Bloomberg Businessweek Daily: Wild Courage
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
9 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
Watch: NFL 2025: How to Watch Every Game + Guide to Streaming Without Cable
The NFL is back for the 2025 and 2026 season, but how do you actually watch it all? From Sunday Ticket deals on YouTube to the return of Christmas games on Netflix, the NFL broadcast rights need more explaining than ever. In this video, Paul breaks down exactly where to stream every NFL game this season: Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, international matchups, and even holiday games. He'll go over what's new for this season, where to stream every game, and how to watch NFL anywhere in the world!
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Google bets on STAN, an Indian social gaming platform
Google has backed STAN, an Indian social gaming platform that connects gamers with creators, communities, and publishers. Google's investment comes as part of an $8.5 million equity funding round, which also saw investment from Japanese gaming giants Bandai Namco Entertainment, Square Enix, and Reazon Holdings. Aptos Labs and King River Capital, as well as existing backers General Catalyst and GFR Fund, also participated. Google joined the round via its AI Futures Fund, which launched in May to support startups building with its AI tools. STAN, headquartered in Singapore, is trying to position itself as a gaming community platform to rival Discord, but its approach to the market is quite different. STAN lets users earn in-app currency called 'Gems' by winning games like Krafton's Battlegrounds Mobile India, Garena's Free Fire Max, Minecraft, Call of Duty, or casual titles like Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. The app also lets creators set up chat rooms called Clubs, which are channels tailored for each game on the platform. While anyone can join these Clubs, they need to pay a social currency to access the 'gaming experiences' that creators offer. The startup takes a commission from these transactions. The primary attraction seems to be the in-app currency, however, as it can be redeemed for vouchers on various e-commerce platforms like Amazon, PhonePe, and Flipkart. Users can also earn currency via referrals, a spin-to-win wheel, and daily rewards. It appears STAN's monetization model is what sets it apart: users can earn rewards through interactions, unlike on Discord, where chatting or participating in communities doesn't earn users much, apart from clout. Nonetheless, STAN wants to shadow Discord. The company claims it has already garnered over 25 million downloads on the Play Store and App Store altogether, and has around 5.5 million monthly active users. 'STAN is the hangout place for gamers. It's a place where gamers come and make friends, play with each other, talk to each other, sort of a fusion of social and gaming,' said Parth Chadha, co-founder and CEO of STAN, in an interview. Chadha credits the platform's features for its traction so far. Initially, creators had to contact the company's team to start streaming, but last year, the startup opened the platform to user-generated content, allowing anyone to go live. That shift helped drive both downloads and engagement, the CEO said. STAN also works with game publishers, studios, and developers, including Krafton, Garena, and Roblox, who pay the startup to connect them with gamers and creators on the platform. Chadha told TechCrunch that in the past two quarters, nearly 100 game publishers, studios, and developers have joined the platform, and it is bringing more than 20 on board each month. 'That is turning into a very interesting business stream as we speak,' he said. Looking ahead, STAN plans to leverage Google's backing to use AI to improve moderation. Currently 70% to 80% of moderation on STAN is already handled by AI, Chadha said. A human moderation team manages the rest, but the startup plans to reduce that further by using AI. Additionally, STAN aims to bring AI-powered toolkits for creators, including the ability to produce avatars and memes, as well as tools for quick replies and filtering out chats. 'There are a lot of interesting plug-and-play models, which we and the Google team are working together to leverage and scale the business,' he stated. STAN isn't the first Indian startup to be backed by Google's AI Futures Fund. That distinction goes to Toonsutra, a startup using AI to power an immersive comic-reading experience. Google confirmed to TechCrunch that it has invested over $5.5 billion in India to date, including in startups Toonsutra, STAN, Pixxel, and Adda 24X7. Although STAN's app is currently geo-restricted to India, the platform still sees 5%–6% of its engagement coming from users abroad, who often access it using Indian phone numbers and accounts. Over the next year, the startup plans to expand internationally, starting with the Indian subcontinent, and will later target Southeast Asia and Latin America. The startup was profitable for a few months, the CEO said, but decided to spend some money to scale. Now, it aims to achieve profitability in 2027, he added. Currently, the startup employs about 40 people, of whom less than 30 work in product engineering. With this raise, STAN's total equity funding now stands at around $15 million. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
David Letterman Rips CBS Over ‘Late Show' Cancellation: 'Pure Cowardice'
Former Late Show host David Letterman has made his first direct comments about the cancellation of the CBS late night franchise — and they aren't positive. Speaking with his former executive producer, Barbara Gaines, in a YouTube video Friday, Letterman called the axing of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert 'pure cowardice' and said he doesn't believe the official line from CBS that the decision was purely about economics (the show has reportedly become a money-loser for the network). More from The Hollywood Reporter 'South Park' Creators Reveal Network Battle Over Premiere's Trump Penis as They Joke: "We're Terribly Sorry" Dissenting FCC Commissioner: Paramount Chose "Capitulation Over Courage" In Dealing With Trump Steve Buscemi Recalls Failed Audition for Barry Levinson's 'Tin Men': "There Was This Silence" 'The idea that they're hiding behind money — they've given [Colbert] another 10 months, that's another huge chunk of money they're gonna lose, according to them,' Letterman says in the video (watch it in full below). 'I don't think it was money. I think it was all to make sure [Skydance head David Ellison, set to become CEO of Paramount when the two companies' merger closes in early August] were solid spending dad's money.' (For much of the video, Letterman refers to Ellison as 'the Ellison twins' and 'the Oracle boys,' as in the software giant headed by Larry Ellison, David Ellison's father. Co-host Mary Barclay corrects him at one point, noting that David Ellison is not a twin, but he continues with the bit.) 'If they were losing that kind of money — you're telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday?' Letterman continues. 'I bet they were losing this money a month ago or six weeks ago. Or they were never losing that kind of money. They did not handle Stephen Colbert, the face of that network, in the way he deserves.' Letterman's comments are his first directly addressing the cancellation of The Late Show, which he originated on CBS in 1993 and hosted until 2015. Colbert announced the cancellation on his July 17 show, although The Late Show will continue through the 2025-26 season. Letterman's YouTube channel, where his conversation with Gaines is posted, earlier this week shared a collection of Late Show clips featuring Letterman lambasting network brass. Letterman calls the decision 'sad,' though he jokes that it could be good for Colbert: 'For Stephen, I love this, because he gets to be a martyr.' He also relates the Late Show cancellation to CBS settling a lawsuit by Donald Trump against 60 Minutes for $16 million over the objections of the show's staff. 'This is pure cowardice,' Letterman says. 'You're telling me 60 Minutes, the pinnacle of journalistic excellence and integrity for decades … they decided, 'Aw, we're sorry, let us give you $20 million.' I believe this is in the wake of that.' Letterman closes with one last swipe at CBS and Paramount management. 'I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed,' he says. 'This is gutless.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise Solve the daily Crossword
