In today’s tech news, Roblox starts to open its books, Snapchat acquires a music app, and big pharmaceutical companies like BioNTech and Pfizer asks to have their vaccines get regulatory approval.
Today’s biggest story: Roblox sets up IPO
Roblox, the kid-friendly online gaming platform, discretely filed to go public sometime in October. But the company only decided to publish the necessary S-1 document with all its financial information on Thursday, November 19.
How does the company’s number perform? Based on the details, the game creation platform appears to be growing rapidly. It had an overall revenue increase of up to 56% back in 2019. It also got another 68% increase during the Q1 to Q3 of 2020, when it saw a whopping $588.7 million in total revenue. But simultaneously, the company’s losses are also growing, with almost $203.2 million recorded during the same months of the year.
The San Mateo, CA-based company also recognized that their success depends on their capability to offer a safe online landscape for their young gamers. If they fail to do that, they know that this business will suffer dangerously.
All about the tech leaders
Popular social media app Snapchat bought Voisey, the app from a UK startup that allows users to come up with a music track that overlays their own voices. Users of this app can include audio fillers like automated harmonies, auto-tune, and other hilarious tweaks to their voices.
Uber may have been very vocal about their anti-racism views, but the number of their Black employees significantly decreased this year. Based on its latest diversity report, its Black employees’ overall representation in the country is lower than in 2019. Last year, 9.3% of employees were Black, but the current employment statistics only has 7.5% Black representation. The vehicle for hire company attributed the decline to the layoffs during the early months of the year.
Search engine giant Google and major social networking sites Facebook and Twitter threaten to vacate Pakistan due to its censorship law. The global Internet corporations had a united front after Prime Minister Imran Khan allowed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to scan digital content that they deem harmful, intimidating, or inciting disaffection towards the government.
All about startups, venture capital, and funding
Loadsmart manages to raise $90 million in funds to boost its all-inclusive freight and logistics platform. The premiere on-demand online freight platform provides booking for transporting freight through rail, land, and ports using a single digital portal.
ORIX committed to investing $60 million in the Israeli crowdfunding platform OurCrowd. The crowdfunding entity also reported that they are working together to develop investment options and financial products for the Japanese and worldwide markets.
In other news
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German biotechnology enterprise BioNTech submit their request to have emergency use approval of their developing vaccine for COVID-19 on Friday, November 20. These urgent approvals still need supporting facts and safety information, but they are fast-tracked to speed up creating the much-needed vaccine.
More updates are expected to come out in the tech world.
