News aggregator SmartNews lays off 40% of US and China staff, with further reductions planned in Japan • TechCrunch

SmartNews, a Tokyo-headquartered news aggregation website and app valued at $2 billion as of 2021, today announced a 40% reduction of its U.S. and China workforce, or around 120 people, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The news was announced on Thursday in an All-Hands meeting attended this evening by SmartNews staff. The…

Medium embraces Twitter alternative Mastodon with launch of its own community • TechCrunch

Online publishing platform Medium, originally created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, announced today it’s embracing the open-source Mastodon platform by creating its own instance to support its authors and their publications. The company said it’s launching me.dm, a Mastodon community that will offer reliable infrastructure, moderation, and a short domain name to make it easier…