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As January is coming to a close, the TechCrunch team is firing on all cylinders (do we still say that, in a time of electric cars? What is a better expression these days?), with a wall of amazing content for you to download straight into your brain. We’ve picked the cream of the crop, even as we are further confused as to why there was cream on the crops in the first place. In summary, idiomatic English continues to confound even the biggest language nerds among us. — Christine and Haje
The TechCrunch Top 3
- Who’s calling?: T-Mobile’s data breach last week seems to have spilled over into Google Fi, which now says hackers accessed customers’ information. Carly has more.
- Home sweet HomePod: Brian plugged in the 2023 Apple HomePod and shares what he likes and doesn’t like about it.
- More layoffs: Cloud data management giant NetApp will lay off 8%, or around 960, of its employees across multiple geographies, Ingrid reports. And yes, it’s citing the economic climate as the “why.”
Startups and VC
There are some people on the internet who don’t want to be found. That seems to be the case for the elusive, mysterious owner of Stripper Web, a 20-year-old forum for exotic dancers and sex workers. With just one week of advance notice, the forum’s unknown owner announced that the website will shut down on February 1, erasing the decades-long digital footprint of a community on the margins. Amanda’s feature story tries to get to the bottom of things and is fantastic — give it a read!
This January, Germany’s largest vaccine maker, BioNTech, announced that it had agreed to acquire Tunisian-born and London-headquartered AI startup InstaDeep for up to £562 million, including a performance-tied £200 million tranche investment. Tage argues that InstaDeep’s acquisition is a classic case of an African startup gone global.
Not enough to keep you busy? Well, here’s another handful:
When to build a freemium plan and how to get it right
Image Credits: Jonathan Knowles (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
SaaS pricing comes in three flavors: the classic sales-led model, free trials that eventually force users to make a decision, or freemium plans that hopefully deliver enough value to keep users coming back.
“Given the obvious differences between these models, choosing one should be fairly straightforward,” writes Konstantin Valiotti, product director of growth at PandaDoc. “However, current market conditions do not support having just a single model.”
In this TC+ article, he explains how to identify the right time to roll out a freemium plan and, equally importantly, when not to. He also includes a tactical framework for developing freemium products that includes use cases for limited and unlimited usage.
“Every strategy is unique and depends on the company’s idea of how it wants to proceed,” writes Valiotti. “Therefore, you should consider freemium as an extension of your strategy and see if it is right for you.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Finally someone is turning tablets into something you can use other than surfing the internet or watching Netflix. Haje has your look at Plugable’s new dock that turns your tablet or phone into a workstation.
Meanwhile, Rita ponders what would happen if China-based Baidu developed an answer to ChatGPT. Would it make a difference? And what kind of limitations would it have?
Now here’s five more: