Hello
I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well. Welcome to Last Week in Digital Media, here’s the News you may have missed.
GENERAL
- Pinterest has added new ways to shop from the Pinterest platform. The eCommerce integrated offerings include the ability to shop from boards, pins, search, and “style guides.” Style Guides are interesting because it provides a way to double-click in on a particular look. The features also integrate with Pinterest’s Verified Merchant Program.
- Facebook’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) team released a new app called “Tuned” (iOS download). Tuned bills itself as “A private space just for couples.”
- In other Facebook news, researcher Jane Wong discovered that Facebook is working on a “Campus” feature for college students. It looks to be focused on groups and events for college students and those with a .edu email address.
- Quibi launched. According to Sensor Tower, the app hit 300,000 downloads soon after launch. The app peaked at #4 and fell to #21 by the end of the week.
- Instagram’s Direct Messaging feature is now available on the web, announced in this tweet here. The update is rolling out progressively to users, so don’t panic if you don’t yet see it. Also new, Instagram Live Broadcasts can be watched from the web.
- a few weeks ago, it was shared Movies Anywhere was doing a limited beta called “Screen Pass” where you could share your movie collection. Now anyone can request to be in the beta (sign up is here). I haven’t heard back, but if you have success, let me know.
- According to Google’s support documents, the AI-driven Google Duplex service (where AI makes the voice call on your behalf) is coming to additional countries. Although there’s not yet any formal announcement, this is probably something Google would have announced during the now-canceled Google I/O event.
STREAMING & VIDEO
- Spotify’s ad studio is out of beta and expanding to 18 new markets. Ad Studio is Spotify’s self-service tool and includes tools for audio ad creation (even if you don’t have assets).
- Hulu’s SVP of Advertising, Peter Naylor, has left to join Snap as VP America’s. If anything, it demonstrates Snap is serious about growing its ad business.
- Disney+ has passed 50MM subscribers globally. For comparison, Netflix has 167MM subscribers globally (60MM in the US).
eSPORTS
- if you have wanted to try Google’s video game streaming service Stadia, now is your chance. Google is giving away two months of Stadia free when you sign up, details here.
- Facebook is launching eSports gaming tournaments for amateurs. The release date has been brought forward to encourage people to “Play apart together.”
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
- The week saw some consolidation in the location data space. foursquare merged with factual in an all-stock deal. This is the 3rd foursquare acquisition in under a year, after acquiring Placed from Snap in May of 2019.
- In other News, PlaceIQ bought the location data business of Freckle IoT. The deals in the location-space could be either a sign that the sector is maturing or that rationalization is needed as privacy and software changes start to impact the location sector.
- CNN acquired the personalization startup Canopy. CNN plans to leverage the company and tech. for CNN’s not-yet-released and un-named news aggregation service code-named “NewsCo.”
REGULATORY
- One to watch, France’s competition regulator “Autorité de la concurrence” has ordered Google compensate news publishers for publishing extracts of “protected content” on Google’s Discover product (it’s the News suggestions you see in the Google mobile app). You can read more about the decision here (English version).
CORONAVIRUS RELATED
- the MMA has created a COVID-19 marketer support hub. It both aggregates a broad range of content and from a variety of perspectives. It updates regularly, so it is worth bookmarking.
- the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has a Coronavirus Compendium with inspiration for marketers.
- a reminder to subscribe to the IPG Media Lab podcast, it’s free! For the past few weeks, the podcast has focused on the impact of COVID-19 on the media ecosystem with regular special guests from across the industry. The lab is also doing live office hours on twitch every Friday. A good excuse for you to try and learn about twitch.
- Apple and Google have partnered on a Coronavirus contact exposure tracking solution. This involves the development of a new interoperable (iOS and Android) API that relies on Bluetooth and the phone generating hash keys that expire every 15minutes. If you want to know how more about how it works, read this document (PDF link).
- in inspiring News, twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey is donating US$1B or 28% of his equity in Square to fund Coronavirus relief.
PRIVACY. TRUST, and SAFETY
- twitter update their privacy policy, with a large dialogue box announcement. The change provides some users control over how twitter shares data with 3rd parties. All of which can be controlled from twitter’s personalization tab.
- Brand Safety related to coronavirus continues to be in the spotlight. In the category of News, a 4A’s Advertiser Protection Bureau, a year-long cross-industry effort that highlights that News is brand safe has been published (PDF link).
Stay safe, stay inside, and wash your hands.
Joshua
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