 30 million in December 2019.

Healthcare entrepreneurs should prepare for an upcoming VC/PE bubble — Patientco CEO Bird Blitch has a warning for entrepreneurs.

9 VCs in Madrid and Barcelona discuss the COVID-19 era and look to the future — Part one of a two-part survey that polled 18 active investors in the region.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Disney+ adds a co-watching feature called GroupWatch — Disney’s experience has some advantages (like the fact that it works on internet-connected TVs), but it lacks one of the hallmarks of co-watching, namely a chat that runs alongside the video.

Polaris and Zero Motorcycles reach deal to bring electric off-roaders to market — Polaris is a name synonymous with powersports.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

A group of 40 workers at Ford-owned Spin just successfully ratified their first union contract. This comes after this group of shift leads, maintenance specialists, operations specialists, community ambassadors, and scooter deployers and collectors joined Teamsters Local 665 toward the end of last year.

“This new contract gives us job security and immediate money up front, with guaranteed increases each year going forward. We also got holiday pay and vacation, which we didn’t have before we organized,” Spin worker Shamar Bell said in a statement. “All this means a lot during the pandemic. We know our union will have our back if our boss or the city government tries to make changes. I can say for sure, we’re proud to be Teamsters.”

As part of the three-year agreement, Spin workers will get annual pay raises of more than 3% each year, six paid holidays (compared to zero holidays), vacation days based on years of employment (compared to no vacation days), five sick days a year, a $1,200 per employee ratification bonus, benefits accrual for part-time workers and other benefits.

“Since this is the first ever group of union e-scooter workers at Spin, we worked to build this contract from scratch,” Local 665 Secretary-Treasurer Tony Delorio said in a statement. “We are proud of this agreement and excited to continue our representation of workers with Spin.”

TechCrunch has reached out to Spin and will update this story if we hear back.

In January, however, Spin CEO Euwyn Poon told TechCrunch, “We think it’s a good thing to be having the rights of our workers represented…We do want to figure out a way to have everybody win here. Fair wages and a good environment promotes retention for our business.”

Developing…

Amazon today is launching a new service called Amazon Explore that allows customers to book live, virtual experiences led by local experts. The experiences may be focused on creativity, learning DIY skills, taking virtual tours of far-off places or cultural landmarks, or, in some cases, shopping local boutiques from around the world.

For example, you could book a virtual wine tasting experiences in Argentina, learn how to make smoked fish tacos in Mexico, take a virtual tour of Kyoto’s Nanzenji Temple, tour a 500-year old mansion in Peru, learn about coffee creation in Costa Rica, learn how to make sushi from a home kitchen in Tokyo, and more.

Though the tours and experiences offer the ability to virtually travel the globe, the ability to sign up for an Amazon Explore session is currently offered on an invite-only basis for customers in the U.S. only.

The virtual experiences themselves will be guided by local experts who are trained and supported by Amazon, the company says. While there are other ways to virtually tour the world — like watching YouTube videos or perhaps taking guided tours via Google Earth — the Amazon Explore experience is different because it’s a one-on-one session between the host and the viewer, enabled by one-way video and two-way audio for real-time communication. This is meant to give the viewer more of the feeling of really “being there,” compared with experiences where you more passively watch the video on the screen.

The sessions themselves range 30 to 60 minutes in length and can be canceled or rescheduled with up to 24 hours’ notice. When it’s time to begin your tour, you’ll just sign into your Amazon account online then click in to Your Session page from the “Your Orders” section to get started.

The sessions will require you have a laptop or desktop, as they’re not mobile-friendly at this time. You’ll also need to have a Chrome, Edge or Safari web browser, functional microphone (the built-in one is fine), and a set of headphones or speakers, as well as an internet connection of 5 mbps or higher.

During the session, you can ask questions or further direct the experience by asking the host to spend more time on one aspect of the experience or skipping another. You can also use the camera icon at the bottom of the livestream to take photos.

Some, but not all, experiences are also shopping-enabled. In these cases, customers are able to visit local stores and markets, browse items and ask questions of the shop owner as if they were there in person. They can then choose to make a purchase and receive the items they bought as if they had been shopping on Amazon.com directly. When they make a purchase, the payments are handled within Amazon’s secure payment system using the payment method associated with the customer’s account. It then will reimburse the host for the item purchased, accordingly.

In these shopping-enabled experiences, Amazon is somewhat tapping into the livestream shopping trend, but instead of having an influencer talk about and demo a product — as is often the case on Amazon Live, for example — you can actually ask the shop owner questions or have them zoom into the product or turn it over and around for a better look.

Though Amazon has built live-streaming tools for its Live platform, the company says the Amazon Explore experience uses unique technology, and it’s not leveraging

Amazon says the new platform enables more opportunities for small business owners looking to generate additional income, including shop owners, local guides, chefs, stylists, artists and artisans, for example. Many of these businesses have been impacted by the pandemic, of course, which may prompt their participation.

Pricing for the sessions is variable. At launch, there’s a virtual styling session being offered for just $10, for example. Meanwhile, a virtual tour of NYC’s Central Park is going for $150. Amazon says the hosts set their own prices and hours, without having to abide by any set minimum or maximum price. However, the company declined to detail any revenue sharing agreements.

At launch, many of the experiences on the site offered on the site are being offered by local tour operators, though any business who has a tour idea is invited to apply. Others who could host experiences include historians, artists, musicians, master craftsmen, chefs, personal shoppers, or anyone with a skill or adventure to share, says Amazon.

There are currently 86 total experiences available across 16 countries with the plan to grow the selection in time.

The feature is now being offered in public beta to users in the U.S. on an invite-only basis.

Ford has slashed the price of its upcoming all-electric Mustang Mach-E crossover by as much as $3,000 as the automaker seeks to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded and unsettled sector of the automotive market.

The price reductions, which were shared with dealerships and then posted Tuesday on the MachE Club owners forum, will be provided to everyone, including customers who already reserved a vehicle. TechCrunch confirmed the document with Ford.

Customers with existing reservations have until mid-October to make changes to their orders in light of the price change. The first Mustang Mach-E vehicles are expected to be delivered by the end of the year.

“Exceptional value has always been a hallmark of the Mustang brand. In addition to its great all-electric driving range and performance, we’re adjusting Mustang Mach-E pricing to remain fully competitive in a segment that is seeing dynamic price changes,” Ford said on the pricing sheet, the same language sent to TechCrunch by a spokesperson.

Automaker tweaking prices on vehicles is commonplace. But in the wild and wooly world of EVs, a marketplace that Tesla has long dominated, pricing can fluctuate often and quickly. Price changes are straightforward for EV companies like Tesla that use a direct sales model. It’s more complicated for legacy automakers such as Ford or GM that use the dealership model.

Ford cut prices on the base models of all Mach-E vehicles — effective Tuesday— except for the GT. The cost of Ford’s Mach-E premium models were reduced by $3,000. Ford cut the price of the CA Route 1 models by $2,000 and the “select” and “first” edition models by $1,000.

Ford unveiled the electric crossover last November. The vehicle marks a series of firsts for Ford and the Mustang badge. It’s the first vehicle to come out of Team Edison, the automaker’s dedicated electric vehicle organization. It’s not only the first electric Mustang, it’s also an SUV.

As Amazon‘s biggest shopping day of the year approaches, a new report reveals that the company’s investments in automation and safety have not stemmed surging numbers of serious injuries in the company’s warehouses and fulfillment centers.

Even as Amazon spends tens of millions on new robotics and technologies to automate its warehouses, workers are still paying the price with more than 14,000 serious injuries — requiring days off or job restrictions — reported in fulfillment centers in 2019, according to a report from Reveal.

Overall, the company saw 7.7 serious injuries per 100 employees, a number that’s 33% higher than it was four years ago and double the most recent industry standard, despite significant investments and claims that safety is improving at its facilities, the report said.

A document dump from the Center for Investigative Reporting given to Reveal, internal safety reports and weekly injury numbers from Amazon’s network of national fulfillment centers shows that Amazon has misled the public about its safety record. And that the company’s biggest shopping days — during Prime week and the long holiday season — are the most dangerous for its workers.

In a statement, Amazon called Reveal’s report “misinformed” and quibbled over the terminology, while claiming that “we continue to see improvements in injury prevention and reduction” through a variety of programs, though documents in the report suggest otherwise.

Bulletins sent out every month reveal a grim tally of injuries and safety problems, problems that the company was well aware of. Updates marked “Privileged & Confidential” and reportedly obtained by Reveal indicate that the company has failed to hit safety targets. Despite its intentions to reduce injury rates by 20% in 2018, rates rose. In 2019, when the company decided to try and lower its injury rates by a more modest 5%, the number of injuries still went up.

This isn’t the first time that Amazon has had its woeful worker safety record revealed by Reveal. Last year, the company had the covers pulled off of its alleged work with Indiana state officials to cover up a workplace safety violation that resulted in a man’s death.

And the injury rates are the highest at some of the factories that are closest to the company’s international headquarters, the Reveal report showed. Roughly an hour away from Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, in the town of Dupont, Washington, is one of Amazon’s most dangerous facilities, according to Reveal. The BFI3 warehouse saw 22 serious injuries for every 100 of the company’s workers at the warehouse.

Even while the toll the robots were taking became clear to warehouse managers and supervisors, Amazon’s top executives, like Jeff Wilke, continued to tout the company’s automation investments.

As Amazon‘s biggest shopping day of the year approaches, a new report reveals that the company’s investments in automation and safety have not stemmed surging numbers of serious injuries in the company’s warehouses and fulfillment centers.

Even as Amazon spends tens of millions on new robotics and technologies to automate its warehouses, workers are still paying the price with more than 14,000 serious injuries — requiring days off or job restrictions — reported in fulfillment centers in 2019, according to a report from Reveal.

Overall, the company saw 7.7 serious injuries per 100 employees, a number that’s 33% higher than it was four years ago and double the most recent industry standard, despite significant investments and claims that safety is improving at its facilities, the report said.

A document dump from the Center for Investigative Reporting given to Reveal, internal safety reports and weekly injury numbers from Amazon’s network of national fulfillment centers shows that Amazon has misled the public about its safety record. And that the company’s biggest shopping days — during Prime week and the long holiday season — are the most dangerous for its workers.

In a statement, Amazon called Reveal’s report “misinformed” and quibbled over the terminology, while claiming that “we continue to see improvements in injury prevention and reduction” through a variety of programs, though documents in the report suggest otherwise.

Bulletins sent out every month reveal a grim tally of injuries and safety problems, problems that the company was well aware of. Updates marked “Privileged & Confidential” and reportedly obtained by Reveal indicate that the company has failed to hit safety targets. Despite its intentions to reduce injury rates by 20% in 2018, rates rose. In 2019, when the company decided to try and lower its injury rates by a more modest 5%, the number of injuries still went up.

This isn’t the first time that Amazon has had its woeful worker safety record revealed by Reveal. Last year, the company had the covers pulled off of its alleged work with Indiana state officials to cover up a workplace safety violation that resulted in a man’s death.

And the injury rates are the highest at some of the factories that are closest to the company’s international headquarters, the Reveal report showed. Roughly an hour away from Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, in the town of Dupont, Washington, is one of Amazon’s most dangerous facilities, according to Reveal. The BFI3 warehouse saw 22 serious injuries for every 100 of the company’s workers at the warehouse.

Even while the toll the robots were taking became clear to warehouse managers and supervisors, Amazon’s top executives, like Jeff Wilke, continued to tout the company’s automation investments.

Language learning apps, like many educational technology platforms, soared when millions of students went home in response to safety concerns from the coronavirus pandemic. It makes sense: Everyone became an online learner in some capacity, and for non-frontline workers, each day became an opportunity to squeeze in a new skill (beyond sourdough).

So why not learn a new language in a low-lift way?

Language learning platforms, including Babbel, Drops and Duolingo, all have benefitted from quarantine boredom as shown by surges in their usage. However, success also depends on whether these same companies can turn that primetime interest into dollars and profit.

To figure out if the language learning boom comes with paying customers, I caught up with Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Duolingo, a popular language learning company valued at $1.5 billion.

Von Ahn tells TechCrunch that Duolingo has hit 42 million monthly active users, up from 30 million in December 2019. The surge comes as new users are spending more time on the app in aggregate, for some of the reasons explained above. Duolingo has been steadily increasing in bookings over the past few years:

This year, Duolingo will hit $180 million in bookings, von Ahn estimates. The company discloses bookings as a proxy for revenue, because when someone purchases a subscription the app it is considered a “booking” until the completion of the subscription, when it becomes revenue.

“We’re more than breaking even,” von Ahn told TechCrunch.

While this growth is impressive, the most staggering metric that von Ahn revealed is that $180 million in bookings is only coming from 3% of its current users.

“Only 3% of our users pay us, yet we make more money than the apps where 100% of their users pay them,” he said.

Language learning apps, like many educational technology platforms, soared when millions of students went home in response to safety concerns from the coronavirus pandemic. It makes sense: Everyone became an online learner in some capacity, and for non-frontline workers, each day became an opportunity to squeeze in a new skill (beyond sourdough).

So why not learn a new language in a low-lift way?

Language learning platforms, including Babbel, Drops and Duolingo, all have benefitted from quarantine boredom as shown by surges in their usage. However, success also depends on whether these same companies can turn that primetime interest into dollars and profit.

To figure out if the language learning boom comes with paying customers, I caught up with Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Duolingo, a popular language learning company valued at $1.5 billion.

Von Ahn tells TechCrunch that Duolingo has hit 42 million monthly active users, up from 30 million in December 2019. The surge comes as new users are spending more time on the app in aggregate, for some of the reasons explained above. Duolingo has been steadily increasing in bookings over the past few years:

This year, Duolingo will hit $180 million in bookings, von Ahn estimates. The company discloses bookings as a proxy for revenue, because when someone purchases a subscription the app it is considered a “booking” until the completion of the subscription, when it becomes revenue.

“We’re more than breaking even,” von Ahn told TechCrunch.

While this growth is impressive, the most staggering metric that von Ahn revealed is that $180 million in bookings is only coming from 3% of its current users.

“Only 3% of our users pay us, yet we make more money than the apps where 100% of their users pay them,” he said.

Language learning apps, like many educational technology platforms, soared when millions of students went home in response to safety concerns from the coronavirus pandemic. It makes sense: Everyone became an online learner in some capacity, and for non-frontline workers, each day became an opportunity to squeeze in a new skill (beyond sourdough).

So why not learn a new language in a low-lift way?

Language learning platforms, including Babbel, Drops and Duolingo, all have benefitted from quarantine boredom as shown by surges in their usage. However, success also depends on whether these same companies can turn that primetime interest into dollars and profit.

To figure out if the language learning boom comes with paying customers, I caught up with Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Duolingo, a popular language learning company valued at $1.5 billion.

Von Ahn tells TechCrunch that Duolingo has hit 42 million monthly active users, up from 30 million in December 2019. The surge comes as new users are spending more time on the app in aggregate, for some of the reasons explained above. Duolingo has been steadily increasing in bookings over the past few years:

This year, Duolingo will hit $180 million in bookings, von Ahn estimates. The company discloses bookings as a proxy for revenue, because when someone purchases a subscription the app it is considered a “booking” until the completion of the subscription, when it becomes revenue.

“We’re more than breaking even,” von Ahn told TechCrunch.

While this growth is impressive, the most staggering metric that von Ahn revealed is that $180 million in bookings is only coming from 3% of its current users.

“Only 3% of our users pay us, yet we make more money than the apps where 100% of their users pay them,” he said.

Language learning apps, like many educational technology platforms, soared when millions of students went home in response to safety concerns from the coronavirus pandemic. It makes sense: Everyone became an online learner in some capacity, and for non-frontline workers, each day became an opportunity to squeeze in a new skill (beyond sourdough).

So why not learn a new language in a low-lift way?

Language learning platforms, including Babbel, Drops and Duolingo, all have benefitted from quarantine boredom as shown by surges in their usage. However, success also depends on whether these same companies can turn that primetime interest into dollars and profit.

To figure out if the language learning boom comes with paying customers, I caught up with Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Duolingo, a popular language learning company valued at $1.5 billion.

Von Ahn tells TechCrunch that Duolingo has hit 42 million monthly active users, up from 30 million in December 2019. The surge comes as new users are spending more time on the app in aggregate, for some of the reasons explained above. Duolingo has been steadily increasing in bookings over the past few years:

This year, Duolingo will hit $180 million in bookings, von Ahn estimates. The company discloses bookings as a proxy for revenue, because when someone purchases a subscription the app it is considered a “booking” until the completion of the subscription, when it becomes revenue.

“We’re more than breaking even,” von Ahn told TechCrunch.

While this growth is impressive, the most staggering metric that von Ahn revealed is that $180 million in bookings is only coming from 3% of its current users.

“Only 3% of our users pay us, yet we make more money than the apps where 100% of their users pay them,” he said.