Josh Constine
Josh Constine is a technology journalist who specializes in deep analysis of social products. He is currently an Editor-At-Large for TechCrunch.
Previously, Constine was the Lead Writer of Inside Facebook, where he covered Facebook product changes, privacy, ads, ecommerce, games, and music technology.
Constine graduated from Stanford University in 2009 with a Master’s degree in Cybersociology, examining the influence of technology on social interaction. He researched the impact of privacy controls on the socialization of children, meme popularity cycles, and what influences the click through rate of links posted to Twitter.
Constine also received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Stanford University in 2007, with a concentration in Social Psychology & Interpersonal Processes.
Josh Constine is an experienced public speaker, and has done on-stage inteviews with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, SoundCloud CEO Alex Ljung, and Senator Cory Booker. He’s been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, The Atlantic, BBC World Magazine, Slate, and more, plus has been featured on television on NBC and Fox News. Constine is available for speaking gigs.
[Disclosures: Josh Constine advised a college friend’s social location-sharing startup codenamed ‘Signal’ that was based in San Francisco before dissolving in 2015. This advising role was cleared with AOL and TechCrunch’s editors. Constine’s cousin Darren Lachtman is the founder of Niche, which connects social media stars to sponsorships from brands, and was acquired by Twitter. Constine has personal relationships stemming from college housing with founders at Skybox Imaging (now Terra Bella), Hustle, Snapchat, and Robinhood. Constine occasionally does paid speaking engagements at conferences funded by companies he does not cover. Constine owns a position in Ethereum cryptocurrency.]
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Latest from Josh Constine
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Periscope vows fix for broadcasters mad that they forfeit tips by deleting replays
Periscope’s new Super Hearts tipping feature that launched yesterday quickly sparked a backlash from the creators it was designed to help earn money. Read More
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Facebook equips admins to protect and analyze their Groups
Facebook sees Groups as the core of its push to “build community,” as Mark Zuckerberg detailed in his 6,000-word humanitarian manifesto. So today at its Communities Summit in Chicago, where it assembled 300 admins of top Groups, Facebook is making good on Zuckerberg’s promise to give admins more tools to manage their flocks. Read More
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Facebook changes mission statement to ‘bring the world closer together’
“Making the world more open and connected” had one fundamental flaw: it didn’t push for any specific positive outcome from more connection. Technically, it could encompass digital voyeurism via the News Feed, trading in-person friendship for online acquaintanceship or the filter bubbles and echospheres that have further polarized the United States. Read More
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Snapchat acquires social map app Zenly for $250M to $350M
Snapchat’s newest feature, Snap Map, is based on its latest acquisition, social mapping startup Zenly. TechCrunch has learned that Snapchat has bought Zenly for between $250 million and $350 million in mostly cash and some stock in a deal that closed in late May. Snapchat will keep Zenly running independently, similar to how Facebook lets Instagram run independently. Read More
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Periscope lets you buy and send Super Hearts that broadcasters can cash in
Periscope has a new revenue stream and a new way to attract the best live video content to its Twitter-owned app. Today Periscope launches Super Hearts — in-app purchase virtual goods that users buy for real money, send to creators as animated hearts that get them attention in the comment reel and that broadcasters can then redeem with Twitter for a monthly cash payout. Read More
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Snapchat launches location-sharing feature Snap Map
Snapchat’s next big feature wants to get you to meet up with friends in real life rather than just watching each other’s lives on your phones. Snap Map lets you share your current location, which appears to friends on a map and updates when you open Snapchat. It’s rolling out today to all iOS and Android users globally. Read More
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Instagram Stories hits 250M daily users, adds Live video replays
Instagram Stories is widening its lead over Snapchat and rolling out new features to keep everyone shooting video. Instagram Stories now has 250 million daily active users. That compares to Snapchat’s total 166 million daily actives for its entire app and Instagram’s total 700 million monthly users. Read More
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Phhhoto shutters app and pivots to photobooths, blaming Instagram
Animated GIF capture tool and social network Phhhoto is shutting down its app due to server costs becoming unsustainable after getting slammed with competition by Instagram’s copycat Boomerang. Phhhoto will pivot to focus on its parent company HYPNO’s original business — physical photobooths for events. Read More
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Amazon Prime Wardrobe lets you try on and return clothes free
Amazon’s latest perk for Prime members could make us more stylish by letting us buy everything that catches our eye and return what doesn’t fit. Today Amazon revealed Amazon Prime Wardrobe, which is currently in beta, but you can sign up to be notified when it launches. Read More
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Spotify ‘Sponsored Songs’ lets labels pay for plays
A mysterious “Sponsored Content” opt-out setting recently appeared in Spotify, and now the streaming giant has confirmed to TechCrunch what it’s about. Spotify is now testing a new “Sponsored Song” ad unit that a company spokesperson tells us is “a product test for labels to promote singles on the free tier.” Instead of appearing as obvious ad banners… Read More
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1500+ startups graduate Y Combinator’s first online Startup School
That’s out of 2,820 startups accepted from the 13,321 companies that applied to Y Combinator’s 10-week program of one-on-one mentorship from past YC startup founders, virtual office hours with a group of fellow students, and an online lecture series. The leading accelerator typically teaches two batches of about 100 startups per year through an in-person program where YC partners… Read More
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Other grocery stocks plummet as Amazon buys Whole Foods for $13.7B
Amazon scared investors away from competing grocery stores today when it acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Kroger, and more all saw their share prices sink dramatically. Amazon’s ecommerce empire, sophisticated trucking distribution network, advanced technology, and deep pockets could all help Whole Foods run circles around its old-fashioned rivals. As… Read More
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Facebook requests input on hard questions about censorship and terrorism
How should Facebook decide what’s allowed on its social network, and how to balance safety and truth with diverse opinions and cultural norms? Facebook wants your feedback on the toughest issues it’s grappling with, so today it published a list of seven “hard questions” and an email address — hardquestions@fb.com — where you can send feedback… Read More
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Patreon launches Snapchat clone just for creators’ paid subscribers
Ads aren’t enough to support professional online content makers. So Patreon is equipping them with new ways to organize, measure, and entertain fans who use its platform to pay them a monthly subscription fee for special access. With 1 million patrons paying an average of $12 per month to 50,000 creators, Patreon is on track to send musicians, comedians, journalists, videographers, and… Read More
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Chan Zuckerberg Initiative pledges $5M to home down payments for teachers
When housing costs too much or educators have to commute from far away, there’s rapid teacher turnover that hurts students. That’s why Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s philanthropy vehicle is funding home down payment assistance for roughly 60 educators and support staff at three schools near Facebook’s headquarters. The $45 billion Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is… Read More
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Uber investors who called it “toxic” are satisfied by plans for change
Freada and Mitch Kapor broke rank with typical investor silence in the face of scandals at their portfolio companies by publicly criticizing Uber in February, saying it was “toxic” and had “a culture plagued by disrespect, exclusionary cliques, lack of diversity, and tolerance for bullying and harassment of every form.” But today, the couple who invested in Uber starting… Read More
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Facebook’s AI crosses language barrier to assist in Spanish
Any technology that only works in English neglects 75% of the world. That problem is especially severe for Facebook with its global userbase. Yet most languages are being left out by the advances in artificial intelligence centered around natural language processing led by researchers in the U.S. and China. But today marks a milestone for AI accessibility. Facebook Messenger’s… Read More
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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick takes leave of absence
Amidst a tough time for Uber, CEO Travis Kalanick’s parents were in a tragic boating accident last month that took the life of his mother. Now to grieve and clear his head before enacting changes at Uber, Travis has told his team he’ll be taking a leave of absence of unspecified length. You can read the CEO’s full letter to Uber below. Kalanick notes that “During… Read More
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Apple undercuts Facebook in the augmented reality platform war
Facebook may be the world’s most powerful app, but it’s still just an app on Apple’s operating system.
Facebook’s grand vision for augmented reality was that it would make it easy for any developer to build and distribute an AR experience — as long as it lived inside Facebook’s app. But Apple has once again used its control of the mobile operating system… Read More -
Snapchat seduces advertisers with new self-serve tools and certified partners
To beat Facebook and Google’s duopoly, Snapchat needs advertisers to build and buy campaigns with confidence. So today it’s announcing the Snap Publisher tool for building vertical video creative, it’s rolling out its self-serve Ad Manager, and its launching a Snapchat Certified Partners program to connect advertisers to trained third-party ad tech tool providers. Together… Read More
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