GlobalWebIndex just released the new Australian Digital Market Report, which is (unsurprisingly) very Facebook centric, revealing that four of the five most popular apps are Facebook or Facebook owned. The social network boasts the title of top app overall, and it is responsible for the top two messaging services, Messenger and WhatsApp. Although Facebook’s official numbers show WhatsApp has more registered users than Messenger globally, it’s clear that Messenger is actively engaging the most people in this market on a monthly basis. WhatsApp’s fragmented functionality, which requires multi-device users to install separate versions of the service on each device, likely skews these numbers in Messenger’s favour.
For most of the apps tracked in the chart, engagement among young users is much higher than the headline figures for the general population. For example, teens are 3x as likely to use Instagram, 5x as likely to use Snapchat and 7x as likely to use Tumblr.
Snapchat overtakes Twitter in the social media race The mobile messaging service is showing no signs of slowing down. In just four years, Snapchat has acquired more users than Twitter managed to in 10, according to an unnamed source from within the company. The mysterious informant claimed 150m people use Snapchat every day compared to Twitter’s 140 million.
News reach on Facebook down by 42% Already reeling from plummeting advertising revenues, the news industry has suffered a dramatic drop in reach on Facebook since January. SocialFlow, a platform used by publishers to post stories to social platforms, reported that, despite an increase in the number of news stories published, their total combined reach fell by 42%. SocialFlow CEO Jim Anderson blamed the drop on changes in Facebook’s algorithm. Ah, algorithms, the ultimate scapegoat…
Instagram rolls out news feed to all users… Instagram is rolling out a new algorithm that ranks posts in the order of interest, your relationship with the person posting, and the timeliness of the post. The photo-sharing service claims people miss up to 70% of content under the older, chronological format, so they consider this #filter a way for users to see more of what they want.
…and announces new tools to create business profiles For any business worried that the new algorithm could damage their visibility, Instagram has also launched free insights tools and the ability to turn posts into ads. Instagram says it consulted hundreds of businesses that all asked for better ways to stand out amongst the Insta-crowd and requested a better understanding of their existing and potential customers.
Snapchat revamps Discover to attract news publishers… Our beloved Snapchat is preparing a redesign to its Discover page, which will make it resemble a magazine to draw more users into the profitable product. Discover, which launched more than a year ago, already plays home to around 20 publishers including Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, ESPN and Vox.
…and overhauls Live Stories June will see a redesign of Snapchat Live Stories – the part of the platform that enables brands to share exclusive coverage of special events like the Super Bowl, Oscars, fashion shows, etc. Later this month, Snapchat will merge it with Discover to create a single content experience. Snapchat is also planning to introduce a subscription feature so users can have a say in what content is more visible to them. Stealing ideas from Instagram and Facebook, are we now?
L’Oreal will do your eyeliner for free…but only on Snapchat Can’t be bothered to do your makeup? Well, provided you don’t need to be seen in real life (who does anymore?), L’Oreal will do it for you. The brand is launching a Snapchat lens this weekend to promote its Infallible Silkissime eyeliner. The lens will apply cat eye liner, mascara, foundation, blush and lip colour to your snaps, but sadly it isn’t available IRL yet.
Avocado fans rejoice – there’s an emoji for that Anyone consumed with declaring their avo obsession to the world will now able to do so in emoji form. The overhyped squashy fruit joins bacon, gorillas and an arm taking a selfie in a list of newly-approved emojis released by Unicode Consortium. Sad news for safe sex campaigners though – Durex’s campaign for a #CondomEmoji sadly fell flat in the face of such…stiff…competition.
Meanwhile, Twitter is launching a Promoted Tweet Carousel… Twitter is launching a new advertising format that lets users swipe through photos, video or text. In a blog post announcing the launch, Twitter Revenue product manager Andrew Bragdon said the feature would allow brands to include visually appealing material in certain tweets while featuring pricing and information in others.
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