The huge social media networks take steps to guarantee that they’re supplying accurate details for public health, Charter declines to enable employees to work from home and Microsoft Teams sees a huge spike in popularity. Here’s your Daily Crunch for March 19, 2020.
1. Facebook will put a new coronavirus details center on top of the News Feed
In an effort to share reliable health information on COVID-19, Facebook will roll out its own coronavirus info center– a main hub where the company will collect details from sources like the CDC and WHO.
On The Other Hand, Twitter upgraded its safety policy to prohibit tweets that “could position individuals at a greater risk of sending COVID-19” The brand-new policy prohibits tweets rejecting skilled guidance on the virus, encouraging “fake or inefficient treatments, avoidances and diagnostic methods,” as well as tweets that mislead users by pretending to be from health authorities or experts.
2. Charter personnel told to report to workplaces despite positive coronavirus tests
The phone and internet giant, which owns the Spectrum brand, has actually doubled down in the previous week on its policy of prohibiting its 15,000 office-based employees to work from house, triggering one engineer to quit over worries he would contract the disease. Dozens of other Charter employees have actually contacted TechCrunch in the previous couple of days with concerns about their existing working conditions.
3. Microsoft Teams jets to 44 M DAUs, announces new functions as remote work booms
Microsoft’s Group item is a Slack rival and a most likely recipient of the COVID-19 remote work boom. The new figure represents a substantial gain on the number Microsoft shared in November 2019, when the product had 20 million DAUs.
4. Home diagnostics startup Everlywell is releasing an at-home coronavirus test sample kit
Everlywell’s test set consists of swab-based collection devices, in addition to shipping materials that ensure safe transportation of a person’s sample, which is then tested by labs accredited for COVID-19 testing under the FDA Emergency Use Authorization.
5. The 20 finest startups from Y Combinator’s W20 Demonstration Day
With world events overtaking the tech industry’s preference for coffee meetings and in-person events, Y Combinator avoided its famous two-day live Demonstration Day and went for an extreme experiment: no demos at all, however rather a long list of the nearly 200 start-ups in its Winter season 2020 batch, with links to their websites and one-page slides. (Extra Crunch subscription required.)
6. Ada raises $44 M Series B to enhance its chatbot client service platform
” Although AI gets thrown around a lot in the enterprise, we are focused on companies providing options that are driving genuine company worth, and Ada is doing exactly that,” said Accel partner Ben Fletcher. “Ada is breaking through the congested market of chatbots to define a brand-new category of automated consumer experience that can manage far higher customer questions volumes while delivering a few of the greatest client satisfaction scores we have actually seen.”
While the Daily Crunch has been packed with headlines about the worldwide pandemic, there’s still lots of news that I’m excluding. If you want to stay completely up-to-date, visit our hub for COVID-19 coverage.
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