We Are Social Asia Tuesday Tune-Up #213

Tuneup
melissa.law
Earn as you play games on your phone
Taking a leaf out of Mokbang, Kamcord, a mobile game live streaming site, has made it possible for mobile gamers to earn while gaming. Kamcord recently introduced a new a system to allow people to give gifts to video creators.

Aditya Ratham, co-founder of Kamcord, reckoned that gaming stars will pull an average of US$5,000 (SGD7000) per year on his site. Viewers have a choice of gift items. The cheapest is 40 cents (SGD0.56), and the priciest will cost a devoted fan US$80 (SGD112) to send. All gifts are sent via in-app purchases on the Android or iPhone app.

WeChat content creators might be able to charge for article reads
WeChat is working on a new feature that allows writers to charge for access to articles. Reports in China suggested that the feature is already on WeChat for beta testing. A content creator with a WeChat public account can choose to charge for their posts (up to US$30 (SGD40)). Followers will be able to see the first few lines of the post for free, but will have to pay to read further.

Indonesia reverses ban on Tumblr
A day after banning Tumblr in an effort to clamp down on porn available online, the Indonesian government decided to unblock the site. Instead, the blogging platform would be expected to self-censor pornographic content on its site. Officials will continue to monitor the site, and might reinstate the ban in the future should their standards are not met.

The initial ban triggered uproar amongst Tumblr users in Indonesia. By Thursday morning, the hashtag #savetumblr surfaced amongst top Twitter trends in the country.

Source: Keyhole.co














An online petition started by Tumblr user, Tumblogger KITA, received 13,600 supporters.



Document leaked which suggests ads are coming to Facebook Messenger
A document has been sent to some of Facebook’s biggest advertisers which indicates that ads may be coming to Facebook Messenger in Q2 of 2016. The document says that businesses will only be able to send ads to people who have previously messaged them and encourages them to prompt people to start conversations now, so they can advertise to them when this feature launches fully. A short link will also be supplied to brands which they can promote to make it easier for users to get in contact. So, Facebook pushes hard in 2015 to improve customer service on Facebook via Messenger, (introducing the ‘click to message’ news feed ad and the badge which shows how fast brands reply, among other things), and now reveals this is the key to opening a new advertising stream to consumers…? Well that’s none of our business 🐸☕️.

Twitter makes it easier to direct message brands
Everyone’s got two personalities in this horrid, modern world. The erudite wit, who swills whiskeys thoughtfully at dinner parties, while crumbling acquaintances’ arguments with a mere look. The other? The Twitter ranter. Your ASOS delivery hasn’t turned up and before you know it, you’re just going HAM for all your friends to see. Twitter has now introduced a new button which is the online equivalent of saying ‘shall we take this somewhere a bit more …private’. USE IT!

DMprompthalf

Twitter makes it easy to tweet gifs
In 2015, more than 100 million gifs were shared on Twitter, and now Twitter has partnered with Giphy and Riffsy to introduce a new button which lets you search for your perfect gif to match your mood. You can search using a keyword or browse categories of different reactions like mic drop, or for those of you so inclined… YOLO.

OYiRM

On top of this, (who said Christmas only comes once a year!), Twitter has announced you can now capture and send video in your direct messages.



Brands stand up to homophobia and racism on Instagram
Although we would all love to live in a world where brands wouldn’t have any racist or homophobic comments to fight back against, hats off to adidas and MAC Cosmetics. The two brands have in the last week shown how it’s done when dealing with small-minded bigots on social. First adidas caught the attention of the trolls after posting a picture which inferred two women kissing.





The love you take is equal to the love you make.

A photo posted by adidas (@adidas) on Feb 13, 2016 at 11:30pm PST




Following various negative comments, adidas swiftly dealt with the offenders with aplomb.



MAC shared a backstage photo of a black model wearing its Matte Royale lip colour at New York Fashion Week, which soon became flooded with racist comments.





Royal romance at @ohnetitelny #AW16. #MACBackstage #NYFW

A photo posted by M∙A∙C Cosmetics (@maccosmetics) on Feb 17, 2016 at 6:50pm PST




The model in the photo, 19 year-old Maryse Kye said: “As I turn 20 in a couple days this is a reminder of what I endured in the past, and if I survived middle school in America I can get over this. The bullying and alienation from others solely based on my features and skin color did not stop me from doing what I want.”

MAC responded with the following statement: “MAC stands for and respects All Ages, All Races, All Sexes. We do not tolerate any abusive comments in our community.”, which is reiterated in the brand’s Instagram bio.

Virgin Australia’s agency take blame/credit for calling Kanye a ‘douche’
Planes, holidays, sun, planes, holidays, Kanye eat a dick you douche, holidays, planes, wait. WHAT!? 589f145e59f6f2e9a28d675b4e8f6639

So, somehow a rogue tweet slipped out from Virgin Australia’s Twitter account last week in response to Kanye saying his latest album should have been given 30/10 and not 9/10 from Pitchfork magazine. After investigation from Virgin Australia, the agency Carat Australia have taken responsibility for the tweet, and after an apology from the brand, they seem to if anything, have gained a bit of kudos from the boob.

Screen Shot 2016-02-22 at 16.10.46