TechCrunch is an American online publisher
of technology industry news founded in 2005
by Archimedes Ventures whose partners were
Michael Arrington and Keith Teare.
It reports on the business of tech, tech news,
analysis of emerging trends in tech, and profiling
of new tech businesses and products.
== History ==
TechCrunch was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes
Ventures - the Partners were Michael Arrington
and Keith Teare.
In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately
$25 million.
=== Controversy ===
A scandal erupted over the Titstare application,
created by participants in a hackathon at
Disrupt 2013.In 2011, the site came under
fire for possible ethics violations.
These included claims that Arrington's investments
in certain firms which the site had covered
created a conflict of interest.
The controversy that ensued eventually led
to Arrington's departure, and other writers,
including Paul Carr and Sarah Lacy, followed
suit.
== Products ==
=== TechCrunch Disrupt ===
First held in 2011, TechCrunch Disrupt is
an annual tech conference hosted by TechCrunch
in San Francisco, New York City, and Europe
(London or Berlin), with one 2011 conference
held in Beijing.TechCrunch Disrupt hosts an
event called Startup Battlefield at its conferences
where startups sign up to pitch their business
ideas on a stage in front of venture capital
investors, media and other interested parties
for prize money and publicity.
Past participants include Dropbox, Beam, Vurb,
Trello, Mint, Yammer, and Crate.io.
=== 
Crunchbase ===
From 2007 to 2015, TechCrunch operated Crunchbase,
a database of the startup ecosystem, consisting
of investors, incubators, start-ups, key people,
funds, funding rounds and events.
The company claims to have more than 50,000
active contributors on its platform.
Subject to registration, members of the public
can make submissions to the database; however,
all changes are subject to review by a moderator
before being accepted.In 2013, Crunchbase
claimed to have 2 million users accessing
its database each month.AOL is in dispute
with start-up Pro Populi over that group's
use of the entire Crunchbase dataset in apps
that Pro Populi has developed, one of which
is known as People+.
Pro Populi is being represented by the Electronic
Frontier Foundation.In 2015, Crunchbase spun
out of AOL/Verizon/TechCrunch to become a
private entity, and is no longer a part of
TechCrunch.
=== Crunchies ===
In 2008, TechCrunch started The Crunchies
award ceremony, which celebrates the "most
compelling startups, internet and technology
innovations of the year".
Techcrunch often creates a list of the top
startups and the funding they received.
Twelve categories have been awarded in 2016,
including "Best New Startup", "Best Overall
Startup", and "Best Mobile App".
2016 was also the first year awarding the
Diversity Award.
== Public personal ==
TechCrunch has more than 10.07 million followers
on Twitter, and more than 2.8 million likes
on Facebook as of February 2018.In 2014, TechCrunch
Disrupt was featured in an arc of the HBO
series Silicon Valley.
The characters' startup "Pied Piper" participates
on a startup battle at TechCrunch Disrupt.
== Available languages ==
TechCrunch is currently available in English,
Chinese (managed by TechNode), and Japanese.
It had a French edition, which was folded
into TechCrunch.com
