Quick Bytes – Nov 10th: Big Changes for WhatsApp, Snapchat & Paytm

A look at the most interesting startup and business-related news stories of the week.

Where’s the money coming from?

VC firms are notoriously secretive about where their money comes from and they are no strangers when it comes to accepting investments that are connected to governments. However, there is somewhat of a global crackdown happening when it comes to corruption and a greater requirement of transparency in the US. Mass arrests occurred this week on dozens of top Saudis, including Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a large investor in Twitter and Apple. Twitter’s stock price was down by 2.26% on Monday.and we’re likely to see markets change again with increased Russia investigations and the publicization of the Paradise Papers. Source: Reuters /Business Insider / Wired

Paytm vs Whatsapp

The demonetization of India, where all large bank notes were declared invalid last year, saw many Indians turn to Paytm, an app that helps online payments. Whatsapp, on the other hand, is the messenger of choice in India. Now we’re seeing both companies attempting to encroach on the other’s core function. Paytm is including message functionality and Whatsapp is looking into bank transfers. It will be interesting to watch the factors that affect who is the more successful at a fully integrated product. Source: NY Times

The Full Story

India’s smartphone users love Paytm for sending money and WhatsApp for sending messages. Now each company is getting into the other’s business. Read the Full Article Here

Overlookeed H1-B visa reform

Immigration reforms will always affect Silicon Valley. The strong political fighting over the more extreme reforms, the travel ban and cancellation of DACA, has seen Trump’s planned reforms on the H1-B visa program largely overlooked. Requests for evidence for these are up 44% on last year, the number of applications on the whole has dropped, and some applicants whose cases remained unsolved on Oct. 1, have been sent home from their jobs. If you think this may affect you, we strongly recommend investigating your options with a certified immigration lawyer. Source: Bloomberg

The Full Story

Donald Trump came into office promising a restrictive new approach to immigration and there has been little question about his intention to follow through — with one seeming exception. Read the Full Article Here

Is Snapchat’s issue really design?

It’s big news that Snapchat is not doing well these days. Its redesign is set to make the app more user-friendly -more on what that might look like here. But, is design really what got Snapchat into this rut? Or, is it a series of ill-advised decisions from how to push ads, to Snap Spectacles, to competing in a market against companies with much larger market shares and the agility to essentially ‘take’ Snapchat’s features and adapt them to their own products? Source: Gizmodo

The Full Story

Snapchat, which desperately needs to attract more users as its parent company Snap finds itself swirling the drain just eight months post-IPO (it’s fucked), announced in an earnings report earlier this week it is planning a major redesign in an attempt to attract a new demographic (the olds). According to Business Insider, the launch date for Snap’s last-ditch gamble is pretty soon: December 4th.. Read the Full Article