We Are Social Asia Tuesday TuneUp #122

News
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WhatsApp hits 500M active monthly users
WhatsApp has announced it just passed half a billion monthly active users. However, the question over how brands will tap into this huge audience remains unanswered.

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Line introduces sticons for Android
Japanese messaging service Line recently introduced sticons – a hybrid between stickers and emoticons. You can now use them as large, standalone stickers or as emoticons when used in text messages. Over 1,000 sticons are available from faces, animals, symbols, sports, vehicles to even Line character sticons as well. An iPhone update will also be available soon.

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Line’s Creators Market to start next month
Line has also recently released more details of its upcoming Creators Market where anyone can create, submit and sell their own stickers for use on Line chats. For a start, these stickers can only be bought by users from Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, with sticker creators able to receive half of the net income sticker sales. Time to start doodling!

WeChat adds flight booking services
To add on to its m-commerce offerings, Tencent-owned WeChat has teamed up with travel site LY.com to allow you to book your flight tickets using WeChat Payment and receive instant notifications on your flight statuses. This is currently only available to users in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with more cities to follow suit as well as other online booking services by LY.com.

Sina Weibo’s value jumps after IPO
Sina Weibo went public last week. From its IPO price of $17 per share, its value shot up 19% in the first day, closing at $20.24. Day two saw a further growth of 12% by the time markets closed, at one point reaching the $24 mark. Looking good so far, Weibo…

Adobe releases stats on Facebook ads
Adobe has released its quarterly report on Facebook Advertising for Q1 2014, and it’s good news for Facebook advertisers. The stats show cost per click decreasing 2% year on year and 11% quarter on quarter, while click through rate has jumped 160% year on year and 20% quarter on quarter. Other results include an increase in engagement and video views, plus evidence that suggests most engagement/video views happen on Fridays. Take note, social media managers!

Facebook launches ‘Nearby Friends’
Facebook is rolling out a new feature for US iPhone and Android users, named ‘Nearby Friends’.

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The opt-in system allows users to browse the approximate locations of all their friends who have also signed up, as well as to receive push notifications when one of them is nearby. Mashable has played around with the system and posted an article about it, in which they examine its various features. The author discusses how to turn on the system and displays how it shows only a rough location, even after opting in, unless a user chooses to share more details with a friend. Naturally, Nearby Friends is collecting a lot of data, and the piece makes a point to discuss the long-winded process of erasing it. Facebook hasn’t ruled out using the feature’s data to serve ads in the future.

Facebook to reveal mobile ad network?
Facebook is rumored to be set to launch a mobile ad network. Details are slim on the ground just now, but allegedly all will be revealed at the F8 developer conference at the end of this month. You know where to come then, don’t you? Yes, your favourite weekly round up of all things social media.

Facebook to launch ad segment for the World Cup
Facebook looks set to create a new audience segment for its largest advertisers, made up of those watching this summer’s World Cup. It would be the first time that the network has created a segment specifically for a TV event, pitting it against Twitter, the reigning champion of social TV. Advertisers can already target an audience segment named ‘FIFA World Cup’, but the new alternative will be updated daily to include those who start to show interest after the event begins.

Twitter to offer mobile ads beyond its own app
After purchasing the mobile ad exchange MoPub last September, Twitter now has the ability to offer mobile ads beyond the Twitter mobile app. The social network, which attributes 75% of its business to mobile, can now show ‘app install’ ads in apps across MoPub’s network, including WordPress, OpenTable and Songza.

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Google+ updates ads
Google+ has made three updates to its ad offering. Firstly, +Post ads, which turn G+ content into display ads, are now available to all pages with 1,000 followers or more. Secondly, brands can now choose to automatically promote their most recent update and only pay once it receives engagement. Finally, it is possible to promote a Hangout to a +Post ad, allowing users to either RSVP, watch live or watch a recording.

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We Are Social and Evian bring Spiderbaby to Twitter

We Are Social has helped Evian bring its sponsorship of the new film, Amazing Spiderman 2, to life on Twitter. Using the hashtag #AmazingBabyRescueMe, the water brand asked followers to tweet in their everyday dilemmas and receive a personalised response from the Amazing Baby character. Replies included tweets, Vines and illustrations, such as the below:

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Dos Equis starts marketing on Foursquare
Dos Equis has brought its signature character, the ‘Most Interesting Man in the World’, to Foursquare. Continuing with his classic tone of voice, which has even spawned its own meme, the page will be populated by content like the below.

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US Airways post interesting image to Twitter
US Airways posted an ‘unsavoury’ image to Twitter last week. If you haven’t seen it, here’s a Buzzfeed article that shows the picture, which is very NSFW. The airline has apologised and has said that it’s investigating exactly what went on. However, the employee won’t be losing their job. We Are Social’s own Leila Thabet discussed why with Mashable, comparing it to other ‘Twitter fails’. As it’s so clearly a mistake, the brand has managed to sidestep major criticism – it isn’t the same as when Kenneth Cole made light of the Egyptian political situation to try and boost sales, for example.

NASA asks everyone to post a #GlobalSelfie
Had enough of selfies? NASA hasn’t. The organisation is celebrating Earth Day byasking people around the world to post pictures of themselves, wherever they are. The images will then be compiled, along with shots from NASA’s satellites, into a giant mosaic of the entire planet. As selfies go, these ones sound pretty good.