Coinbase CEO Cites Unscrupulous Actors, Market Trends in Layoff of 950 Employees

After spending a week at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, Haje is still recovering, but glad to be back and ready to explore tech trends! Christine and Haje are on the case.

• More layoffs at Coinbase: Coinbase said it is going to cut another chunk of jobs, this time 20%, or 950 employees, and will abandon several projects, Manish reports. This is the crypto exchange’s second round of layoffs in seven months after cutting about 1,100 jobs in June.
• Primed and ready: Amazon is going to expand its Buy with Prime service to the U.S. on January 31, Sarah writes. Buy with Prime’s delivery service is similar to Prime, but also includes “seamless checkout and easier returns, allowing merchants to establish their own direct relationships with customers.”
• Chatting, but with a bot: Everyone’s ChatGPTing. Know how we know? Dubious ChatGPT apps are flooding the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Ivan has more.

Supermom, a parenting platform with 20 million users in six Southeast Asian countries, offers parents price comparisons, communities and earning opportunities. It also provides brands a way to conduct market research and collect first-party data – vital for navigating the post-cookie world.

We’ve got more tales for you:

• Keeping an eye out — on the cheap: Frederic reports that Wyze launches its new $34 pan-and-tilt security camera.
• Like tea, but functional: A brand-new “functional” tea brand, the Ryl Company, is steeped in cash with $6.7 million in new funding and is making its debut in Wegmans and Whole Foods, Christine reports.
• Recycling the heat: Servers get hot, so why not use ’em for something useful? Qarnot creates green data centers by putting servers in central heating boilers, Romain reports. The company just raised $13 million to continue on its mission.
• Like Etsy but Korean: Handmade goods marketplace Backpackr gears up to expand into Southeast Asia, reports Kate.
• Better chat, with some ways to go: Anthropic’s Claude improves on ChatGPT, but it still suffers from limitations, Kyle reports.

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Manish’s sources revealed that OpenAI’s investment fund is in discussions to invest $15M in Atomic Semi, a startup founded by Sam Zeloof and Jim Keller. This could value the company at an impressive $100M!

Here are five more for you:

• Matchmaker, app-style: Scams do happen, especially when love is involved. Not a good look for Tinder and other Match dating apps, so they are offering in-app tips on avoiding romance scams, Lauren writes.
• Even more layoffs: Data software company Scale AI is cutting 20% of its workforce, Kirsten reports. In a blog post, CEO Alexandr Wang pointed to aggressive hiring during good times, but “the macro environment has changed dramatically in recent quarters, which is something I failed to predict.”
• In privacy news: Natasha L writes about Facebook’s data-scraping breach leading to an enforcement lawsuit in Ireland, while Europe quizzes TikTok on various topics, including data safety, disinformation and Digital Services Act compliance.
• Windows 7 security is in the rearview mirror: Microsoft ends Windows 7 security updates, Zack reports.
• Teen screen time: Instagram and Facebook are looking at its advertising to young users and will introduce more limits on targeting teens with ads, Taylor reports.