We Are Social Asia Tuesday Tuneup #185
News
News
Goodbye collage makers, hello real-time selfies
India incorporated startup, Myndbee, had one purpose when they created Picpal– that is to bring people together in one photo despite being far away from each other. With Picpal, users now only need one app to do what they otherwise would do on separate apps, i.e. a messaging app to invite friends and share photos, a camera app for taking selfies and a collage maker app.
Momo launches the Shouhu Initiative
In a new initiative, Chinese dating app Momo aims to tackle a problem that has long been plaguing China– the issue of missing children. For the Shouhu Initiative, Momo partnered with a local charity to leverage on its users to share information that will help locate the children in the crucial 72 hour period.
Facebook releases Q2 figures
Facebook released its Q2 figures last week and it continues to grow apace. The network now has 1.49 billion monthly active users, up 3.47% from Q1. That’s slightly slower growth than the previous quarter (3.6%), but has been enough for the network to pick up $4.04bn in revenue. Daily active users reached 968 million from 936 million in Q1.
Facebook tests profile tags
Facebook is trying out LinkedIn-style profile tags. The feature allows users to add tags to their friends’ profiles or to their own, and was described by the network as follows:
Profile tags are a creative tool that lets you and your friends add tags to your profile to highlight the things that describe you and what you’re into.
Instagram ad sales to reach $2bn by 2017
Instagram ad sales will hit $600m this year, according to a report by eMarketer. The figure is expected to jump to $2.81bn by 2017, when it’s predicted that Instagram will outsell both Google and Twitter for US display ads.
Twitter releases Q2 data
Like Facebook, Twitter released its Q2 figures last week, seeing ad sales jump 63% year-on-year for the quarter to $452m. Total revenue was up to $502m, but interim CEO, Jack Dorsey, still recognises the network’s issue with user growth:
In order to realize Twitter’s full potential, we must improve in three key areas: ensure more disciplined execution, simplify our service to deliver Twitter’s value faster, and better communicate that value.
Snapchat continues to update Discover
Snapchat’s transformation into a content publishing platform is seeing signs of success, as the network announced that 50 million users have visited its Discover section in the 30 days since tweaks to make content more conspicuous. While they won’t say what the figure was before the changes, apparently they’re happy with the result.
The changes are set to continue, with a shake-up of content providers that sees Yahoo and Warner dropped for the youth-focussed Buzzfeed and iHeartRadio. The platform is also reportedly planning a ‘special product’ for e-commerce with Hearst Corporation, which publishes the likes of Cosmopolitan and Esquire. PLUS, if all that fails to bring in revenue, you can now buy an official Snapchat beach towel for $24.99.
Google ends YouTube and G+ integration
Google has ended its forced integration between YouTube and Google+, meaning users can now sign up for the former without a profile on the latter. And there’s more where that came from, with Google stating that “It doesn’t make sense for your Google+ profile to be your identity in all the other Google products you use”.
Yahoo acquires social shopping site Polyvore
Yahoo has agreed to buy social shopping site Polyvore, which allows people put together and purchase sets of outfits and accessories. Polyvore will continue as a stand-alone service, while enhancing Yahoo’s consumer and advertiser offerings and helping drive traffic.
Talenti’s ‘Flavorize Me’ campaign
Gelato brand Talenti has launched a campaign that uses social media profiles to create personalised ice cream flavours. An algorithm scans platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for keywords, which are then linked to different ingredients and combined to create the perfect ice cream flavour for you.
Coca Cola measures happiness of Londoners
This summer Coca Cola is teaming up with Capital FM to measure the happiness of London commuters as part of its ‘Choose Happiness’ campaign. Londoners areencouraged to tweet their mood along with the hashtag #choosehappiness. Tweets will be used to project a real-time data analysis of the general mood of London’s inhabitants onto 300 billboards.
Topshop removes mannequin due to Facebook complaints
An unhappy shopper has recently accused Topshop of promoting unhealthy beauty standards after coming across a ‘ridiculously shaped’ mannequin in one of their stores. The shopper’s 500-word message attracted more than 3,700 likes on Facebook. In response to the complaint, Topshop has said that they will no longer be ordering the mannequin in that size.