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Unsexy Industries Can Also Attract Investors

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Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! TC reporter Tage Kene-Okafor reported on how Uber led a $100 million investment into African mobility fintech Moove as the startup’s valuation hit $750 million. He also wrote about how Zone raised $8.5 million to scale its decentralized payment infrastructure. Dollars and centsNon-sexy industries can appeal to investors too. The YC-backed startup raised $4.1 million last year with the goal of serving high-earning millennials and Gen Zers.

Apple Fights Back: Challenging €1.84 Billion Antitrust Ruling in Favor of Spotify by the European Commission

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Apple says it plans to appeal the historic €1.84 billion fine issued today by the European Commission over Apple’s anticompetitive practices in the streaming music market. Apple again stressed that Spotify pays Apple nothing in terms of App Store commissions because it sells its subscriptions only on Apple’s website. “They want to use Apple’s tools and technologies, distribute on the App Store, and benefit from the trust we’ve built with users — and to pay Apple nothing for it,” Apple says. “In short, Spotify wants more.”Apple says that while it respects the European Commission, the facts don’t support the decision, and ” as a result, Apple will appeal.”“Every day, teams at Apple work to keep that dream alive,” Apple wrote. “We do it by making the App Store the safest and best experience for our users.

Meta’s Regulation Panel Expands Applicability to Conversation Chains

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Meta’s external advisory group, its Oversight Board, announced today that it is expanding its scope to Threads along with Facebook and Instagram to scrutinize Meta’s content moderation decisions. This means if users on Threads are unsatisfied with Meta’s decision on issues like content or account takedown, they can appeal to the Oversight Board. Having independent accountability early on for a new app such as Threads is vitally important,” Oversight Board co-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt said in a statement. In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg formally talked about having an independent oversight board for the first time. The Oversight Board has ruled on some important cases over the years.

Resumption of January 18 Sales Ban for Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 Models

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Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 sales will be halted again in the U.S. starting at 5 PM tomorrow, January 18, due to the rejection of a bid by Apple to have the sales ban paused throughout its appeal of an ITC decision that found its blood oxygen feature infringe on patents by medical tech company Masimo. Meanwhile, Apple has another route available to avoid a halt: U.S. Customs said earlier in the week that it would consider a software update that disabled Apple Watch blood oxygen sensing features to put the devices beyond the scope of the ITC ban, which means the company could effectively keep selling them if it pushes a firmware update to turn off all the pulse oximetry stuff. Apple’s appeal will still continue, however, and this doesn’t mean they won’t eventually win that, which would allow for a resumption of sale with the blood oxygen features included. It’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow when that 5 PM ET deadline hits. For those keeping track, this means the current Apple Watch models have now been removed from sale, resumed sales, and are pending another sales stoppage, all in under a month.