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 small position in Ethereum cryptocurrency.]
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Latest from Josh Constine
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All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1
Biotech and artificial intelligence have emerged as the top startup trends at Y Combinator‘s 25th Demo Day. The 124 companies presenting at the entrepreneur school’s twice-yearly graduation event compose YC’s largest batch from its 12.5 years running. YC partner Michael Seibel kicked off the event by reiterating the accelerator’s commitment to advancing diversity in… Read More
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How Facebook prioritizes privacy when you die
Should your parents be able to read your Facebook messages if you die? Facebook explained why it won’t let them in a post in its Hard Questions series today about social networking after death. Facebook admits it doesn’t have all the answers, but it has come up with some decent solutions to some issues. Read More
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‘Airbnb for boats’ startup Boatsetter buys competitor Boatbound
You don’t have to be rich or T-Pain to be “on a boat.” You can rent one plus a captain for the day from Boatsetter. And now it’s got boats in more than 300 locations around the U.S. since it just acquired rival maritime marketplace Boatbound. Read More
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Facebook downranks video clickbait and fake play buttons
Ever gotten tricked into clicking a fake play button on Facebook that opens a link instead of starting a video? I did, repeatedly, and wrote a story in 2014 titled “Yo Facebook, Ban Links With Fake Video Play Buttons”. Now Facebook is doing just that. Today it started downranking the News Feed presence of links that display a fake play button in the preview image, as well as… Read More
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45 million people send birthday wishes on Facebook each day
Roughly 1 in 30 Facebook users tells someone Happy Birthday each day, showing Facebook’s first major emergent behavior is still going strong. Now Facebook is equipping the 45 million people sending birthday wishes each day with some new features. Now instead of just posting a soulless “HBD” or “Happy Birthday!” on someone’s wall with no personal message… Read More
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Uber’s head of developer product leaves citing Kalanick’s ouster
Without the heavyweight backing for the platform from former CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber’s head of developer product Chris Saad is leaving the company. It’s unclear where the platform will rank in Uber’s revised priorities as it tries to right the ship, and so he tells me he is moving on to a company where working with outside developers is a central focus. Saad stressed… Read More
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Facebook and Instagram get redesigns for readability
Taking inspiration from line drawings, Reddit and Messenger, Facebook is overhauling the design of the News Feed to make it more legible, clickable and commentable. Meanwhile, Instagram today got a little redesign itself with comment reels now being threaded so you can have sub-conversations in public. Read More
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Facebook boosts snubbed Stories Camera with Live, GIF & text sharing
Despite the tepid reception for Facebook Stories, the social network is doubling down on its full-screen Camera feature. Today Facebook added the ability to go Live, shoot two-second GIFs and share full-screen text posts on colored background from Facebook Camera, which lets you share to Facebook Stories, Direct messaging and the traditional News Feed. Read More
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Snapchat “Crowd Surf” stitches together everyone’s concert videos
Snapchat’s got a new trick to stay one step ahead of Instagram by turning everyone’s quick video clips from concerts into a much more watchable music video you control. Snapchat “Crowd Surf” uses artificial intelligence machine learning technology to analyze when lots of people are all recording the same musical performance at the same time. It can then lace together… Read More
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SoundCloud saved by emergency funding as CEO steps aside
SoundCloud has just closed the necessary funding round to keep the struggling music service afloat. CEO Alex Ljung will step aside though remain chairman as former Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor replaces him. Mike Weissman will become COO as SoundCloud co-founder and CTO Eric Wahlforss stays as chief product officer. Read More
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Snap sold fewer than 42K Spectacles, down 35% in Q2
Snap’s Spectacles sunglasses may prove to be more of a fad than a must-have device. Snap revealed during its call following weak Q2 earnings that it generated $5.4 million in “Other” revenue, which would equate to around 41,500 pairs of its Spectacles camera sunglasses at a $130 price point. Read More
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Snap founders won’t sell shares despite plummeting price
Snap has an awful Q2 earnings report… but at least its dancing AR hot dog was viewed 1.5 billion times. To prove their confidence, co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy have agreed not to sell any shares this year, and the company will withhold shares they’re owed to pay for any necessary taxes. Of course, there are only five months left in the year, so this isn’t exactly… Read More
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Snap sinks as Q2 growth and revenue fall short
Snap’s Q2 earnings report was another failure on a long, downward path for the social media company as user growth slowed under the pressure of Instagram. Read More
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8 ways to fix Snapchat
Snap’s cool factor is wearing off. It needs new ways to entertain teens and score ad dollars. That means challenging some of its deepest-held philosophies about who Snapchat is for and how it works. From changing its feed to seducing influencers to fighting Facebook, here’s what we think Snap needs to do. Read More
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SoundCloud faces do-or-die vote by investors
SoundCloud will soon collapse if investors don’t vote for a rescue funding round tomorrow. The stumbling music streaming community site had to suddenly lay off 40% of its staff last month. Now it’s asking investors for $169.5 million at a pre-money enterprise valuation of just $150 million. That’s a steep drop from the $700 million valuation of its previous rounds. Read More
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Discord steals gamers from Skype with video chat and screensharing
Discord wants to destroy its biggest, best-funded competitor in the battle to be the communications layer for gaming. It wants to be the home for gamer clans strategizing and trash-talking with each other. After out-gunning its gaming-specific competitors like TeamSpeak, Mumble and Ventrilo with a secret $50 million fundraise earlier this year, Discord is setting its sights on Skype. Read More
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Facebook launches Watch tab of original video shows
Facebook has a new home for original video content produced exclusively for it by partners, who will earn 55 percent of ad break revenue while Facebook keeps 45 percent. The “Watch” tab and original shows will start rolling out to a small group of U.S. users tomorrow on mobile, desktop and Facebook’s TV apps. Read More
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Facebook bans ‘cloaking’ of spam sites that fool filters
“Cloaking” sounds sci-fi, but it’s actually a trick used today by spammers to show content moderators or search engine spiders an innocent-looking version of their site while real visitors just see ads and scams. Read More
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Google and Facebook envision Stories for news, not social
Stories taught us the joy of dictating the pace of content consumption. We fast-forward in 10-second increments, with a quick trigger finger let loose the moment we get bored. That’s why soon, endless paragraphs of text and time-consuming videos might not be the only ways to get the news. Read More
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Now it’s Snapchat copying Facebook’s ads Power Editor
Snap Inc desperately needs ad revenue to redirect its sinking share price. So after a year of getting mercilessly copied by Facebook, Snapchat is returning the favor by launching its take on the Facebook ads Power Editor. This new “Advanced Mode” for its Snapchat Ads Manager lets big advertisers rapidly deploy complex ad campaigns with tons of creative variants. Read More
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