VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Pittsburgh’s culinary sector is growing fast as the city host more and more projects in the past few years. Cheap rent is believed to have drawn a lot of people, especially youth, to pursue their project in the city.

Facebook acquired Masquerade to enhance its video features. On Wednesday, the largest social network bought MSQRD, giving its users ability to retouch their photo using playful and animated filters.

Facebook has just acquired a popular face-swapping app MSQRD by the company Masquerade. The acquisition comes after Facebook’s attempt to take over Snapchat, the instant messaging app with the similar feat. The details on the acquisition were not disclosed.

Owners of Samsung Gear VR can connect the headset to their Facebook accounts. Starting next week, users will be able to like and share 360-degree video from inside the VR headset.

Atlas Solution, a subsidiary of Facebook on Monday confirmed to cancel plan to integrate buying platform to its advertising platform. Bots and low quality ads has been the main reason.

There is a saying "Strike while the iron is hot". That is what Silicon Valley is doing - investing big in India where the economy grows faster.

Facebook’s WhatsApp announced that they will stop supporting older mobile platforms, including BlackBerry, Nokia, as well as older Android and Windows operating systems. The decision would allow the app to further improve its features beyond older smartphones’ capabilities.

GE have been trying attract tech workers since last year. In its new Oscars ad, GE mock the startups and proclaim itself as a tech company and an industrial company.

Google introduces AMP project to fasten the loading of news articles on mobile screen. Unlike the traditional web pages, AMP pages consume less power.

The US government has appeared in a row with Apple centering unlocking of encrypted data of an iPhone allegedly used by a terrorist. Apple opposes the demand citing creation of backdoors for the law enforcers, may lead to a potential abuse. Supporting Apple stand, Mark Zuckerberg has pledged playing due rolls in its fight while addressing in the Mobile World Congress on Monday.

Tokopedia, a start-up founded by William Tanuwijaya, is making its presence in Indonesia with its excellent product portfolios. Experts believe that the economic growth in the nation will drive the start-ups to reach its financial stability.

Facebook has announced forming a social VR team. The team is led by two executives, Daniel James and Mike Booth, both from the video games industry. The team is expected to compete with several startups trying to bring video conferencing and social networking into VR.

A leaked document revealed Facebook’s plan to start monetizing on of its fastest-growing and most popular product, the Messenger. The document stated that in the second quarter this year, a new feature would be launched, allowing businesses to send advertisement chats via Messenger.

Apple found support from Facebook and Twitter that it should not be forced to help FBI in unlocking the smartphone of one of the San Bernardino mass shooting assailants, Farook. Even if Apple unlocked phones in the past for solving criminal investigations, it is still the company' best interest to protect their privacy of their customers.

Facebook has introduced an app naming Free Basics in collaboration with Reliance group. Due to allegations for violating net neutrality, TRAI has instructed Reliance group to restrict access into Free Basics till completion of the investigation over its legal aspects. But industry insiders believe, Facebook may reappear with greater vicinity anytime soon.