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Weekly tech roundup: Google Loses Antitrust Case: A Resounding Ripple in Tech Monopoly Lawsuits
Highlights of the weeks tech stories
Kristoffer Lindström
August 09, 2024
In partnership with
FROM FONT
Hello, summer lovers!
We've got a fresh batch of this week's top tech news just for you. And a little heads-up: Our daily emails will be back starting August 19th. Soak up that sunshine!
Cheers, Kris
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Startup PromoTix ($48M in traction) is saving the events industry
PromoTix is solving the event industry’s challenges around high ticket fees and low attendance. Ticketmaster and competitors charge up to 40% of the ticket price to book, deterring guests who can’t afford the added cost. Combined with a crowded marketing space, events struggle.
PromoTix is raising funds to expand. Already profitable, with 656k users and $48M in sales in its first 30 months, PromoTix has low-fee and no-fee SaaS pricing, as well as patented marketing tools that drive attendance.
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TECH BRIEF
A landmark ruling in a Google antitrust case found the tech giant violated antitrust laws by stifling rivals to protect its monopoly in internet search. The outcome could have far-reaching effects impacting future cases involving monopolizing tendencies in the tech industry. Key remedies for the violation, yet to be decided by Judge Amit P. Mehta, are anticipated to influence similar measures in other antitrust cases, such as an upcoming lawsuit against Google over ad technology.
💡 Insight: The Google antitrust ruling reaffirms the critical role of judicial decisions in shaping market dynamics. Its ramifications are poised to influence pending antitrust cases against other tech giants, potentially accelerating regulatory scrutiny and fostering more competitive ecosystems in digital markets.
OpenAI launched a new search engine, SearchGPT, last week which was blocked by several leading publishers including The New York Times, Wired, and The New Yorker. OpenAI's web-crawler OAI-SearchBot, designed to index information, was suspected of collecting online data for AI model training, leading to mistrust among publishers. Despite the company's assurances, a previous crawler, GPTbot, was blocked by hundreds of websites for the same reason.
Disney’s streaming division posted its first profit, marking a highlight in the company's Q3 earnings. Although the parks division showed weakness, Disney's overall revenues and adjusted earnings surpassed expectations. The firm raised its forecast for full-year profits and confirmed price increases for its streaming services are imminent.
Reddit plans to commence testing of AI-powered search result pages designed to " summarize and recommend content,” according to CFO Drew Vollero. The company aims to use first-party and third-party technology for this feature, launching the trial later this year. This development follows Reddit's partnership with OpenAI.
AI market research startup Placer.ai has raised $75M, driving valuation to $1.5B. The company provides anonymised, location-oriented analytics to various business sectors, with a yearly growth rate of 80%.
Boosted by a thriving subscription business, Shopify's Q2 earnings and revenue rose, beating estimates and pushing its stock up 17.8%. The merchant's Q3 revenue outlook came in higher than expected.
Robinhood significantly exceeded Q2 CY2024 projections, posting a 40.3% YoY revenue increase to $682 million and a GAAP profit of $0.21 per share. The firm's users grew by 1 million YoY, and ARPU rose by 34.6% YoY.
Shopify's Q2 sales and profit exceeded analyst predictions with revenue of $2.05 billion, up 21% YoY. This comes despite recent slowing revenue growth.
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