Tech
- How the application Clearview AI became one of the largest donors of facial recognition material for law enforcement agencies that started out with a fun app where you could switch your hair to Donald Trump’s NYT
- Samtrygg – an application to match people looking for apartments to rent with landlords raised SEK 9 M in a Seed round. I find this interesting given the same market – technology driven applications for the real-estate market – have had good momentum worldwide recently DiDigital
- Visa acquires fintech startup Plaid, an API service enabling other fintech companies to integrate services to consumers bank accounts and statements. Similar to that of what Swedish Tink is providing. Purchase price is USD 5.3 Bn TechCrunch
- Instagram and retailers know how important it is for the success of retailers. Here representatives attended a panel on the topic and the learnings from it NRF
Media
- SensorTower app analysis of Q419 showing how Disney reached 30M downloads in the US along in a quarter and successfully pushed aside its competitors Netflix, Hulu, Youtube squeezing in to become the Second largest SVOD service in terms of revenue in just one quarter Sensortower
- Netflix lead the nominations for this year’s Oscars. A nominations race once again criticised for its non-diversity with basically all white-male nominations apart from the specific diverse categories Variety
- Comcast Peacock service (SVOD/AVOD) will be USD 4.99 with ads and 9.99 without, launching April 15th WSJ
- Spotify reportedly buys “fake streams” for SEK billions every year DiDigital
- Swedish bank Collector sells its complete portfolio of VC-investments under its new chairman DiDigital
- Disney Plus to launch in Europe sooner than expected and will price the service at EUR 6.99 per month Disney
XR
- The time has come to realize the dark twisted fantasies. AR lenses are happening and Mojo are about to release a Beta version TechCrunch
- Magic Leap have had some struggles, but the technology is real and it is happening says Fortune author Fortune
- It now sounds like the question if Apple is working on Augmented Reality – rather when are they are going to release whatever device they are working on BusinessInsider
Statistics
- 2019 came out the second warmest year on record (2016). The last decade the warmest on record (since 1850). Climate crisis. Check out the frightening graphs below TheGuardian
Binge
- Norwegian show Okkupert is back with two new seasons (so I might have missed one – which is good for my bingeing Playpilot
Podcast
- The mystery about Jeffrey Epstein: Truth and lies: Jeffrey Epstein ABCNews
Finance & Politics
- Reports state Russian state sponsored hackers have attacked Burisma, the Ukrainian company where Joe Biden’s son was active. Speculations are made the hackers are looking for details that could embarrass Hunter Biden NYT
- Can’t tell who – if anyone – is the winner on this US-China trade deal WSJ
- BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world calls sustainability the area to invest in going forward Blackrock
