The Big Read - Once Upon a Time in Silver Lake: How Worklife Ventures founder Brianne Kimmel is expanding her sphere of influence from Silicon Valley to Hollywood. Read Now

About Us
Pricing
Briefing

Jack Ma’s Ant Group Gets Approval to Launch Consumer Finance Company

By Shai Oster
· · Source: The Wall Street Journal

China’s banking authorities approved Jack Ma’s Ant Group’s application to set up a consumer finance company, a major milestone in the restructuring of the massive online financial group after regulators suddenly pulled the plug on its IPO late last year. Ant will control half of the new entity, with six other partners owning the rest. One of the key reasons for the halt of the IPO was worry...

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
The Weekend Crypto Venture Capital
The La La Land Life of Venture Capitalist Brianne Kimmel
By Jon Steinberg · July 2, 2022 8:00 AM PDT
The La La Land Life of Venture Capitalist Brianne Kimmel
Hi, welcome to your Weekend! It’s peak out-of-office message season in Silicon Valley, and not just because of the Fourth of July weekend. Tech layoffs are popping off everywhere. Venture dealflow has slowed to a crawl. The economic headwinds are fierce and giving certain people super bad feelings. Plus, after two-plus years of pandemic-driven insanity, the people of tech may...
Latest Briefs
 
TikTok CEO Responds to U.S. Senators’ Questions About User Data Security
By Juro Osawa · July 3, 2022
Klarna to Raise Cash at $6.5 Billion Valuation in Dramatic Down Round
By Maria Heeter · July 1, 2022
Amazon Secures UK Broadcast Rights for Lucrative European Soccer Games
By Mark Di Stefano · July 1, 2022
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in 2019
Exclusive Cloud Microsoft
Microsoft Cloud Computing System Suffering From Global Shortage
By Kevin McLaughlin
In March 2020, Microsoft’s Azure cloud buckled under the strain of companies around the world shifting to remote work, causing service outages and forcing some customers to wait to launch and update applications.
Photos Brianne Kimmel. Art by Clark Miller.
The Big Read
Once Upon a Time in Brianne Kimmel’s Hollywood
By Annie Goldsmith
It was a sunny June day in Los Angeles, and “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon Chu was setting up a shot .
From left: Brooke Hainey & Keith George, co-founders of Cortina; Bennett Carroccio, co-founder of Canal; Conner Sherline, founder of Disco.
Startups to Watch Startups E-commerce
Three Startups That Help Online Retailers Cut Out Facebook Ads
By Malique Morris
Direct-to-consumer brands that rely heavily on Facebook and Instagram ads have been reeling ever since Apple’s 2021 privacy changes made it harder and more expensive to land new customers.
Tesla's Fremont factory, in a photo taken in May 2020.
Exclusive Autonomous Vehicles
At Tesla, Returning to the Office Creates New Problems
By Becky Peterson
On the evening of June 8, speaking from Tesla’s factory in Fremont, Calif., Elon Musk addressed a few dozen of the electric car maker’s employees in person, and thousands more in a livestream.
Art by Haejin Park
Opinion
A Girl Killed Herself. It Took TikTok Six Months to Remove Her Account.
By Amy Challenger
Nina is the name I’ll use for the girl who loved my 16-year-old son. Until recently, when he wanted to think about her, he could still find her videos on TikTok, including the ones she posted under a false name while she was a patient in a psychiatric hospital.
Nate CEO Albert Saniger. Art by Mike Sullivan
Exclusive Venture Capital E-commerce
Coatue-Backed Shopping Startup Lays Off 20% of Staff After Exaggerating Tech Capabilities to Potential Investors
By Malique Morris
Shopping startup Nate, which touted its use of artificial intelligence–powered checkout technology while it was actually relying on overseas workers to power transactions , has laid off at least 30 of its nearly 150 employees, according to an employee who was at an internal meeting to inform the laid-off workers.