Author: TechBrunch

TikTok is expanding its Effect Creator Rewards monetization program to more regions and lowering the payment threshold, the company announced today. Launched in May 2023, the program rewards creators for the effects they create through TikTok's AR development platform, Effect House. TikTok is also updating the program's payment model, so creators will only get paid for effects used in public videos. The program extends to 33 additional regions including Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Belarus, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, and Norway. It has been expanded. , Oman, Peru, Portugal,…

The wings of time are flying fast, and so is the countdown to the biggest savings on your path to TechCrunch Disrupt. It will be held in San Francisco from October 28-30. The problem is, he only has four days left to save $1,000 on the pass. How to save $1,000 on your pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Save $1,000 on Participant Pass, Founder Pass, and Investor Pass. If you want to significantly increase your ROI, you must purchase your Disrupt Pass by Friday, March 15th at 11:59 PM Pacific Time. Disruption is where startups grow. This is where the…

Google announced a number of new features for the Google Play listing of games, including AI-powered FAQs, showing the latest YouTube videos, new immersive ad formats, and support for native PC game publishing. The announcement was made at the Google Games Developer Summit in San Francisco. As part of the announcement, the company will be releasing new tools related to Play Store listings to attract more users. Developers can display promotions and latest YouTube videos directly in the list.These are available on the Play Store.[ゲーム]Visible to users in tabs. Google is also introducing support for AI-powered FAQs on English game…

Investors know that most startups fail, but what many may not realize is how few mobile apps actually make money. New analysis of the subscription app economy by mobile subscription toolkit provider RevenueCat shows that the top 5% of apps generate 200 times more revenue than the bottom quartile after the first year, but 12 After a month, the median monthly revenue generated by apps is less than that. 50 USD. RevenueCat has approximately 30,000 apps using the platform's tools to manage their monetization, so the State of Subscription Apps report provides a bird's-eye view of the subscription app world.…

Deepgram has made a name for itself as one of the go-to startups for voice recognition. Today, the well-funded company announced the launch of Aura, a new real-time text-to-speech API. Aura combines highly realistic voice models with low-latency APIs to enable developers to build real-time conversational AI agents. Powered by large-scale language models (LLMs), these agents can replace customer service agents in call centers and other customer-facing settings. As Deepgram co-founder and CEO Scott Stephenson told me, access to good voice models has been available for a long time, but they were expensive and took a long time to compute.…

A young startup is trying to help companies reduce cloud costs by writing “more efficient” code. And the company has secured $6.8 million in new funding from notable backers including Alphabet's GV, Spark Capital, and Lightspeed. The company, called Polar Signals, launched a $4 million seed round from GV and Lightspeed in 2021 and has now closed its roundout with $10.8 million. Here are the problems Polar Signals is trying to solve: Applications consume system resources such as CPU and memory. The more resources an application consumes, the more a company's cloud bill will increase. This is because large platform…

Decentralized Twitter/X rival Bluesky is increasing its standing by acquiring members of the developer community. London-based software engineer Samuel Newman, who built his popular third-party Bluesky client Graysky, has joined the startup and, along with the rest of his frontend team, will be working on Bluesky's official website. It will support the development of the app. Given his change in position, the future of the Graysky app is uncertain. Newman said he will keep the app alive and well maintained for the time being, but will not be adding any “ambitious new features” in the future as he is committed…

Apple plans to allow iOS developers in the European Union to distribute apps from the web rather than through the App Store. The option will be available to qualifying developers “later this spring,” according to the Digital Markets Act, which imposes obligations on how Apple can operate designated App Stores and iOS. DMA). It is treated as a “core platform service” under the law. “Web distribution, available in a software update later this spring, will allow authorized developers to distribute iOS apps directly to EU users from a developer-owned and operated website,” it reads. . “Apple provides access to APIs…

As the famous saying goes, death is one of life's inevitable certainties. But that doesn't mean it's any easier to deal with. Especially since while their loved ones are grieving, they also have to juggle a dizzying array of practical tasks, from arranging funerals to settling the deceased's finances. A startup called Empathy has built a platform to help navigate this difficult space, with about 40 million people currently using it, and has raised an additional $47 million in funding to grow. I am. The Series B equity round is led by new backer Index Ventures, which includes several major…

After competing with music streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple music with TikTok Music, code found within the TikTok app suggests that ByteDance may be considering creating an Instagram competitor named TikTok Photos. Suggested. As The SpAndroid Blog discovered, TikTok's APK file (the installable file format for Android) includes a reference and icon to a new app named TikTok Photos. According to the description of APK version 33.8.4, the app can cater to “like-minded people who enjoy posting photos.” However, TechCrunch found a slightly different language in the new 33.8.5 version. “Whether you're a world traveler, a food blogger,…