The Verge reports: “Condé Nast’s CEO Roger Lynch thinks that Apple’s premium magazine service, Apple News Plus, has yet to prove itself, Variety reports. Speaking at Recode’s Code Media conference in Los Angeles the CEO said that “the jury is out” on Apple’s $9.99 a month subscription service.”
VentureBeat reports: “Mythical Games has raised $19 million for its game studio that will make blockchain-based games where players can make money through digital ownership.”
gamesindustry.biz reports: “Mobile group chat and partying app Bunch has announced it raised $3.85 million in funding from several major gaming companies.”
Hypebot reports: “As the Twittersphere has become increasingly toxic over recent years, its user base has plateaued somewhat. This has led the company to develop some major changes to the platform’s RT feature which they plan to roll out in 2020.”
Variety reports: “Thousands of Disney Plus accounts have reportedly been hacked and stolen — and offered for sale on underground cybercrime forums. Disney has now responded, saying only a “small percentage” of the service’s 10 million-plus users have seen their usernames and passwords compromised and that Disney Plus systems were not breached by hackers.”
Hollywood Reporter reports: “Having helped transform the music industry, Ek and content chief Dawn Ostroff set their sights (and your ears) on spending hundreds of millions on exclusive podcasts and recruiting Jordan Peele, Mark Wahlberg and the Obamas in a race for scale with Apple and Amazon.”
The Verge reports: “Last week, Facebook quietly released a new meme-making app called Whale, The Information reports. The app is currently only available on the Canadian App Store, where its listing says it can be used to edit your own photos or images from a library of stock photos.”
gamesindustry.biz reports: “The Canadian games industry grossed $3.6 billion in 2019, seeing a 15% increase over the last two years. That’s according to an economic impact study conducted by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) in partnership with market intelligence firm Nordacity.”
Hypebot reports: “TikTok has passed 1.5 billion downloads across all platforms, according to new stats from mobile intelligence provider Sensor Tower. The milestone comes as TikTok parent Bytedance is planning to launch a Spotify competitor including in the US.”
Variety reports: “Membership services startup Patreon has paid out over $1 billion to creators since its launch in 2013, the company announced Tuesday. Now, Patreon is getting ready for an international expansion, with a particular focus on Europe, Patreon’s senior vice president of product Wyatt Jenkins told Variety.”
