Daily Crunch: GameStop becomes a meme stock

NelsonG · January 27, 2021

Reddit users have some fun with the stock market, Facebook predicts advertising challenges and ByteDance is cutting jobs in India. This is your Daily Crunch for January 27, 2021.

The big story: GameStop becomes a meme stock

GameStop’s stock continued to climb today, along with Blockbuster and AMC — all stocks shorted by institutional investors. These gains were apparently driven by users in the r/WallStreetBets subreddit.

We’ve rounded up the fairly non-committal statements from various trading apps like Robinhood about how they’re responding to this volatility.

And Lucas Matney asks how this might affect cryptocurrencies: “For investors looking to have a good time or shoot the moon, meme stocks are a more fun place to be than crypto is.”

The tech giants

Facebook predicts ‘significant’ obstacles to ad targeting and revenue in 2021 — While Facebook’s fourth quarter earnings report included solid user and revenue numbers, the company sounded a note of caution for 2021.

SAP launches ‘RISE with SAP,’ a concierge service for digital transformation — RISE is a subscription service that combines a set of services and product offerings.

ByteDance is cutting jobs in India amid prolonged TikTok ban — The company employs more than 2,000 people in India.

Startups, funding and venture capital

SoftBank teams with home goods maker Iris Ohyama for new robotics venture — The newly formed Iris Robotics has set an extremely aggressive goal of $965 million in sales by 2025.

Literati raises $40M for its book club platform — CEO Jessica Ewing told me that she’s trying to build the first “new, innovative bookseller” since Amazon launched 25 years ago.

Renewable investment wave continues as solar lending company Loanpal raises $800M — The $800 million commitment to Loanpal arrives alongside a flurry of climate commitments from some of the world’s largest investors.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

How two startups scaled to $50M ARR and beyond — The Exchange examines OwnBackup and Assembly.

Dear Sophie: How can I sponsor my mom and stepdad for green cards? — The latest “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

Check out the amazing speakers joining us on Extra Crunch Live in February — We’ll take a look at funding deals through the eyes of the founders and investors who made them happen.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Battling algorithmic bias at TC Sessions: Justice — At TC Sessions: Justice on March 3, we’re going to dive head-first into data discrimination, algorithmic bias and how to ensure a more just future.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.