We Are Social Asia Tuesday TuneUp #83
News
News
Taobao version of Weibo might be released in July
According to Xinhuanet, following Alibaba’s investment in Sina Weibo, both of these Internet giants have bolstered their social media co-operation lately. Recently added new features on Sina Weibo include: a product recommendation box on the bottom of the page, that directs potential customers to a ‘hot products’ link recommending Taobao’s best selling products as people browse through the page. This is of particular importance as Sina Weibo currently has 500 million registered users and over 47 million daily active users. Moreover, 75% of these active users are found to log in through their mobile devices. Once Alibaba and Sina Weibo draw up an agreement to merge the separate accounts currently used by the subscriber, hundreds of millions of users will become potential users of both sites more easily. The integration also allows Alibaba to build a more targeted consumer profile, which will be featured on their shopping sites like Taobao and Tmall, as they will be better at observing consumer behaviour to understand complex shopping needs.
KakaoTalk launched a PC version to compete with WeChat and Line
According to Techinasia, KakaoTalk has recently launched a PC version of its IM service appropriately named KakaoTalk PC. Since chat apps are widely discussed across Asia, more and more users are becoming familiar with its new functions such as; free calls, voice clips, status updates and picture uploads. They are similar yet more convenient to what services like Viber and Skype currently offer. WeChat and Line have already developed desktop versions of their product for both Mac’s and PC’s too, as the benefits such as easier typing on a desktop may still prove to popular for those users who prefer to use a PC. There exists a ‘battle of the chat apps’ it appears, with WeChat and Line as the front runners, whilst KakaoTalk exhibits their ambitions to attract more users to use their desktop and web app versions of their product range. Interestingly, Whatsapp have released a statement that they will not be releasing a PC version of their product for now.
Facebook has 64 million monthly active users in Indonesia
As reported by Techinasia, Facebook currently has 64 million monthly active users in Indonesia, which puts the country in the top five list in terms of Facebook users. It has stirred up curiosity as to whether or not Facebook intends to set up an office based in Indonesia. Unfortunately the rumour has been quashed by Charlene Chian, Facebook’s head of communications for Asia-Pacific, who states that Facebook does not currently have any plan to open up an office in Indonesia; however Indonesia is a key component in Facebook’s future plans due to the size of users based there. The lack of any major plans within Asia might be due to the opening of Facebook’s Singapore based headquarters specifically for Asia-Pacific back in 2010.
WeChat now features In-App purchasing
As many Chinese social media platforms are collaborating with e-commerce sites, this could be seen as a potential tendency for following years. Reported by TechinAsia, Tencent was bound to implement e-commerce into WeChat sooner or later, Netease Tech reports that the huge rollout has already started. The in-app purchases are the first in what will be a long-line of new features likely to be rolled out nationwide in WeChat’s long awaited 5.0 version. However, the new features In-App purchasing only allow users to purchase Through Tenpay, which is a big challenge for Tenpay due to Alipay already gained a huge amount of users in China. For the time being, it is yet unclear whether any of these awaited features will be made available to WeChat’s current 50 million strong users worldwide.
Facebook introduces images in comments
Last week saw Facebook roll out the option to include images in comments, for ordinary users and brands alike. It will undoubtedly help Facebook to compete with sites like Tumblr and Pinterest which are currently far more visual.
Instagram Video is here!
In a move which wasn’t a huge surprise, Facebook introduced video on Instagram last week, a story we covered in full at the time. The videos will be 15 seconds long and their introduction comes as no shock after the enormous success of Vine: the number of Vines shared on Twitter had surpassed the number of Instagrams.
With the option to add filters as well as the added time compared to Vine, our own Global MD Robin Grant told Marketing that Instagram Video is “Vine on steroids”declaring that Instagram Video “packs a massive punch … in the battle of video one-upmanship”. In addition, Grant says that Instagram video will appeal to brands far more than Vine as they had previously been “on the receiving end of criticism for shaky, unprofessional looking Vines”, something which Instagram Cinema could fix.
Crucially for Instagram, the 15-second length of their videos will make them very attractive to advertisers, given they are the same length as a TV ad – and with users’ loyalty to Instagram, it could prove a great incentive to get them watching adverts once again. Certainly, the move has appealed to brands, with Burberry and Lululemon part of an exclusive launch group which posted videos while the official launch was still ongoing.
Other large brands who were quick to jump on the bandwagon included Nike, General Electric and the band Foo Fighters. It should come as no surprise that brands are keen to get involved: 5 million clips were uploaded to Instagram Video in its first 24 hours. It will be interesting to see how brands adapt to the launch of Instagram Video – and how much this list of the top 50 brands on Instagram changes.
Twitter releases cost of TV ad targeting product
Twitter has announced that their ad product to target certain TV users will come at a hefty price tag: it carries a minimum spend of $100k. As the new video below shows, brands will be able to reach audiences tweeting about the particular programme during which their ad airs, meaning the outlay could be well worth the return.
Twitter is developing geo-targeted ads for retailers
Twitter is working on a mobile-only ad product which will be available to users who are clearly within close vicinity of a store. This could be particularly useful for large chains such as McDonalds which have stores throughout cities. It’s important for Twitter to make this sort of product available, as it’s one area where they’re clearly lagging behind Foursquare. It’s therefore no surprise that Twitter has acquired Spindle, a startup that focuses on (you guessed it) check-ins and discovering cool places nearby.
YouTube invites brands to join its Partner Program
In a bid to encourage brands to act more as publishers, YouTube announced at Cannes that it plans to invite advertisers into its Partner Program. What this means is that Youtube will be providing brands with all the tools, data, services and training it provides its top content creators. Initial brands approached include AmEx and Pepsi, with YouTube hoping to have 100 joined up by the end of 2014. The idea behind the Program is to get more brands sharing top quality content on YouTube, rather than merely using it as an online housing-ground for their TV ads.
Yahoo completes Tumblr acquisition
The Is were dotted and the Ts crossed last week, as Yahoo completed its acquisition of Tumblr. Yahoo has emphasised that Tumblr will continue to be run independently and its no surprise really: Tumblr’s stats are immense, with 900 posts per second and 24 billion minutes spent on the site each month.
WhatsApp surpasses 250 million users
According to its own figures, WhatsApp now has over 250 million users. This is more than it had before.
Just 10 brands account for the majority of food conversations
An interesting tidbit from the Social Food Brand Study 2013: of the UK’s 85 leading food brands, just ten account for 96% of all conversations in social media:
NBA Finals an enormous success – including on Twitter
The incredibly competitive NBA Finals extended to Twitter, where conversation levels were huge throughout the seven games. According to Twitter:
During the course of the NBA Finals, more than 26.7 million Tweets were sent throughout the seven-game series. Game 7 alone saw 7.4 million Tweets, with a peak of more than 150,000 Tweets per minute at the conclusion of the game.
Get Wiggling for Wimbledon
We Are Social has launched a campaign around Wimbledon for evian. The campaign asks users to upload their own ‘Wimbledon Wiggle’ (the signature move players make when waiting to receive serve) for the chance to win Wimbledon. Don’t know about you, but we think it’s ace and definitely a winner.
Diesel launches Reboot Tumblr
Diesel has launched a Tumblr called Diesel Reboot which encourages fans to submit content which inspires them. Providing its not copyrighted, it will be posted on the Diesel Tumblr.
Pigeons to live-tweet their journey across Europe
To try and promote Fogg’s borderless internet access card, four racing pigeons have been released across Europe, each with their own Twitter account which will document their journey. The pigeons’ specially-designed 28g backpacks will carry a Fogg Sim card connected to a GSM database which will activate the tweets. The pack will also hold a GPS tracking device to follow the birds’ routes.
Natwest make a joke
Natwest proved an old insight true last week: that a joke about a bit of topical news can really fly on Twitter, especially if it comes from an unexpected source:
Peppa Pig’s Facebook page hacked
Peppa Pig World saw its Facebook page hacked last week – which was a pretty minor story providing that you weren’t the Daily Mail, who managed to work themselves up into a frenzy about how all children who’d witnessed the posts would have their lives ruined forever and ever and ever. Let’s conveniently forget that kids aren’t supposed to be on Facebook then.