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The battle between two of China’s largest e-commerce firms is heating up, as they take the cutthroat tactics that have long been around in the country to the international markets they both covet. Chinese e-commerce deals giant Pinduoduo’s affiliate, Temu, which is aggressively expanding overseas , recently filed a court document in the U.S. accusing fast fashion giant Shein of anti-competitive practices. Specifically, Temu claims that Shein has been “forcing exclusive dealing arrangements on clothing manufacturers.” This allegation is reminiscent of Alibaba’s infamous “choosing one from two” policy, where vendors were asked to sell exclusively on Alibaba’s platforms and skip its archrival, Pinduoduo. As part of its sweeping crackdown on the tech industry, the Chinese government launched a probe into Alibaba in late 2020 over its monopolistic practices. TechCrunch has reached out to Shein and Temu for comment on the case. Since then, China has proposed an anti-monopoly law to re

Social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) has reinstated the account of Kanye West (who legally goes by Ye) after he was banned last year for posting a picture of Swastika merged with the Star of David . Last December, months after Elon Musk took over the platform, Ye created a tweetstorm by posting a series of antisemitic comments along with a picture that violated the social network’s rules. At that time, Ye also posted an “unflattering” picture of Musk, but the Tesla CEO clarified that the rapper-producer wasn’t banned because of that. Just clarifying that his account is being suspended for incitement to violence, not an unflattering pic of me being hosed by Ari. Frankly, I found those pics to be helpful motivation to lose weight! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022 Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ye’s account won’t be eligible for monetization and ads will not appear next to his posts. Last week, X rolled out an ad revenue-sharing

Fidelity has slashed the estimated worth of its holding in SaaS startup Gupshup by over 20% in a month and by more than 50% since the original investment in the latest brutal markdown across private markets. The U.S. asset manager valued its holding in Gupshup at $8.08 million at the end of June, down from $10.15 million a month prior , according to a monthly disclosure. Fidelity originally invested $16.2 million from its Blue Chip Growth Fund in Gupshup in mid-2021 in a funding round that valued the business messaging services provider at $1.4 billion . The business messaging platform, which started its journey in India 17 years ago, raised $340 million in 2021 from a clutch of investors including Tiger Global, Think Investments and Malabar Investments. Fidelity slightly improved the value of its holdings in Reddit, Discord, Twitter-parent X Holdings and Indian e-commerce Meesho in the month of June, it disclosed in the filing. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/0nG2OdM via IFTTT

Walmart paid $1.4 billion to buy out Tiger Global’s remaining holding of Flipkart shares as the retail giant further expands its stake in the Indian e-commerce startup. The transaction took place in recent days and Tiger Global, which has cashed most of its Flipkart shares earlier, overall made a return of $3.5 billion on an investment of $1.2 billion, the New York-headquartered hedge fund told investors, according to a person familiar with the matter. Wall Street Journal first reported on the deal. Flipkart is the only Indian startup in which Tiger Global had invested more than $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The U.S. investment giant has poured over $6 billion on Indian startups altogether. The secondary Flipkart shares sale valued the Bengaluru-headquartered at $35 billion. Flipkart was valued at $37.6 billion in a funding round in 2021, but has since internally cut its worth by about $5 billion following the split of payments startup PhonePe . Walm

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority Whether it’s drafting an essay or researching a problem at work, ChatGPT has become the go-to tool for just about any language task. Indeed, the chatbot’s ability to take in large amounts of data and process it within seconds makes it extremely valuable. But does that convenience come at a cost and can you trust ChatGPT to keep your secrets? It’s a question worth asking since many of us drop our guard around chatbots and computers in general. So in this article, let’s ask and answer a simple question: is ChatGPT safe? Is ChatGPT safe to use? Yes, ChatGPT is safe in that it cannot cause any direct harm to you or your computer. Since both web browsers and smartphone operating systems like iOS use a security technique known as sandboxing, ChatGPT cannot access the rest of your device. So in other words, you don’t have to worry about your system getting hacked or infected with viruses while using the official ChatGPT app or website.

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here —  just click The Station — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free.  Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B. Hey frens! I’m back from vacation and who-wee — a lot happened this week from automaker earnings and the Tesla range inflation drama to Waymo tapping the brakes on self-driving and Cruise expanding to yet another city. One other note, you can find me on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast , a place where I will show up on a semi-regular basis, including this episode that came out Friday! Onward! Want to reach out with a tip, comment or complaint? Email Kirsten at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com . Reminder that you can drop us a note at  tips@techcrunch.com .  If you prefer to remain anonymous ,  click here to contact us , which includes SecureDrop ( instructi

Credit: Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority From writing essays to coding programs , there’s seemingly nothing modern AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat cannot accomplish. But even though they seem limitless on the surface, they’re certainly not perfect. For one, these chatbots tend to make factual errors when talking about an obscure or lesser-known subject. Likewise, you may have heard that ChatGPT isn’t very adept at solving math problems. So in this article, let’s dissect ChatGPT’s mathematical abilities and see how you can improve the chatbot in this area. from Android Authority https://ift.tt/23hTVWm via IFTTT

Lately I’ve been thinking about media publishing startups (think Semafor and Puck) and their fundraising rounds. Semafor recently raised a $44 million seed round, and Puck raised a $7 million Series A in 2021. The Messenger, among the newest in the industry, recently raised $50 million. Publishing media jobs are uncertain, pushing those with an entrepreneurial spirit to start their own companies, giving them more ownership over their work. But compare their experience to that of Dana Amihere, who is still trying to find support and funding for her news media startup. She launched AfroLA News in 2022 to cover the Black community in Los Angeles. So far, she won’t even touch venture capital. The outlook is bleak for people who look like her, she said. People in the startup world keep telling her things are getting better, but “ Who are things improving for?” she asked. “Knowing what the landscape looks like, it almost feels more worthwhile to dedicate the limited time I do have to oth

Automakers appear to have had an awakening last week: Electric vehicles are the future, and if they want to continue selling cars, they have to think beyond the car. I’m not talking about subscriptions, though; I’m talking about charging. For years, major auto manufacturers were happy to leave the infrastructure to someone else. Tesla was the lone exception, building a globe-spanning network of speedy and reliable chargers that have placated range-anxious car shoppers who have bought the company’s EVs in droves. Other automakers, though, failed to connect the EV charging experience with EV sales. Perhaps it’s because infrastructure is unfamiliar territory. Or maybe they actually weren’t that interested in selling EVs. Whatever the case, automakers’ recent come-to-Jesus moment culminated in an announcement last week that seven of the largest would be forming a joint venture to build a massive charging network across North America. Consisting of no fewer than 30,000 charge points off

In this week’s edition of The Interchange, we get into M&As in the fintech space as AngelList nabbed a startup and Uplift got bought for less than it raised in venture funding. We get into those deals and much more. Want to receive this in your inbox every Sunday? Sign up here . Shopify’s credit bet, Jeeves’ update and AngelList’s second buy Last week, Shopify announced a new offering — Shopify Credit, a business credit card designed exclusively for its merchants. The new product marked Shopify ’s first pay-in-full business credit card, said Shopify president Harley Finkelstein. It is powered by Stripe and issued by Celtic Bank, “and accepted everywhere Visa is,” he added. My editor and I were intrigued by the fact that Shopify insisted it would charge no fees — no late fees, no foreign transaction fees, and no interest. But upon further digging into the fine print, as fellow fintech enthusiast Sar Haribhakti tweeted about, it turns out that Shopify is also describing the new o

Credit: Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority Opinion post by Kaitlyn Cimino I’m not shy about my appreciation of Garmin devices , especially when it comes to trekking up mountains and getting lost in the woods. However, my latest Garmin obsession has nothing to do with stats or GPS accuracy. Instead, it’s an add-on feature I’m jonesing to see other wearable brands adopt. The Garmin LED flashlight ceremoniously making its way to many of the company’s top multisport devices is surprisingly useful, and not just for adventuring. I’d drop extra cash to see leaders like Samsung, Apple, and Google elevate their smartwatches with this highly-useful tool. I desperately want to see Samsung, Apple, and Google adopt Garmin's built-in LED flashlight on their own devices. Before you get your hands on an equipped Garmin watch, an LED flashlight on your fitness tracker may sound like a gimmick. Even listing top use cases makes the addition sound logical, but not wholly necessar

If you’re adventurous with your food, or just like to keep up with the fast-moving food tech industry, here’s a roundup of this week’s stories and some notable news we weren’t able to cover. Supply Change Capital The venture capital fund madness we’ve seen all year has made its way to the food sector. This week, I wrote about Supply Change Capital , which closed on $40 million in capital commitments for its first fund, targeting investments in the global food industry. The female and Latina-owned firm is spearheaded by co-founders and managing partners Noramay Cadena and Shayna Harris, who met 14 years ago in business school. The firm has already made 15 investments, including in allergen-free snack food company Partake Foods , ingredients startup Michroma and alternative seafood maker Aqua Cultured Foods . Supply Change joins firms like Joyful Ventures, which debuted in June with $23 million , focused on investment in sustainable protein startups. Joyful was co-founded by Jenni

Hey, friends, welcome to Week in Review (WiR) , TechCrunch’s roundup of the week in tech news. Life getting in the way of your daily TechCrunch habit? Not to worry. WiR will get you caught up in no time. This week, WiR covers the improving quality of AI porn generators and the ethical dilemmas they raise; Twitter rebranding to “X”; and hackers infecting Call of Duty with self-spreading malware. Elsewhere, we dive into a North Korean hacking group, foreign Chinese visitors’ newfound ability to go cashless, and the rollout of Sam Altman’s Worldcoin eyeball-scanning crypto project. As always, it’s a lot to get to, so let’s not delay. But first, a reminder that if you haven’t already, sign up here  to get WiR in your inbox every Saturday. Most read Twitter rebrands to “X”: This week, Twitter removed its iconic bird logo and adopted “X” as its new official branding. The move, which Elon Musk announced over the weekend , is a harbinger of the platform’s shift — perhaps more aspirational

Credit: Rita El Khoury / Android Authority This week, we saw the launch of a slew of new Samsung products at the summer iteration of Galaxy Unpacked 2023. Obviously, there were some new foldable phones with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 . Alongside those, we got the latest Galaxy Watch 6 series and Galaxy Tab S9 series. In a first, Samsung chose to launch these devices in Seoul, South Korea, a stone’s throw away from the global Samsung HQ. This must have been no small decision on Samsung’s part because it involved flying hundreds of people to Korea — an enormous expense. I was one of the lucky folks who got to go (though Samsung had no say in our editorial content). Since there were so many tech journalists in Seoul, Samsung treated us to several events surrounding Galaxy Unpacked. Thankfully, the company didn’t have a problem with me taking photos and sharing my experience, so here’s everything I saw! from Android Authority https://ift.tt/PWqiEYn via IFTTT

Welcome to The Weekly Authority , the Android Authority newsletter that breaks down the top Android and tech news from the week. The 255th edition here with everything from Galaxy Unpacked, the possibility of a foldable Google tablet, a Sony Xperia 5 V video leak, pizza-scented Xbox controllers, and more… This week I’ve been hunting for something new to get my teeth into now Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is finished (it was GOOD!) and I’m eyeing Gylt . I have a feeling nothing is going to live up to the spookiness of Oxenfree for now, though, so I’m also going to replay the first game. Can you believe it’s been seven years since it was released? from Android Authority https://ift.tt/NoIkvYi via IFTTT

Welcome to Elon Musk’s Twitter ( now X ), where the rules are made up and the check marks don’t matter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO first announced his bid to buy Twitter in April 2022, zealously driven to rid the platform of spam bots and protect free speech. “This is just my strong, intuitive sense that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization,” Musk said at a TED conference on the day he made his offer. “I don’t care about the economics at all.” Even for one of the richest men in the world, $44 billion is a lot of money to cough up to buy a middling social platform. Despite his fervent declarations about expanding “the scope and scale of consciousness” through public discourse, the billionaire got cold feet. A month later in May, he tried to kill the deal , claiming that Twitter had more bots than its public filings let on. After a truly chaotic legal discovery process, which even included some e