2018 Year in Review
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2018 ushered in ‘a potential space renaissance’
The aerospace industry took flight with ambitious civilian and military projects over the course of 2018, and private investors took notice. Rockets are flying to the far side of the moon. Entrepreneurs are creating new propulsion technologies to take rockets deeper into space and to make flying on Earth more electric. Finally, plans are afoot from…
Three point eight. From the first day of trading in 2018 to the last, that was the final percentage difference in Tesla’s share price. Taken on its own, the number…
Around this time every year, my inbox fills with the same repetitive junk. “Would you consider putting [any random company] in your gift guide?”, “are you going to CES and…
Test your tech knowledge in TechCrunch’s 2018 Year In Tech Quiz
Think you know tech? Square off against TechCrunch editors with 2018’s year in tech quiz. TechCrunch’s 2018 Year In Tech Quiz Square off against TechCrunch’s reporters and editors in this…
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Crawling from the wreckage
Things are tough all over — but especially in the digital media business of 2018. Probably the most high-profile flame-out this year was at Mic, which laid off most of its staff ahead of an acquisition by Bustle. Mic had raised nearly $60 million in funding, with major media organizations like Time Warner and Bertelsmann…
Venture capital, global expansion, blockchain and drones characterize African tech in 2018
2018 saw Africa’s tech sector become more dynamic and international. Here’s a snapshot of the news that shaped African tech over the last year.
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Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, banked a $3 billion profit in 2018
Epic Games had as good a year in 2018 as any company in tech. Fortnite became the world’s most popular game, growing the company’s valuation to $15 billion, but it has helped the company pile up cash, too. Epic grossed a $3 billion profit for this year fueled by the continued success of Fortnite, a…
A look at the U.S. companies that brought in the largest VC fundings of the year.
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We finally started taking screen time seriously in 2018
At the beginning of this year, I was using my iPhone to browse new titles on Amazon when I saw the cover of “How to Break Up With Your Phone” by Catherine Price. I downloaded it on Kindle because I genuinely wanted to reduce my smartphone use, but also because I thought it would be…
Cybersecurity 101: How to protect your cell phone number and why you should care
Assuming you have your strong passwords in place and your two-factor authentication set up, you think your accounts are now safe? Think again. There’s much more to be done. You…
Cybersecurity 101: How to choose and use an encrypted messaging app
Text messaging has been around since the dawn of cellular technology, and sparked its own unique language. But it’s time to put sending regular SMS messages out to pasture. If…
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What history could tell Mark Zuckerberg
Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg obsessed over the wrong bit of history. Or else didn’t study his preferred slice of classical antiquity carefully enough, faced, as he now is, with an existential crisis of ‘fake news’ simultaneously undermining trust in his own empire and in democracy itself. A recent New Yorker profile — questioning whether the Facebook founder can fix…
Salesforce keeps rolling with another banner year in 2018
The good times kept on rolling this year for Salesforce with all of the requisite ingredients of a highly successful cloud company — the steady revenue growth, the expanding product…
My product launch wishlist for Instagram, Twitter, Uber and more
‘Twas the night before Xmas, and all through the house, not a feature was stirring from the designer’s mouse . . . Not Twitter! Not Uber, Not Apple or Pinterest!…
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Silicon Valley’s year of reckoning
Tech companies have always branded themselves as the good guys. But 2018 was the year that the long-held belief that Silicon Valley is on the right side of progress and all things good was called into question by a critical mass. As startups grow bigger and richer, amassing more power and influence outside of the…
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Remembering the startups we lost in 2018
There are few things in this world more difficult than launching a successful startup. It takes talent, know-how, money and a hell of a lot of good timing and luck. And even with all of those magical components in place, the odds may still be against you. At TechCrunch, we take pride in covering the…
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The year social networks were no longer social
The term “social network” has become a meaningless association of words. Pair those two words and it becomes a tech category, the equivalent of a single term to define a group of products. But are social networks even social anymore? If you have a feeling of tech fatigue when you open the Facebook app, you’re…
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The electric scooter wars of 2018
This was was undoubtedly the year of the electric scooter. Between massive fundraising rounds, lofty valuations and both Uber and Lyft’s entrance into the space, it’s clear these scooters are here for the long haul. But just because investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into these companies in the past year, the electric scooter…
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The best and worst gadgets of 2018
There were countless gadgets released in 2018. It’s the end of the year, so Brian and I rounded up the best of the best and the worst of the worst. Some where great! Like the Oculus Go. Or the Google Home Hub. But some were junk, like the revived Palm or PlayStation Classic. CES 2019…
These 10 enterprise M&A deals totaled over $87 billion this year
M&A activity was brisk in the enterprise market this year, with 10 high-profile deals totaling almost $88 billion. Companies were opening up their wallets and pouring money into mega acquisitions.…
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Recapping a year of highs and lows for SoftBank
If there was a word that dominated startup and tech news coverage this year, it was SoftBank. The Japanese telecom conglomerate’s Vision Fund pushed out a prodigious amount of capital this year — quite literally billions of dollars — into companies as diverse as a molecular manufacturer (Zymergen) and a robotic pizza delivery business (Zume Pizza).…