0TechCrunch

TechCrunch

is a news website focused on information technology companies, ranging in size from start up to established NASDAQ-100 firms. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005. On September 28, 2010, at its TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, AOL announced that it would acquire TechCrunch. The transaction was rumored to be between $25m and $40m.[6]

In 2011, the site came under fire for possible ethics violations. These included claims that Arrington investments in certain firms which the site had covered created a conflict of interest. The controversy that ensued eventually led to Arrington departure, and other writers, including Paul Carr and Sarah Lacy, followed suit.
TechCrunch Disrupt is an annual conference hosted by TechCrunch in San Francisco, New York City, and Beijing, which began in 2011 and is where some technology start up launch their products and services competing on stage in front of venture capital potential investors, media and other interested parties for prize money and publicity. Past winners include Qwiki, Getaround, and Enigma.io
A scandal erupted over the Titstare application, created by participants in a hackathon at Disrupt 2013.

In 2014, TechCrunch Disrupt was featured in an arc of the HBO series Silicon Valley. The characters' startup Pied Piper participates on a start up battle at TechCrunch Disrupt. According to TechCrunch editor Sam O'Keefe, the show representation of the conference was obscenely accurate.

TechCrunch operates CrunchBase, a database of companies and start up, which comprises around 500,000 data points profiling companies, people, funds, fundings and events. The company claims to have more than 50,000 active contributors. Members of the public, subject to registration, can make submissions to the database; however, all changes are subject to review by a moderator before being accepted. Data is constantly reviewed by editors to ensure it is up to date. CrunchBase says it has 2 million users accessing its database each month.
AOL is in dispute with start up Pro Populi over that group use of the entire CrunchBase dataset with apps it has developed, one of which is known as People+. Pro Populi is being represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.