TC Roundup: Google buys photo backup app Odysee to bolster Google+

Google buys photo backup app Odysee to bolster Google+: Google hasn't given up on Google+. Today news broke that Google has acquired yet another app to improve its social network. This time it's Odysee, an app for backing up photos from you phone to your desktop. With the deal, Odysee shares that its photo saving and sharing service will shut down on February 23. And going forward, the Odysee team will join the Google+ team, where it's safe to assume they'll continue to work on photo syncing and sharing products in some capacity. (Venture Beat)

This is how dire cyberthreats have gotten: Expert: In the current state of the world, there's almost no way for companies to protect their date from cyberattacks, John Hering, co-founder of mobile security firm Lookout, told CNBC on Friday. (CNBC)

Twitter's user growth falls below Facebook's for the first time: Twitter 's user growth nearly ground to a halt in the fourth quarter, hitting a company record low of 1.4%. It's a troubling sign if user growth is the only metric considered, but to Twitter it doesn't tell the whole story. (The Wall Street Journal)

Line launches $42M fund to turn its messaging app into a lifestyle platform: Messaging app Line, which aspires to be more than just a communication tool, announced today that it will launch an investment fund to grow its network of services. Called LINE Life Global Gateway, it is worth about 5 billion yen (or $42 million). LINE Corp, the messaging app's owner, will use it to invest companies that provide online-to-offline (O2O), e-commerce, payment, media, and entertainment services.

The fund is a key part of Line's strategy to make sure that its future earnings does not depend too heavily on its messaging app or connected games platform, which the company currently derives most of its revenue from. (Tech Crunch)