Twitter seems to be on a diversifying binge with the acquisition of podcasting platform, Breaker, earlier this year and now the acquisition of Dutch newsletter startup, Revue. The company looked to the acquisition of Breaker as a strategic move to help develop their Twitter Spaces feature. With their acquisition of Revue, they are looking to make the platform more interactive and profitable for content publishers.
The acquisition of Revue doesn’t change anything when it comes to the platform. It will continue to function as an independent service and app under Twitter. However, the company will be leveraging on the know-how and experience of the Revue team to develop and enhance their social media platform when it comes to discoverability and content. To this end, Twitter has decided to expand the team further, hiring for key roles such as engineering, design, data science, and others to produce more features. The move to acquire Revue comes as a boon to Twitter as it acquires crucial insights and talent when it comes to empowering publishers on the social platform.
With this move, the company looks to increase the exposure of the content publishers to a more wide-reaching network and global audience. In addition, the Revue acquisition will allow Twitter to enable a more interactive relationship between publishers and their audiences. As Twitter grows into a channel for publishers to build their audiences, the company is also looking to provide users with more creative and meaningful content.
As we begin the new year and look back on 2020, it is undeniable that technology has played a crucial role in helping everyone, young or old, to stay connected with our loved ones as we experienced variations of lockdowns in the past year. However, are you aware that there are stark differences in people’s usage behaviours on social platforms, even between those who were born just a few years apart, such as millennials (currently aged 25 to 40 years old) and Gen Z (currently aged 24 or younger)?
Most millenials are digital immigrants, meaning we remember a time before mass technological adoption. This is different from Gen Zs, who are the first generation to be considered true digital natives. They were born into a world of vast technological advances, with the internet as an integral part of their day to day. They don’t know a world without smartphones and broadband internet. Hence, how they think, communicate, use and don’t use the internet is different from the generations before them.
Additionally, as people observe stay at home orders during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they are increasingly turning to indoor activities enabled by the internet; communication, commerce, entertainment, fitness, and learning now take place virtually. This will undoubtedly accelerate digital transformation across many businesses, which will in turn sustain the digital economy.
Gen Z is uniquely well-positioned to continue driving this transformation as they are digital natives familiar and comfortable with new technologies quickly. Digital technology has shaped them, and we should take a page out of the Gen Z book when it comes to some habits and practices.
Value the importance of authenticity
According to Snap Inc. and JWT Intelligence’s “Into Z Future” study, when asked to develop a slogan for their own generation, Gen Z respondents overwhelmingly suggest some variation of “be yourself” – such as “just be you”, “just be yourself”, and “do what makes you happy.” This is a positive mentality to have.
It is important that we value authenticity over ‘perfection,’ which takes courage and confidence. We should not fear judgement or being perceived negatively for being who we are, especially when we are among friends. Honesty is a value that the majority of Malaysians, regardless of their age group, want between themselves and their best friend. The 2019 Friendship Report found that Malaysians want their best friends to be more honest and open about their feelings.
Before we can demand honesty from our friends, we need to first be our true, honest, and authentic self! After all, friendship is a two-way street – Gen Zs seem to have figured that part out.
Not everything is meant to be shared
According to Snap Inc.’s 2019 Friendship Report, millennials come out on top as the most “share happy” of the generations. Millennials are the least likely to say “I wouldn’t share that” across most categories surveyed including their love life, mental health issues, and money concerns. However, oversharing can have negative consequences, such as safety issues, loss of jobs, or risking personal reputation.
As digital natives, Gen Zs are likely to be more private, having learned from the mistakes made by the older generations. Gen Zs’ familiarity with these platforms means that they carefully choose how and where they share. They prefer ephemeral content that disappears, on social messaging platforms such as Snapchat. For example, they prefer to share details about their love life with their best friends over private messages as compared to millennials who would share about it on social media.
Gen Zs understand implicitly that just because we can share something with the world, it doesn’t mean that we should. This is a mindset that we should all adopt.
Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to friendship circle
Gen Zs are adjusting their approach to friendship, which differs from millennials’ desire for a wide network. The former is looking for more closeness and intimacy with a smaller social circle, where they can be their unfiltered, authentic selves. In contrast, millennials are the most likely of any generation to want “as many friends as possible.”
This is the same in Malaysia, where older generations gravitate towards forming friendships with as many people as possible, while Gen Zs (37%) are selective over the people they let into their close circle of friends.
While we all know the positive benefits of having close friends in our lives, a larger pool is not always better. According to friendship experts, a larger group of friends can take a toll on a person because there is greater pressure to open up to many different people and invest in those relationships. It seems that this is a life lesson that Gen Zs have already learned. Based on the above, we can see that there are a lot to be learned from different mindsets, and generation gaps do not just have to be a woeful reminder of “the good old days.” Look at things in a new light and shed your preconceived notions
Earlier this year, YouTube has brought a few updates to its platform this included a new feature called Chapters. This feature allowed creators to divide a video into separate chapters using timestamps. Chapters can be useful as it allows users to jump to the parts of the video that most interest them by clicking timestamps in the description or instead of scrubbing the video in the seek bar. That being said, not all videos uploaded comes with chapters as it involved the cumbersome task of manually identifying timestamps which can be a pain to do. To make things a little easier, YouTube has been testing an AI model which can divide videos into chapters on the fly.
To do this, YouTube is deploying AI that will go through a video and identify certain visual markers. These markers will then be used as reference points to break the video into chapters. The algorithm will also recognize certain text-based signs in a video to do the same. According to YouTube, the main purpose of this experiment is to create easy jumping on and off points for viewers, making it easier for viewers to navigate through videos and quickly jump to the relevant part that they desire.
The new feature is currently being tested on a small group of videos by YouTube. Needless to say, YouTube is allowing the creators to opt out from their experiment. That said, YouTube is also encouraging the uploaders to provide feedback on how the feature could be improved.
The Facebook and Instagram unification continues as Facebook’s Messenger App gets a tweaked icon to match the Instagram colours. This preceded a roll out of new functionality and themes for more expanded customization. Now Messenger’s iconic blue colour is becoming a shade similar to Instagram’s logo with shades of pinks and purples thrown in the mix.
The Facebook’s Stan Chudnovsky ,VP of Messenger said that they will begin to roll out new chat themes like love and tie-dye, and custom reactions together with new features where you can include your own photo into stickers which to make your chats more personalized and fun than ever before. Moreover, an exciting upcoming feature is the vanish mode, which makes the chat messages disappear after the recipient has seen it.
Facebook has also announced seamless cross-app messaging with Instagram. Current Messenger users would not need to perform additional set up to access this feature. Furthermore, new features will roll out automatically once they have become available in the user’s country. These features include aforementioned Selfie stickers, watch together functionality of IGTV and Facebook Watch and many more.
There is also speculation that functionality from WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook, will be incorporated with Messenger and Instagram in the near future too. It will be interesting to see the encrypted calls and messaging of WhatsApp featured in the Messenger-Instagram ecosystem.
You remember Snapchat right? Well, they have been improving and updating their app with new features to keep you more engaged and also ensure you’re connected with your pals even though you may not be meeting face to face.
It comes as no surprise that people love astrology and Snapchat is looking to make astrology even more accessible via their app. They are introducing a brand new feature called an Astrological Profile. With this new feature, you can find out your personality traits according to your horoscope. The app will bring up a detailed astrology profile based on your birthdate and horoscope.
In addition to your personal profiles, Snapchat is also allowing you to get to know yourself and your friends better with a compatibility reading between you and any other person you know who has set up their astrological profile. You’ll be able to tell if they have when you see a purple icon beside their Snap score. The readings will be presented in stories format and will take into consideration 10 different planetary dimensions.
Source: Snapchat
Snapchat has partnered with Cosmopolitan US’s astrologer, Aurora Tower, to ensure that the information provided in these features are accurate. Users who activate the feature will receive a daily analysis of your zodiac sign which is believed to factor into your personality and other dimensions of your life.
The Astrological profile will take into consideration ten different astrological elements: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto, Uranus. The information is then condensed into an Astrology Profile Summary. You can send these snaps to your friends or post it up on your story.
This new features is available in the latest version of Snapchat on iOS and Android.
TikTok is quickly becoming a go to platform for musicians. Just recently, the social media platform had an exclusive event with Korean band, BLACKPINK. Now, the ByteDance owned platform is going to become the exclusive debut partner for a KRU Music artist. DUKU & Tuju will be sharing their exclusive pre-release of their latest single, ‘Salawat 1442’ featuring Tyco on TikTok LIVE. The debut is happening on the 27th October at 8p.m. on the @KRU.Music account.
The collaboration between TikTok and KRU subisdiary, Imaan Music, looks to cultivate a younger audience aligned with the platform’s user demographic. The song being debuted adapts traditional dakwah and is a first in bringing together artistes from different genres for a momentous record.
The debut comes in conjunction with Maulidur Rasul, a Muslim celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. To know more about this collaboration and more on the subject, remember to tune live on 27 October at 8pm @KRU.Music on Tiktok.
Popular K-POP girl group, BLACKPINK, is taking the virtual stage on TikTok. The quintet will be interacting via livestream from their official BLACKPINK TikTok account (@bp_tiktok). TikTok and BLACKPINK will be holding the livestream as a token of appreciation for BLACKPINK fans (Blinks) who have supported and adore the group. Blinks will be able to interact with member of BLACKPINK for a total of 100 minutes on 21 October at 6pm in Malaysia.
TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms for short form content among youngsters and adults around the world. The platform has beaten out other platforms such as Snapchat and is quickly becoming one of the largest new creator platforms.
Source: TikTok/ByteDance
BLACKPINK recently ranked second on the US Bilboard album charts and the british official charts – the world’s two biggest pop charts. With their first Korean language album, “The Album”, they have become the first girl group to get in Billboard Artist 100 chart which lists the top 100 artists around the world.
During the event, the group will be interacting with their fans in a number of sessions as they discuss and share behind the scenes stories from their album. Guess what? Winners will be able to choose and participate the live video call during the event. If you live in South Korea, you could be the lucky chosen to meet the four idols, Jisoo, Lisa, Rose and Jennie!
Don’t miss your chance to meet BLACKPINK when they take over the TikTok stage this week! TikTok is available in over 150 countries and regions in 75 languages, you can download it from the Apple AppStore or the Google Play Store.
Thirsty for Justin Bieber new song? Still looking for where to hear it? Snapchat has just launched a new feature called “Sounds”. They are launching the new feature with a collaboration with Justin Beiber featuring an exclusive track from his new album. Beliebers everywhere are undoubtedly celebrating the shocking revelation. For now, Snapchat is the only platform to hear the vocals for his new songs “lonely” featuring Benny Blanco before it is available on October 16, 2020 at 12pm.
The music can be added to Snaps either pre- or post-capture, then shared without any limitations. You can post it to your Story or share directly with friends, as you choose. At launch, the Snapchat music catalog offers “millions” of licensed songs from Snap’s music industry partners, the company says.
Source: Snap Inc
When users receive a Snap with Sounds, they can then swipe up to view the album art, the song title and the name of the artist. There’s also a “Play This Song” link that lets you listen to the full song on your preferred streaming platform, including Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud. Snapchat is also testing out recording with your own covers with “Sounds” which should be rolling out in the coming months. The move to introduce a music feature is meant to counter the growing threat of ByteDance owned, TikTok app, which has popularized short-form video sharing with posts set to music from a large catalog.
According to a research, In the U.S., Snapchat now reaches 90% of all 13 to 24-year-olds, which the company notes is more than Facebook, Instagram and Messenger combined. It also reaches 75% of all 13 to 34-year-olds and, on average, more than 4 billion Snaps are created every day.
Two days ago, Malaysia faced a meltdown. No, not the nuclear reactor type. It was mostly rage against TIME dotcom Malaysia. If you are a user, you would know that you could not have access to your internet on the 14th of July 2020 because there was some issues with TIME dotcom, one of Malaysia’s major internet service providers (ISP). For plenty of Malaysians working from home, this is a nightmare scenario. Internet was down for up to eight hours from the first reports at about 2.00 p.m. (correct us if we are wrong).
We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.
That was not a good day for TIME dotcom and their customers, me included. While that is a big deal, Twitter seems to have a bad day at the office too on the 15th of July 2020, yesterday. They had several accounts hacked, and then those accounts were used for a cryptocurrency scam.
Source: BBC
The hacked accounts are not any random accounts though. The account holders of the hacked accounts are people like former United States Vice President, Joe Biden; former POTUS, Barrack Obama; Billionaire, Elon Musk; Microsoft Founder, Bill Gates; and even Apple’s own twitter account. These are all verified accounts, by the way.
The hackers then proceed to post promises of a double return of Bitcoins as long as anyone sends them a certain number of Bitcoins to them. Twitter has locked all the affected accounts once they found out about the breach. This was several hours after the hack and scam started.
According to Twitter, the hackers managed to use some of the internal tools that only employees have access to. They are suspecting also that the hack is targeted towards Twitter employees in this case. Most of the affected accounts are also accounts with a vast following number, understandable since they want your money.
Our investigation is still ongoing but here’s what we know so far:
Still, twitter took responsibility and apologised to the millions on Twitter. There are no official numbers being released on how much has already been scammed, but there are estimates that the numbers have reached more than a few US$ hundred thousand in value. Twitter is currently still rectifying the issue and will issue an update very soon. You can keep up with the latest update on this issue via Twitter following Twitter Support’s account.
Over the years, misinformation has become more and more rampant on the social media platforms. Facebook, being one of the largest social media platforms the world over, has come under fire for the growing spread. Like many other social media platforms, Facebook has become one of the epicenters of a growing movement to battle misinformation.
In the past, the social media platform has introduced prompts and features to its platform across its apps and even on the web to help mitigate the spread of misinformation. In fact, Facebook is one of the only platforms which has a dedicated team and partnership to help verify the authenticity of articles shared across its platform. However, with the current, heated climate of the world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the large number of countries gearing up for elections, the platform is introducing new features to help curb misinformation even more.
The latest feature being added is a prompt that will notify the user if they are about to share content that is over 90 days old. The new prompt will appear when users click the share button on posts or articles older than 90 days old. The new prompt will help users rethink sharing articles which are outdated by giving them a second and more context to the article. However, users can still opt to share the article.
The new feature comes on the back of News publishers having increasing concerns of legitimate, outdated articles being shared as current news. This prompted Facebook to address the need for article timelines to be added to the contextual information that is available to their users.
In Malaysia, the new feature comes in light of an online tabloid being called out on its horrible practices of rehashing old, outdated stories and blatant plagiarism of content from other publishers. This issue also highlights a possible gap in Facebook’s measures that the platform should take note of. Sites that are rehashing and publishing old news as new articles may not be picked up by the new prompt as the publication date would be up to date.
We’ll have to wait and see if and when Facebook looks into that specific issue.
