Apple and Google have released the first version of their exposure notification API, which they previously called the contact tracing API. This is a developer-focused release, and is a seed of the API in development, with the primary intent of collecting feedback from developers who will be using the API to create new contact tracing […]

Security researchers are sounding the alarm over a newly discovered Android malware that targets banking apps and cryptocurrency wallets. The malware, which researchers at security firm Cybereason recently discovered and called EventBot, masquerades as a legitimate Android app — like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Word for Android — which abuses Android’s in-built accessibility features to […]

During this pandemic, many organizations are offering free or drastically cheaper courses to help people skill-up for when we eventually get out of lock-down. There are numerous outlets if you want to learn to code from, for instance, Freecodecamp or the Free Fridays scheme from General Assembly. And for gamers, Gamedev.tv has taken 80% off […]

Apple and Google are providing additional resources for developers working with the first version of their Exposure Notification API, the development tools the companies have created and are working on in order to provide a cross-platform way for public health agencies to notify individuals of a potential exposure to a person with a confirmed case […]

Google today announced that it is extending the preview period of Android 11 by about a month. So instead of launching a beta this month, as it had previously planned, it’ll release a fourth developer preview today instead. The first beta will officially launch on June 3, during an Android -centric online event it’ll hold […]

Google today launched an update to its Duo video chat app (which you definitely shouldn’t confuse with Hangouts or Google Meet, Google’s other video, audio and text chat apps). There are plenty of jokes to be made about Google’s plethora of chat options, but Duo is trying to be a bit different from Hangouts and […]

“If your kids aren’t sleeping, you aren’t sleeping,” says Moshi founder and CEO Ian Chambers. As mindfulness apps grow increasingly popular among adults, Moshi is looking to bring mindfulness and meditative techniques to children. The app today announced the close of a $12 million Series B financing led by Accel, with participation from Latitude Ventures […]

Michael Ovitz didn’t invent the idea of a talent agency, but one might argue that he perfected it. He founded the CAA in 1975, and grew it into the world’s leading talent agency, serving as chairman for 20 years. Now, Ovitz is investing in a brand new type of talent agency called Human Capital. Human […]

Founders have always faced big challenges, but they pale in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Moving your business forward will require new thinking, new tools and new opportunities along with tried-and-true essentials. We’ve got you covered on all fronts. Case in point — catching investor attention in this climate will require a pitch par […]

Is “Too Hot to Handle” the dumbest show on Netflix … or the most diabolically brilliant? The reality TV series brings a group of twentysomethings together on a secluded tropical retreat, then — after a brief getting-to-know-you period — warns them that anything even coming close to sex will result in a reduction of the […]

Atlassian is about as ubiquitous to software engineers as Google is to the rest of us. The Sydney-based company, which launched in 2002, develops tools and services for enterprise collaboration and marched efficiently to a public offering in 2015. So it goes without saying that we’re thrilled to have Atlassian co-founder and co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes […]

Material Bank, a logistics platform for the architectural and design industry, has announced the close of a $28 million Series B financing today, led by Bain Capital Ventures. Bain’s Merritt Hummer led the round on behalf of the firm and will join the board of directors at Material Bank, along with Jeff Sine, cofounder and […]

Figma, the design platform that lets folks work collaboratively and in the cloud, has today announced the close of a $50 million Series D financing. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with partner Peter Levine and cofounding partner Marc Andreessen managing the deal for the firm. New angel investors, including Henry Ellenbogen from Durable […]

Optimization. Efficiency. Data-driven decisions. If I had a nickel for every time I hear these words from founders I’d be long retired. And yet, the process involved in achieving resource optimization, efficiency and making truly data-driven decisions is laborious to say the least, and usually involves an immense amount of talent and resources. And then […]

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo issued a joint call on 24 April for governments to refrain from imposing export and other trade restrictions on key medical supplies and food and to quickly lift those put in place since the start of the year.

The WTO Secretariat has published a new information note looking at how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected e-commerce, including the implications for cross-border trade. It notes the increased use of e-commerce as consumers adapt to lockdowns and social distancing measures and draws attention to several challenges, such as the need to bridge the digital divide within and across countries.

By the end of 2019, the global gaming market is estimated to be worth $152 billion, with 45% of that, $68.5 billion, coming directly from mobile games.

Growth means different things at different companies, but correctly identifying avenues for sustainable and scalable growth is a universal priority.

Impossible Foods made huge waves in the food industry when it came up with a way of isolating and using “heme” molecules from plants to mimic the blood found in animal meat (also comprised of heme), bringing a new depth of flavor to its vegetarian burger. This week at CES, the company is presenting the […]

Early Stage SF is around the corner, on April 28 in San Francisco, and we are more than excited for this brand new event. The intimate gathering of founders, VCs, operators and tech industry experts is all about giving founders the tools they need to find success, no matter the challenge ahead of them. Struggling […]

TC Early Stage SF goes down on April 28, and we are getting pretty damn excited about it! The show will bring together 50+ experts across startup core competencies, such as fundraising, operations and marketing. We’ll hear from VCs on how to create the perfect pitch deck and how to identify the right investors for […]

Efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 have led to a global economic downturn, but the gaming industry is booming. With hundreds of millions of people sequestered in their homes, game usage has spiked. And while the economic repercussions will persist after people cease physical distancing, gaming is positioned to fare well during a recession. […]

Smart rings are still a relatively young category in the wearable hardware world, but the Oura Ring seems to be a standout in terms of early success. The Oura Ring hardware is sleek and packed with sensors, allowing it to measure a user’s sleep patterns, take your body temperature and track activity, and now Oura […]

In recent years, fintech’s revolution has felt like a rising tide. Behemoths like Stripe and Square edged out banks while newbies like Brex nonchalantly raised nine-figure rounds. Today, however, the state of the financial technology industry feels more wobbly — some healthy startups in the genre are faring better than ever, while others are feeling […]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released updated projections of future U.S. energy production and use in its Annual Energy Outlook 2020 (AEO2020) today.

In the April Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA forecasts that the United States will again become a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products in the third quarter of 2020 and remain a net importer in most months through the end of 2021. Fewer barrels are available for export as U.S. crude oil production continues to decline. In addition, net exports of petroleum products will be lowest in the third quarter of 2020, when U.S. refinery runs decline in response to lower demand for refined products.

While plenty of tech stocks have seen their market caps dive in the past month, Groupon has taken a harder hit than most. The company’s share price has dropped more than 70% in the past five weeks. The reckoning came for Groupon’s leadership today with both CEO Rich Williams and COO Steve Krenzer ousted. In […]

In the U.S., Robinhood has led the charge in upending the stock investing model through its mobile-first, minimal-step, commission-free trading platform. Now a startup out of Germany built on a similar premise is announcing a big round of funding from some top investors to continue its growth. Trade Republic — which lets people buy and sell […]

When Roger Lee, the co-founder of Human Interest, heard that San Francisco imposed shelter-in-place orders, he started blogging about layoff news and posting crowdsourced lists of employees who were laid off. His goal was to increase awareness about layoffs and give recruiters a place to search for candidates. However, one week and 40 startup layoffs […]

Apple and Google ask for developer feedback on their contact tracing efforts, Facebook sees a “significant reduction” in ads and Microsoft makes life easier for IT managers. Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 30, 2020. 1. Apple and Google release first seed of COVID-19 exposure notification API for contact tracing app developers This is a […]

The world has changed dramatically since May 2019 when we last surveyed venture capitalists about the trends they were seeing in media, entertainment and gaming. Since then, COVID-19 and the resulting physical distancing measures have created plenty of demand for companies helping to inform and entertain us as we’re stuck at home. At the same […]

Creatively was supposed to launch this summer, according to CEO Greg Gittrich. And then COVID-19 happened. “We made the decision to fast-track the launch when the pandemic hit, because we felt like launching as a beta would really help the creative community,” Gittrich told me. The startup was founded by Stacey Bendet and Joe Indriolo, […]

Uber and Airbnb are cutting significant portions of their workforce, Microsoft announces new Surface devices and we talk to Apple Craig Federighi about the new iPad cursor. Here’s your Daily Crunch for May 6, 2020. 1. Uber is laying off 3,700 as rides plummet due to COVID-19 In an SEC filing, Uber disclosed plans to […]

Founder and CEO Lara Vandenberg told me she created Publicist to support the ways in which the communications and marketing industry is changing — changes that are only accelerating due to COVID-19. Vandenberg was previously senior vice president of communications and marketing at Knotch, and she told me, “More companies now are being better served […]

BuzzFeed plans to furlough 68 employees as part of broader cost-cutting measures, according to a memo from CEO Jonah Peretti that was shared earlier by Variety. We’ve also obtained a copy of the memo, in which Peretti said the furloughs will affect the business, studios and administration teams. It sounds like the furloughs do not […]

YouTube is giving advertisers a few more tools to reach consumers and measure ad effectiveness on TVs. These tools already exist for YouTube on other platforms, but now the Google -owned video service is bringing them to connected televisions. In a blog post, it says this is in response to how YouTube viewership has grown […]

In December 2019, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of other oil producers announced they were deepening the production cuts originally announced in December 2018. However, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that global oil production will rise in 2020 despite the cuts, as expected growth in non-OPEC crude oil production will offset OPEC's reduced output. Non-OPEC production will be driven by continued growth in the United States. Outside of the United States, growing crude oil production in Brazil, Norway, and Canada will also contribute to supply growth over the next 24 months. In its January Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA reports that U.S. crude oil production in 2019 hit a record annual average of 12.2 million barrels per day. EIA forecasts U.S. production will reach 13.3 million barrels per day in 2020 and 13.7 million barrels per day in 2021. Most of the production growth occurs in the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico.

In its March 2020 update, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) significantly revised its Short-Term Energy Outlook for global oil supply, demand, and prices compared with the February Short-Term Energy Outlook. These updates largely resulted from updated data and assumptions about the effects of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on global oil demand and assumptions regarding the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude oil production following its meeting on March 6. EIA now forecasts that OPEC will target market share instead of a balanced global oil market. As a result, EIA expects that OPEC crude oil production will increase to an average 29.1 million barrels per day in the second and third quarters of 2020. EIA forecasts that global demand for liquid fuels will grow by 0.4 million barrels per day from 2019 to 2020, down from the 1.0 million barrels per day increase EIA previously forecasted in February. The revised March estimate is driven by EIA's expectations of slowing economic growth, primarily related to the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. EIA expects the decline in global liquid fuels demand, combined with the increase in OPEC production, to result in significant global oil inventory builds in the first half of 2020-putting continued downward pressure on prices. EIA forecasts Brent oil prices will average 43 dollars per barrel in 2020 and 55 dollars per barrel in 2021.

As a result of the global economic slowdown related to COVID-19, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that global petroleum and liquids consumption will average 95.5 million barrels per day in 2020, down 5.2 million barrels per day from 2019. EIA forecasts that U.S. oil consumption will decline 6.5% in 2020 to average 19.1 million barrels per day, which would be the largest percentage decline in U.S. consumption since 1980. At the same time, in its April 2020 Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA expects global oil supply to increase in the coming months from first-quarter 2020 levels. Total world liquids supply will average 98.7 million barrels per day through the third quarter of 2020. These supply and demand developments are contributing to a significant increase in liquid fuels inventories. EIA estimates that second-quarter 2020 global petroleum inventories will increase an average 11.4 million barrels per day. Within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the most stocks recorded in historical data were in July 2016 at 3.1 billion barrels. EIA forecasts inventories will surpass this level as production continues to outpace consumption. EIA expects these large stock builds will put downward pressure on crude oil prices for several months. Brent crude oil prices averaged 32 dollars per barrel in March, the lowest monthly average since January 2016. EIA forecasts Brent crude oil to average 23 dollars per barrel during the second quarter of 2020 before increasing to an average 46 dollars per barrels in 2021.

In the April Short-Term Energy Outlook, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that the United States will again become a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products in the third quarter of 2020 and remain a net importer in most months through 2021. More net imports of crude oil and less net exports of petroleum products drove this change. EIA expects net crude oil imports to increase because as U.S. crude oil production declines, fewer barrels will be available for export. Net exports of petroleum products will be lowest in the third quarter of 2020, when U.S. refinery runs will decline significantly because of lower demand for refined products. In September 2019, the United States exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported for the first month since records began in 1973. EIA previously expected the United States to continue as a net exporter in most months through 2021. However, as a result of recent significant changes in global oil market dynamics, EIA now expects U.S. imports and exports will be even in 2020. It is important to note that the April outlook is subject to heightened levels of uncertainty because the impacts of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease on energy markets are evolving.

After three years in development, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has released a set of standards that are game-changing for shareholders and the profession, says PwC.

Governments must apply renewed focus to achieve fiscal balance and sustainably reduce the cost of delivery.

On Friday 28 February at 4.30am Sydney time, PwC will host its second global forum to students around the world.

While technology and innovation are transforming our economy, they are also the solution to our workforce and growth challenge.

The pace and scale of disruption in the power and utilities sector is happening faster than expected.

Young leaders from Australia and China are working together to provide creative solutions to issues facing both countries as part of the China Australia Millennial Project (CAMP).

Australian entertainment and media market is forecast to grow to $43.4 billion by 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 4.2 percent.

The economic impact of obesity will reach $87.7 billion and affect one-third of Australians by 2025 based on current trends and without further intervention.

As global challenges increase, Australia’s defence budget is growing, while the US and most other allies have been decreasing their defence resources.