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TikTok Reportedly Considering Push Into Video Games
Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
TikTok reportedly plans to make a major push into gaming, with the social media giant said to be already testing video game features on its app.
The Culver City-based video-sharing platform, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has conducted tests that let users in Vietnam play games within its app, Reuters reported Thursday. TikTok aims to roll out gaming more widely in Southeast Asia, possibly as soon as the third quarter of this year, according to the report.
When reached by dot.LA for comment, a TikTok spokesperson denied that the company is testing games in Vietnam, but declined to say whether it is testing games in other countries or if it plans to expand into gaming more widely. They added that the firm is always considering new features for its users.
According to TikTok, the only game currently available to users on its platform is Zynga's "Disco Loco 3D,” a music and dance challenge mini-game that launched in November. Reuters, however, reported that TikTok’s ambitions extend beyond mini-games limited to basic game play and short play times.
TikTok—already the world’s most popular website and most downloaded app—could use video games to drive even more user engagement and advertising revenue. The video game industry has seen revenues skyrocket since the pandemic and is especially popular among millennial and Gen Z consumers, who make up a huge part of TikTok’s user base.
Other social media companies, including Santa Monica-based Snap, have already incorporated video games into their apps. Streaming giant Netflix has also pushed into gaming, adding more than a dozen mobile titles as part of its strategy to hang onto subscribers.
Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Heela Yang on How an Uncomfortable Move Inspired Her Bodycare Brand Sol de Janerio
05:00 AM | April 21, 2022
Image courtesy of Heela Yang
On this episode of the Behind Her Empire podcast, Heela Yang, the co-founder and CEO of Sol de Janeiro, talks about how uprooting her life to move to another country helped inspire her award-winning body care line.
When she first proposed the name of her new premium product, “Brazilian Bum Bum Cream,” Yang said she received plenty of advice on why she needed to change it. Instead, she chose to stick with her idea.
“The world did not need another nice body cream. The world did not need another brand that didn't create noise and made people think differently. And so that was what really gave me the courage to trust my gut,” said Yang.
The idea for the cream came from Yang’s experience moving to Brazil to be with her partner (now her husband). Within a month, she was pregnant, and feeling awkward in her own body in an unfamiliar place. But she said she drew inspiration from the way Brazilian women felt comfortable in their own skin.
The revelation came to her, she said, one day at the beach.
“I was feeling a little bit down on myself – low self esteem, you know, new job, new country and but I just started looking around and they're women, of all shapes, all sizes, all colors, just enjoying themselves and loving who they are caressing their body with oil and creams and their hair and jumping into the ocean and coming back out and doing something else—and just so joyful and nobody was looking at me.”
The experience would become the basis for her new brand, Sol de Janerio.
“At that moment, I thought, ‘Wow, I love this feeling,’” she said. “And this is exactly the feeling the beauty industry should give to women through products and through messaging.”
The “Brazillian Bum Bum Cream” launched in 2016, and became Sephora’s best selling skin care cream within few months. With its success, the brand has expanded to products including fragrance and haircare items.
“We were crazy enough to believe that we could make some difference in the industry. Now, if somebody said, ‘Yeah, you could be doing hundreds of millions of dollars by 2021?’ You know, I would have said, ‘Wow, that would be a dream come true.’ And here we are,” said Yang.
Yang credits her approach to her parents and her experiences as an immigrant. Moving from South Korea to America at the age of 12, she learned to adapt to a new culture despite feeling uprooted, she said, by learning how to make friends and adapt to new places.
That experience helped with her later move to Brazil, she said, and helped her appreciate her host country’s perspective on beauty – including their embracing wrinkles and cellulite.
“That's what I fell in love with when I went to Brazil, which is you just completely love and embrace every part of you because it's you. The Brazilians will be saying, ‘Well, that's cellulite, yes. But that's my cellulite… so I'm going to take care of them’,” said Yang.
Hear more of the Behind Her Empire podcast. Subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Audience Engagement Fellow Joshua Letona contributed to this post.
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Yasmin Nouri
Yasmin is the host of the "Behind Her Empire" podcast, focused on highlighting self-made women leaders and entrepreneurs and how they tackle their career, money, family and life.
Each episode covers their unique hero's journey and what it really takes to build an empire with key lessons learned along the way. The goal of the series is to empower you to see what's possible & inspire you to create financial freedom in your own life.
⚖️FTC’s "Click to Cancel" Rule and Its Ripple Effect on Tech
09:58 AM | October 18, 2024
🔦 Spotlight
Happy Friday Los Angeles,
The FTC’s new “Click to Cancel” rule is shaking up subscription-based tech. Now, instead of navigating a maze of cancellation hurdles, users can cancel subscriptions as easily as they signed up—with a single click. This shift is a wake-up call for SaaS, streaming, and app-based companies, where once-hidden exit options often kept users around simply because canceling was a hassle.
The rule also requires businesses to send regular renewal reminders, ensuring customers stay informed about upcoming charges. It's more than a cancellation button—it’s about transparency and giving users control over their decisions.
For startups, the impact goes deeper than UX adjustments. Many have relied on "dark patterns," which subtly discourage cancellations by hiding the exit. Now, companies must shift toward building genuine loyalty by delivering real value, not by complicating exits.
While this might affect retention rates initially, it could lead to more sustainable business models that rely on satisfaction-driven loyalty. Investors may start prioritizing companies that emphasize transparent, long-term engagement over those that depend on dark patterns to maintain retention metrics.
The rule opens the door to more ethical UX design and a truly user-centered approach across the tech industry. It may even set a precedent against manipulative design in other areas, such as privacy settings or payment methods.
Ultimately, the “Click to Cancel” rule presents an opportunity for the tech industry to foster trust and build stronger customer relationships. Startups and established companies that embrace transparency will likely stand out as leaders in a new era of customer-centric tech, where trust—not tricky design—is what retains users.
As the tech landscape continues to evolve, LA Tech Week 2024 offers a chance to explore these shifts in real-time. Check out the upcoming event lineups to stay informed and make the most of your time:
For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Ghost, a company supporting top brands and retailers with streamlined logistics and fulfillment solutions, raised a $40M Series C funding round led by L Catterton to fuel its continued growth and innovation. - learn more
- Hello Cake, a sexual wellness and health brand, raised an $18M Series B funding round led by Silas Capital and Strand Equity and acquired Trigg Laboratories, a Las Vegas-based company, to expand its product line and market presence. - learn more
- Horizon Surgical Systems, a microsurgical robotics company, has raised a $30M Series A funding round led by ExSight Ventures to advance its platform, fund first-in-human studies, and expand its team to drive further innovation. - learn more
- Terray Therapeutics, a biotech company using generative AI to develop small-molecule therapeutics, raised $120M in a Series B funding round led by Bedford Ridge Capital and NVentures, to advance it’s internal programs to clinical trials and further develop its AI-driven platform, tNova. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Finality Capital Partners participated in a $2.85M seed round for Blockcast, a decentralized content delivery network focused on lowering streaming costs and enhancing quality for digital media providers. - learn more
- Assembly Ventures participated in a $27M Series A round for Monogoto, a provider of software-defined connectivity solutions that enable secure, cloud-based IoT and cellular network management on a global scale. - learn more
- StoryHouse Ventures participated in a $3M seed round for Parakeet Health, a generative AI company dedicated to enhancing patient engagement for healthcare providers - learn more
- Angeleno Group participated in a $32M Series C round for REsurety, a company that recently launched an innovative clean energy marketplace aimed at providing better financial and operational insights to support renewable energy transactions. - learn more
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