Month: February 2018

Viber is launching Viber Communities, group chats for up to 1B users Messaging apps have seen a surge of popularity in recent years as people seek ways to communicate more directly than on social networks. But they also have been adding large group chat options into the mix, to give a more social experience on those messaging platforms. Now messaging app Viber is introducing the biggest group chat of them all. In a bid to drive more usage and bring in more users to the app, Viber is launching a…

Amazon Prime Video will now show pay-per-view UFC fights If you’re a UFC fan you’ll now have another place to watch fights – Amazon Prime Video. The online retailers just announced that starting with UFC 222 on March 3rd, all pay-per-view UFC fights will be available to buy and watch on Amazon prime. Fights can be preordered and also purchased up to four hours after the start time (in case you want to tune in late just for a title fight) and purchasers will also be able to rewind during…

Virtualitics grabs another M in funding to drive its VR data visualization platform After raising $4.4 million last March, Virtualitics has closed a $7 million Series B round led by Centricus with participation from The VR Fund. The startup is building a sort of “Excel for VR,” that lets people see data in a more immersive and collaborative way. “[B]usiness intelligence platforms need to be 3D and collaborative by design in order to help companies gain a deeper level of understanding in the stories being told by the raw data,” Virtualitics…

Going public pits Spotify’s suggestions versus everyone The secret to Spotify’s public market debut is actually an acquisition it made in 2014. The Echo Nest was powering music recommendations for Beats Music, Rdio, Vevo, and iHeartRadio too before Spotify pulled it out from under them by buying it for a reported $100 million — 90 percent in Spotify equity. That deal paid off big time, as it’s turned the startup from a daunting search box for 35 million songs into a personalized mixtape. Today, in Spotify’s SEC filing to go public…

See you tonight in New York A reminder that I’m going to have Paul Vigna and Michael Casey, authors of The Truth Machine, onstage with me next week at Knotel, a co-working and event space in Manhattan. I’ll see you there tonight. RSVPs are closed. It starts at 7pm and will feature a 35-minute talk with two of the top writers in crypto. These guys literally wrote the book on bitcoin and their new book is about to hit store shelves. We may have a few pitches after the talk….