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Tencent-backed news app Qutoutiao nabs $171M from Alibaba – TechCrunch

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The race to give Chinese users their daily dose of news intensifies as Qutoutiao, a rival to TikTok parent Bytedance, net an installment of sizable backing.

Alibaba is injecting $171 million in a convertible loan to Qutoutiao, the three-year-old news and video aggregation startup, according to an announcement released Thursday. The transaction will convert into about 11.4 million shares of Qutoutiao at a price of $15 per American depositary shares, representing about 4 percent of Qutoutiao. The deal arrived just six months after Qutoutiao raised $84 million in a downsized initial public offering through Nasdaq.

TechCrunch has reached out Qutoutiao for more details on its new funding and will update the story if we hear back.

Qutoutiao, which means “Fun headlines” in Chinese, runs a news app that feeds users content based on their past habit and an e-book reading app for those with a longer attention span. The Shanghai-based company is among a handful of startups alongside ecommerce challenger Pinduoduo that are piling into the largely untapped, smaller cities outside China’s major urban centers of Beijing and Shanghai for growth.

The fresh capital will make Qutoutiao one of the unusual Chinese tech startups with backings from both Alibaba and Tencent, the arch-foes that compete in many realms. The other companies that have enjoyed fundings from both heavyweights include car-hailing service Didi Chuxing and youth-focused media company Bilibili.

Alibaba’s support is also a significant boost for Qutoutiao as it fights a relentless battle with Bytedance, a growing threat to China’s tech veterans. Unlike most of China’s emerging startups, Bytedance has not taken fundings from Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, collectively known as the “BAT” to acknowledge their dominance in the Chinese internet.

Bytedance has had a history of hostility with social media leader Tencent while it has been more pally with Alibaba the e-commerce giant, which agreed to facilitate ecommerce sales for Bytedance influencers.

Bytedance runs an empire of popular new media products that include short-form video app Douyin and news distribution platform Jinri Toutiao. TikTok, which is the international version of Douyin, is turning heads across the globe including in the United States and has reportedly spurred a Facebook clone.

Battling in the relentless Chinese market has come at huge costs for Qutoutiao, which sees itself spending heavily on marketing to collect and retain users. While its 2018 revenues jumped 484 percent to $440 million, net loss soared to $283 million in the year compared to just $14.3 million in the previous period. But the startup is ready to spend more as it works on a new app that could take on Douyin in China’s blossoming short-form video market.

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Jeep’s Wild Wrangler Magneto 3.0 Concept EV Is Going Out With A Bang

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To go with that, Jeep has added Dynatrac 60 front axles (5.38:1 ratio) and Dynatrac 80 rear axles (5.38:1 ratio), along with 20-inch off-road beadlock wheels and 40-inch mud terrain tires. The whole thing is lifted by three inches compared to a standard Wrangler. The result, the automaker says, is an EV that excels in off-road situations, not least because of how controllable the power delivery is.

“When you’re rock crawling, you need to be very neat and clean with your driving,” Mike Allen, Jeep Design Chief, says, “especially if there’s a cliff next to you, you need to be very controlled with that.”

To help, Jeep has added a power selection switch. On the one hand, you can have the maximum 650 horsepower and 900 lb-ft of torque; alternatively, the standard setting tamps it down to a more conservative 285 horsepower and 273 lb-ft. Allen says the range is around 150 miles, though that — nor charging times —was never meant to be the Magneto concept’s focus.

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The Best Mods & Upgrades That Can Give New Life To A C4 Corvette

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Replacing your restrictive and likely corroded factory exhaust with a new cat-back exhaust is one of the best power adders that you can do to your C4 Corvette. The term “cat-back” refers to the section of the system that is downstream of the catalytic converter, a device that removes harmful emissions from exhaust gases.

An aftermarket exhaust with modern muffler technology will reduce backpressure, allowing more air to flow into the engine, which increases horsepower. According to the popular aftermarket exhaust manufacturer Corsa, a cat-back system for the L98 engine (the most common C4 engine) adds 14 horsepower and 16 foot-pounds of torque to an otherwise stock powerplant — all while adding a deep, muscular exhaust note that’ll make your C4 sound like a Corvette should.

Returning to catalytic converters for a moment, they’re typically long-lasting but may eventually fail by becoming contaminated, clogged, or overheated, leading to decreased horsepower. In the process of installing a cat-back exhaust, it’s worth inspecting or proactively replacing the catalytic converter itself. High-flow performance converters are available which will boost horsepower beyond the cat-back exhaust alone, yet still keep your vehicle compliant with the emissions guidelines of the EPA and local authorities.

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6 Easy Ways To Unlock Your Android Phone Without A Password

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For years, fingerprints have been the de-facto phone unlock method because of the method’s incredible convenience and relative security. While a bad actor can, in theory, replicate your fingerprint, and while some Android phones have had fingerprint reader bugs, the majority of the time it’s secure enough to trust while allowing you to access your device in less than a second.

Many modern Android phones utilize an under-display fingerprint sensor that uses either an optical light sensor or ultrasonics to analyze registered fingerprints, while others place a trusty capacitive sensor on the back of the phone or the power button.

Importantly, optical sensors are the easiest of the three to fool in the event someone gets access to your fingerprint. Law enforcement can be especially aggressive should they invent a reason to search your device, having once tried to use a dead man’s finger to do so. However, Android stores fingerprint data in a Trusted Execution Environment, an encrypted section of the phone’s memory that cannot be accessed by the main CPU or by apps.

Setting your fingerprints up can be a bit of a hassle, as some Android phones can be finicky. It may be a good idea to register the same fingerprint twice if you find that your phone’s fingerprint sensor has a hard time recognizing your preferred digit.

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