Despite gripes about the usefulness of Facebook chatbots, “tens of thousands” of developers are building them, Messenger’s head of product Stan Chudnovsky revealed onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt NY. And, 2,500 Shopify merchants have Facebook chatbots too, showing e-commerce companies are eager to reach Messenger’s nearly one billion users. You can watch… Read MoreFacebook says 10K+ developers are building chatbots, analytics are coming
Despite gripes about the usefulness of Facebook chatbots, “tens of thousands” of developers are building them, Messenger’s head of product Stan Chudnovsky revealed onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt NY. And, 2,500 Shopify merchants have Facebook chatbots too, showing e-commerce companies are eager to reach Messenger’s nearly one billion users. You can watch… Read More
Twenty-five years after the introduction of the World Wide Web, the Information Age is coming to an end. Thanks to mobile screens and Internet everywhere, we’re now entering what I call the “Experience Age.” 
Facebook is now strongly refuting claims that it suppressed conservative Trends after issuing a more vague and indirect PR statement earlier today about having neutrality guidelines. Facebook has “found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true” wrote VP of search Tom Stocky on the social network tonight at 9:30pm pacific May 9th, regarding a Gizmodo report from sources… 
Foursquare’s business looks a whole lot different than it used to. New CEO Jeff Glueck and co-founder Dennis Crowley know it — and they still have a plan to hit $100 million in revenue, and profitability, in the next few years. They talked about some of their efforts, like focusing on building new tools for businesses that can help them grow, onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt… 
Giphy co-founder and CEO Alex Chung talked about Giphy’s current state at TechCrunch Disrupt NY. Giphy now serves over a billion GIFs a day and has raised around $75 million. And yet, the startup doesn’t generate any money for now. But it doesn’t mean Giphy isn’t already thinking about it. 
When you find yourself in an emergency situation, it’s hard to know what to do. And even if you do, panic can take over. 911bot, a product built at the Disrupt Hackathon here in New York, aims to help you out in a pinch. The Facebook Messenger-based chat bot lets you report emergencies to the authorities through a quick image-based interface. And as your report is sent through the system,… 
In the 1970s, CFOs sat with CEOs and devised ways for upset consumers to not be able to get compensation easily. They put up automated phone systems and arcane and inflexible policies and rejoiced at how little the company had to “give up” to complaining customers. And this system worked… until social media gave every average “Joe” the same power as society’s… 
Last week Apple released the latest iteration of its “Shot on iPhone” campaign. The new ad was developed for Mother’s Day, and features a slideshow of pictures and videos of moms and their kids. Now, a week later, Apple launched the aptly-named website momsshotoniphone.com, which lets you create a custom version of the ad that has a photo of you and your own mom. The… 
Musical.ly, the app that makes it easy to create music videos, is in the process of raising about $100 million in funding, at around a $500 million post-money valuation, TechCrunch has learned. The details are still being finalized, but the plan is for GGV Capital and Qiming Venture Partners to co-lead the round, with participation from Greylock Partners and DCM.
I used to answer every message. Not any more. When Messenger buzzes, now I don’t know if it will be a friend or a bot. Every chime forces me to do a little Turing test in my head. Was I expecting to be pinged by a pal? Or is it 8:11pm again and TechCrunch’s bot is sending me another daily digest.