Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we have the details on Salesforce's latest acquisition in the data governance industry; we learn that iPad users will finally have a dedicated app for WhatsApp; and we dig into just how popular YouTube has become for TV watchers. Press play!

TechCrunch Top 3

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🛒 Salesforce goes shopping: Customer relations management giant Salesforce is acquiring data management company Informatica in an $8 billion deal. This isn't Salesforce's first data management acquisition in the last year and is meant to help its AI agents run more smoothly.

💬 iPad app at last: Meta announced that WhatsApp officially has an iPad app. This app will allow users to make video and audio calls with up to 32 people. Considering iPad WhatsApp users were previously accessing the messaging service in a web browser, this seems like a notable improvement.

⛔️ Fraud protection: The App Store has prevented more than $9 billion in fraudulent transactions over the past five years, according to new stats released by Apple. While impressive, this release is also a reminder to developers of the potential dangers of pursuing their own external payment systems.

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg / Getty Images

📺 YouTube reigns supreme: YouTube continues to gain ground with TV viewers. New research from Nielsen shows that YouTube has maintained the largest share of TV viewing for three consecutive months. The platform now accounts for 12.4% of the overall TV viewing audience.

📉 Tesla tumbles: Tesla continues to fall out of favor in Europe, perhaps thanks to Elon Musk's ties with U.S. president Donald Trump. In April, Tesla sold a little more than 7,000 vehicles in the EU, which marked a year-over-year drop of nearly 50%. Even worse, other EV companies are taking that market share.

🦸 AI team, assemble! WordPress announced that it has created an AI team that will focus on developing AI products for the company's developer community. Developers on the platform currently have access to 660 different AI plug-ins.

💼 Already affecting jobs: While it's hard to definitively say that AI is already shrinking available jobs, the signs are all there, especially for entry-level positions. New research shows that tech companies recruited fewer college students in 2024, compared to 2023, and 40% of employers plan to cut staff where AI can be used.

👀 The drama continues: Self-driving truck startup TuSimple, now CreateAI, sent troves of sensitive data to a Beijing-owned firm in 2022, just a week after it told the U.S. government it would not transfer data of that nature due to national security.

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Around the web

😵‍💫 Who is to blame? Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects internet and social media companies from being liable for what their users post. But does it also protect tech companies from what their algorithms show users based on their activity? A court case is trying to find out.

📚 Byju's backstory: Rest of World wrote a comprehensive feature that looks into the rise and fall of once-buzzy Indian edtech startup Byju's. From Byju Raveendran drawing crowds as a math teacher, to Byju's economic downfall, to Raveendran's current goal to eventually get the company back, there is a lot to unpack.