Snap’s losing streak continued with today’s Q3 2017 earnings report that saw it miss financial expectations and add just 4.5 million users. Snap earned $207.9 million in revenue with a loss of $0.14 per share, compared to expectations of a $237 million in revenue and a loss of $0.15 EPS. The 178 million total daily users equates to a 2.9% quarter-over-quarter user growth rate… Read More
Category: Social
Twitter officially expands its character count to 280 starting today
Twitter’s expansion to 280 characters is rolling out publicly today to all users in supported languages, including English. The company had first announced the controversial plan to move beyond its traditional 140 characters back in September, noting at the time how a longer character count allowed users to express more of their thoughts without running out of room to tweet. The… Read More
Facebook introduces a Messenger plugin for business websites
Facebook Messenger is coming to businesses’ own websites. The social network announced today the launch of a new customer chat plugin into closed beta, which will allow customers to talk directly with businesses on their websites using Messenger, and continue those conversations across web, mobile and tablet devices. While there are already plenty of customer support and chat plugins… Read More
Instagram pushes more influencers to adopt its new format for sponsored posts
Instagram is moving forward with the rollout of its branded content tool, which allows celebrities and other popular users to identify posts that are paid for by advertisers. The company first introduced the tool in June, then made it available t…
View More Instagram pushes more influencers to adopt its new format for sponsored postsSnapchat isn’t working and users are freaking out
Snapchat is having some technical difficulties with its service and its 173 million daily users are not happy about it. Some people are having trouble sending and receiving messages or connecting to the server. The company first acknowledged the problems on its Twitter page about two hours ago: Some Snapchatters are having trouble with the app We’re looking into it!… Read More
Photoslurp bags $870k for its ‘shop the look’ UGC marketing platform
Bootstrapping Barcelona-based visual commerce startup Photoslurp has taken its first external funding: Announcing €750,000 (~$870k) in pre-Series A financing, led by Spanish VC Inveready Technology Investment Group, with participation from Bankinter VC, Caixa Capital Risc and ICF. Read More
Google is surfacing Texas shooter misinformation in search results — thanks also to Twitter
Google has once again been called out for algorithmically encouraging the spread of dubious, politically charged speculation and misinformation around a topical news event. Read More
View More Google is surfacing Texas shooter misinformation in search results — thanks also to TwitterCovert influence is the new money laundering
As more media companies realize Russia bought advertising space or promoted news stories — fake and otherwise — on their platforms, covert influence has become the new money laundering. Both activities hide below the surface of legitimate enterprises, cast a shadow of disrepute on those very enterprises and can be neutralized through transparency and accountability. Read More
Inside Summit Series, the invite-only getaway striving for altruism
“Make No Small Plans” is the Summit Series motto, and it doesn’t. The “Burning Man meets Davos” event company has bought a mountain, rented cruise ships and, this week, is taking over Los Angeles. If you can get an invite, Summit Series could see you learn to free dive or meditate, watch Quentin Tarantino or Kendrick Lamar debate art, take a class on polyamory… Read More
Twitter says it has ‘implemented safeguards’ to prevent Trump account deactivation
President Trump’s Twitter account was deactivated on Thursday for 11 minutes at the hands of a rogue employee on their last day at the company. While many cheered the attempt at halting the controversial tweets, others expressed concern at the lack of control Twitter had over its own service. Read More
Niantic acqui-hires Evertoon to add a social network to Pokémon Go and other apps
Niantic, the company behind the hit mobile game Pokémon Go and its predecessor, Ingress, announced today it has acquired the team from the startup Evertoon to help it further build out its mobile products. Deal terms were not disclosed, but from how it’s described, the move seems to be more of an acqui-hire focused on gaining access to talent, rather than Evertoon’s IP. Launched… Read More
Twitter posts a new version of its rules with updated sections on abuse, spam, violence and more
Twitter today published a new version of its rules, in an effort to further clarify its policies about abuse, spam, self-harm and other topics, as well as to better explain how it determines the appropriate action – like suspending an abuser’s account, for example. The company says the updated documentation doesn’t represent changes to the “fundamentals” of its… Read More