Technology

In a very unusual move, WikiLeaks has been subpoenaed via Twitter. In a tweet on Friday, a law firm representing the Democratic National Convention in its civil lawsuit against WikiLeaks and other defendants served legal documents formally notifying the non-profit that it is being sued. The lawsuit also names a long list of other people and organizations, including the Russian government and Donald Trumppresidential campaign, that the DNC claims worked together to sway the 2016 election in Trumpfavor.

@wikileaks By Court order, you are being served with the following legal documents: https://t.co/ICg8qWnsUy, https://t.co/ZP2tTPJ4pb, https://t.co/RKue30s4hM, https://t.co/q5g0G1rQpQ. All of these documents may be found here: https://t.co/NOCgvQhh2j.

— Cohen Milstein Sellers - Toll Process Server (@ProcessServiceC) August 10, 2018

The Twitter account has no other tweets and appears to have been set up this month by Cohen Milstein, the DNClaw firm, for the purpose of serving papers to WikiLeaks.

The DNC filed a motion in federal court in Manhattan last month, asking for permission to subpoena WikiLeakson Twitter after several unsuccessful attempts by email. The DNC argued that the WikiLeaks Twitter account is very active and an April tweet appeared to confirm that the organization was aware of the lawsuit.

Though using Twitter to serve legal documents is unusual, it has legal precedent, with the DNC noting that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California had previously decided that Twitter could be used to notify defendants who had an active account.

In addition, another social media network, Facebook, has also been used to serve legal documents before.

WikiLeaks was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, who is currently living under asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The DNC lawsuit argues that the massive trove of internal DNC emails released by WikiLeaks in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, including ones written by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta,was part of a conspiracy to damage Clintonpresidential run and &destablilize the U.S. political environment.&

&Instant booking& apps that let tourists sign up for activities on very short notice have been in the news a lot lately, partly because of Klooknew unicorn status, but also because of the proliferation of startups in the space, especially in Asia. With so many instant booking apps, are there any niches left to fill FunNow thinks so. Instead of targeting tourists, FunNow serves locals who want to find new things to do in their cities. The Taipei, Taiwan-based startup announced today that it has raised a $5 million Series A led by the Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund, with participation from CDIB, a returning investor, Darwin Venture and Accuvest. The capital will be used to expand FunNow into Southeast Asian and Japanese cities.

Along with a pre-A round closed last July, its newest funding brings FunNowtotal raised since its launch in November 2015 to $6.5 million. FunNow currently claims 500,000 members and 3,000 vendors, who provide more than 20,000 activities and services daily. Co-founder and CEO T.K. Chen says the startup will focus on building its presence in Hong Kong, Okinawa, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Osaka and Tokyo.

One noteworthy fact about its Series A is the participation of Alibaba, which is beefing up its online-to-offline (or O2O, the business of enabling users to book and pay for offline services) offerings as competitor Meituan-Dianping prepares to go public in Hong Kong. A roster of Alibaba apps, including Koubei for local bookings, food delivery platform Ele.me and travel app Feizhu, compete against Meituan-Dianping, which describes itself as a &one-stop super app& because it offers all those services.

A not-for-profit initiative, the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund supports startups that might eventually contribute to the tech giantecosystem. While AlibabaO2O apps are focused on capturing a bigger share away from Meituan-Dianping in China, Chen says future synergies may include listing FunNowactivities on Koubei so Chinese tourists can continue using the app when they travel. (Chen added that Alibaba wants FunNow to expand in Southeast Asia as soon as possible.)

Even with a backer like Alibaba, however, the obvious question is how does FunNow compare with other instant booking apps The most notable ones are Klook and KKday, but other players include Headout, Voyagin, GetYourGuide, Culture Trip, Peek and even Airbnbnew &Experiences& feature.

Chen, who notes KlookSeries A in 2015 was also $5 million, says FunNowdeep dive into the local market sets it apart. Its biggest categories are last-minute hotel bookings, like hot spring resorts in Taipei that offer rooms for blocks of several hours in addition to overnight stays; restaurants and bars; massages and other spa services; and events like music festivals and parties.

Chen adds that catering to locals looking for fun stuff to do in their own cities means FunNowuser engagement is high, with 70% of each monthgross merchandise volume from repeat customers. The rest comes from first-time users and about 60% of people make another booking within 30 days after their first purchase. FunNow expects to make revenue of $16 million in 2018, three times what it made in 2017.

Most of FunNowusers are young, in the 25-to-35 age bracket. &We are like Uber, but for booking restaurants, massages, hotels or other kinds of activities around you. We are also targeting spontaneous consumers, because almost all of our bookings are for the next 15 minutes to hour. If you look at our data, 80% of our bookings are for the next hour,& says Chen.

The company tailors its technology platform to local users, too, and relies on a patented algorithm that makes real-time availability calculations to prevent overbookings by syncing with merchant databases. Chen says users can see all available slots based on their location and search perimeters in less than 0.1 seconds and updates in real-time, so people don&t click on something only to find itno longer available.

FunNow also screens vendors before adding them to the platform and will delist businesses that rate below 3.5 stars. The convenience is what draws users back to FunNow instead of, say, just reading reviews on Google or asking friends for recommendations and then messaging or calling for a reservation.

Another challenge that potentially arise in the future is if Klook, KKday or other instant booking apps for tourists decide to start serving locals as well. Chen says he believes those startups will continue focusing on the growing tourist market and demand for half-day or all-day tours.

&If they want to cut into our play, they need to first find merchants one by one and also deploy strong systems to the merchant side,& says Chen. &However, once merchants use our system, itunlikely for them to use two systems to control availability, because you&d need to update all of them to avoid overbooking.&

Despite its first mover advantage, FunNow is also constantly improving its tech, Chen says. &Even in a minute, a business might have sold the seat to a walk-in customer, causing a overbooking and thatthe worst thing to see.&

Disenchantment is the latest animated series from Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama.

The show premieres on Netflix on August 17, and we talk about our initial impressions on the latest episode of the Original Content podcast. Our guest host Brian Heater is a big fan of Groeningprevious creations, and he also interviewed Groening for TechCrunch.

While Disenchantment brings Groeningfunny, skewed approach to a medieval fantasy setting, it isn&t a parody, exactly. Itpacked with jokes, but they rely more on the characters and on general zaniness, rather than references to (say) The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.

Some of us weren&t completely won over the first couple episodes. The most promising aspect of the show is its central trio of characters, including the rebellious princess Bean (voiced by Broad City‘s Abbi Jacobson), her personal demon Luci (Eric Andre) and the runaway elf Elfo (Nat Faxon).

We also discuss recent streaming headlines, including a new show for Apple from the team behind ItAlways Sunny in Philadelphia and new details emerging about Disneyplans for its yet-to-be-named streaming service.

You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcastsor find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You also can send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

Thanks to Anchor for letting us record in their Manhattan podcasting studio before it officially opens.