Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday, January 13

• Uber Invites Developers to Build Apps for Customized Passenger Distractions: Uber, the huge ride-hailing service, delivers millions of rides to passengers. Now the company wants to give people something to do while they’re in the car. On Tuesday, Uber introduced a way for smartphone app developers to create “trip experiences” for riders. The idea, the company says, is to give riders tailored information and entertainment during their time in an Uber vehicle. Uber gave a few examples of how it might look. Upon entering the vehicle, riders could receive a quick news briefing or perhaps be served with a music playlist built to last the length of their ride. “What if developers could also offer users of their apps new ways to enjoy themselves — or get stuff done — while they’re on the road?” Chris Saad, head of product on Uber’s developer platform, wrote in a company blog post. “These integrations help make life simpler and easier for people to get around.” Uber has long been selective about how it works with partner apps and companies. It has struck deals with Facebook, Foursquare and OpenTable to allow users to hail rides from inside the companies’ apps. Uber is also working with a handful of retailers in some cities for its delivery service, UberRush. For Uber, the goal is to make the user experience more pleasant than a usual ride, which may in turn drum up repeat business and affinity for the company’s brand. The company has struck similar partnerships in the past, such as one with Spotify, in which users can select the songs being played during their Uber rides. This approach invites developers to work directly with Uber to submit and test their ideas, but Uber will have final say over whether a developer’s trip experience will be allowed. It is a different, more cautious approach than that taken by companies like Facebook and Twitter, both of which have had strained relationships with third-party developers in the past. The announcement coincided with Uber’s first hackathon in Bangalore, India, where the company is soliciting developers for new integration ideas.

• Tech Funding Slowdown Hits Venture Capital Firms: Venture capital firms raised less money and closed fewer U.S. funds last year, according to data from the National Venture Capital Association, a trade association. With less capital to invest, the decline from 2014 could signal an even tighter funding environment for technology startups this year. Venture capital decreased to $28.2 billion last year, from $31.1 billion in 2014, according to the report from the NVCA and Thomson Reuters. The 235 venture capital funds that closed in 2015 represent a 13 percent decline from 2014. While venture capitalists invested more money into private tech companies in 2015, the number of investments declined, according to research firm according to research firm CB Insights. This suggests that venture investors are chasing fewer but larger deals. Tiger Global closed a $2.5 billion venture fund in November. If the firm's recent investments in Flipkart, Ola, and Airbnb are any indication, Tiger's new fund will continue to make large bets in late-stage private companies. Some startups, facing a tougher fundraising environment, have decided to reduce spending, cut staff, and focus on turning a profit.

• PC shipments fall a record 10.6 percent in fourth quarter: IDC: Global personal computer shipments fell 10.6 percent in the quarter ended in December compared to a year earlier, research firm IDC said on Tuesday, the largest decline since IDC started tracking PC shipments. Longer lifecycles for PCs, along with competition from mobile phones and tablets, have continued to hobble demand, IDC said.

• Rocket Internet faces new setback with loss of senior managers: Germany's Rocket Internet is losing two senior managers, sources told Reuters, in the latest setback for a company that a year ago was considered one of Europe's best hopes for competing with global tech giants. Europe's largest internet firm, which has helped create a buzzing tech scene in Berlin, seeks to be a launch pad for stock market listings of start-ups ranging from online fashion to food delivery, but has seen its stock slide as plans to float its bigger investments have stalled. Rocket's strategy of rapidly expanding into scores of emerging markets raised the possibility that it could outflank the likes of Amazon and Alibaba as well as powerful venture capital firms. But planned flotations of Rocket start-ups have been put on ice in the past year due to a cooling market for tech initial public offerings (IPO) with investors increasingly unwilling to meet high valuations. Now it faces further upheaval with Franziska Leonhardt, head of its legal department, and Uwe Gleitz, senior vice president of corporate finance, both departing soon, according to sources close to the company, both for personal reasons. Leonhardt and Gleitz were members of the team that steered Rocket through its own IPO in October 2014, since which its share price has fallen by almost half from the 42.50 offer price. Since it started out in 2007, Rocket has set up dozens of e-commerce firms around the world, but all of its current crop are still loss-making - meaning it needs to keep eating into its cash reserves to keep them afloat, and making corporate finance a crucial department.