About Us
Pricing
Briefing
Facebook Asia

Indian Chat App Hike Shuts Down After Failing to Challenge WhatsApp

By Juro Osawa
· · Source: Bloomberg

India’s Hike, once considered WhatsApp’s biggest local competitor, has shut down its messaging app after struggling to compete against the U.S. giant, Bloomberg and other media outlets reported. The Delhi-based startup’s decision to give up on messaging is the latest indication of how dominant Facebook’s WhatsApp has become in India, the world’s second most populous country and a key...

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
The Briefing Media/Telecom Apple
Apple’s Blissful Ignorance on App Store Profits
By Martin Peers · May 18, 2021 5:00 PM PDT
Phil Schiller arriving at court last week. Photo by Bloomberg.
If Apple executive Phil Schiller is to be believed, Apple executives don’t know whether the App Store is profitable. That subject “doesn’t come up” in internal Apple discussions, Schiller testified today at the Epic-Apple trial. This is a business that by some estimates generates between $10 billion and $12 billion in annual profits for Apple—nearly 20% of its total profit—and executives don’t...
Latest Briefs
 
In Epic Trial, Apple’s Phil Schiller Says He has Limited Awareness of Apple’s Antitrust Problems
By Josh Sisco · May 18, 2021
Amazon Extends Ban on Selling Facial Recognition to Police
By Kevin McLaughlin · May 18, 2021
Google I/O: Android Changes, AI Advances
By Sarah Krouse · May 18, 2021
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.
A still image from WPTV news footage of a truck crash last November in Palm Beach County, Fla. Image courtesy of WPTV
TI Investigation Amazon E-commerce
The Deadly Toll of Amazon’s Trucking Boom
By Paris Martineau
Abdullah Baidas had just pulled over to help the victims of a minor traffic accident on a freeway north of Houston when the truck with the blue smiley-face logo on its side shattered his body.
Illustration by Laurent Bazart
Startups Markets
As SPAC Market Unravels, Startups Seek Alternatives
By Berber Jin
After the coronavirus pandemic jump-started demand for prescription delivery services, six-year-old Capsule Pharmacy decided to raise money to expand into new cities, hoping to target more customers who don’t want to visit pharmacies in person.
Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Photo by Bloomberg.
Media/Telecom Entertainment
Warner-Discovery Deal Talks Thrust John Malone and David Zaslav Into Spotlight
By Jessica Toonkel and Martin Peers
AT&T is effectively throwing in the towel on entertainment. The telecom giant is in talks to sell WarnerMedia to Discovery Inc., the John Malone–controlled TV firm, said a person familiar with the situation.
MGM's headquarters in Los Angeles. Photo by Bloomberg.
Exclusive Entertainment
Amazon Pondering Deal to Buy MGM
By Jessica Toonkel and Nick Wingfield
Amazon is in discussions to acquire MGM Holdings, said a person familiar with the situation, in what would be the ecommerce giant’s biggest move yet to expand in entertainment.
Tourists followed a tour guide through a backstreet in Florence, Italy, in 2017. Photo: Bloomberg
Policy Travel
Airbnb Confronts Tighter Rules on Rentals as Pandemic Ebbs
By Cory Weinberg
As Airbnb works to reinvigorate its business after the pandemic all but extinguished travel to urban destinations, it is confronting a fresh threat from regulators intent on limiting the number of homes they allow to be rented out to tourists.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, on the left, leaving the courthouse last week. Photo by Bloomberg.
News Analysis Apple
Midway Through Apple-Epic Trial, Apple Maintains Its Advantage
By Josh Sisco
App developers are rooting for Epic Games to win its court battle against Apple. Yet some prominent developers told The Information they have grown concerned that the ongoing antitrust trial between Apple and Epic could hurt their own efforts to take on Apple and redefine who controls the economics of consumer apps.