Facebook moves its VR strategy, WhatsApp’s payment service hits a snag in Brazil and we take a look at how Trump’s visa restriction will affect Silicon Valley.
Here’s your Daily Crunch for June 24, 2020.
1. Facebook kills off its least expensive VR headset
Just 2 years after launching the Oculus Go, Facebook revealed that it’s stopping the headset– the least effective and least costly VR hardware the company sold.
The entry-level product was implied to hook customers on the idea of VR and persuade them to upgrade. In 2015, nevertheless, Facebook launched the $399 Oculus Mission, and it rapidly ended up being clear that the Mission was most likely the best path forward for Oculus’ customer ambitions.
2. Brazil suspends WhatsApp’s payments service
Mentioning Facebook, the brand-new payment feature in its popular messaging app has been obstructed in its second largest market. Brazil’s central bank stated it was deciding to “preserve a sufficient competitive environment” in the mobile payments space and to make sure “functioning of a payment system that’s interchangeable, quick, safe, transparent, open and cheap.”
3. Trump’s worker visa ban will strike Silicon Valley hard
We’ve been frequently including migration lawyer Sophie Alcorn’s column. For this piece, editor Walter Thompson interviews Alcorn about President Trump’s executive order extending an existing restriction on immigrant work visas. (Bonus Crunch subscription needed.)
4. Stacy Brown-Philpot is stepping down as CEO of TaskRabbit
Brown-Philpot signed up with TaskRabbit seven years back as the business’s chief running officer and was promoted to CEO in the spring of2016 In the fall of 2017, the business was gotten by Ikea for concealed terms in a stock deal and has continued to run independently as a subsidiary of the company.
5. Olympus plans to sell its struggling cam department
After three straight years of operating losses, among the world’s primary cam makers is offering up the ghost. Olympus announced its objectives to sell off its imaging system by the end of September 2020.
6. 11 top VCs talk about the future of New york city startups
New York City was an initial U.S. hotspot for the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s also one of the most pricey cities in the world– so you might believe startups would be distressed to leave.
7. Google updates its analytics tools for newsrooms
Google is introducing version 2.0 of both News Customer Insights and Realtime Material Insights, while likewise including a new function called the News Tagging Guide. These efforts fall under the umbrella of the broader Google News Initiative, presented in 2018 as a way for the search giant to money quality journalism and discover other ways to support the market.
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