Meta on Thursday said it is rolling out its Meta Verified program for WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia, and eventually to more countries.
The plan also lets businesses use their WhatsApp Business account from multiple devices.
Until now, WhatsApp Business users had to use their personal phone numbers to service customer calls.
With more than 200 million monthly users on WhatsApp Business, Meta is trying to build a full suite of solutions that businesses can tap for communicating with their customers.
The company said existing commerce and payment services only cater to the top 200 million users.
Tinder is expanding its identify verification program to users in the U.S., U.K., Brazil and Mexico, the company announced on Tuesday.
The company found that users who completed the ID Verification option saw a 67% increase in matches than those not verified.
Tinder now says that users who only complete the app’s Photo Verification will now receive a blue camera icon badge, while users who only complete the ID Verification will receive a blue ID icon badge.
Users who complete both the ID Verification and Photo Verification will receive a blue checkmark.
It makes sense for Tinder to expand ID verification to more countries, especially as AI scams and romance scams are on the rise.
ByteDance is shutting down its music streaming service Resso in India at the end of this month as the company shifts its focus to expand TikTok Music globally.
The streaming service is still active for those who have the app, but it’s not possible to purchase a new subscription.
The company confirmed the development and said that it doesn’t plan to launch TikTok Music in India.
However, ByteDance launched TikTok Music in both those markets last July.
In May 2023, ByteDance made Resso a subscription-only service to offer “a better user experience for music fans, while increasing opportunities for rightsholders and artists.”Until now, ByteDance has launched TikTok Music in Australia, Singapore, and Mexico apart from Indonesia and Brazil.
Conta Simples, an expense management and corporate card company in Brazil, raised a Series B round of $41.5 million, or more than R$200 million.
The new funding comes as company executives Rodrigo Tognini, CEO, and Taeli Klaumann, CFO, tell TechCrunch that 2023 was the “best year” for Conta Simples.
In 2022, the company acquired online ads startup Hackr Ads following a R$121 million Series A ($24.8 million in today’s dollars).
This gave Hackr Ads’ customers the ability to use Conta and for Conta to provide its customers with a way to manage advertising campaigns.
“Some big companies, not only in Brazil, but all countries, are not well served with expense management, so there is a huge potential there,” Klaumann said.
Worldcoin is no longer offering its Orb-verification service in India, Brazil, and France, just months after the crypto startup expanded the helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning verification device to those markets.
The Orb, a five-pound chromatic sphere, scans an individual’s eyeballs and verifies their identity.
“The multi-city tour kicked off in Tokyo in April 2023 and marked the first time people in many locations across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia were able to experience the Orb.
Individuals can download World App, the startup’s protocol-compatible wallet software, and visit an Orb, the startup’s helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning verification device, to receive their World ID.
More to follow…
The general idea here is to help banks use their first-party data to build personalized experiences by predicting user behavior.
The company is already working with about a dozen banks in Brazil and has not set its sights on expanding to the U.S. as well.
And while Hyperplane is currently solely focused on the world of banking, over time, the team plans to bring its technology to other verticals, too.
At its core, Hyperplane provides these banks with the APIs to build these personalization models on the fly.
“The Hyperplane Cloud can scale across markets with little effort, and we”ll soon announce our first partnerships in the U.S.”
