Technology

Get your ticket to the TechCrunch Summer Party at August Capital

We&re sentimental softies when it comes to tradition, and one of our favorites is the TechCrunch Summer Party at August Capital. This marks the thirteenthyear of this Silicon Valley soiree, and we&d love to see you there. Tickets are released in batches, and the first round is available now on a first-come, first-served basis. They always sell out quickly, so buy your ticket today.

The Summer Party is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy an evening of cocktails and conversation — and to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship with your peers on the patio and grounds of August Capital in Menlo Park. Of course, every TechCrunch party holds the potential for networking magic. You never know when you might meet the perfect future investor, acquirer, partner or co-founder.

One legendary example: Our founder, Michael Arrington, used to hold these TechCrunch parties in his Atherton backyard, and itwhere Box founders Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith met one of their first investors, DFJ. Who knows Come to the party and you just might start your own legend.

Here are the pertinent Summer Party details:

  • July 27, 5:30 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.
  • August Capital in Menlo Park
  • Ticket price: $95

Are you an early-stage startup Get a Summer Party demo table and showcase your early-stage startup at this legendary event. Each demo table comes with four (4) attendee tickets. Learn more about demo tables here.

Come for the food, come for the drink, come for the magic. Or hey, come for the door prizes, including TechCrunch swag, Amazon Echos and tickets to Disrupt San Francisco 2018.

The first batch of TechCrunch Summer Party at August Capital tickets are available now, and you can buy yours today. We hope to see you there!

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Samsung announces a push for renewable energy

Samsung has announced that it will use 100 percent renewable energy for all its factories and offices in the U.S., Europe and China. This is the first time Samsung has announced a public commitment for renewable energy.

Greenpeace and environmental activists have been calling out Samsung for months as many tech companies have already started switching to renewable energy.

Samsung is starting by the parts of its organization that it can control more easily — its own buildings, factories and offices. According to Greenpeacepress release, 17 of its 38 buildings are based in the U.S., Europe and China.

&Samsung Electronics is the first electronics manufacturing company in Asia to set a renewable energy target. This commitment could have an enormous impact in reducing the companymassive global manufacturing footprint, and shows how critical industry participation is in reducing emissions and accelerating the transition to renewable energy. More companies should follow suit and set renewable energy targets, and governments should promote policies that enable companies to procure renewable energy easily,& Greenpeace campaigner Insung Lee said in the press release.

It won&t happen overnight. But these buildings will run on renewable energy by 2020. Samsung says that it could increase its use of renewable energy in other countries. In addition to that, Samsung is going to install solar panels in Gyeonggi province in South Korea.

Like many tech companies, Samsung also works with thousands of suppliers. So itnot enough to use renewable energy for your own facilities. Samsung is starting small on this front and partnering with the Carbon Disclosure Project Supply Chain Program.

First, the company wants to identify the energy needs of its top 100 suppliers and help them move to renewable energy. This is a multi-year project, and itgoing to be important to regularly track Samsungprogress on this front.

But italso good to see one of the biggest consumer electronics company in the world making strong commitments.

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& In cases where there is no & hellip; main business being bought or where the digital asset is offered just to be utilized to purchase an excellent or service available through the network on which it was created, & that digital property is & out of the purview of U.S. securities laws &, according to William Hinman, the director of the department of corporation finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This (edited) statement from Hinman at theYahoo Finance All Markets Summit: Cryptowill most likely be viewed as the starting weapon on a crypto free-for-all in the United States. Hinmancomments were definitely a positive signal to the market. They sent the price of Ether increasing from $469 to $516 over the course of the past hour. While the markets might view this as an untainted triumph for cryptocurrencies of all stripes, the Securities and Exchange Commission simply looks to be expanding on the relatively nuanced position itestablished with coin offerings and token sales. Earlier this month SEC Chair Jay Clayton made a similar declaration about Bitcoin and its location in the regulative heavens. For the SEC, while cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether are not securities, token offerings for stakes in business that are constructed off of those blockchains can be, depending on the extent to which 3rd parties are involved in the creation or exchange of value around the properties. The key for the SEC is whether the token in question is being used simply for the exchange of an excellent or service through a dispersed ledger platform, or whether the value of the cryptocurrency depends on the actions of a third party for it to increase in value. & Promoters, in order to raise cash to develop networks on which digital assets will operate, often sell the tokens or coins rather than offer shares, problem notes or obtain bank funding. In numerous cases, the financial compound is the very same as a traditional securities offering. Funds are raised with the expectation that the promoters will develop their system and investors can earn a return on the instrument —-- typically by offering their tokens in the secondary market once the promoters create something of value with the earnings and the worth of the digital enterprise boosts, & Hinman stated. This was at the core of a 1946 case which was chosen by the Supreme Court and set a requirement for the SECauthority to oversee particular types of securities concerns. That case, SEC v. Howeyinvolved the sale of interests in orange groves to guests of a hotel. The visitors could have cultivated their plots of land however instead counted on a service handled by the hotel to develop value from the oranges (this is an extremely rough paraphrase of the facts of the case). & Just as in theHoweycase, tokens and coins are frequently promoted as assets that have an usage in their own right, combined with a promise that the possessions will be cultivated in a manner that will trigger them to grow in value, to be offered later on at an earnings. And, as inHowey—-- where interests in the groves were offered to hotel visitors, not farmers —-- tokens and coins generally are offered to a broad audience rather than to individuals who are most likely to use them on the network, & stated Hinman. Before a network is actually created and as the tokens are marketed to financiers rather than users of the token, they & re going to look a dreadful lot like securities to the SEC. & The token —-- or coin or whatever the digital info packet is called —-- all by itself is not a security, simply as the orange groves inHoweywere not. Central to figuring out whether a security is being offered is how it is being sold and the affordable expectations of purchasers, & Hinman continued. & The digital possession itself is simply code. The way it is sold —-- as part of an investment; to non-users; by promoters to establish the business —-- can be, and, in that context, most often is, a security —-- because it proofs a financial investment agreement. And controling these transactions as securities transactions makes good sense. &. Eventually if the coin offering achieves success, and the operations of the network become completely decentralized, then the SEC will cease to manage the entity as a security, says Hinman. & If the network on which the token or coin is to operate is sufficiently decentralized —-- where purchasers would no longer fairly anticipate an individual or group to perform necessary managerial or entrepreneurial efforts —-- the properties may not represent an investment agreement. When the efforts of the 3rd party are no longer an essential factor for figuring out the enterprisesuccess, product information asymmetries decline. As a network ends up being really decentralized, the ability to recognize an issuer or promoter to make the requisite disclosures becomes tough, and less meaningful. &. For Hinman, Bitcoin and Ethereum have both hit that tipping point. Other coin offerings haven & t. & Promoters and other market individuals need to comprehend whether deals in a specific digital property include the sale of a security. We more than happy to assist promoters and their counsel resolve these problems. We stand prepared to provide more formal interpretive or no-action assistance about the correct characterization of a digital possession in a proposed usage, & said Hinman. Below are a list of queries that the SEC regulator mentioned to help determine whether an offering is a security or an utility token. Exists a person or group that has actually sponsored or promoted the production and sale of the digital possession, the efforts of whom play a substantial function in the advancement and upkeep of the property and its potential boost in value. Has this person or group retained a stake or other interest in the digital asset such that it would be inspired to expend efforts to cause an increase in worth in the digital asset Would purchasers reasonably believe such efforts will be carried out and may result in a return on their investment in the digital property. Has the promoter raised a quantity of funds in excess of what might be needed to develop a practical network, and, if so, has it indicated how those funds might be utilized to support the worth of the tokens or to increase the value of the enterprise Does the promoter continue to use up funds from profits or operations to improve the performance and/or worth of the system within which the tokens run. Are purchasers & investing, & that is looking for a return In that regard, is the instrument marketed and offered to the public rather of to possible users of the network for a rate that fairly associates with the market value of the excellent or service in the network. Does application of the Securities Act defenses make sense Exists a person or entity others are relying on that plays a crucial function in the profit-making of the business such that disclosure of their activities and plans would be necessary to investors Do educational asymmetries exist between the promoters and prospective purchasers/investors in the digital asset. Do persons or entities aside from the promoter workout governance rights or significant impact. And hereanother set of concerns that creators and possible coin offerings ought to consider. Is token development commensurate with meeting the requirements of users or, rather, with feeding speculation. Are independent actors setting the cost or is the promoter supporting the secondary market for the possession or otherwise influencing trading. Is it clear that the main inspiration for purchasing the digital asset is for personal use or usage, as compared to financial investment Have buyers made representations regarding their consumptive, instead of their financial investment, intent Are the tokens offered in increments that correlate with a consumptive versus investment intent. Are the tokens dispersed in ways to fulfill users & requires For example, can the tokens be held or moved just in amounts that represent a purchaserexpected usage Are there integrated incentives that oblige using the tokens promptly on the network, such as having the tokens break down in value with time, or can the tokens be held for extended durations for financial investment. Is the possession marketed and dispersed to possible users or the general public. Are the assets dispersed across a diverse user base or concentrated in the hands of a few that can apply influence over the application. Is the application totally working or in early stages of advancement.
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The AAA games on display at E3 this year have, as usual, an amazing array of beautiful, nearly photorealistic graphics — and while they&re amazing in their own way, I always find it fun to highlight a few games that take a totally different approach to their art. Here are a few that caught my eye this time around.

Sable is a &coming-of-age tale of discovery& set in an open world that you can explore at your own pace. The overall look of the place is rather Journey-esque, but therealso a shade of Hyper Light Drifter in the environments. Most interesting of all, however, is the visual effect that makes the whole thing look rather like a comic book by Moebius.

The effect is a bit hit or miss — some details can end up warping or looking odd — but overall itextremely arresting and definitely set the game apart instantly from its more realistic peers. Hopefully the writing and gameplay live up to its visual style.

Overwhelm is a chunkily pixelated hardcore shooter-platformer with a couple of interesting twists.

First of all, you die in one hit. Thatwhat makes it hardcore.

Feast your eyes on these uniquely beautiful indie games from E3 Second, you only get 99 bullets per level, and your gun needs to cool down after firing three times.

Third, whenever you beat a boss, it gives a special ability like wall climbing not to you, but to all the enemies.

It reminds me a bit of Abuse, a classic side-scrolling shooter with free mouse aiming and scary aliens. But its art style is far more reminiscent of the excellent Downwell, which itself was modeled on (I believe) the original Game Boyfour-shade palette. Minit is another recent example of successfully using this ultra-pared-down look.

Noita (Swedish for &witch&) is one I&ve actually been following for a while now. At first glance this looks sort of like a dig-&em-up, à la Terraria, but the visual and gameplay twist is that every pixel is physically simulated. That means everything in the game can be burned, exploded, melted and so on — dirt will fall, fire will spread, water (and acid, and lava) will flow and escape its container.

You also create your own spells as you delve deeper into the procedurally generated caves looking for &unknown mysteries.& Well, thata bit redundant, but you get the idea. It looks like a real blast.

Signalis goes retro, but in a much different direction than most others. Instead of recreating the beloved pixel art of the SNES or Saturn, it goes to the less-beloved chunky polygons of the PlayStation era. Think Resident Evil. I&m also reminded of the cutscenes from Another World.

Although ithard to say exactly whatgoing on from the trailer, I&m definitely digging the look and feel. The control panels, the mix of polygons and hand-drawn backgrounds, the scary, lonely air and threatening atmosphere… right up my alley.

Last is Ooblets, which as far as I can tell is about planting and farming strange little creatures that eventually have some kind of dance-off in the forest.

It can be hard to really express a visual style in 3D, but I love what Ooblets is doing. Everything is delightfully awkward and cute, with a deliberate stiffness to it as well as a clear design. The unshaded polygons, careful lighting and modeling, it all creates a strange but compelling whole. The closest thing that I can think of to it is the Katamari Damacy series.

I realize now, having written this, that I put &uniquely& beautiful in the headline and then cited similar looks or inspirations for all the games. But really, though, they do take inspiration from others, they&re definitely all doing their own thing. (Really, really, though, I just didn&t want to scroll up and change the headline.)

There were plenty more striking games at the show — check your local indie games site to see what others have dug up!

Feast your eyes on these uniquely beautiful indie games from E3

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Itnot every day you see a company that employs 75,000 and once had a market cap of $20 billion facing instant doom on an hour-by-hour basis.

But thatthe situation that Chinese telecom firm ZTE finds itself in right now. Following revelations that the company sold equipment with U.S. technology to Iran and North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions, President Trump decided to kill the company. Then he decided not to kill it. Now, this week, Congress is deciding whether to kill it or not, much to the chagrin of the White House, who thought the matter closed. Senators like Tom Cotton (R-AK) this week have said they believe that the &Death penalty is right penalty for ZTEbehavior.&

Before we go further, letstep back for a moment and just muse about what is happening here. Congress and the White House are politicking back and forth over the fate of one of Chinacrown jewel tech companies, with tens of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs at stake. If that isn&t the definition of hegemonic power, I don&t know what is. And remember that both branches of government are run nominally by the same party.

China has been leveraging its long-awaited approval of Qualcomm acquisition of NXP Semiconductors to push the Trump administration to concede to ZTEsurvival. The Trump administration has gotten that message loudly and clearly, which is among many reasons why it ended up selecting a $1 billion fine as the penalty and trying to move on.

Congress, though, knows no such logic. It can&t handle the sort of multistep logic that connects Qualcommsuccess on NXP to U.S. dominance in 5G to ZTEsurvival. Thatthree steps, and thatprobably three steps too much for the collective wisdom of Congress to comprehend.

ZTEexecution has now taken on its own political momentum. Worse for ZTE, the momentum is bipartisan, with perhaps even more aggression on the Democratic side than the Republican one. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) was quoted by The Hill saying that saving ZTE &… would send a bad signal to anybody around the world watching that you can violate U.S. sanctions law with impunity and we shouldn&t be doing that.&

For Democrats, hitting Trump hard on trade, National Security and China is a very powerful political weapon in an election year. Since the administration has come to an agreement with ZTE, its position is now fixed, allowing the senators free rein to be tougher than Trump on the issue.

Ironically — and to be clear on this view, I am not getting this from sources, but rather pointing out a unique strategy vector here — it might well be Qualcomm that uses its DC policy shop to try to save ZTE. Those lobbyists protected Qualcomm from a takeover by Broadcom earlier this year, and it could try to make the case to Congress that it will be irreparably damaged if legislators don&t back off their threats.

The irony of course is that the renewed trade jingoism in Congress is a function of Qualcommfight against nominally Singapore-based Broadcom. Qualcomm got the deal blocked on national security grounds, and now has to face those same national security concerns hitting it on the closure of its most important corporate transaction. That classic short-term political thinking earlier this year will make moving forward for the company very difficult here.

ZTEcards are few outside of Beijingdirect interventions. First, it is applying for loans that might reach as much as $10.7 billion from two banks in China,according to the Financial Times. Italso adding a slate of new directors to its board, to match its agreement with the Trump administration. Thatsmart, since the more the deal seems to accomplish, the less impetus Congress has to act to kill the company.

ZTE has other cards it could play. One would be to push for a massive expansion into the U.S. That, of course, contradicts its past history as well as its telco brother, Huawei, which has been mostly barred from entering the U.S. market. Nonetheless, given the priorities of this administration, I am surprised there haven&t been more attempts by ZTE to move jobs and manufacturing to U.S. soil as a peace offering, while gaining the vital support of at least some senators who see jobs springing up in their backyards.

Another option for ZTE would be to increase its corporate transparency. Again, like Huawei, ZTEleadership remains relatively opaque, with Communist Party links that have never been fully explained. ZTE is a valuable asset for the Chinese government and economy, and there is a way of potentially blunting some of the momentum in Congress if it was willing to come forth with more info and commit to future work on its transparency.

I don&t expect ZTE to use any of these cards. I am not even sure the Chinese government wants to prevent the companydeath. An execution ordered by Congress is about the clearest sign the CCP leadership could send to its population that economic development must continue at any cost. Li Yuan in The New York Times called this ChinaSputnik Moment, and I think that is apt. If Congress kills ZTE, it won&t be the death of a major Chinese company, but rather the death of open economies and the birth of a renewed nationalism around trade.

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One of the most popular movies in the U.S. is a terrible teen rom-com called &The Kissing Booth,& and itnot in theaters. Instead, this Netflix Original with its paltry 17 percent critics& score on Rotten Tomatoes, shot up to become the No. 4 movie on IMDb, before more recently dropping down to No. 9. Its leads, Jacob Elordi and Joey King, also became the No. 1 and No. 6 most popular stars on IMDbStarMeter, respectively, shortly after the filmlaunch.

The secret to the moviesuccess, however, is not just a combination of teenagers& questionable taste in entertainment and the power of Netflixdistribution — though both play a major role, clearly.

Instead, itthat &The Kissing Booth& is tapping into a built-in audience: teenage Wattpad users.

Yes, Wattpad.

In case you&re not familiar, Wattpad is an online site and mobile app where writers can share their original stories — often things like fan fiction or sappy love stories (ahem) — with a wide community of readers. Today, Wattpad is visited by more than 65 million monthly users, who spend a collective 15 billion minutes per month reading its online stories.

&The Kissing Booth& was one of its successes.

The original story was started on Wattpad back in 2011, and won one of the site&Watty Awards& that same year for &Most Popular Teen Fiction.&

The story was read a whopping 19 million times while on Wattpad, before the then 17-year-old author Beth Reekles scored athree-book deal with Random House UK in 2013 — becoming the youngest Wattpad writer to earn a book deal at that time, the company notes.

London- and L.A.-based Komixx Media — the movieproducer, which specializes in finding young adult IP with commercial potential — reached out to the author within months of the book deal.

And Netflixordered its adaptation of &The Kissing Booth& in 2016.

&The Kissing Booth is a great example of what is possible on Wattpad,& said Aron Levitz, head of Wattpad Studios, the online communitystudio arm that helps make deals for its authors.

&Beth was a fresh new voice whose story connected with millions of readers all over the world on Wattpad, before becoming a published book,& he noted. &We were able to work with Netflix to market the film on Wattpad and make sure the storyfans around the world hit ‘play& when it started streaming. And now itone of the most popular movies on the planet.&

Wattpad and Netflix teamed up on a writing contest that asked people to submit their stories of high school love. A number of ads for &The Kissing Booth& also ran on Wattpad, driving viewers to the filmpage on Netflix.

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos confirmed to Vulture the title is one of the streaming servicemost popular, saying that &The Kissing Booth& is &one of the most-watched movies in the country, and maybe the world.&

He didn&t cite hard numbers — Netflix doesn&t do that — but the IMDb rankings indicate the movie is at least resonating with its core teen audience.

Since the movie launched on Netflix, the published book has also shot up the charts. Itranking in the top 10 of three &Teen& categories on Amazon, as of the time of writing, including No. 10 in the &Contemporary Teen Romance& category.

Of course, going from an online story to one of the most popular releases in the country is not unique to Wattpad. &50 Shades of Grey& famously began online as &Twilight& fan fiction, for example. But Wattpad has a different audience for its romantic fare than the more adult &50 Shades.& And studios, both traditional and digital, are taking notice.

Most recently, Sony Pictures Televisionacquired the rights to Wattpad story &Death is my BFF,& which was read more than 92 million times, and Hulu gave a straight-to-series order to &Light as a Feather,& which saw more than 2.9 million Wattpad reads. &CupidMatch,& which had over 36 million reads, got a pilot on CW Seed.

Wattpad has also worked withTurner,Universal Cable Productions(a division of NBCUniversal), eOne and Paramount Pictures, among others.

Netflixlatest hit ‘The Kissing Booth& is a Wattpad success story

Critical reviews of &The Kissing Booth,& are, as you may expect, fairly negative.

Itpanned as &lazy and amateur,& &clumsy and ham-handed& and just simply ¬ a good movie.&

But critical interest in films and what people actually watch are often disconnected. Thatcertainly the case here as &The Kissing Booth& has an audience score of 71 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Thatbetter than the top theatrical release, &Ocean8,& which has a 52 percent score; or the even the No. 2 movie, &Solo: A Star Wars Story,& which is at 65 percent.

&The Kissing Booth& may not be a &good& film, but that hardly seems to matter at this point.

Itpopular among a largely younger crowd — a key target for streaming services. These kids and young adults have grown up watching TV and movies on mobile and computer screens, and often stay home from theaters. And they&re reading their fiction on the web and in mobile apps, too.

Netflix has catered to this young audience before, with arguably &bad& but popular original films like &Bright& (26 percent critics versus 85 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes); or the &so bad itgood& holiday film &A Christmas Prince.&

With Netflixnow 125 million subscribersand its $1.5 billion in new debt financing, the service has the potential to tap into any key demographic like this time and time again, and serve up a hit — terrible as it may be. And that hit can reach a mass audience, bigger than cable TV or even the Hollywood productions in theaters, in some cases. Hopefully, at least some of them will be &good& by all measures, though, not just viewership.

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