Wednesday Wrap-Up #396
Facebook says over 2.1 billion people use their apps daily
Despite recent data privacy controversies, Facebook has reported over 2.1 billion daily active users across its family of apps – Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger – with 2.7 billion monthly active users. This includes an 8% increase YoY, with Asia-Pacific a key area of audience growth.
Facebook doesn’t appear to be hurting too much from the $5 billion fine it incurred in a settlement with the FTC, with a 28% YoY increase in Q2 revenue to $16.886 billion, up from $13.231 in Q2 of 2018. Most of the revenue was achieved through advertising, with an increasing amount of this coming from mobile advertising, up to 94% from 91% last year. Data controversies also don’t appear to be worrying advertisers with North America leading 30% of the revenue growth along with the Asia-Pacific region.
Snap’s stock jumps after beating Q2 expectations
Facebook isn’t the only social network on the up in Q2. Snapchat’s stocks have jumped nearly 12 percent after posting better than expected Q2 financial results. Revenue was up to $388 million in Q2, a 48% YoY increase with daily Snap users up 8% YoY. This was its largest increase in users since Q2 2016 and, like Facebook, a large portion of this increase in users appears to come from outside the usual markets of the US and UK. In its battle with Instagram, augmented reality lenses have been a key differentiator, but Snap will need to stay ahead of the game with the rising popularity of other AR apps, such as FaceApp.
Building on that momentum, Snapchat this week released its first global paid-media campaign. Called ‘Real Friends’, the campaign will focus on the U.S., Australia and India, with assets running on Spotify, Pandora and other digital properties, as well as in broadcast and print outlets. Perhaps most interesting is Snap’s attempt to infiltrate Instagram with an influencer campaign and a #realfriends and #friendshipquotes hashtag takeover that reflects billboards the app has erected in New York City. Both feature quotes from famous people on the virtues of ‘real friendship’. An accompanying launch video features more than 70 Snapchatters from 12 different countries sharing the stories behind their real friendships around the world. Truly, how many of us?
Twitter announces new mDAU figures in its Q2 report
In a move that excites data nerds like yours truly, Twitter has a new preferred audience metric that it used in its Q2 announcement. ‘Monetizable Daily Active Users’, or mDAUs, were up 14% YoY, to 139 million, with the resulting revenue up to $841 million, an 18% YoY increase. The interesting thing about this new metric is that it describes users who accessed and were on the platform and able to be served ads. According to Twitter this differs from other social metrics, MAUs and DAUs, which did not distinguish whether users had been served ads or not. It will be interesting to see if other social networks follow suit to give advertisers more transparency on audience sizes.
Targeted YouTube masthead ads available to all brands
Following completion of a beta test from February, YouTube has now opened up the option of buying ads on its masthead to all brands. These ads can be bought on either a CPM, cost per day basis, or with a fixed rate, with minimum spend requirements. Previously the masthead was bought on a daily basis with one brand owning the masthead across a geographic region, functioning more like a website takeover rather than an impression based, targeted option.
LinkedIn rolls out new ‘Services’ listings for profiles
To help out SMBs – that’s small and medium-sized businesses, ICYMI – and freelancers by making them stand out more on the platform, LinkedIn has begun rolling out a new feature to let users showcase what services offerings they have on their profile and enable their profile to be found by searching for those offerings. These features are currently only available to small business leaders and freelancers with Premium Business accounts in the US, but they’re slated for a wider release later this year.
Pinterest introduces Mobile Ad Tools
Pinterest has launched a new set of tools that will allow advertisers to create ad campaigns from their mobile device for the first time. The new tools come with a streamlined targeting process, campaign controls and editing options, and performance metrics to help simplify the process for advertisers. The new Mobile Ad Tools are now available to businesses in the US, with global expansion to follow.
This edition of the Wrap-Up was compiled by Matt Brown.