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Google Copies Amazon’s Playbook
Google Inc. co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin say they don’t pay much attention to rivals. But the search company increasingly appears to be following Amazon.com Inc.’s lead.News Byte
Kiloo Touts 175 Million Downloads for Subway Surfers
Danish mobile games company Kiloo’s most popular app, the runner game Subway Surfers, has racked up 175 million downloads since it launched one year ago. In that time, the game has been played 5.5 billion times, the company said in a press release today. Subway Surfers is often used as a reference point among free-to-play game developers seeking to monetize their games with in-app purchases. Kiloo’s IAP store has kept the game in the top 50 of Apple’s “top grossing” charts for the past nine months.Another VC Is Born: Well-Known Internet Exec Ben Ling Joins Khosla Ventures
The former Google, Facebook and Badoo exec is the second high-profile Silicon Valley operating exec the VC firm has hired of late.
Lyft Raises $60M Funding From Andreessen Horowitz to Expand Ride-Sharing Internationally
The peer-to-peer ride-sharing company brings down a huge round.
TaskRabbit Would Like to Be Your New Temp Agency
TaskRabbit says it will have lower fees and much more transparency than a traditional temp agency.
News Byte
Square Expands Into Asia With Japan Launch
Square, the digital payments company, is launching in Japan, the company announced on Thursday. Japanese merchants can get a Square Reader for free and can start accepting payments with it for 3.25 percent of each transaction. The launch comes a day after Square confirmed to AllThingsD that Alyssa Cutright, its vice president of international, left the company in March after just one year on the job. Cutright oversaw Square’s launch in its one other international market, Canada. Square’s arrival in Japan comes one year after PayPal announced that its Square competitor PayPal Here would be available in the Asian country.Square Loses Two Execs, Including One Out Before His First Day on the Job
Executive turnover continues at the high-profile online payments company.
News Byte
Cloud Gaming Startup Happy Cloud Raises $4.25 Million Series A Round
The Happy Cloud, one of a slew of “cloud gaming” startups trying to bring videogames to new and different platforms, announced Wednesday it had raised a $4.25 million Series A round of venture capital. The round was led by Avalon Ventures and joined by Jesselson Capital and Shaman Ventures. The Happy Cloud has been in stealth mode since it launched in 2011, but claims that users who download games through its partnerships with publishers can start playing them almost instantly while the full game download finishes in the background. The company also announced the appointment of a new CEO, Tamir Buchler.News Byte
Amazon Boosts Financial Support for Employee Education Program
Amazon plans to announce today that it is raising the maximum amount of tuition reimbursement it pre-pays to some of its employees from $2,000 to $3,000 a year for up to four years. The program, dubbed Amazon Career Choice, gives financial support toward tuition and related expenses to full-time hourly employees who pursue associate degrees or vocational certifications in fields that entities such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics have deemed in demand and well-paying. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos first announced the Amazon Career Choice program in a big way last summer with a letter on Amazon’s homepage.This Could Be a Problem: NYC Fines Airbnb’s Seemingly Least-Offending Host
The ruling applies to the part of Airbnb’s business that the company saw as entirely unimpeachable.
