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Chinese startup Yuanfudao, which provides a homework help app, live courses, and a database of exam problems, raises $300M led by Tencent at a $3B+ valuation (Rita Liao/TechCrunch)

Rita Liao / TechCrunch: Chinese startup Yuanfudao, which provides a homework help app, live courses, and a database of exam problems, raises $300M led by Tencent at a $3B+ valuation  —  Academic exams are a big deal in China as they determine the kind of universities, high schools and elementary schools that students … Chinese

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How indie bookstores are thriving by using Instagram to build communities, and creating "Instagram walls" that often lead to viral photos and free marketing (Nisha Chittal/Vox)

Nisha Chittal / Vox: How indie bookstores are thriving by using Instagram to build communities, and creating “Instagram walls” that often lead to viral photos and free marketing  —  Stores like Books Are Magic and the Last Bookstore are benefiting from love on #bookstagram.  —  The internet is killing independent bookstores. How indie bookstores are

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Google says Android TV has now been deployed by 100+ pay TV operators worldwide and is used by "tens of millions" of customers, mostly in Europe and Asia (Daniel Frankel/Multichannel News)

Daniel Frankel / Multichannel News: Google says Android TV has now been deployed by 100+ pay TV operators worldwide and is used by “tens of millions” of customers, mostly in Europe and Asia  —  Google’s open video operating system proliferates as AT&T readies deployment of set-top powered by platform in the U.S. Google says Android

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Chinese tech companies have thrived thanks to government incentives that allowed them to grow, but government ties can also prove problematic as they go global (Mara Hvistendahl/MIT Technology Review)

Mara Hvistendahl / MIT Technology Review: Chinese tech companies have thrived thanks to government incentives that allowed them to grow, but government ties can also prove problematic as they go global  —  Multibillion-dollar companies like Alibaba and Tencent have thrived thanks to a government that provided incentives but otherwise let them grow. Chinese tech companies

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Israel will give Intel a $185M grant for a planned $5B expansion of its production operations in the country, expects the company to hire 250 new employees (Reuters)

Reuters: Israel will give Intel a $185M grant for a planned $5B expansion of its production operations in the country, expects the company to hire 250 new employees  —  JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will give Intel Corp (INTC.O) a 700 million shekel ($185 million) grant in return for a planned $5 billion expansion … Israel

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Sources describe DOD's plan to win "hearts and minds" in Silicon Valley, amid frustration and anger inside the Pentagon after Google pulled out of Project Maven (Zachary Fryer-Biggs/Wired)

Zachary Fryer-Biggs / Wired: Sources describe DOD’s plan to win “hearts and minds” in Silicon Valley, amid frustration and anger inside the Pentagon after Google pulled out of Project Maven  —  THE AMERICAN MILITARY is desperately trying to get a leg up in the field of artificial intelligence … Sources describe DOD's plan to win

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Crypto mining startup Bitmain confirms layoffs, which, source says, may affect half of its total headcount, with some departments being laid off entirely (Wolfie Zhao/CoinDesk)

Wolfie Zhao / CoinDesk: Crypto mining startup Bitmain confirms layoffs, which, source says, may affect half of its total headcount, with some departments being laid off entirely  —  Months after it filed an application to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Beijing-based cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain … Crypto mining startup Bitmain confirms layoffs,

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