The Latest from Amanda Silberling
AppLovin wants to buy video game maker Unity for $20 billion
A year after going public, app growth and monetization agency AppLovin submitted an unsolicited proposal today to buy the game engine Unity in a deal worth $20 billion. But there’s a catch: Unit
Why an Atlanta-based Black influencer collective swapped their collab house for a studio
From Los Angeles to Silicon Valley, a trend emerged among social media influencers and startup founders alike: move into a mansion with 10 or so collaborators, work day and night together to build fam
Patreon CEO Jack Conte is fed up with Instagram and Facebook
Before he was the founder and CEO of Patreon, Jack Conte was a musician, mostly posting videos of his songs on YouTube (which he still does). Now, running a company that helps creators earn predictabl
Wake up, new Pokémon just dropped
Today’s “Pokémon Presents” livestream wasn’t as chock-full of news as previous announcements about the upcoming Nintendo Switch games “Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.R
Netflix’s lawsuit against the ‘Bridgerton Musical’ could change online fandom
Netflix filed a lawsuit this weekend against two TikTok stars in their early twenties, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, alleging that their Grammy-winning “Unofficial Bridgerton Musical” pro
Twitter tests a ‘tweets per month’ counter
Twitter is testing a feature that lets you see how many times a user tweets per month. Reverse engineers spotted this in development about a month ago, but as of this morning, some Twitter users have
Instagram’s Dual camera feature copies BeReal, but misses the point
We know the drill: Snapchat adds the Stories feature, Instagram nabs it. TikTok gets too popular, Instagram pivots to short-form video. Now, here’s another one for the list. This week, Instagram
If you think Instagram is bad now, you won’t like Zuckerberg’s plans
From meme creators to the Kardashians, Instagram users have been vocal this week that their feeds are too saturated with irrelevant content. As Instagram’s parent company Meta chases TikTok̵
Meta posts its first-ever quarterly revenue decline
The company formerly known as Facebook isn’t doing so hot. After cutting its overhead, scaling back hiring and weathering a new SEC investigation, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Meta&#
Twitter is testing a status feature that’s taking us back to MySpace
Facebook is trying to be TikTok, but now, Twitter is bringing us back a little bit of Facebook (or LiveJournal or Myspace). Some users are reporting that they can now post Twitter statuses, which lets
Spotify says Kate Bush streams jumped 9,000% thanks to ‘Stranger Things’ (and TikTok)
Spotify’s monthly active users grew by 19 million this quarter, surpassing its own estimates — but that’s not the only thing that’s running up a hill on the streaming platform
Pokémon Go’s new ‘daily adventure incense’ will make you take a 15-minute walk
The parent company to Pokémon Go, Niantic has been very clear over the years that it wants us to take a “stupid walk for our stupid mental health,” as the meme goes. This week, Pokémon
Instagram responds to criticism with shocking revelation that it will ‘continue to support photos’
Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted a video this morning addressing mounting concerns about changes to the app’s feed and its increasing emphasis on video. Even Kim Kardashian and her sister Kyli
Peech is a text-to-speech app that actually sounds good
When you go into the App Store to download the Peech app, you’ll notice right away that the app’s icon displays the Ukrainian flag along with the company’s simple logo. But this is m
Pink Sauce went viral on TikTok. But then it exploded (literally).
Over the last month, a chef in Miami has been taking over TikTok with her signature product: Pink Sauce. Carly Pii, who uses the handle @chef.pii, posted a series of videos promoting her homemade cond
Mark Cuban hasn’t profited from his ‘Shark Tank’ investments
America’s favorite advertisement masquerading as a television show, “Shark Tank,” made Mark Cuban a household name (that is, if you weren’t already a Dallas Mavericks fan). But
Warner Music Group signs on to SoundCloud’s artist-friendly payment model
When SoundCloud launched its artist-friendly fan-powered royalty system last year, the model was only available for independent artists subscribed to the streamer’s paid tiers. Now, SoundCloud h
Minecraft says ‘No F-ing Thanks’ to NFTs
The team behind Minecraft, one of the most popular games of all time, declared today that it won’t support NFTs. Gaming has been touted as a potential use case for NFTs, so the Microsoft-owned g
Blizzard QA testers in Albany want to unionize
Activision Blizzard’s Raven Software QA testers formed the gaming giant’s first formally recognized union in May, but that momentum hasn’t died down at the massive company. Today, Bl
Judge rules that Twitter can expedite its trial against Elon Musk
For the first time today, representatives for Elon Musk and Twitter faced off in court. So far, Twitter has a leg up. As Twitter sues Musk to force him to close his $44 billion acquisition, the compan