2018.09.07 Last Week in Digital Media

Last Week in Digital Media / By

Another busy week, here’s the news from last week in digital media:

General

  • Amazon is retiring the names Amazon Media Group and Amazon Advertising Platform (the latter will now be known as Amazon DSP) rebranding their ad business “Amazon Advertising”.
  • UM client, BMW have announced their in-car own voice assistant. The assistant is compatible with other assistants like Alexa, and will provide typical voice assistant functions as well as driver safety offerings e.g. helping you stay alert if tired. BMW’s voice assistant will be coming to cars in 2019.
  • the EU has approved Apple’s acquisition of Shazam. The EU statement on the approval is notable as the decision calls out understanding how and where the data as a determining factor. Apple’s plans for Shazam are still unknown but it’s reasonable to expect integration into Siri and AppleMusic (but unlikely to be time for Apple’s iPhone announcements next week).
  • twitter has launched (within iOS) an audio-only version of Periscope (their live stream offering). The offering came out of twitter’s #HackWeek (details here). The move to audio-only may seem odd in a world racing to video, but given the popularity of podcasts it may open the door to innovations in that category (live talk-back with a replay later).

Video

eCommerce

eSports

Mobile

Trust, Safety, and Privacy

  • a recent Pew Research study shows that Cambridge Analytica and #deleteFacebook have had an impact on the platform. This includes 42% of those surveyed taking a break from Facebook and users actively adjusting their privacy settings. The latter is interesting, as younger users are skewing higher when it comes to adjusting privacy settings and/or deleting Facebook. This runs counter to the belief that younger users are more open to data being open, shared, and public.
  • twitter permanently banned Infowars citing repeated policy violations. Arguably an overdue decision, twitter was the last hold-out. It’s a positive sign that platforms are understanding that they need to exercise editorial control when it comes to creating a safe environment for users and advertisers. For advertisers, the activist behind #BlockParty500 to help users block Fortune 500 ad accounts on twitter as part of a strategy to lobby for action, has now ended the ad blockade.
  • the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence met with representatives from Facebook and twitter (Google was invited but declined) during the week. Digiday has the best write up on 5 key takeaways, The FCC (in a blog post) did hit at the potential for regulation of social media prior to the hearings. During the week Timothy Wu, a policy advocate at Columbia University, conducted an interview on the case to break up Facebook (also announcing a book on the topic “The Curse of Bigness” due out in November).
  • The Californian Privacy Act has already been amended by lawmakers. One of the key changes moves the effective date from Jan 1, 2020 to after the California Attorney General adopts regulations, or by July 1, 2020, whichever occurs first. Industry groups are still planning to lobby for other changes.

Have a great week.

Joshua

PS. Two distractions this week. A back to school themed one – Google has a free tool to help anyone teach Computer Science. Not interested in helping teach CompSci? Then try this site (you need to access this from your PC not mobile) that uses neural networks to lets you build and evolve AI creatures.

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