Amid the uncertain impacts of COVID-19, Facebook has published its latest earnings report, showing double-digit increases users and revenue – though it has warned of a more significant slowdown on the horizon. First off, on users – Facebook added 105 million users in Q1, taking it to 2.60 billion MAU, a 10% increase YoY. Daily actives jumped 77 million in the quarter, the biggest increase since 2011, which come largely as a result of increased usage amid the COVID-19 lockdowns. And while those results are impressive, Facebook has sought to temper expectation around such moving forward: “Our community metrics, including Facebook DAUs and MAUs and Family MAP and DAP, reflect […]
Facebook says that it’s latest conversational chatbot system is able to hold human-like conversation – and it’s specifically better at doing so that Google’s Meena chatbot process, which the search giant recently praised as an example of how far its processes have evolved. In an unusually pointed research report, Facebook’s team has outlined its new ‘Blender’ chatbot framework, which “outperforms others in terms of engagement and also feels more human, according to human evaluators”. You can see the Blender artificially generated responses in blue above – the system is able to better understand context, and even subtlety, in order to maintain a discussion with a human user. To improve the conversational capacity […]
Twitter will provide selected academic teams with full access to the public tweet conversation about COVID-19 as part of a new dataset designed to help in the research of the virus and its spread. Specifically, Twitter is releasing a new endpoint into Twitter Developer Labs which will enable developers and researchers to study the public conversation about COVID-19 in real-time. As per Twitter: “This is a unique dataset that covers many tens of millions of Tweets daily and offers insight into the evolving global public conversation surrounding an unprecedented crisis. Making this access available for free is one of the most unique and valuable things Twitter can do as the world […]
Just like Google’s earnings yesterday, Facebook reported a pretty decent quarter marred by “a steep decrease in advertising revenue in March.” However April has reportedly brought nascent “signs of stability,” which is enough to drive the company’s stock up 10% in after-hours trading. Beating diminished expectations. To say that Wall Street expectations have been lowered by the economic fallout from the pandemic might be the understatement of the quarter. Any positive news now is being greeted with enthusiasm by the market in the hope that the recovery will come quickly after the lockdowns end, although there’s considerable debate among economists about how long it will take to recover. Facebook reported […]
Facebook is expanding its test of in-stream ads in Facebook Live to more verticals, including “pre-vetted entertainment, news and sports partners,” the company announced this week. The test is designed to help evaluate whether or not the ad format is effective before rolling it out more broadly. For now, Facebook is piloting in-stream ads with only a select number of publishers. The limited test will help determine if pre-vetted content creators are able to successfully monetize their live video streams with in-stream ads. How it works. When watching Live content from a creator included in the test, viewers might see a range of ad formats, including: A pre-roll ad that […]
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With nearly 5,000 FDIC-insured commercial banks in the United States alone, it’s essential for any bank to know exactly how to present themselves online to win awareness and market share. To help establish its online presence, Chime advertises its services with targeted PPC and display ads, all connected to personalized Chime landing pages that continue the ad narrative. Let’s look at a few examples. How Chime uses targeted ads with post-click experiences Example 1: “No fee debit card” Google search Someone at the top of the marketing funnel, researching their options for a debit card without additional fees might search Google for “no fees debit card” and see this ad […]
Where are you getting your news updates from during the COVID-19 pandemic? Increasingly, people are relying on social media platforms to help keep them informed on the latest – which can be both beneficial and problematic in equal measure. Social media usage has ramped up significantly during the lockdowns, with Facebook reporting “unprecedented increase in the consumption of news articles” specifically. Overall US traffic from Facebook to other websites has also risen by more than 50%, as people seek updates and insights. Given that people are spending more time on social anyway, and it’s updated in real-time, there’s clear benefit to getting news via social apps. But then again… Social […]
LinkedIn is experimenting with some new link preview presentation formats, which could have implications for the visuals that you use when posting to the platform. There are a couple of variations in testing – Twitter user Ryan Own Gibson shared this example (via social media expert Matt Navarra), which uses adaptive coloring in the background of the header title pane, based on the dominant color in the preview image. That’s similar to what Facebook tried out back in 2017, though it abandoned the idea not long after it was spotted in the wild. Interestingly, Facebook’s now working on adaptive color background for profiles, so it seems to see some value in […]
After it was previewed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg late last week, WhatsApp has now officially announced the launch of its new, 8-person, encrypted video chat option, which doubles the capacity of WhatsApp group video calls. As explained by WhatsApp: “The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many of us are isolated from friends and family, and as a result, we’ve seen that people are turning to voice and video calling on WhatsApp more than ever before. Group calling has been particularly useful and our users have asked to connect with more people at once. Starting today, we’re doubling the number of participants you can have on a WhatsApp video or voice call […]