Fact-checking chatbot comes to WhatsApp
The International Fact-Checking Network last week rolled out a chatbot on WhatsApp to help connect the app’s 2 billion+ users with fact-checking organisations around the world. It aims to help users to determine whether content related to Covid-19 has been rated as false by enabling them to submit information to local fact-checkers for review. The bot also offers a global directory of fact-checking organisations and is currently available in English, with plans to add Hindi and Spanish in the near future.

Snapchat launches new AR Lenses for #BeatTheVirus
Snapchat has become the first official partner of #BeatTheVirus, a platform dedicated to stressing the importance of the key messages around combatting the spread of Covid-19. As part of the partnership, the platform has released four augmented reality Lenses, including a Coronavirus Quiz Lens to help slow the spread of misinformation.

Twitter rolls out changes to threaded conversations
Twitter has released a new layout for replies on the platform that will use lines and indentations to make it easier to understand who you’re replying to and how the conversation is flowing. It is also testing putting engagement actions — such as the like, retweet and reply icons — behind an extra tap to make replies to conversations easier to follow. The features are initially rolling out to a portion of Twitter users on iOS and the web.

Pinterest reported strong first quarter earnings last week, with revenue up 35% year-on-year to $272 million, beating analyst expectations. The platform’s global monthly active user base also increased by 26% year-on-year to 367 million. However, the company also reported a net loss of $141 million for the quarter (up 241% from the same time last year) and warned that its overall outlook “might be rocky” in the months ahead, due to the Covid-19 crisis. Pinterest shares fell 18% in after-hours trading, following the release of the report.

Pinterest releases several new updates for boards 
Last week, Pinterest globally rolled out several updates to its boards on the web, iOS and Android, after the platform saw a 60% increase in total boards created globally in April compared with the same month last year. Among the new features is a board notes update, which enables Pinners to add details to their boards – such as necessary ingredients for a recipe or a to-do list. Pins can be added as notes. Other updates include being able to add dates to a board to help track projects, automatic grouping of Pins on boards into sections, and more.

Pinterest teams up with Shopify to support merchants
Pinterest and Shopify have teamed up to launch a new application on Shopify’s platform which will allow retailers to upload their catalogues to Pinterest and turn products into Shoppable Product Pins. The app offers merchants easy setup and access to distribution across Pinterest and adds a shop tab to a merchant’s profile. The feature is currently available to merchants in the US and Canada, with the integration becoming available to merchants globally in the coming weeks.

Tumblr re-evaluates of how it deals with hate speech
As part of ongoing efforts to tackle hate speech on its platforms, Tumblr has announced that it will now evaluate all blogs that have been removed for hate speech and consider mass deletion of reblogs when appropriate. The move comes following recent research conducted by the platform, along with user reports, which showed that much of the existing hate speech was in the form of reblogs from blogs that had already been removed.

MLB The Show Players League receives over 32 million views
With all real-world games currently on hold, MLB fans have flocked to the MLB The Show Players League – an online gaming round-robin which saw 30 players (one from each club in the League) go head-to-head in 29 three-inning games. Each of the games was livestreamed on Twitch and YouTube, with a variety of additional content available on MLB’s Facebook and Twitter, generating a collective 32 million+ video views. Participating players saw bumps on Instagram, with Champion Blake Snell growing his Instagram following by 12%.

Ones to watch
Facebook has launched a new connectivity app in Peru, called Discover, to help those who can’t afford to get online access information on the web; and Twitter is testing a new feature that will prompt users including “harmful” language to self-edit before posting a reply.

This post We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #491 appeared first on We Are Social.

We Are Social’s new Digital 2020 reports – published in partnership with Hootsuite – show that digital, mobile, and social media have become an indispensable part of everyday life for people all over the world.

More than 4.5 billion people now use the internet, while social media users have passed the 3.8 billion mark. Nearly 60 percent of the world’s population is already online, and the latest trends suggest that more than half of the world’s total population will use social media by the middle of this year.

Some important challenges remain, however, and there’s still work to do to ensure that everyone around the world has fair and equal access to life-changing digital connectivity.

You’ll find We Are Social’s full Digital 2020 Global Overview Report in the SlideShare embed below, but read on to find our summary of this year’s key headlines, numbers, and trends.

Digital in 2020: the essential headline numbers
Digital’s role in our lives has reached new heights, with more people spending more time doing more things online than ever before:

• The number of people around the world using the internet has grown to 4.54 billion, an increase of 7 percent (298 million new users) compared to January 2019.
• Worldwide, there are 3.80 billion social media users in January 2020, with this number increasing by more than 9 percent (321 million new users) since this time last year.
• Globally, more than 5.19 billion people now use mobile phones, with user numbers up by 124 million (2.4 percent) over the past year.

You’ll probably spend more than 100 days online this year
The average internet user now spends 6 hours and 43 minutes online each day. That’s 3 minutes less than this time last year, but still equates to more than 100 days of connected time per internet user, per year. If we allow roughly 8 hours a day for sleep, that means we currently spend more than 40 percent of our waking lives using the internet.

What’s more, the world’s internet users will spend a cumulative 1.25 billion years online in 2020, with more than one-third of that time spent using social media. However, the amount of time that people spend online varies from country to country, with internet users in the Philippines spending an average of 9 hours and 45 minutes per day online, compared to just 4 hours and 22 minutes per day in Japan.

Getting to full access: connecting the unconnected
More than 2 billion people have come online since the first mention of ‘The Next Billion’, but just over 40 percent of the world’s total population – roughly 3.2 billion people – remains unconnected to the internet.

More than 1 billion of these ‘unconnected’ people live in Southern Asia (31 percent of the total). Countries in Africa account for 27 percent of the total, with 870 million people yet to come online across the continent as a whole.

Age plays a significant role in determining levels of internet access across these regions: more than half of Africa’s total population is below the age of 20, and there are more than 460 million people below the age of 13 across Southern Asia.

However, gender is also a critical factor, with data from the ITU showing that women are more likely to be ‘unconnected’ compared to men. The digital gender gap is also apparent in our latest social media data. In particular, women in Southern Asia are three times less likely to use social media today compared to men, offering meaningful insight into broader internet connectivity in the region.

Even more worryingly, research from GSMA Intelligence suggests that more than half of all women living in India today are unaware of the existence of mobile internet.

The United Nations reports that much of this imbalance stems from “deeply ingrained social norms and practices.” Regardless of the cause, however, connecting the unconnected will depend heavily on improving digital accessibility for women, especially in developing economies.

There’s lots of work to do here, and it’s work that brands can help with. If you’d like to learn more about this important topic, GSMA Intelligence’s comprehensive Mobile Gender Gap Report explores many of the underlying issues and challenges in detail, while their excellent Mobile Connectivity Index offers richer perspectives at a local country level.

Mobile now accounts for half of internet use
GlobalWebIndex finds that mobile phones now account for more than half of all the time we spend online, with the company’s data putting mobile’s share of internet time at 50.1 percent.

With 92 percent of the world’s internet users now connecting via mobile devices, this figure may be lower than some might expect, but various data points confirm that computers continue to play an important role in our connected lives.

Despite mobile’s ubiquity, three-quarters of internet users aged 16 to 64 still go online via laptop and desktop computers. Furthermore, data from Statcounter reveal that roughly 53 percent of all web page requests now come from mobile phones, but that computers still account for 44 percent of the total.

All of this data points to the fact that most people still use a variety of different devices to go online. As a result, a balanced device strategy is still essential. Moreover, people use different devices at different times and for different needs, so marketers must go beyond technical considerations to understand the various use cases and contexts for each device when building their plans.

Apps are where it’s at
Data shared with us by App Annie reveal that mobile apps now account for 10 out of every 11 minutes we spend using mobile devices, with web browsing only responsible for 9 percent of our mobile time.

However, when we consider the extent of app offerings available to today’s mobile users, this is perhaps unsurprising. Data from GlobalWebIndex show that we’re using apps in almost every aspect of our lives, whether it’s staying in touch with family and friends, relaxing on the couch, managing our finances, getting fit, or even finding love.

It’s worth noting that helping people find love is big business too. Tinder generated more revenue than any other non-game app in 2019, while the world’s lonely hearts spent a total of US$2.2 billion on all dating apps during the course of 2019 – twice as much as they spent in the same category two years ago.

Our love affair with apps shows little sign of slowing either, despite the rise of ‘progressive web apps’. App Annie reports that the world’s smartphone users downloaded more than 200 billion mobile apps in 2019, spending a total US$120 billion on apps and app-related purchases over the past 12 months. Combined with recent data from Ericsson, these figures suggest that the average user now spends an annual average of more than US$21 per connected smartphone.

App Annie’s new State of Mobile 2020 report also reveals that games account for the greatest share of mobile app downloads – more than 1 in 5 of the total – and drive 70 percent of worldwide consumer spend on mobile apps. However, games are not the biggest category when it comes to the share of total time spent using mobiles, as we’ll explore in the next section.

We really are social animals
Roughly half of the 3.7 hours that people spend using mobile phones each day is spent using social and communications apps, meaning that these platforms account for the same share of our mobile time as all of our other mobile activities put together.

Across mobile devices and computers, GlobalWebIndex reports that we now spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes per person, per day using social media, up by 2 minutes per day since this time last year.

Once again, the story varies by country. Filipinos are still the world’s most ‘social’ people, with the average internet user aged 16 to 64 spending almost 4 hours per day on social platforms. It’s a very different picture at the other end of the scale though, with internet users in Japan spending an average of just 45 minutes per day using social media.

But where exactly are we spending all of that social time – and just how big is TikTok? All will be revealed below…

Facebook still dominates
Despite various challenges over the past few years, Facebook is still top of the pops when it comes to social. Trends in user numbers reported in the company’s earnings announcements suggest that the platform should have already passed the historic 2.5 billion monthly active users (MAU) mark, and user numbers continued to grow steadily across most countries during 2019.

However, for various reasons, marketers can’t reach all of these users using Facebook advertising, and the platform’s own self-service advertising tools indicate that the total addressable Facebook audience now stands at 1.95 billion, or roughly 80 percent of total MAUs.

Facebook has seen a few audience declines over the past year too. Its self-service advertising tools reported notably lower reach figures for India, Spain, and South Korea at the start of 2020 compared to just a few months earlier. However, overall, Facebook’s audience reach has grown by 1 percent in the past 3 months alone.

Critically, marketers can now use Facebook to reach one-third of all the world’s adults aged 18 and above, and more than half of all the world’s adults aged 18 to 34.

Time for TikTok
TikTok was probably the media’s top social story in 2019, with some huge – and often misrepresented – numbers hitting the headlines. However, a TikTok advertising sales deck leaked by AdAge a couple of months ago offers more clarity on what’s been going on.

First up, there’s no denying it: TikTok is big. 800 million monthly active users big.

However, 500 million of these active users – more than 60 percent of the total – live in China. That means that the platform has roughly 300 million monthly active users outside of China.

Furthermore, the latest data from App Annie suggest that Chinese users account for 80 percent of the total time spent using TikTok in 2019, while users in India account for a further 10 percent of the total. That means that users in China and India are responsible for roughly 9 in every 10 minutes spent using TikTok around the world.

Regardless of country differences, however, TikTok climbed to sixth place in the global mobile app rankings by monthly active users for 2019. For context, TikTok is still behind WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat and Instagram, but it’s already ahead of all the other social platforms.

However, it’s important to stress that the data do not indicate that TikTok’s success has come at the expense of any of the Western social networks. In fact, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have all reported increases in their advertising audience reach over the past few months, even amongst users aged 13 to 17.

Strong growth isn’t limited to TikTok
While the media has been distracted with all the hype surrounding TikTok, some other social platforms have been posting some impressive numbers that seem to have slipped under the radar.

Top of the growth charts is Reddit, whose reported monthly active user numbers have surged by 30 percent (100 million new users) since this time last year, with the company’s latest reports revealing that the platform now attracts 430 million users each month.

Meanwhile, Pinterest has enjoyed similar success, growing its total active user base by 29 percent over the past year. The platform has attracted more than 70 million new monthly active users (MAUs) over the past 12 months, to reach a total MAU figure of 322 million at the start of 2020.

The company has also added a number of new countries to its advertising targeting options, resulting in a quarter-on-quarter increase in reported potential advertising reach of 12 percent between October 2019 and January 2020.

Sina Weibo has also been enjoying impressive growth, with recent trends suggesting that the platform’s MAU numbers should pass the half-billion mark within the next few months. The 497 million MAUs that the platform reported in November was buoyed by an annual increase of 51 million new users, equating to year-on-year growth of 11 percent.

The influence of the East
Mirroring a trend that we highlighted in our Digital 2019 Q4 Digital Statshot report, various data points in our Digital 2020 reports show that the internet’s centre of gravity is moving progressively eastward. This trend is even more visible in the latest data, with Asian apps and websites commanding an ever-increasing share of global activity.

In particular, the latest rankings of the world’s top websites illustrate the dramatic rise of Asia’s ecommerce platforms. In its latest list, Alexa [note: not the voice assistant] places China’s Tmall in third place in the global website rankings – that’s ahead of both Facebook and Baidu, and 10 place higher than its top Western competitor, Amazon. Across the full top 20 sites, Alexa includes 5 Chinese ecommerce sites, 4 of which belong to Alibaba.

It’s worth noting that Alexa uses a 3-month rolling average of monthly website traffic to determine its rankings, and the latest data include activity around Singles’ Day. This huge online shopping festival – the Chinese equivalent of Black Friday or Cyber Monday – is increasingly popular throughout Asia, so it’s perhaps not surprising that China’s ecommerce giants are becoming much more visible at a global level.

However, it’s not just China’s ecommerce sites that are breaking through at a global level:

• Baidu, China’s top search engine, ranks fifth in Alexa’s latest list, and fourth in a similar ranking from SimilarWeb.
• QQ, a popular messenger platform owned by WeChat’s parent company, Tencent, currently claims the sixth spot in Alexa’s rankings
• Seventh spot in Alexa’s rankings is occupied by Sohu, a popular online portal that offers news, search, gaming, and various other services.
• Qihoo 360, a Chinese internet security company that is best known for its antivirus software, popular web browser, and mobile app store, takes Alexa’s tenth spot.

Asia’s rising influence is also evident in the latest rankings of mobile apps. App Annie reports that 6 of the world’s 10-most used non-game apps in 2019 belong to Chinese companies, while 4 of 2019’s top 10 games by monthly active users were developed by Chinese companies.

For context, Eastern and Southeastern Asia account for roughly one-third of the world’s total internet user population at the start of 2020 (1.5 vs 4.5 billion). What’s more, with more than 50 million new users coming online for the first time in the region over the past 12 months, these audiences will play an increasingly influential role in shaping the next phase of the internet’s growth – in Asia and beyond.

Voice continues to grow
The latest data from GlobalWebIndex show that use of voice interfaces has grown by more than 9 percent over the past year, with 43 percent of the world’s internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 now using voice search and voice commands on any device each month. For context, if that figure were applicable to the entire global internet users base, it would equate to almost 2 billion monthly active users.

However, it’s important to stress that the rise of voice isn’t only about the use of smart speaker devices. One in three global internet users now use voice interfaces on their mobile phones each month, but these figures are even higher in Asia: 40 percent of Indian internet users say they used a voice interface on their phone in the past month, compared to 42 percent in China, and an impressive 48 percent in Indonesia.

With these countries home to some of the world’s largest internet populations, expect voice control to find its way into an increasing number of mobile apps over the coming months, especially because people around the world are increasingly using voice search as part of their shopping journey.

The worried wide web
Privacy remains an important issue for internet users around the world, and the latest research finds that we’re more concerned today than we were this time last year. GlobalWebIndex reports that 64 percent of internet users are worried about how companies use their data, up from 63 percent at the start of 2019.

People are also increasingly distrustful of the things that they see and hear on the internet. 56 percent of adults aged 18+ around the world surveyed by The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said that they were “concerned” about what is real or fake on the internet, up from 54 percent in the previous year’s study.

Meanwhile, the number of people around the world aged 16 to 64 who use tools to block ads each month has also increased since our Digital 2019 reports. GlobalWebIndex reports that nearly half of all internet users aged 16 to 64 used an ad blocker in the past month, up from the 47 percent that they reported this time 12 months ago.

However, it’s worth highlighting that GlobalWebIndex’s survey respondents cite frustrations with the sheer number of adverts on the internet as their primary motivation for using ad blocking tools, ahead of motivations related to privacy concerns.

Moreover, various data points in this year’s reports highlight what we might call a ‘digital privacy paradox’. There’s little doubt that many of us really are increasingly concerned about our digital privacy, but we’re also increasingly likely to adopt devices and technologies that are specifically designed to create and share even more intimate data about our lives.

For example, Statista reports that the number of homes around the world with at least one smart home device increased by a third over the past year, indicating that tens of millions of people have consciously decided to spend an average of US$550 a year on devices that actively listen to and track the things that they do in the privacy of their own homes.

Games are a serious business
More than 4 in 5 internet users aged 16 to 64 around the world play video games every month, which would equate to a total global gaming community of more than 3.5 billion people if we applied that figure to the total internet user population. The majority of gamers play games on their smartphones (69 percent of all internet users), but 25 percent of internet users also report playing games on dedicated gaming consoles.

These more ‘dedicated’ gamers spend an average of 70 minutes per day playing console games, but this rises to more than 90 minutes per day for console gamers in Thailand, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia.

People are increasingly willing to spend money on games, too. NewZoo reports that gamers spent more than US$150 billion on games in 2019, an increase of almost 10 percent compared to the previous year. Similarly, Statista reports that internet users spent more than US$83 billion on online game purchases in 2019, up by roughly 5 percent year-on-year.

Mobile games are also big business, with App Annie reporting that the world’s mobile users spent more than US$65 billion on game apps and game-related in-app purchases in 2019, accounting for more than 70 percent of total consumer spend on mobile apps in the past 12 months.

It’s worth noting that in-app purchases are an increasingly important part of the gaming industry, with GlobalWebIndex reporting that 8 percent of all internet users aged 16 to 64 purchased some form of game-related “DLC” (downloadable content) in the past month alone.

People are also spending more time watching other people playing games. 1 in 5 internet users aged 16 to 64 watched a live-stream of someone else’s gameplay during the past 30 days, while 1 in 7 watched an esports tournament.

Many marketers in the West remain skeptical of esports, perhaps because they see little evidence of their popularity in their own lives. However, the data offer irrefutable evidence that hundreds of millions of people around the world already watch other people playing games every month.

Video is still the one to watch
The latest data from Ericsson suggest that the world’s mobile internet users will consume more than half a trillion gigabytes of mobile data during 2020, with roughly two-thirds of that total being used to stream and download video content. Fun fact: if you tried to store all of that data on 3½” floppy disks, you’d need a stack of disks that stretched from the Sun to somewhere beyond Jupiter.

Video’s scale isn’t just about data consumption, either. GlobalWebIndex reports that 90 percent of internet users aged 16 to 64 now watch online videos each month, which would translate to more than half of the world’s total population if we applied that figures across all of the world’s internet users.

YouTube still commands the greatest share of the world’s online video viewers, and our calculations indicate that roughly 3 billion people watch at least one YouTube video each month [note: YouTube itself reports 2 billion signed-in viewers each month].

However, the number of people streaming TV content via the internet also continues to rise. GlobalWebIndex’s latest data show that two-thirds of internet users aged 16 to 64 now watch TV content via some form of subscription service (e.g. Netflix).

Paid video subscription services are popular with mobile users too. App Annie reports that video apps accounted for 5 of the world’s top 10 non-game apps ranked by consumer spend in 2019. Three of these apps – Tencent Video, iQiyi, and Youku – cater primarily to internet users in China, reinforcing a finding from Statista that the country’s internet users are the most willing to pay for digital content.

No stopping shopping
Roughly three-quarters of the world’s internet users aged 16 to 64 buy something online each month, with GlobalWebIndex finding that ecommerce adoption rates are highest amongst internet users in Indonesia, Thailand, and Poland.

The distribution of adoption across geographies suggests that economic development is not the primary determinant of ecommerce use, and that other factors are more important, such as sites that cater to the language needs and cultural preferences of local shoppers.

Worldwide, ecommerce consumers are more likely to purchase through a mobile device than through a laptop, although the data reveal that most people use both devices for their online shopping, depending on the type of product they’re buying and the context of their shopping activities.

Meanwhile, the latest data from Statista shows that worldwide ecommerce spend grew significantly during 2019, although – as one might expect – growth rates varied by category. Travel, the largest category by online consumer spend, saw the slowest year-on-year growth amongst the categories that Statista tracks, with global annual revenues up by roughly 8 percent to reach US$1.19 trillion.

Online purchases of Furniture & Appliances saw the fastest year-on-year growth, with 2019 worldwide consumer revenues of US$316.7 billion marking a 19 percent jump compared to 2018 spend. The Fashion & Beauty and Electronics & Physical Media categories also saw impressive gains, with consumer ecommerce revenues in both categories increasing by 18 percent between 2018 and 2019.

At a global level, the average ecommerce shopper now spends almost US$500 on online purchases of consumer goods each year, although Statista reports that this varies significantly by country, from an average of US$1,441 per person in South Korea, to just US$20 per person in the Philippines.

Average annual revenues per user (ARPU) grew by 9 percent over the past 12 months, but growth in Southern Asia was much faster. The latest data show that average ecommerce spend on consumer goods in India has increased by 43 percent compared to 2018 figures, but is still below US$50.

However, these figures are based on absolute spending, and don’t factor differences in average income or each country’s overall economic strength. By comparing ecommerce ARPU to GDP per capita, we get a more representative perspective of the countries in which ecommerce is gaining the greatest momentum.

As we detailed above, China’s ecommerce websites are already amongst the world’s most-visited online destinations, so it might not come as a surprise that China leads the way in GDP-adjusted ARPU rates. However, despite relatively low figures for absolute ecommerce ARPU, Egypt and Indonesia both rank highly for these GDP-adjusted averages, while Ghana, Kenya, and India also find themselves much higher up the rankings.

Shopping is a journey, not a destination
“Omnichannel” has become a buzzword in the retail industry, and rightly so: all the evidence indicates that the world’s shoppers are making less and less of a distinction between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ when it comes to their shopping. Blended behaviours such as ‘click and collect’ are on the rise, and showrooming – where consumers visit physical world stores before buying products online – is also an increasingly common practice.

Overall, GlobalWebIndex reports that search engines are the primary source of discovery for new brands and products for the world’s internet users, slightly ahead of television adverts.

Meanwhile, across all online shoppers aged 16 to 64, search engines are the first choice for people who are actively researching brands, products and services to buy, with more than half (53 percent) of GlobalWebIndex’s survey respondents saying that they use these tools.

However, the company also reports that younger users are more likely to turn to social media when they’re researching brands and products, finding that social networks have already overtaken search engines as the most popular method of online research for people aged 16 to 24.

Social media’s role in the purchase journey continues to expand, with 43 percent of internet users around the world aged 16 to 64 now saying that they use social networks when researching things to buy.

But social commerce hasn’t caught on to the extent that many marketers might have hoped. As GlobalWebIndex stated in their recent Commerce trends report,

“While social networks often play a central role in the initial steps on the path to purchase, only 12 percent of internet users say that a ‘buy’ button on a social network would drive them to check-out online.”

The authors go on to note that,

“At present, enthusiasm about buying ordinary goods and services via social networks is limited. However, this is something that robust branded content and inspiration can change.”

The key takeaway here is that there is no silver bullet when it comes to “closing a sale”, and marketers would do well to consider the full scope of the consumer purchase cycle – from initial discovery through to purchase, and even post-purchase activities – when devising their plans.

Moreover, marketers would do well to stop thinking in terms of ‘online’ and ‘offline’. With most shoppers demonstrating that they’re equally happy to engage with connected devices and physical-world properties in equal measure – often simultaneously – it’s increasingly clear that these ‘lines’ only exist in marketers’ heads and budgets.

And finally…
Every year when we’re producing these reports, we spot something fun in the data. In previous editions that’s been which emoji people use most on Twitter (we’ve included that in this year’s report too), or the discovery that Yahoo! is still more popular than porn (spoiler alert: it still is).

However, this year’s fun fact goes to the very heart of why the internet exists, and marks a fundamental shift in the internet’s centre of gravity that’s arguably as radical as the rising influence of the East.

If you’ve been online since the 90s (ahem), you may know that the internet was in fact invented to share pictures of kittens. However, recent trends in some of our most cutting-edge data reveal that things may be changing.

Data from Google Trends reveals that people searched for dogs almost twice as frequently as they searched for cats in 2019. For reference, the average search index for ‘dog’ in 2019 was 90, compared to an average of 52 for ‘cat’.

Similarly, Twitter’s ad targeting tools report that more than 250 million of the platform’s users are “interested” in dogs, compared to just 250,000 who are interested in cats – that’s a thousand-fold difference.

Dogs even outperform cats on Instagram. A quick search reveals almost 250 million posts have been published to the platform using #dog, compared to just 200 million for #cat. Doug the Pug also has more followers than Grumpy Cat (RIP).

However, there’s still hope for cat lovers: a Google search for ‘dog’ at the start of 2020 delivered a total of 6.76 billion results, but a search for ‘cat’ returned a total of 6.82 billion.

Cats also still rule Reddit, where r/cats is home to 1.70 million users, compared to 1.29 million for r/dogs.

We’ll share updates on this important story as and when we get them. Let the debates commence.

Looking ahead
We’ll publish a few more articles that dig deeper into some of the more nuanced findings in this year’s reports over the coming weeks, and we’ll also share more detailed data for local countries starting in mid-February.

But how can we translate these findings into more efficient and effective plans? Let’s finish with three top tips.

Go beyond your bubble
Internet behaviours are changing, with influences from around the world shaping the expectations and preferences of people in all corners of the globe. It’s no longer enough to watch what’s going on in your own backyard (or valley); global marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve need to broaden their horizons, and look to other parts of the world for insight and inspiration.

Our 240+ local country reports will be a good place to start, but you can also take simpler, more everyday steps to learn. Digital and social platforms make it easier than ever to connect with – and learn from – people all over the world, whether they’re domain experts on LinkedIn and Twitter, or everyday people on Instagram.

Top tip: Don’t just rely on research; go out onto the web and into social media and watch what’s happening for yourself.

Prioritise people
Many of the marketers I speak with around the world ask me whether TikTok will overtake Facebook, whether VR will become “a thing”, or whether the data I see point to a “next big thing.”

We strive to offer insight on all of these issues through our regular Global Digital Reports, but my answer to all of these questions is the same: focus your attention on people, not technology.

Almost without exception, the companies and brands that succeed over the long-term are those that successfully satisfy people’s wants, needs and desires – not those who’ve jumped on a bandwagon, created an isolated ‘viral’ campaign, or jumped at every shiny new toy without a clear strategy.

Understanding people will serve you well regardless of the latest trends in technology, fashion, or business.

My advice here is similar to the advice I shared above: take a few minutes each day to go onto public social media platforms and learn about what your audience cares about. You don’t need creepy, invasive data for this – just search for a few relevant hashtags on Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and you’ll quickly start to learn what really matters to your audience.

Don’t just search for product-related hashtags, though. Try exploring cultures too, by constantly asking yourself what’s different about what you’re seeing compared to what you expected.

Focus
Staying on top of the latest tech trends is one of the biggest causes of stress for marketers everywhere. Hopefully, our Global Digital Reports help, but maybe a better answer is less, not more.

Do you really need to try that niche new platform with a couple of million users, or might you be better focusing your efforts (and budgets) on one or two proven platforms with billions of active users?

Will that shiny new toy really propel your brand to perpetual success, or is it just a pleasant distraction from quarterly planning? More importantly, is it a sustainable solution that justifies a steep learning curve (VR, anyone?)

On the flip-side, can you really justify ignoring the big trends, just because they don’t appeal to you on a personal level? Gaming, voice interfaces, and esports are all hugely popular with global audiences, yet continue to be underrepresented in the media coverage, in marketing plans, and in brands’ budgets.

Top takeaway: In 2020, use data-driven insights to identify a handful of technologies and platforms that really matter to your brand’s success, and not simply to add the latest fads to your roadmap.

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This article was originally written by our consultant, Simon Kemp, for TheNextWeb. 

Brandin-vasion

Do you remember a time when social media was a place where every piece of content matched the purpose of the platform…to be social? Well if you were born in the 2000’s then you must have no idea what I’m talking about. If this doesn’t apply to you, stick around. This is about to get violent, nostalgic and perhaps tad bit insightful about the rebirth of social media.

Even before Zuckerberg ripped off the Winklevoss twins and used his creation to spy on you, social media was already making a breakthrough into the era of the web 2.0. Possibly, some of you even remember MySpace or Friendster. When they first launched in early 2000’s (yup almost two decades ago, you’re not getting any younger amigo) the dynamic was the same as today’s social media platforms. Add your friends and family members and share content that opened a small window into your life. We’ll call SM just that, the window. Now, since we were the only authors within this space and no brands inhabit it yet, the content was considered to be more genuine. And of course, it was organically produced through the misfortunes and fortunes of our lives and cat pics.

Preferably the latter, if you dislike cats, you’re a bad person. The point is we focused on sharing more things about us, where every thought and image was just that, something real. And as we centered our time and energy migrating into this new, awesome, life changing, yet addictive, haven, safe from our grandparent’s Sunday visits and boring T.V ads, Brands…were losing what they value most. No. Think again Shannon, not our money. Our attention. Paper is not a currency they’re after. Attention and time are the most valuable assets they try to leverage in their favor. Began in print, hopped on radio when it came to be, and finally T.V The pattern is clear, brands must form part of the environment where the masses gather if they want to survive.

In mainstream media they harnessed all the power, yet their targeting was broad, relying on luck for someone of the desired demographic to see, hear or read their ad. As the years passed and Facebook became the epitome of web activity and user presence, brands have conquered their learning curve along with this medium. Though some cater their content better than others, and I am not talking about all the technicalities, rather the format. No one wants to see a brand shoving its product in their face, telling them how life changing it is or how much they need it to enrich their life.

The public knows this isn’t true. Through the window, us, the users, tell a story. The story of our lives, all the smiles, mile stones, the growth and the occasional sorrow. Brands with access to the window have identified that in the play of their target’s lives they can’t be the main character, nor the secondary or even a supporting actor. But rather take part in the stage directions and act as a symbolic piece for the main characters, us. Acting as a small part that reflects their target’s identity. Always present in moments that best define it. So to what extent does branding become invasive in the window? In my professional opinion as a fresher…it happens when they ignore that social media is a place where people gather to have fun, make Trump memes and share their stories. Brands shouldn’t jump in and scream “HEY LOOK AT ME, I AM ALSO ON TIK TOK, AREN’T I YOUNG AND HIP?” Their approach should be more “I was there with you”.

By: Jorge Barrigh

The internet is full of content that can make us laugh, freak us out and fill us with hope for the human race. But it’s more than just trolls and lols. If you know what to look for, memes, tweets and everything in between can serve as an early warning system for cultural and behavioural shifts.

In 2019, there’s more evidence of the impact of social media on wider culture than ever. Mark Zuckerberg is seemingly permanently in court, following a series of events that suggest the platform he founded has altered the course of democracy. Greta Thunberg is leading a social media-based movement, calling for a change in how we treat our planet. Hong Kongers have led a revolution orchestrated almost entirely on social platforms.

It’s not just the big stuff, either. Google’s Year in Search shows us that the questions dominating the collective consciousness this year were also driven by social. In multiple markets, ‘What is Area 51?’, ‘What is a VSCO girl?’ and ‘What is momo?’ were among the most asked questions of 2019. Other phrases that made top searches across the world include ‘Baby Yoda’, ‘Baby Shark’, ‘Old Town Road’ and ‘Eboy outfit’.

In short, internet culture is important. In The Year in Culture 2019, we provide the cultural context on the best of the internet in 2019 – the most engaged-with posts on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit.

This year, the content that’s attracted the most engagement on these platforms tells a story of cultural rebellion.

Whether the blurring lines between celebrity and influencer, as demonstrated by the coverage of PewDiePie and Marzia Kjellberg’s wedding, or World Record Egg’s cross-platform omnipresence, many of the posts people are engaging with are breaking through old cultural boundaries to say something new.

Check out the full deck below.

Facebook updates its reporting tools with new features
Facebook has added new options to its reporting features to help advertisers better understand the performance of their ad campaigns. The new updates include cross-account reporting, which enables brands to see metrics across multiple ad accounts and a custom metric-building feature, allowing advertisers to tailor metrics within reports to match their business goals. These new tools build on Facebook’s Conversion Paths reporting feature, a publisher-level report in Facebook Attribution, which launched earlier this year.

Twitter unveils new Privacy Center, complete with privacy updates
Last week, Twitter launched its new Twitter Privacy Center, a single destination for users and partners to find all information relating to its privacy policies, announcements, new products and details about incidents that occur. As part of the launch, Twitter has also shared some updates to its terms of use which are set to take effect on 1st January. Among these, the social network has focused on clarifying its intellectual property license that people agree to when they use its services.

YouTube culls ‘closed accounts’ and says brands may see a drop
In a Community Update last week, YouTube announced that it has removed a “higher than usual” number of closed accounts (accounts either closed by the user or by the platform for violating account policies) as part of routine maintenance. As a result, YouTube has warned brands and channel owners they may see a drop in subscriber numbers. However, as all of the accounts were inactive, the move shouldn’t affect metrics such as view time.

Reddit reports 30 per cent growth in monthly active users
As part of its year-end retrospective, Reddit announced last week that its user base grew to 430 million monthly active users, representing a 30 per cent growth this year to-date. Along with its user and community growth figures, the platform also shared that it’s seen monthly comments and views increase by 37 per cent and 54 per cent, respectively. However, while these numbers all spell a good year for Reddit, its key page views and revenue data were rather conspicuously absent from the report.

Ones to watch
Instagram has announced that it will begin asking new users for their date of birth, in an attempt to crack down on underage users and will use the data to educate people about settings and new privacy controls. However, this will not extend to users already on the platform.

Snapchat has confirmed that on 18th December, it will be rolling out Snapchat Cameos to iOS and Android users globally. The new feature will allow users to replace the faces of people in videos with selfies, which can then be shared on the platform.

And, finally, the platform has also announced it is exploring ways to make its limited-edition Spectacles x Gucci by Harmony Korine (an exclusive 50-pair run of Spectacles 3 camera sunglasses) more widely available in the future.

The post We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #472 appeared first on We Are Social.

Facebook launches Viewpoints to gather user feedback
Facebook is looking to gather feedback from its users in the US with a new market research app. ‘Viewpoints’ gives people over 18 a financial incentive to share their views on Facebook’s suite of products, which includes Facebook (obvs), Instagram, and WhatsApp. The first survey looks at the effects of social media on well-being and, as the company says: “Information from this survey will help us build better products that aim to limit the negative impacts of social media and enhance the benefits.” While Facebook has clarified that the data won’t be sold on, many critics have pointed out that this is yet another way for Facebook to gather more data – even if this time, it is willing to pay for it.

Snapchat allows users to customise Bitmoji clothing
If it’s a regular frustration that your Snapchat Bitmoji is so last season, then I come bearing good news. The messaging app has debuted a ‘Mix and Match’ feature, which enables users to customise the outfits worn by their Bitmoji. There are billions of possible combinations of tops, bottoms, footwear, socks and outerwear. Custom outfits can be saved to Snapchatters’ closets so that they can be used again.

Twitter cracks down (then backtracks) on inactive accounts
Twitter caused a panic last week when it announced that it would be getting rid of inactive accounts. It’s part of a drive to “present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter”, said the platform, stating that it would send an email alert to those who hadn’t signed in for more than six months, prompting them to take action or get chopped. However, Twitter received a significant amount of negative feedback on this move, particularly in relation to maintaining Twitter accounts of the deceased. To its credit it quickly came up with a plan b: instead it’s now developing a way to “memorialise” user accounts for those who have passed away, before proceeding with the aforementioned de-activation plans.

Pinterest launches shopping profile, @PinterestShop
Pinterest is continuing its ecommerce drive with the launch of its shopping profile, @PinterestShop. The account offers hundreds of shoppable product Pins from 17 small businesses, and Pinterest will continue to update it with offerings from more small businesses. Adweek has a rundown here of all 17 currently featured, which range from a culinary design company to the producers of the first “endlessly reusable and radically functional silicone bag”. Apparently 83% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on content they saw from brands on Pinterest, so the more these companies – and the platform itself – can do to capture shoppers’ attention, the better.

Instagram releases behind the scenes insights into Explore tab
Ever wondered how Instagram determines its Explore content? The platform last week released a fascinating blog post that details the AI behind Explore. TechCrunch has published five key takeaways which digest the article, which range from the importance of accounts over posts when it comes to determining user preferences, to the way Instagram’s machine learning model works when paring down content (three passes with neural networks of increasing complexity). Check it out here.

Watch this space
Twitter is testing new conversation features from its twttr prototype, with rollout planned for 2020.

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Facebook experiments with new meme creation app, Whale
Facebook has a new app – meme creation platform, Whale. Currently only available in Canada, Whale allows users to decorate photos with text and stickers in order to create memes that can be shared on social media or with friends via other channels. In addition to making memes, users can create their own image stickers using the crop and cut tools; and, for the more creative among us, there is also a freeform drawing tool to make and share unique creations.

The app has been created by Facebook’s ‘NPE Team’, a division inside the social network that builds experimental consumer-facing social apps. Canada is generally considered a suitable testing ground for this kind of thing, as it’s a good proxy for the US.

Snapchat extends its play commercials beyond six seconds
Following its initial announcement at Advertising Week in New York this September, Snapchat has now rolled out its extended play commercials in closed beta. From now on, whitelisted brands and advertisers will have the ability to extend their content up to three minutes via Ads Manager; while those who wish to get in on the action will be able to request to join. However, despite the new ad option giving the opportunity to extend content, Snapchatters will still be able to skip the ads at any time after the initial six seconds.

Snapchat splashes the cash on its AR future
At its annual Lens Fest conference last month, Snapchat promised a whopping $750,000 to its top augmented reality stars in 2020. The financial support, triple Snapchat’s commitment this year, will provide more opportunities for collaborative projects and support the development of innovative ideas. Coinciding with the event, Snapchat also announced that Spectacles 3 will now be open to Lens creators, allowing them to create content for the hardware for the first time.

Twitter rolls out new tools to aid conversations on its platform
After months of testing with users in the US, Japan and Canada, Twitter has rolled out it’s Hide Replies’ feature to all users globally. One of its most controversial features to date, it has a slight tweak to the earlier test version. Now, it not only lets users hide replies, but also gives them the option to block the replier.

Last week Twitter also announced that it has added a new ‘Conversation Insights’ element to its Media Studio tool, which provides account managers with more specific data around engagement they receive on the platform.

YouTube brings its Masthead TV ads out of beta
YouTube’s Masthead for TV ad option is now available to all advertisers on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis, following the completion of a beta test period which began in September of this year. According to the platform’s product manager, the ad format can now be purchased either as part of a cross-screen buy that runs on mobile, desktop and TV, or as part of a single-screen-only buy that runs just on TV.

Google takes a stronger stance on political advertising 
Following Twitter’s recent decision to ban political advertising on its platform, Google has announced that it will be imposing a global ban on political campaigns matching their own databases of prospective voters against Google’s user base for the purposes of advertising. Previously, advertisers outside of the UK and EU have been able to use this data, along with assumptions about political views based on browsing habits, to target individuals across platforms such as YouTube and Google Search. This restriction will be imposed worldwide from January 6th, 2020.

Ones to watch
Facebook has begun rolling out the option for Facebook and Instagram Stories to be added to Facebook Dating and, by early 2020, will make it available in all 20 countries; Instagram has started working on a new format for IGTV content which will switch the main feed into a vertical scrolling list; audio-streaming app Tidal is now integrated with Snapchat, following similar partnerships with Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories back in August; and, finally, Twitter has announced that it’s experimenting with a new tweet scheduling feature for its web app.

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Facebook Pay launches in the US
Facebook Pay has landed in the US! The social media giant’s new payments system will eventually be available across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It will support most debit and credit cards and PayPal, and people will be able to send money to friends, shop for stuff and donate to fundraisers. It’s separate to Facebook’s Calibra wallet and the Libra network, fortunately, as this project is facing some major hurdles in its path to release. Facebook hasn’t yet revealed when Facebook Pay will be available internationally, so watch this space.

Facebook improves dynamic ads with machine learning
Facebook is allowing brands to get a little more personal with their dynamic ads, with the help of machine learning. Its new dynamic formats and ad creative solution deliver a personalised version of an ad to everyone who sees it, based on formats people have respond to previously. In a blog post, Facebook said it’s tested the new options with 12 ecommerce and retail advertisers and found that they outperformed carousel-only ads in driving lift across content views, add-to-cart, purchases and sales, with a 34% improvement in incremental return on ad spend. Round of applause for the robots.

Instagram tests hiding likes globally
We all knew it was coming, but it still caused a furore… Instagram is now hiding likes globally. Influencers everywhere went into a state of shock as the platform expanded the hidden likes test to a subset of people around the world. Users can still see who liked their own posts and a total count, but viewers will only see a few names of mutual friends who liked it. If you had plenty of time on your hands, you could tap to view the list of ‘likers’ and manually count them. A study found that influencers lost 3% to 15% of their likes in countries where Instagram hid the counts – the platform said in response that it’s working on ways that influencers will be able to communicate their value to partners.

Twitter releases draft policy to tackle deepfakes
Twitter has released its draft policy relating to deepfakes and other “manipulated media” on the platform. The policy includes points such as: the use of notices next to Tweets that share synthetic or manipulated media; warnings to people before they share or like Tweets with synthetic or manipulated media; or when the platform might feel it necessary to remove a deepfake. The policy is now open for public input before it goes live, either via a survey or on Twitter itself, using the #TwitterPolicyFeedback hashtag. If you’re a bit like ‘great but wtf is a deepfake’, check out our blog post here for the lowdown.

TikTok tests shoppable vidoes in-app
TikTok is testing in-app shoppable ads with a handful of US influencers. The move could give creators significant selling power on the platform, with the ability to turn their profiles into their own online store. With this in mind, it could also mark a shift in the relationship between the brands on TikTok and the creators they sponsor. A spokesperson for the company confirmed it’s testing the new format, but in typical TikTok fashion, didn’t give anything else away.

Facebook tests Instagram-like feature ‘Popular Photos’; Instagram shamelessly launches TikTok clone Reels in Brazil.

One logo to rule them all: Facebook’s rebrand
How does one solve a problem like Facebook? With a new ALL CAPS logo of course! The social media giant last week underwent a ‘rebrand’ to differentiate the parent company, FACEBOOK, from the app, Facebook (and its other products like WhatsApp, Instagram etc). Facebook (sorry, FACEBOOK) said the rebrand will bring greater transparency and cohesion to the company.

Facebook plans to limit the number of ads a Page can run at once
As part of its recent Graph and Marketing API update, Facebook has announced that from mid-2020 it will be limiting the number of ads a Page can run at a time. According to the social network, the more ads a Page runs simultaneously, the lower the overall performance of the ads. However, Facebook says the move will only impact a small number of brands and says more information will be released ahead of the rollout.

Twitter prepares to launch new follow option, Topics
After several months of testing, Twitter has announced that on November 13th it will be launching Topics – a new option that will enable users to follow a curated list of 300 areas of interest, including sports, entertainment and gaming; just as they are currently able to follow individual accounts. Once a user has selected a Topic, tweets from accounts they don’t currently follow – which have credibility in the chosen field – will begin to appear in their timeline.

YouTube brings shopping ads to mobile
Following a test period, Google has announced it is expanding its network of shopping ads to the YouTube mobile app. The move will see the clickable carousel ad format appear on the app’s mobile home screen and search results page, globally. According to YouTube’s director of product management, shopping ads could also be coming to the connected TV space – YouTube’s fastest growing medium – as early as next year.

YouTube rolls out Super Stickers globally 
As part of its ongoing efforts to help content creators make money through its platform, YouTube has globally launched a new feature, Super Stickers. Similar to the platform’s Super Chat function, Super Sticker packs will be available for fans to purchase (with prices ranging from 99 cents to $50) and share into chats with their favourite creators.

The eight distinct Super Sticker packs – which span categories including gaming, fashion, beauty, sports, music and food – are currently available in English, French, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese to any eligible creators already using Super Chat across 60 countries.

YouTube launches new update for its desktop and tablet apps
YouTube is rolling out a new update for its desktop and tablet apps which will give users additional control options, as well as an updated presentation style. The updated format will give each preview panel more room, providing longer video titles and larger, richer thumbnails to give users more information at a glance.

Along with the new layout, YouTube is also introducing an ‘Add to Queue’ option, which will make it easier for users to quickly build video playlists and is bringing its ‘Don’t Recommend Channel’ option (available on mobile) to desktop.

TikTok opens up new Developers Program
TikTok has announced the launch of its new Developers program which will introduce tools for third-party app developers. The first of these tools is the new Share to TikTok SDK, which will let users edit videos in other apps – most notably, Adobe’s Premiere Rush – then publish them from that app to TikTok.

Along with the sharing feature, apps that integrate with the new SDK tool will gain access to a wider selection of creative tools. The Developers program also includes tools to embed videos on the web and a specified partner hashtag added to any piece of content shared via their platforms.

Tumblr adds group messaging to its platform 
Tumblr has announced the launch of a new group messaging feature that it says will allow different fandoms to chat more easily, instead of replying on re-blogs. Unlike other platforms such as Facebook Messenger, the new ‘group chats’ are public spaces – searchable and visible to all users – though only approved members can send messages.

Messages sent within Tumblr’s group chats will also disappear after 24 hours and have a maximum occupancy of 100 people per chat. Users globally should now find a new group chat icon in the upper right-hand corner of Tumblr’s app.

Watch this space…
Despite criticism from various government groups, Facebook has detailed the next stage of its plans to add end-to-end encryption in all its messaging apps. Following initial tests in several countries around the world, Instagram will start trialling hiding Likes for some US users starting this week. Twitter is testing a new option that would enable users to switch accounts within the tweet reply process. And, finally, Twitter’s VP of Design and Research Dantley Davis has shared a list of five new features that he’s ‘looking forward to in 2020’.

Facebook reports user growth and strong Q3 results
Despite current scrutiny, Facebook – the embattled social media giant – has kept growing in Q3. Last week, the platform reported that it has reached 2.45 billion monthly users, up 1.65 per cent from 2.41 billion in Q2, and now has 1.62 billion daily active users – an increase of 2 per cent of Q2.

Notably, Facebook has gained 2 million users in each of its core US/Canada and Europe markets, after quarters of shrinkage, no growth or weak growth there in the past two years. The company says that 2.2 billion people now access Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger every day (up from 2.1 billion last quarter), and 2.8 billion people use one of this family of apps each month. The platform has also reported revenue of $17.652 billion in Q3, up 29 per cent year-over-year.

During the earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also defended the social network’s political advertising policy and explained that “ads directly from politicians will account for less than 05. per cent of Facebook’s revenue next year. However, for context, that could still be as much as $330 million to $400 million. 

Facebook rolls out new updates for Messenger 
Facebook has released the latest version of its Messenger Graph API, which includes three new features for Messenger to help brands better connect with consumers. The upgrades include new ‘icebreakers’ for brand profiles – allowing businesses to list common questions that users can ask them to initiate the conversation; the introduction of Reactions to business chats; and a simplified process for connecting apps to Messenger ad campaigns.

Facebook launches ‘Work Groups’ 
Facebook has rolled out a new Group option, called Work Groups, to help users connect with co-workers without having to let them into all personal interactions. The new update – which is currently available on desktop, iOS and Android versions of Facebook and Messenger – allows users to create a specific Group only for work colleagues, with only their work-related information showing on their Work Group profile. The option also enables Work Group members to send messages to each other without needing to be Facebook friends.

Snapchat introduces new 3D Paint feature
Last week, Snapchat announced it is adding a new 3D Paint feature to its platform. The new functionality enables users to either draw on their own face in augmented reality using the phone’s front-facing camera, or use the rear-facing camera to draw objects in the environment around them. iOS users can now find the feature within the ‘Create’ section of Snapchat’s AR Bar. The platform says the update will be coming to Android in the coming months.

Twitter takes a stance against political advertising
Twitter’s chief executive officer, Jack Dorsey announced last week that the social platform will ban political ads starting from November 22nd. Commenting on the decision in a Twitter Thread (below), Dorsey noted that a “political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet” and that the platform believes that “this decision should not be compromised by money.” Twitter is expected to share its full policy on November 15th and has said it doesn’t expect a sizable revenue hit as a result of the decision.

Pinterest announces Q3 results, reports 322 million users
As part of its Q3 earnings report, Pinterest has revealed that it now has 322 million global monthly active users, up 28 per cent year-over-year, citing double-digit growth in nearly all countries outside of the US. The platform also reported revenue of $279.7 million, up 47 per cent from $190.2 million from its earnings in the same quarter of last year.

The company now sells ads in 28 countries, up from 19 at the end of the second quarter, adding Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia to its growing list.

In its report, the platform also credited upgrades to its ranking algorithm for lowering home feed hide rates by 25 per cent quarter-over-quarter; while improvements to its personalised search recommendations have doubled engagements with recommendations year-over-year.

Pinterest reveals a refreshed look for iOS and Android
Pinterest has rolled out a number of small updates to its app on Android and iOS, aimed at refreshing its appearance with “a more immersive design that’s streamlined for Pinners around the world.” As part of the update, recommendations have now been brought to the forefront of the home feed, while Pins have increased in size to have more prominence on a mobile screen.

Other changes to the platform include: Search now appearing within a separate navigation bar; the ‘following’ tab now appearing at the top of home feed; and an updated Profile and board view. Pinterest says the update will continue to roll out around the world.

Watch this space…
Facebook is adding a new feature, called ‘Multiple Text Optimization’, that will enable advertisers to supply multiple text variations for ad copy which Facebook will then select for the best results; Facebook has also added a new ‘Suggested’ time option for scheduling Page posts.

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Facebook rolls out News tab in the US
That well-known trusted source of content Facebook has now started rolling out its News tab. Facebook News is currently running as a limited test in the US, as a home screen tab and bookmark in the main Facebook app. News articles will continue to appear in the main News Feed, but the new tab is designed to encourage users to “explore a wider range of their news interests”. Facebook will use both human editors and algorithms to determine which stories people see, and the platform will serve up suggestions based on your interests and activity. Facebook hasn’t provided a list of participating publishers, but screenshots include stories from The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News and other reputable names.

Facebook meddles in de-identification technology for video
Facebook AI Research says it’s created a machine learning system for de-identification of individuals in video. Bear with me on this – basically the technology alters individuals’ appearance in videos so that facial recognition systems won’t pick them up. The changes are said to be subtle enough that humans will still recognise the subject but facial recognition systems won’t. Er… why bother? Privacy of course! “Face recognition can lead to loss of privacy and face replacement technology may be misused to create misleading videos,” said Facebook AI’s paper on the tech. “Recent world events concerning the advances in, and abuse of face recognition technology invoke the need to understand methods that successfully deal with de-identification.”

Twitter underperforms in Q3, but moderation tools improve
Q3 wasn’t much fun for Twitter, and it fell below analysts’ predictions. Revenues came in at $824 million, when they had been predicted to hit $874.03 million, or higher – ouch. Twitter’s excuse was the impact of “revenue product issues, which we believe reduced year-over-year growth by approximately 3 or more percentage points, and greater-than-expected seasonality.” It wasn’t all bad news, however – in its earnings report, Twitter said that 50 percent of tweets identified as abusive are now being flagged by its automated moderation tools and taken down before a user reports them. Cracking down on abusive content has been one of Twitter’s key goals, so at least this is something to celebrate.

Q3 update: Snapchat snaps back
A better Q3 for Snapchat, which has had something of a turnaround year by all accounts. In its Q3 earnings report last week, it smashed expectations. Daily active users were up 7 million to 210 million (13% growth y-o -y). It’s losing less; $227 million from $255 million last quarter, with the loss decreasing $98 million versus Q3 2018. Share price might have closed 4% down at $14, but given it was at $4.99 in December, that’s still a pretty solid recovery. Keep up the good work.

Snapchat introduces Creative Kit for Web
Snapchat has added more tools to integrate its platform with third-party companies, by extending its Creative Kit to the web. Previously only available for mobile apps, it now allows website owners to add a ‘Share to Snapchat’ buttons to their sites, so that Snappers can, well, share the content to Snapchat. Each Snap shared with the buttons will contain a custom-branded sticker or GIF, along with a link to drive content back to the originating site. Initial partners for the rollout of Creative Kit for Web include Buzzfeed and Vice.

TikTok looks to creators for new safety videos
TikTiok has tapped some of its most popular creators to make safety-focused videos. Intended to drive awareness of TikTok’s safety and privacy features and illustrate how to use them, the films explain things like blocking, filtering comments and protecting private information. TikTok director of creator community Kudzi Chikumbu said: “Our in-app controls are designed to keep TikTok welcoming for everyone, and we love showcasing these creators’ enthusiasm to help keep our community safe.”

‘Women of Impact’ take over National Geographic’s Instagram
More than 30 female photographers took over National Geographic‘s Instagram account last week, posting content focused on women, both in the grid and in Stories. It’s part of the publication’s Women of Impact month, highlighted by the November issue of its magazine, which was the first to be written and photographed exclusively by women. Here’s an example of the work on show – head over to @natgeo for more.

View this post on Instagram

Photo by Stephanie Sinclair @stephsinclairpix | A student holds a small chalkboard while attending a school for girls in Pakistan. Every day girls face barriers to education caused by poverty, cultural norms and practices, poor infrastructure, violence, and fragility. But girls’ education goes beyond getting girls into school. It is also about ensuring that girls learn and feel safe while in school so they can complete all levels of education with the skills to effectively compete in the labor market. They must also learn the social-emotional and life skills necessary to navigate and adapt to a changing world; make decisions about their own lives; and contribute to their communities and the world. According to UNESCO estimates, 130 million girls between the ages of six and 17 are out of school and 15 million girls of primary school age—half of them in sub-Saharan Africa—will never enter a classroom. For more images, follow me @stephsinclairpix @tooyoungtowed. #letgirlslearn #girls #women #educationisaright Nat Geo is celebrating women who fearlessly push boundaries and inspire the next generation of changemakers. For a week, all of our posts and stories on @natgeo were photographed by women, about women. Use #NatGeoWomenofImpact to share how a woman in your life has empowered you.

A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo) on Oct 26, 2019 at 7:37am PDT

Watch this space…
LinkedIn refreshes its daily morning news update; Pinterest rolls out updated Pin format; LinkedIn grows both revenue and engagement; Instagram adds a new IGTV ‘Series’ option and bans ‘plastic surgery’ filters.

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The internet is full of content that can make us laugh, freak us out and fill us with hope for the human race. But it’s more than just trolls and lols. If you know what to look for, memes, tweets and everything in between can serve as an early warning system for cultural and behavioural shifts.

This week, among other things, we’re exploring ‘rise and shine’, influencer fatigue and teachers on TikTok.

Twitter could be the new home of how-to content
The popularisation of the thread has seen Twitter narratives grow in length and complexity, but it’s not just the format that’s evolving. The content itself is also diversifying, as people take this new format and apply it to a wider range of subjects. Take this thread:

TL;DR: Twitter has become a forum for more than witty repartee; people are looking to users for expertise in a digestible format.

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Kylie Jenner has harnessed ‘Rise and Shine’ memes for financial gain
Earlier this month, Kylie Jenner conducted a tour of the Kylie Cosmetics office. Less than a minute from the end of the 16 minute, 19 second video, Kylie lets herself into her daughter’s playroom to wake her up, singing ‘rise and shine’. The internet – more specifically, TikTok – went wild. Over the course of the following two weeks, videos with the #riseandshine hashtag were viewed more than a billion times, breaking all prior records on the platform. Videos like this one:

Ever the digital-first business woman, Kylie lent into the uptick in mentions. She retweeted a few of her favourite TikToks, released a limited line of hoodies featuring a freshly designed ‘rise and shine’ motif (all of which are now sold out), and – most outrageously – is now exploring the possibility of trademarking the phrase.

Following in the footsteps of older sibling Kim – who has similarly monetised public embarrassment in the meme arena, most notably ‘Crying Kim’ – Kylie is abiding by the oldest and truest idiom. Only no publicity is bad publicity. But she’s also exercising an understanding of a number of newer rules, which make for hypereffective digital marketing:

• The quicker you can react to a cultural moment that’s relevant to your brand, the better.
• Online, authenticity is everything. But in the absence of actually being relatable, being able to demonstrate self-awareness and self-acceptance (in this case, by not taking herself too seriously when framed as the punchline of a viral joke) is psychologically proven to convey a sense of authenticity.

• Social content is more valuable than ever. Those that can stake a claim to a meme of this magnitude, wield a huge amount of cultural capital, and in 2019, cultural capital (whether measured in likes, retweets or views) can be converted directly into cash.

TL;DR: In a maturing digital landscape, memes are more monetisable than ever.

—

This video essay demonstrates Netflix’s respect for its audiences
Last week, Netflix uploaded a video essay from writer Aniefiok Ekpoudom, breaking down key themes around masculinity from British TV drama TOP BOY – a show that’s centred around the everyday dramas of a group of young black men in London. Find it here:

Netflix is renowned for giving the communities its content represents a voice. Prism, which was launched during Pride Month, is an Instagram feed that focuses exclusively on the platform’s LGBTQ+ content, while the streaming service’s Strong Black Lead division is a team of black executives tasked with amplifying content for people of colour.

In a similar vein, by giving Ekpoudom’s analysis of TOP BOY a platform (rather than creating similar content internally) Netflix can shine a light on the emotional resonance of its content. It demonstrates the platform’s commitment to accurately representing the audiences its content speaks to, by letting its audience speak for themselves.

TL;DR: Netflix is happy to take a back seat, and let the communities it content represents do the talking instead.

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This tweet perfectly captures the backlash against influencer culture
This year has seen influencers as a group take a real hit. People were furious when it came to light that fashion blogger Marissa Fuchs had pitched her extravagant engagement celebrations out to brands. Nashville-based Tiffany Mitchell drew outrage after she posted glossy photos of herself to Instagram, crumpled on the side of the road following a motorcycle crash. And people have consistently hated on YouTube make-up artist James Charles for, among other things, being James Charles. Public perceptions of these internet personalities are in decline, and their supposed authenticity is drawing cynicism. See this tweet:

As the digital landscape has matured, a wealth divide – in terms of income *and* followers – has emerged. This is a problem for the 1% of the digital world; the more elite they’re perceived to be, the less relatable and authentic they seem. It’s why the internet kicked off when Forbes named Kylie Jenner the ‘youngest self-made billionaire ever’ – setting aside her privileged upbringing. And it’s why influencer culture in general is taking a hit right now.

TL;DR: The social hierarchies of the internet – once dictated by authenticity and democratic ideals – have become as imbalanced and divided as they are offline. 

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@chemteacherphil is one in a growing body of TikTok teachers 
TikTok is broadly perceived to be a haven for Gen Zers who spend their time lip syncing, staging makeovers and performing extravagant, synchronised dance routines. But as the platform moves into the public consciousness, people (read: grown-ups) are harnessing the platform for a wider range of reasons. One of these people is @chemteacherphil. He posts videos like this one:

Phil Cook is a chemistry teacher who also boasts a presence on YouTube and Instagram, where he shares educational and tutorial-style chemistry videos’. But on TikTok, he’s drawn an almost 500,000-strong following in less than two months. And he’s not the only one to find a fruitful crossover between conventional education and TikTok – Mr Papetti is another teacher who’s taken to the platform, while a number of teachers across the US have even launched TikTok clubs, where students collaborate to create platform-specific content. Meanwhile, the platform itself is harnessing this sense of purpose, launching an educational programme in India.

The desire to transform TikTok into a platform for more than lols, is rooted in its audience and their cultural context. Launched in 2016, it’s the first social platform of its scale to be born into an era of self-aware anxiety around social media consumption – especially among realistic and digital-savvy Gen Zers. As a result, teens have been quick to harness it for uses beyond social validation and viral reach. Combined with its looping, bite-sized format – ideal for conveying ideas with satisfying simplicity – it’s no surprise that educational content is killing it on TikTok right now.

TL;DR: Born into an era of caution around social, TikTok is being harnessed for education and community – not just lols.

The post We Are Social’s The Week in Culture #6 appeared first on We Are Social.

Facebook begins testing ads for the Groups tab feed
As Facebook puts an increasing emphasis on Groups and community, it has also started exploring new ways to monetise that section of its platform (gasp!). Starting with a very small number of brands, Facebook is now testing Groups placement in Ads Manager. The new format will enable those taking part to place new ads – and extend existing mobile News Feed campaigns – into the feed that appears under the Groups tab. However, brands will not be able to target users based on specific groups they belong to and all ads will still be clearly labelled as ‘Sponsored’, with the same transparency and controls as ads elsewhere on the platform.

Instagram gives users greater control over third-party access
Instagram is introducing a number of new in-app features to help users better control the data they share with third parties. From now on, Instagram users will be able to go into their ‘Settings’, click on ‘Security’ and then ‘Apps and Websites’ to remove any third-party services that they no longer want to have access to the data from their accounts. In addition to the new controls, over the next six months Instagram will also be introducing an updated authorisation screen for third-party apps which will list all the information a third party is requesting and allow users to accept or decline it then and there.

Snapchat tests dynamic ads for product catalogues 
Snapchat has announced that it will be conducting an open beta-test for dynamic ads that enable brands to automatically create ads in real-time from their own product catalogues. The ads will be delivered through made-for-mobile templates and designs and will automatically update with any changes to availability or price. Advertisers in the US can begin reaching out to Snapchat to take part in the test from Thursday this week, before it’s opened up globally in the next few months.

Snapchat announces new integration with Reddit
Snapchat and Reddit have announced a new integration enabling users on iOS (Android coming soon) to share Reddit posts directly to their Snaps. Users simply need to tap the share icon on posts from Reddit communities deemed ‘safe for work’ to share the post via a Sticker which includes the Reddit logo and source information. Those users who have the Reddit app installed will also have the option to swipe up on the Snap to view the origin post in Reddit. Non-users of the Reddit app can sit swipe up but will first be directed to install the app before they can view the article.

YouTube expands access to its AR ‘Try-on’ feature 
After launching its augmented reality (AR) ‘Beauty Try-On’ ad format in June to a select number of partners, YouTube has expanded the pool of brands who will be able to access the function. Via Masthead and TrueView Discovery ads, viewers will be able to try on lipstick and other make up from brands such as NARS and MAC, using their phone’s camera. Those who like what they see will be able to tap through to purchase within the YouTube app.

LinkedIn rolls out its Events feature globally
LinkedIn has announced the global rollout of LinkedIn Events, a new feature that will enable members to create and join events, invite connections, manage events, and communicate with other attendees. Users looking to create an event can now go to the Community panel on the left side of the LinkedIn feed and click +Create. From there, they will then be prompted to enter the event’s description, date, time and venue, and invite attendees using filters such as location, company and industry. The launch follows a pilot programme run in key cities around the globe since November last year.

LinkedIn bolsters Company Pages with new features 
LinkedIn is looking to boost employee engagement on the platform with a suite of new features for Company Pages, including employee notifications. The new notification type will allow Page admins alert employees to important posts and prompt them to share with their own networks. However, to help counter the risk of this feature becoming too spammy, LinkedIn has put a limit on these notifications of just once per week.

Along with the new notification update, LinkedIn is also providing Page admins with new ‘Kudos’ and ‘Team Moments’ post types – dedicated post formats to welcome new team members, spotlight outstanding work, and more. A new completion meter will also help guide users through the process of fully setting up their Page.

Pinterest adds more transparency and controls for users 
Pinterest has added home feed and Pin-level edit options and controls to help give its users a clearer picture of why they are seeing the Pins (its top requests from Pinners). Similar to Facebook’s ‘Why am I seeing this post?’ functionality, the new options give users the change to give feedback if they see a Pin they don’t like. The new home page feature also provide users with the option to turn off recommendations for topics (such as Halloween, wedding or home improvement) once the occasion has passed.

Giphy lets users create microgames with Giphy Arcade  
Giphy has launched Giphy Arcade, a new platform that allows users to play, create and share their own Giphy-powered microgames. The Giphy Arcade home screen includes a selection templates to let users create their own games, along with a playlist of individual microgames which are ready to play. Users can share a game – either their own or someone else’s – by simply dropping the link into text messages, tweets, emails and more.

The platform launched with Wendy’s as an exclusive launch partner and users worldwide can now play the game, which features Wendy’s icons and takes the style of the classic game Breakout.

We Are Social named ‘most respected agency’ by eConsultancy 
Celebrations all round at We Are Social in London last week as we were named ‘Most Respected Agency’ as part of eConsultancy’s Top 100 Digital Agencies ranking. Voted for by our industry peers, it said we’d been “Praised for consistently driving the industry forward while providing great thought leadership content and research”. Stop, it’s too much, we’re blushing. Big thanks to all those who voted for us, we’ll try and keep up the good work!

Watch this space….
Facebook has begun rolling out a new beta version of its website which includes dark mode and a new (Twitter-like) interface; Instagram is reportedly testing a new Sticker for Stories that will allow event organisers to share details of upcoming events; Twitter is testing emoji reactions for direct messages; and Pinterest is trialling quick emoji responses for videos posted on the platform.

A wealth of new data has contributed to impressive growth across various aspects of digital over the past three months, so our new Digital 2019 Q4 Global Digital Statshot report – produced in partnership with We Are Social and Hootsuite – has plenty of juicy headlines, as well as essential insights for brands and organisations preparing 2020 digital plans.
You’ll find all the latest numbers in the SlideShare embed below (click here if that’s not working for you), but read on below to get richer context and insights into this quarter’s top headlines.
[SlideShare embed: please remember to use the code for the Q4 Statshot report]
Big jump in internet user numbers
The number of internet users around the world is now 400 million higher than it was this time last year, representing annual growth of 10 percent.
However, these figures have been significantly influenced by new data published by the ITU, and our understanding is that much of the ‘growth’ is likely due to more accurate and timely reporting, rather than because of a sudden increase in the number of internet users over the past three months.
Regardless of the cause, however, the new figures are particularly encouraging. The number of internet users around the world is rapidly approaching 4.5 billion, and if current trends continue, we should see some impressive new milestones as we head into 2020.
We’re particularly pleased to note that much of the growth in the ITU’s new data has come from emerging economies – especially across Africa – and this could signal the start of a whole new wave of growth across all kinds of connected behaviours in the coming months.

Social media user numbers up again
Global social media user numbers have surged this quarter too, but once again this is mainly due to the availability of new data, and not because of a sudden rush of new users.
The key driver in this quarter’s growth comes from India, where WhatsApp recently revealed that they have passed the 400 million active user mark. For context, that’s 100 million active users more than Facebook’s core platform.
These figures suggest that almost 30 percent of India’s total population already uses WhatsApp each month. What’s more, with the number of mobile internet subscribers in India growing at a rate of more than 250,000 every day, there’s still plenty more opportunity for social media growth in India.
Other platforms belonging to Facebook Inc. and Tencent also contributed to overall growth in social media user numbers, but – as we’ll see below – there are some interesting trends emerging at the individual platform level.

Facebook’s ad audience growth slows
Facebook’s core product saw significantly slower growth in its advertising audience numbers over the past three months, with the platform adding just 8 million new users between July and September 2019. At just 0.4 percent, this quarterly growth rate is significantly lower than the 3 percent growth in advertising audience numbers that the platform delivered in the second quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, individual country figures tell an even more interesting story. Facebook’s own advertising tools suggest that advertisers can reach fewer people in the United States and Indonesia today compared to this time three months ago, suggesting that advertising audiences in two of the platform’s biggest markets may actually be shrinking, albeit only by small margins.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that Facebook still appears to have the largest youth audience of any social media platform in the world, the company’s latest numbers suggest that its youth advertising audience is also shrinking. Facebook’s advertising tools indicate that advertisers can now reach 2.6 percent fewer users aged 13 to 17 compared to the second quarter of 2019, and 2 percent fewer users aged 18 to 24.
However, there may be various reasons for these drops, including proactive moves by Facebook to remove accounts that have breached the platform’s terms and conditions. These numbers are also only representative of the platform’s advertising audiences, and may not correlate to changes in the platform’s total monthly active users [note: the figures that Facebook reports in its investor earnings reports are monthly active user numbers, and not the advertising audience numbers that we report here].
It’s also worth highlighting that Facebook delivered improved advertising performance during the third quarter compared to the previous three months. The platform’s Audience Insights tool reveals that the typical global Facebook user clicked on a median of 12 adverts per month between July and September 2019, compared to a median of 11 adverts per month between April and June.

TikTok don’t stop
Bytedance hasn’t published active user numbers for TikTok in recent months, focusing instead on sharing its latest app download numbers, or the combined number of active users across all of the apps in the company’s broader portfolio. The company’s new self-service advertising tools don’t show audience numbers either, opting instead to report audience reach on a five-point scale.
However, the latest data from app intelligence company App Annie suggest that TikTok continues its explosive growth around the world, with the insights company ranking TikTok just behind Instagram in terms of monthly active users through the third quarter of 2019.

App Annie’s latest data also suggest that TikTok’s download rates may have increased in the past few weeks, with the global download rankings for September 2019 showing TikTok in second place, just behind Mario Kart Tour, and ahead of all of Facebook’s platforms.
Pinterest’s steady ascent
Pinterest’s first investor earnings report revealed that the platform now has 300 million monthly active users around the world, representing annual growth of 30 percent versus Q2 2018. Data from the company’s self-service advertising tools also show solid growth in advertising reach over the past three months, and marketers can now use Pinterest to target more than 150 million users across the globe.

The demographics of Pinterest’s advertising audience are particularly interesting. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that women account for a significant share of Pinterest’s total audience, but you may be surprised to learn what this share means when we translate it into actual user numbers.
For example, in the United States, advertisers can now reach almost as many women over the age of 30 on Pinterest as they can on Instagram, despite Instagram’s total global advertising audience (male and female) being almost six times bigger than Pinterest’s.
Pinterest also performs well in Western Europe. The platform’s advertising tools suggest that advertisers can now reach roughly 8.3 million women across all age groups in Germany, compared to the 9.9 million women that advertisers can reach on Instagram.
The situation in France is similar, with Pinterest reporting a female advertising audience of 8.1 million, compared to Instagram’s female audience of 9.1 million, again across all age groups.

5G making its mark
The latest internet connection speed data from Ookla indicate that the promise of 5G hasn’t been exaggerated. Average mobile data speeds in South Korea – which arguably has seen the most extensive 5G rollout so far – have gone into overdrive in the past two quarters, and the numbers tell a compelling story for 5G’s future.
Ookla reports that the average mobile internet connection in the country reached 95.11Mbps in September – almost 40 percent faster than the average mobile download speed in second-placed Qatar.
However, Korea actually saw a slight drop in mobile download speeds in September, and if we look at mobile connection speeds across the third quarter of 2019 as a whole, the average Korean mobile internet connection actually exceeded 100Mbps. That’s more than double the speeds that South Korea’s mobile users enjoyed just this time last year.

For context, Netflix recommends that users need a minimum connection bandwidth of 25Mbps to stream “Ultra HD quality” content (e.g. movies in 4K definition). That means that the average Korean mobile user can now stream four separate 4K movies on a single mobile internet connection at the same time.
At the risk of resurrecting one of digital’s oldest clichés, these trends suggest that 2020 may be “the year of 5G mobile”. However, 5G’s real promise doesn’t lie in multi-streaming 4K movies to phones, but in powering the internet of things.
The impact of IoT devices may take a little longer to influence people’s everyday lives, but now is still a good time to start preparing, because the future is accelerating.
Asia rising
App Annie’s latest data show that six of the world’s ten most-used mobile apps are now owned by Chinese companies (side note: the remainder are all owned by Facebook). Chinese companies also dominate when it comes to mobile games, which App Annie reports account for 40 percent of all global app downloads.
But Asia’s digital influence isn’t limited to Chinese companies, and organisations in Japan and Korea consistently deliver some of the world’s most popular apps too.
Meanwhile, it’s a similar story when we look at the web. Asian sites increasingly dominate the world’s most-visited online destinations, with China’s ecommerce platforms showing particular success.
However, the latest global web traffic insights from SimilarWeb reveal some more interesting trends. The company’s ranking of the world’s most visited websites for September 2019 show that Korea’s naver.com and Japan’s yahoo.co.jp have both entered the global top 20, although sadly there’s nothing obvious in the data to suggest what may be behind the increasing appeal of either site.

Data from Amazon’s insights division, Alexa (not to be confused with the company’s voice assistant of the same name), tell a similar story. The company’s latest reports show that Chinese websites now account for three of the five most-visited web destinations in the world, and more than half of the top 20.
Tmall performs particularly well in Alexa’s latest rankings, with the company ranking three distinct domains in the world’s top 20 websites. Critically, the ecommerce platform’s homepage now ranks as the fourth most-visited website in the world – significantly higher than Amazon.com, which Alexa currently ranks thirteenth.

It’s worth noting that an increasing number of shoppers may be making use of Amazon’s mobile apps, but – once again – Chinese companies are winning in the mobile ecommerce world too, with Alibaba’s Taobao app coming in at ninth place in App Annie’s ranking of the world’s most used mobile apps.
With the sheer size of Asia’s population and the rapid growth of internet users across the region, these numbers and trends are easy to explain, but their implications cannot be overstated. As we head into the next decade, expect to see some significant shifts in the centre of the internet’s gravity.
If you’d like to dig a bit deeper into ecommerce behaviours and trends in Asia, check out our recent deep-dive reports on online shopping across Southeast Asia.
Looking ahead to 2020
We’re already preparing for our flagship Digital 2020 reports, which we’ll be publishing in the first few weeks of the new year.
However, based on the emerging trends that we’re already seeing in our preparations, here are three things I’d recommend adding to your watchlist for 2020:
1. Voice: one of the biggest changes in 2020 will be the rising use and influence of voice interfaces, and how these tools will shape the evolution of digital as a whole. For clarity, the story here isn’t just about the rise of smart speakers, and the opportunity certainly isn’t limited to building an Echo Skill for your next ad campaign. Rather, voice interfaces have the potential to revolutionise the ways in which each and every one of us uses and interacts with all of our connected devices, with content, and – crucially – with search results.
2. Games: whether it’s playing them or watching others play them, and whether it’s a quick five minutes at the bus stop or a global esports tournament, games will be another top story in 2020. There are some huge opportunities for brands here, but marketing in these active, ‘lean-forward’ environments will require some very different thinking to the kind of ‘lean-back’ marketing that has dominated ‘mass entertainment’ advertising over the past 50 years.
3. A cultural shift: as internet access and connection speeds accelerate across emerging markets, we can expect to see meaningful increases in the volume and popularity of content coming out of these geographies too. Many decry the dangers of today’s internet ‘filter bubbles’, but – in reality – it has never been easier for individuals to connect with people from all over the world; to learn about their worlds and their cultures, and to explore valuable new perspectives and opportunities. So, my top tip for 2020 is to “feed your feed”: actively add diverse perspectives and opinions into your digital diet, and embrace what diversity can do for you.
That’s all for this quarter – we’ll see you again in the next decade!

A wealth of new data has contributed to impressive growth across various aspects of digital over the past three months, so our new Digital 2019 Q4 Global Digital Statshot report – produced in partnership with Hootsuite – has plenty of juicy headlines, as well as essential insights for brands and organisations preparing 2020 digital plans.

Big jump in internet user numbers
The number of internet users around the world is now 400 million higher than it was this time last year, representing annual growth of 10 per cent.

However, these figures have been significantly influenced by new data published by the ITU, and our understanding is that much of the ‘growth’ is likely due to more accurate and timely reporting, rather than because of a sudden increase in the number of internet users over the past three months.

Regardless of the cause, however, the new figures are particularly encouraging. The number of internet users around the world is rapidly approaching 4.5 billion, and if current trends continue, we should see some impressive new milestones as we head into 2020.

We’re particularly pleased to note that much of the growth in the ITU’s new data has come from emerging economies – especially across Africa – and this could signal the start of a whole new wave of growth across all kinds of connected behaviours in the coming months.

Social media user numbers up again
Global social media user numbers have surged this quarter too, but once again this is mainly due to the availability of new data, and not because of a sudden rush of new users.

The key driver in this quarter’s growth comes from India, where WhatsApp recently revealed that they have passed the 400 million active user mark. For context, that’s 100 million active users more than Facebook’s core platform.

These figures suggest that almost 30 per cent of India’s total population already uses WhatsApp each month. What’s more, with the number of mobile internet subscribers in India growing at a rate of more than 250,000 every day, there’s still plenty more opportunity for social media growth in India.

Other platforms belonging to Facebook Inc. and Tencent also contributed to overall growth in social media user numbers, but there are some interesting trends emerging at the individual platform level, as we’ll see below.

Facebook’s ad audience growth slows
Facebook’s core product saw significantly slower growth in its advertising audience numbers over the past three months, with the platform adding just 8 million new users between July and September 2019. At just 0.4 per cent, this quarterly growth rate is significantly lower than the 3 per cent growth in advertising audience numbers that the platform delivered in the second quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, individual country figures tell an even more interesting story. Facebook’s own advertising tools suggest that advertisers can reach fewer people in the United States and Indonesia today compared to this time three months ago, suggesting that advertising audiences in two of the platform’s biggest markets may actually be shrinking.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that Facebook still appears to have the largest youth audience of any social media platform in the world, the company’s latest numbers suggest that its youth advertising audience is also shrinking. Facebook’s advertising tools indicate that advertisers can now reach 2.6 per cent fewer users aged 13 to 17 compared to the second quarter of 2019, and 2 per cent fewer users aged 18 to 24.

However, there may be various reasons for these drops, including proactive moves by Facebook to remove accounts that have breached the platform’s terms and conditions. These numbers are also only representative of the platform’s advertising audiences, and may not correlate to changes in the platform’s total monthly active users [note: the figures that Facebook reports in its investor earnings reports are monthly active user numbers, and not the advertising audience numbers we report here].

It’s also worth highlighting that Facebook delivered improved advertising performance during the third quarter compared to the previous three months. The platform’s Audience Insights tool reveals that the typical global Facebook user clicked on a median of 12 adverts per month between July and September 2019, compared to a median of 11 adverts per month between April and June.

TikTok don’t stop
Bytedance hasn’t published active user numbers for TikTok in recent months, focusing instead on sharing its latest app download numbers, or the combined number of active users across all of the apps in the company’s broader portfolio. The company’s new self-service advertising tools don’t show audience numbers either, opting instead to report audience reach on a five-point scale.

However, the latest data from app intelligence company App Annie suggest that TikTok continues its explosive growth around the world, with the insights company ranking TikTok just behind Instagram in terms of monthly active users through the third quarter of 2019.

App Annie’s latest data also suggest that TikTok’s download rates may have increased in the past few weeks, with the global download rankings for September 2019 showing TikTok in second place, just behind Mario Kart Tour, and ahead of all of Facebook’s platforms.

Pinterest
Pinterest’s first investor earnings report revealed that the platform now has 300 million monthly active users around the world, representing annual growth of 30 per cent versus Q2 2018. Data from the company’s self-service advertising tools also show solid growth in advertising reach over the past three months, and marketers can now use Pinterest to target more than 150 million users across the globe.

The demographics of Pinterest’s advertising audience are particularly interesting. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that women account for a significant share of Pinterest’s total audience, but you may be surprised to learn what this share means when we translate it into actual user numbers.

For example, in the United States, advertisers can now reach almost as many women over the age of 30 on Pinterest as they can on Instagram, despite Instagram’s total global advertising audience (male and female) being almost six times bigger than Pinterest’s.

Pinterest also performs well in Western Europe. The platform’s advertising tools suggest that advertisers can now reach roughly 8.3 million women across all age groups in Germany, compared to the 9.9 million women that advertisers can reach on Instagram.

The situation in France is similar, with Pinterest reporting a female advertising audience of 8.1 million, compared to Instagram’s female audience of 9.1 million, again across all age groups.

5G making its mark
The latest internet connection speed data from Ookla indicate that the promise of 5G hasn’t been exaggerated. Average mobile data speeds in South Korea – which arguably has seen the most extensive 5G rollout so far – have gone into overdrive in the past two quarters, and the numbers tell a compelling story for 5G’s future.

Ookla reports that the average mobile internet connection in the country reached 95.11Mbps in September – almost 40 percent faster than the average mobile download speed in second-placed Qatar.

However, Korea actually saw a slight drop in mobile download speeds in September, and if we look at mobile connection speeds across the third quarter of 2019 as a whole, the average Korean mobile internet connection actually exceeded 100Mbps. That’s more than double the speeds that South Korea’s mobile users enjoyed just this time last year.

For context, Netflix recommends that users need a minimum connection bandwidth of 25Mbps to stream “Ultra HD quality” content (e.g. movies in 4K definition). That means that the average Korean mobile user can now stream four separate 4K movies on a single mobile internet connection at the same time.

At the risk of resurrecting one of digital’s oldest clichés, these trends suggest that 2020 may be “the year of 5G mobile”. However, 5G’s real promise doesn’t lie in multi-streaming 4K movies to phones, but in powering the internet of things. 

The impact of IoT devices may take a little longer to influence people’s everyday lives, but now is still a good time to start preparing, because the future is accelerating.

Asia rising
App Annie’s latest data show that six of the world’s ten most-used mobile apps are now owned by Chinese companies (side note: the remainder are all owned by Facebook). Chinese companies also dominate when it comes to mobile games, which App Annie reports account for 40 per cent of all global app downloads.

But Asia’s digital influence isn’t limited to Chinese companies, and organisations in Japan and Korea consistently deliver some of the world’s most popular apps too. 

Meanwhile, it’s a similar story when we look at the web. Asian sites increasingly dominate the world’s most-visited online destinations, with China’s ecommerce platforms showing particular success. 

However, the latest global web traffic insights from SimilarWeb reveal some more interesting trends. The company’s ranking of the world’s most visited websites for September 2019 show that Korea’s naver.com and Japan’s yahoo.co.jp have both entered the global top 20, although sadly there’s nothing obvious in the data to suggest what may be behind the increasing appeal of either site.

Data from Amazon’s insights division, Alexa (not to be confused with the company’s voice assistant of the same name), tell a similar story. The company’s latest reports show that Chinese websites now account for three of the five most-visited web destinations in the world, and more than half of the top 20.

Tmall performs particularly well in Alexa’s latest rankings, with the company ranking three distinct domains in the world’s top 20 websites. Critically, the ecommerce platform’s homepage now ranks as the fourth most-visited website in the world – significantly higher than Amazon.com, which Alexa currently ranks thirteenth.

It’s worth noting that an increasing number of shoppers may be making use of Amazon’s mobile apps, but – once again – Chinese companies are winning in the mobile ecommerce world too, with Alibaba’s Taobao app coming in at ninth place in App Annie’s ranking of the world’s most used mobile apps.

With the sheer size of Asia’s population and the rapid growth of internet users across the region, these numbers and trends are easy to explain, but their implications cannot be overstated. As we head into the next decade, expect to see some significant shifts in the centre of the internet’s gravity.

So, if you’d like to dig a bit deeper into ecommerce behaviours and trends in Asia, check out our recent deep-dive reports on online shopping across Southeast Asia.

Looking ahead to 2020
We’re already preparing for our flagship Digital 2020 reports, which we’ll be publishing in the first few weeks of the new year.

However, based on the emerging trends that we’re already seeing in our preparations, here are three things I’d recommend adding to your watchlist for 2020:

1. Voice: one of the biggest changes in 2020 will be the rising use and influence of voice interfaces, and how these tools will shape the evolution of digital as a whole. For clarity, the story here isn’t just about the rise of smart speakers, and the opportunity certainly isn’t limited to building an Echo Skill for your next ad campaign. Rather, voice interfaces have the potential to revolutionise the ways in which each and every one of us uses and interacts with all of our connected devices, with content, and – crucially – with search results. 
2. Games: whether it’s playing them or watching others play them, and whether it’s a quick five minutes at the bus stop or a global epsorts tournament, games will be another top story in 2020. There are some huge opportunities for brands here, but marketing in these active, ‘lean-forward’ environments will require some very different thinking to the kind of ‘lean-back’ marketing that has dominated ‘mass entertainment’ advertising over the past 50 years.
3. A cultural shift: as internet access and connection speeds accelerate across emerging markets, we can expect to see meaningful increases in the volume and popularity of content coming out of these geographies too. Many decry the dangers of today’s internet ‘filter bubbles’, but – in reality – it has never been easier for individuals to connect with people from all over the world; to learn about their worlds and their cultures, and to explore valuable new perspectives and opportunities. So, my top tip for 2020 is to “feed your feed”: actively add diverse perspectives and opinions into your digital diet, and embrace what diversity can do for you.

That’s all for this time – I’ll see you again in the next decade!

—-

This article was originally published by Simon Kemp on TheNextWeb. 

More blows for Facebook’s cryptocurrency plans
Facebook’s embattled cryptocurrency project, Libra, has hit a few more roadblocks this week. Firstly, The Financial Times reported that planned partners Mastercard, Visa, eBay and Stripe have pulled out, following the withdrawal of PayPal the week before. Facebook’s executive in charge of Libra is trying to put a positive spin on this, describing the pullouts as “not great news in the short term, but in a way, it’s liberating”. However, it’s not the only bad news Libra faced last week. A report by a G7 taskforce (which includes senior officials from central banks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board) outlined nine major risks posed by digital currencies such as Libra. It also said that even if Libra’s backers address concerns, the project may not get approval from regulators.

Facebook adds brand templates in Stories
Facebook is helping brands gear up for the holiday season with a couple of new features. Firstly, it’s released a set of customisable Stories templates for use across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Users can change the background colours, music and call to action effects – useful for those looking to produce simple and consistent Stories posts without a massive design budget. Secondly, Instagram Direct has some new features, such as instant replies and away messages, making it easier for businesses to manage their private messaging capabilities.

Facebook’s Workplace hits 3 million users
Facebook’s internal social network for businesses, Workplace, now has 3 million paying users according to the platform. Companies now using Workplace include retailers like Starbucks, airlines such as Virgin, global enterprises like Vodafone and agencies like… erm… We Are Social (see more on our experience with it here). Workplace is continuing on its quest for global domination (as if you’d expect anything less from Facebook) and has introduced a host of new features to make it even more appealing. These range from voice and video calls through Facebook’s Portal video-calling device and a new automatic video captioning feature.

Instagram moves focus away from camera with ‘Create’ mode in Stories
Instagram has launched a ‘Create’ mode in Stories, giving the app more flexibility to adapt to a broader range of content formats, other than those just focused on the camera. As the platform says, “Create mode helps you combine interactive Stickers, drawings and text without needing a photo or video to share.” One of the new additions is ‘On This Day’, which allows users to remise over terrible haircuts and awful exes by pulling up a post from the same day the year before to be shared. People on the app can also now choose any GIF from Giphy and set it as the background for a Story. Anything that cuts down the quantity of mirror selfies gets our vote!

Snapchat enables in-game purchases for new Adidas game
Adidas has teamed up with Snapchat to launch its new 8-BIT cleats, allowing users to purchase products via a game in the app for the first time. Dubbed Baseball’s Next Level, the game is launched to coincide with the start of the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs. Players are invited to pick their favourite Adidas 8-BIT cleat and MLB icon to participate in a home run derby challenge. Players can then purchase their cleats from the new Adidas Baseball 8-BIT collection directly on the platform. If you don’t have Snapchat fear not – you can play Baseball’s Next Level here or buy various cleats directly from Adidas’ site.

Pinterest Lite launches in five markets 
Last week, Pinterest became the latest social media platform to launch a ‘Lite’ version of its full mobile app. Pinterest Lite is now available to Android users in Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico, only requiring just 1.4 MB of storage space to download. The move comes as Pinterest continues to expand its global footprint, recently reporting that international monthly users were up 38% to 215 million, out of a total of 300 million users.

TikTok marks National Coming Out Day with #ThisIsMe
TikTok has celebrated this year’s National Coming Out Day in the US (October 11th) by teaming up with GLAAD on the #ThisIsMe challenge, a charitable initiative in support of LGBTQ youth. Running until Wednesday 16th October, for every user who shares a #ThisIsMe video, TikTok will donate $1 (up to $50,000) to GLAAD, an American non-profit which aims to tackle some of the biggest issues around LGBTQ+ acceptance.

Facebook and Pinterest get new features for World Mental Health Day
In support of World Mental Health Day (October 10th), this year Facebook and Pinterest both added new features. Facebook partnered with the World Health Organisation to launch two new tools on Messenger – a camera filter called ‘Let’s Talk’ (available for a week after WMHD) and a pack of Stickers (saying things like “Talk to Me”) which users can send in private messages to friends. For every Sticker sent, Facebook has said it will donate $1 to a select group of mental health organisations around the world, up to $1 million.

While Facebook has focused on helping users kick off conversations around mental health, Pinterest has put an emphasis on expanding the wellbeing activities it introduced to its platform earlier this year. Since July, users who have searched for things such as “stress quotes” and “work anxiety” have been targeted with wellbeing activities which they could do via the platform. Now, these activities – along with a host of new ones and a set of spruced up illustrations and animations – can be accessed by simply searching #pinterestwellbeing.

Watch this space….
Facebook is experimenting with new layout options for multi-image posts that would enable users to choose different presentation style; Instagram is looking to bring its Direct messaging functionality to its web app and has introduced Dark Mode to iOS; Google is reportedly considering the acquisition of social media app, Firework; and just when you thought there was one Trump-free place on the internet, the US President has started up a verified account on Twitch ?.

The OK hand emoji gets added to a list of hate symbols
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has added the finger-and-thumb OK hand emoji to its ‘Hate on Display’ list, after the gesture has been adopted by many members of the far-right as a symbol of white supremacy. The ‘new meaning’ emerged after an online ‘joke’ was started on 4Chan earlier this year to trick the media and left-leaning people into outrage.

While the ADL has said the emoji is a “sincere expression of white supremacy”, the “overwhelming usage” of the hand gesture is still to show approval or that someone is OK and “particular care must be taken not to jump to conclusions about the intent behind someone who has used the gesture”. The emoji joins over 200 entries on the ADL’s list, including the swastika and Ku Klux Klan’s burning cross.

Facebook adds Messenger swipe up to Stories ads
Facebook has announced a new option for Stories ads across its Facebook, Instagram and Messenger platforms that will enable users to easily swipe up to begin a chat in the messaging app. In a blog post confirming the launch, Facebook noted a recent test showed that seven out of nine brands who added the Messenger Stories placement to their Stories campaigns saw increased conversions – including app installs, add to carts, purchases or registrations.

Instagram launches Threads, a Close Friends chat app
Last week, Instagram announced a global rollout on iOS and Android of Threads, a new Close Friends-only messaging experience that offers rapid-fire camera and text messaging with your best friends. Threads also offers users two brand new features –  Status and Auto Status. These will allow users to either manually set an emoji as an away message or opt-in to letting Instagram select one automatically, based on your location, accelerometer and even your phone’s battery level. Currently, Instagram has no plan to monetise Threads directly or show any ads in it, while Facebook has also said that it won’t use the exact locations pulled from the app to power ad targeting.

Instagram trails an AR try-on feature for product pages
Instagram is testing a new AR feature with a handful of cosmetics and eyewear brands who are already using the platform’s exclusive shopping features. The new feature allows its test partners to add a new augmented reality try-on feature to their product pages. The underlying tech is the same Spark AR platform that powers much of Instagram’s camera effects and Facebook’s augmented reality ads.

Instagram tests in-app reminders for merch drops
The days of missing the latest collab drop could be over. Instagram has announced that it is partnering with around 20 brands in the US, including Adidas, Highsnobiety, Chinatown Market, Revolve, and Huda Beauty, as part of a test that could enable brands to set up reminder notifications for merch drops. Similar to those that users can already set for more general launches in Stories, the new Sticker will set a reminder to show up the day before the drop, as well as fifteen minutes before launch, and will open Instagram’s in-app shopping feature when clicked on.

Instagram adds new ‘Restrict’ feature to help tackle Trolls
To help tackle the problem of Trolls and abuse on its platform, Instagram has announced it is rolling out a new option called ‘Restrict’, which will enable users to restrict other users. Once a user has been restricted, any comments they post will only be visible to them. The person who has restricted them won’t receive any notifications from the account and can choose to view their comment by tapping ‘See Comment’, approve it so everyone can see it, delete it, or ignore it.

Instagram aims to inspire wannabe content creators
Instagram has launched a new account @creators, which aims to encourage aspiring influencers and content makers to keep creating on the platform. The new account will feature Instagram-chosen creators, such as dancer Susie Meoww (@susiemeoww) and comedian Adam Waheed (@adamw), who will walk people through their process for creating content and offer advice that ranges from the equipment they use to the sound effects they like.

View this post on Instagram

❗️ For Creators. ❗️ Learn how to up your game as a content creator, not only from us at Instagram, but from the creators you admire the most. ⚡️ We’ll be sharing insights, tips & tricks and YES, we’ll be talking about the algorithm. ?

A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators) on Sep 30, 2019 at 4:48am PDT

Twitter launches anti-abuse filter for Direct Messages
Twitter is tackling hate and rolling out its spam and abuse filter for Direct Messages to its iOS, Android and Web apps. The filter adds a new view to the Additional Messages inbox, where DMs from people you don’t follow go. Messages which potentially contain offensive content will have their previews hidden, with an option to delete the message without opening it first.

LinkedIn adds new tools to sharpen campaign targeting
LinkedIn is bringing more sophisticated audience targeting and campaign reporting features to its Campaign Manager. As part of this update, marketers will now be able to see the makeup of their target audience via the dashboard and customise the panel to bring up specific professional characteristics (such as years of experience or company size). The platform has also added the option of using “and/or” in queries, allowing marketers to combine multiple profile facets in a single campaign.

Finally, LinkedIn is adding the ability to track measurement insights at the audience level, including leads, Sponsored InMail openings and video ad views. While many of these features have now been made available worldwide, the new demographic reporting features will be rolled out over the next week.

Watch this space…. 
Facebook’s plans to launch its own cryptocurrency next year have come under threat, as key partners including Mastercard, Visa, PayPal and Stripe are said to be reconsidering their involvement in the project; WhatsApp is developing a new feature that would allow you to set your messages to self-destruct after a set period of time; and TikTok’s vice president of global business solutions has said in a blog post that paid political ads will not be allowed on the platform.

The post We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #463 appeared first on We Are Social.

Facebook announces Horizon, a new VR social network

At its Oculus Connect event last week, Facebook announced the upcoming launch of its own social Oculus-based VR platform, called Horizon. Positioned as an ‘interactive world’, people will be able to create their own VR avatars and hang out with other players, play games and even build their own virtual environments. To help ensure that Horizon remains a welcoming environment, Facebook is also establishing new safety tools and providing human guides, called Horizon Locals, to answer questions and provide assistance to players. Facebook Horizon launches in 2020 but applications to join the beta are now open.

Facebook buys wearables company CTRL-labs
Facebook is in the process of purchasing CTRL-labs – a startup building an armband that translates movement and the wearer’s neural impulses into digital input signals. When the deal is finalised, CTRL-labs will join company’s Facebook Reality Labs division and it’s thought that its products will boost Facebook’s plans for non-invasive brain input devices (ie being able to do stuff just by thinking about it). Along with the talent joining the business from CTRL-labs, the acquisition will bring a number of new patents and IP rights to Facebook, as it looks to build out its augmented reality products.

Snapchat beefs up its video ad offering 
At Advertising Week in New York, Snapchat announced that it will be relaxing its time constraints for ads, allowing marketers and brands to use videos of up to three minutes long. Previously, video ads had a 10-second cap  – which has been the case since the platform first started showing ads in 2014 – and users had to swipe up if they wanted to watch a longer version. However, as with the platform’s other video ad formats, the new three-minute ads remain skippable.

Along with the extension to its video formats, Snapchat is also creating a new way to target viewers based on their propensity to watch videos for longer periods of time, and is adding a ‘swipe up’ option to its six-second ads that appear within shows.

YouTube adds ‘Video Reach’ campaigns
YouTube has announced a new Video Reach campaign format which will enable advertisers to upload three different asset types — six-second bumper ads, skippable in-stream ads, and non-skippable in-stream ads — to a single campaign. Google will then use machine learning to determine the most efficient combination of the ads to maximise the audience reach. Early-access brands have reported that the format lowered campaign costs by more than 20 per cent compared to previous YouTube benchmarks. The Video Reach campaigns are available to all advertisers and currently run on YouTube’s desktop and mobile platforms.

Pinterest promotes shopping on its platform with new updates
Pinterest is going hard on its e-commerce offering, introducing several new updates including a new Collections format for Shop the Look ads on mobile. The new format enables retailers to feature multiple (up to 25) products in a single ad and it will roll out in the US over the coming months.

Along with the new shopping feature, Pinterest is also rolling out dynamic business profiles (complete with new video or image profile covers), a dedicated Shop tab, and catalogues and shopping ads – which will begin rolling out to select partners in France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Reddit reveals three new video ad updates
Reddit has announced three new upgrades to its video ad formats, including new mobile landing pages for video ads (designed to provide a seamless viewing experience) and the addition of 1:1 and 4:5 aspect rations for video ads. The platform is also introducing new optional referral URLs for cost-per-view (CPV) campaigns, allowing advertisers to deliver a “cleaner” viewing experience while driving more video views.

Watch this space…. 
Facebook has begun trialling hiding Likes on posts from users in Australia; Instagram has expanded its Branded Content Tags (for those users lucky enough to have them) to longer-form IGTV content; and Twitter has started working on a new option to help users more easily locate content that’s been shared via direct message.

The post We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #462 appeared first on We Are Social.