Smartnews.com (Domain) Investigation Report

SmartNews is a well-established news aggregation platform based in Japan. It draws monthly traffic around 2.3 million visits, mostly from Japan and the U.S., and serves as a free news app sourcing from over 3,000 media outlets. The website employs reputable infrastructure providers like Amazon and Akamai, includes solid SSL certification by Amazon RSA 2048, and uses standard domain security with GoDaddy.com as registrar. The company displays transparency with multiple contact emails including security and support, and maintains active social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Trademark checks reveal several SMARTNEWS marks, though some registrations are inactive or historic, indicating no current trademark conflicts. No presence on crypto scam blacklists or Google Safe Browsing warnings were found. Google Places lists a legitimate office location in San Francisco with high user ratings. News coverage notes SmartNews' substantial funding rounds and $1.1 billion valuation. However, user feedback reveals mixed app reviews highlighting technical glitches and intrusive ads, though the service is not considered a scam. There is one ongoing copyright lawsuit involving SmartNews. Overall, the domain and company appear authentic with some operational and user experience concerns.