We Are Social Asia Tuesday TuneUp #100
Sina Weibo now lets brands and celebrities offer subscriptions
Starting next week, all “verified” Sina Weibo users have the option of reaching out to their followers via subscriptions according to report from TechInAsia. Celebrities and brands can now offer interesting content for free using text or voice messages via the new social marketing channel called Weibo Fan Service. Although aiming to reach the mobile users of the official Sina Weibo app, it also works on the desktop web app.
For example, it allows TV stations to tell you directly about new TV shows they think you might like or daily weather updates from a media outlet that will all be delivered in the form of private messages inside Weibo. 60,000 brands and well-known Weibo users are said to have signed up for these subscriptions during the beta testing stage.
Twitter is facing challenges making money in Japan and Korea
Twitter is facing serious challenges in East Asia, where it has so far struggled to break through with advertisers (Japan) and users (Korea), according to the Wall Street Journal. Twitter used to be strong in Japan in 2011, where it is used by one-third of the Internet population. Japan accounts for under 10 percent of Twitter’s global revenue and it is said that many Japanese brands don’t think that Twitter is something to pay money for. In Korea, data suggests 60 percent of the country’s 7.2 million Twitter accounts have been inactive for six months. One strong reason for this definitely is the wide range of customers using their country-grown chatapps, Line and Kakao Talk.
Facebook has 351 million active users in Asia in Q3
As reported by TechInAsia, Facebook’s monthly active users in Asia are now standing at 351 million. A year ago, there were only 277 million active users in Asia. The revenue figure for Asia rose to $278 million in Q3, up from $154 million at the same point last year. While Facebook’s average revenue per active user in Asia is up, it’s still dwarfed by the whopping $962 million that Facebook makes from just the 199 million active users in the US and Canada.
IKEA sells used furniture in virtual flea market
IKEA launched the eight-week campaign that kicked off in August to inspire customers to be more sustainable in selling, instead of tossing, old furniture. According to Mashable, IKEA worked with SMFB, a Norway-based ad agency, to sell their used furniture via a virtual marketplace by encouraging 50 Norweigian sellers to photograph their furniture on Facebook and them marketed each product on IKEA’s Facebook page. Each piece of furniture was also promoted via other advertising mediums including online broadcast, print and outdoor billboards. Each ad featured the seller’s first name and personal phone number. Customers participated in the campaign for free, and successfully sold all of their furniture.
The importance of Facebook for Christmas gifts
A couple of pieces of research presented in an article by the Drum display Facebook’s importance to the UK Christmas gift market. Firstly, 12% of UK Facebook users have purchased a gift after seeing it in their newsfeed, while mums (who are reported to purchase 84% of Christmas gifts) spend three times longer on Facebook in the festive season.
Facebook remains number one for social logins, Google+ making ground
According to figures from Q3 2013, Facebook’s dominance as the source of social logins to websites and mobile apps is under threat. Currently, it holds 51% of social logins, down 1% from the previous quarter, while Google+ has risen 2% to 26%. On mobile, the figures are slightly better for Facebook, with 66% to Google+’s 20%, while overall it is still way ahead in certain parts of the world.
Facebook’s Q3 figures: revenue and mobile usage up
Facebook has released its Q3 2013 figures, with impressive growth in mobile usage reflected in its revenue. In total, 48% of the network’s daily active users are now on mobile, with a total of 874 million monthly active users, compared with 819 million in Q2 or 604 million for Q3 2012.
This growth is reflected in revenue figures, as 49% of the ad revenue now comes from mobile ads. That’s the ad revenue that makes up $1.80bn of the total $2.02bn for the quarter – a whopping 89% of all the money made by the network. Tthe majority of this ($832m) originates in the USA & Canada, but significant growth can be seen in the graph below for all major global markets.
Facebook admits drop in teen usage
Last week’s mashup brought you the news that Facebook had seen a drop in relevance to US teens. Well, now the network has stepped up and admitted it. David Ebersman, Facebook’s CFO, said:
Our best analysis of youth engagement in the U.S. reveals that usage of Facebook among U.S. teens overall was stable… [However,] we did see a decrease in daily users specifically among younger teens.
This is an interesting admission by Facebook – it’ll be worth keeping an eye out on what measures they take to tackle the decline.
A more visual Twitter
Twitter announced an update this week that’s set to add colour to the network: apreview of pictures and Vine videos will now appear front and centre in tweets, rather than users having to click to see media. This opens up a whole new avenue for advertising, in that Twitter can now essentially sell display ads, a system of which some brands have already taken advantage.
Google+: custom URLs and new hangout features
Google+ announced a couple of updates last week. First of all, it will allow custom URLs for accounts that meet three conditions. That account must be 30+ days old, have 10+ followers and have a profile picture – but good luck finding 10 real followers. On top of this, there are some changes to hangouts, which now support HD, filters, location settings (through Google maps), GIFs and SMS integration. Now, time for a hangout to chat all about our exciting new URLs.
Michael Kors and the first Instagram ad
Fashion retailer Michael Kors posted the first ever Instagram ad to an, erm, mixed reception. Naturally, considering that it was the first ad users had ever seen on the network, it got a fair number of complaints. However, the post also saw excellent engagement, with over 150k likes compared with their normal average of around 50k. So, as almost always, there are two sides to the story – it’s worth waiting to see how quickly Instagrammers adapt to ads on the platform.
David Beckham’s Face-book signing
David Beckham last week took part in a book signing with a twist through Facebook. Rather than directly meet fans and sign their books, he instead ‘signed’ people’s Facebook profiles, while taking part in a live Q&A.
Wendy’s #PretzelLoveStories
Fast food retailer Wendy’s has promoted its latest burger, the ‘Pretzel Pub Chicken Sandwich’, with a campaign named #PretzelLoveStories. Basically, they’ve created a soap opera spoof from tweets around the sandwich, which you can watch below.
Audi renews #WantAnR8 campaign
Audi has re-released its #WantAnR8 campaign, which asks users to create a virtual lap of the Sonoma Raceway track for the chance to win exclusive driving experiences. From the #WantanR8 Tumblr, fans can select exclusive footage and audio to create a virtual video lap of the Raceway, which they then post to YouTube and Twitter with the hashtag #WantAnR8 to be in with a chance to win.
We Are Social produce HP Sauce Movember campaign
HP Sauce is a major partner of Movember for the third year running, and We Are Social has produced a campaign to celebrate. Mo Bros are asked to complete a different challenge every week, each of which involves posting a Mo-related photo to the HP Sauce Facebook page via an app. For doing so, participants can win everything from exclusive Movember prizes to Mo fund top ups, all of which go towards raising money and awareness for men’s health.
Katy Perry is now the most followed Twitter user
Katy Perry overtook Justin Bieber as the most popular Twitter user last week, with 46.5 million followers to his paltry 46.49 million. Watch out, the pair of you: the London writer of this mashup has a whopping 163, so I’m hot on all four of your heels.