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Business
Mobile Signal
Talkspace (TALK) is scheduled to report earnings on 8/9. User sessions of the mobile app are up 105% YoY and are flat QoQ. Dive deeper into TALK with a free trial of our Bloomberg Terminal app.
App Acquisitions
Square will be acquiring Afterpay, a buy now, pay later service, for $29 billion in stock. The mobile app has been downloaded more than 20 million times since launch in 2017.
Netmarble has acquired SpinX Games, a social casino gaming publisher, for $2.19 billion. The publisher has generated more than $19 million via in-app purchases in just the past 30 days. Players cannot win real money from social casino mobile games.
CrazyLabs has acquired Firescore Interactive, a hypercasual game developer. The developer is behind some of CrazyLabs' hit games such as Acrylic Nails.
Zynga has acquired StarLark studio, a mobile game developer, for $525 million. Its flagship game, Golf Rival, has generated $23 million via in-app purchases YTD.
MUSINGS
There's always another one
In May of this year, Snapchat suspended anonymous Q&A apps YOLO and LMK from using its SnapKit SDK, which enables the apps to integrate with Snapchat. This happened because of a lawsuit from a teen's parents who was bullied through one of the apps and eventually took his own life. Anonymous Q&A apps, and social media apps in general, have a history of being a vehicle for cyber bullying and social abuse. However, as Sarah Perez of TechCrunch writes, "Snap’s suspension hasn’t stamped out demand for anonymous Snapchat Q&A apps, it only crowned a new app as the market leader." Sendit is that new market leader. The app launched in 2018 but in the three months since the suspensions of YOLO and LMK, sendit has been downloaded 3.75M times, half of its lifetime number.
From sea to shining sea
Shopee, owned by Sea, is sometimes referred to as the Amazon of Southeast Asia but it's also growing its footprint in another emerging market, Latin America. After entering Brazil in late 2019, TechInAsia believes Brazil could very soon turn into the retailer's biggest market, which is currently Indonesia.
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If you have an idea for an app, you may be eager to go to production and get it in front of users as soon as you can. While that strategy works for some, it’s unlikely to yield the results you were hoping for.
Cummings brings more than 15 years of experience to the position, having led and managed growth initiatives throughout his career. In his new role, Cummings is focused on acquiring new datasets and growing revenue opportunities through strategic partnership building.
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Adam and Madeline discuss the latest news in tech and mobile followed up with a little earnings preview for Netflix and Peloton. This episode has its first ever guest in Chris Radtke of Braze. He discusses their latest guide on reaching your customers in the moments that matter. After that the crew reviews the latest Apptopia insight on Facebook Games and more, followed by our own game of In or Out. Here's the rundown:
Introduction [2:08] Mobile News Review [10:43] I know what you did last quarter [15:38] Discussion w/Chris Radtke of Braze [41:27] This week on Apptopia [46:51] In or Out
