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☆ Snap plunges 30% on revenue miss and light guidance, as Middle East conflict creates 'headwind'
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Revenue : $1.36 billion vs. $1.38 billion expected, according to LSEG. : $1.36 billion vs. $1.38 billion expected, according to LSEG. Global Daily Active Users : 414 million vs. 412 million expected, according to StreetAccount. : 414 million vs. 412 million expected, according to StreetAccount. Daily active users for the first quarter will be 420 million, Snap said, slightly topping analyst estimates of 419.3 million.

Persons: Evan Spiegel, Porte, Debra Aho Williamson, Mark Zuckerberg, Linda Yaccarino, Shou Zi Chew, Jason Citron, Pinterest Organizations: Inc, Viva Technology, Porte de, CNBC, Meta Locations: Paris, Israel

☆ Digital ad market shows signs of sharp rebound as Meta, Amazon point to growth
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

During that period Meta's ad revenue fell 4%, and Google's ad business suffered a similar drop . A year ago, Meta finance chief Susan Li offered chilling commentary about the state of the digital ad market, telling analysts that the struggling industry would remain in a slump. Meanwhile Alphabet, still the market leader, saw its Google ad business rise 11% to $65.5 billion, boosted by 16% growth at YouTube. Investors will get additional data on the digital ad market when Snap and Pinterest report earnings this week. On the whole, "digital advertising is continuing to eat up share" of worldwide advertising, Williamson said.

Persons: Li, Susan Li, Debra Aho Williamson, William Blair, Williamson, Meta Organizations: Google, YouTube, Insider Intelligence, CNBC, Intelligence, Meta, Investors, Bank of America Global Research Locations: Paris, Russia, Ukraine, China, Red

☆ Meta's WhatsApp is chasing big businesses in effort to finally capitalize on app's popularity
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

Newton-Rex joined WhatsApp four years ago, leaving her high-level position at London-based financial firm WorldRemit for the new gig. Newton-Rex said Zuckerberg has been "a big part of the team," adding that he regularly speaks with Will Cathcart, the current head of WhatsApp. What's up with WhatsApp's business? In June, Meta said the WhatsApp Business app had quadrupled in the past three years to 200 million monthly active users. The Pew Research Center has previously detailed that WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app used by Hispanic Americans.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, WhatsApp, it's, It's, sidelining WhatsApp, Rather, Zuckerberg, Jim Cramer, Alice Newton, Rex, Uber, Newton, WorldRemit, Will Cathcart, Nick Lane, Debra Aho Williamson, Williamson, Jan Koum, Brian Acton, Jan Koum David Ramos, Acton, Koum, Meta, Meta's, that's, Mobilesquared's Lane, Lane Organizations: Facebook, Meta, CNBC, Consumers, Netflix, Insider Intelligence, Getty, Reuters It's, Intelligence, Pew Research Center, Twitter, Cambridge, SMS Locations: WhatsApp, India, Brazil, London, Indonesia, Colombia, Singapore, Newton, U.S, Canada, Spain, Italy, Argentina, North

☆ TikTok is steamrolling past Instagram in user attention time, but is still far behind on ad dollars
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Sydney Bradley | Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

TikTok has surpassed Instagram in daily minutes spent on the app — by 2025, it could pass Facebook. Here are 3 takeaways from the report, including how ad spend on Instagram still trumps TikTok. In 2023, the company is projected to earn around six times as much as TikTok in ad dollars per adult user for each hour spent on the apps, Insider Intelligence reported. TikTok passed Instagram in total daily minutes in 2022 and will pass Facebook in 2025, according to Insider Intelligence forecasts. Insider Intelligence"Instagram is part of Meta and advertisers are still really wedded to Meta," said Debra Aho Williamson, a principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

Persons: TikTok, Debra Aho Williamson, Mark Zuckerberg, Williamson Organizations: Facebook, Intelligence, Insider Intelligence, Meta, Instagram, YouTube Locations: Meta

☆ Reddit throughout the years: Its rise to prominence, recent revolts and IPO plans
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Katie Brigham | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The price hikes have led some beloved third-party Reddit apps such as Apollo to shut down, instigating an uproar among the website's community of volunteer moderators, who often rely on third-party apps to run the site's 100,000+ discussion communities, called subreddits. But tensions remain high, and some say that if Reddit doesn't rebuild trust, its most passionate users will go elsewhere. Ohanian rejoined Reddit as executive chairman in 2014 and Huffman rejoined as CEO the next year. But it's not just tech giants who use Reddit's API. These third-party apps are largely just alternatives to Reddit's official mobile app, which didn't even exist until 2016.

Persons: Reddit, David DeWald, Alexis Ohanian, Steve Huffman, Paul Graham, Ohanian, Huffman, Y Combinator, Condé Nast, Debra Aho Williamson, George Floyd's, it's, Apollo, Jakub Porzycki Organizations: University of Virginia, Advance, Facebook, Insider Intelligence, GameStop, AMC, Google, Getty

July 27 (Reuters) - Reels, Meta Platforms' (META.O) answer to viral short-form video app TikTok, elicited eyerolls when it launched in 2020 and was regarded as yet another example of Meta copying a popular rival. The number of Reels video plays on Facebook and Instagram now top 200 billion per day, up from 140 billion last fall. One reason for Reels' growth is that Meta's ad platform makes it seamless for advertisers to place their promotions on the feature, said Debra Aho Williamson, a principal analyst at Insider Intelligence. More than three-quarters of Meta's advertisers are placing ads on Reels, said Susan Li, Meta's chief financial officer. TikTok and its famous content recommendation algorithm remains the leader when it comes to time spent on social media apps.

Persons: Meta, Justin Osofsky, Instagram, TikTok, Osofsky, Mark Zuckerberg, Debra Aho Williamson, Susan Li, Zuckerberg, Meta's, Li, Sheila Dang, Katie Paul, Peter Henderson, Jamie Freed Organizations: Facebook, Meta, Intelligence, Insider Intelligence, Thomson Locations: Austin, New York

☆ Meta vs. TikTok: How they're each using AI to attract advertisers and which one is winning
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

The aim was a similar short-form video service to become more competitive in the space and slow down ad share losses. "This is a key leading indicator for monetization, and any incremental results from AI-driven targeting and measurement would accelerate the market share shift." In a digital advertising market where growth is limited, the battle for market share gains is critical. TikTok's AI strategy TikTok has seen a quick rise in viewership by virtue of predictive AI for content recommendation. TikTok advertisers can place ads through the platform's TikTok Ads Manager , offering automatic audience targeting and measurement tools.

Persons: TikTok, Debra Aho Williamson, Instagram, Aho Williamson, Rohit Kulkarni, Roth MKM, Kulkarni, Roth MKM Kulkarni, Oppenheimer, That's, Brad Erickson, Meta, Erickson, Meta's, Mark Zuckerberg's, Roth, Joe Biden, it's, we're, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Rafael Henrique, Lightrocket Organizations: Facebook, TikTok, Meta, Insider Intelligence, Apple, CNBC, JMP Securities, RBC Capital, Citi, —, Oracle, Getty Locations: Beijing, Instagram, U.S, Montana

☆ Alphabet, Meta lure back advertisers as smaller rivals expected to struggle
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

This year, though, the social media ad market is expected to grow at a slightly faster pace than in 2022, according to a report last month from media and intelligence firm MAGNA. "Advertisers are simply going back to platforms they know, like and trust," said Brian Mulberry, a portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management. The social media advertising market overall is expected to grow 6% this year to $66 billion, according to MAGNA. Last year, the social media ad market grew 2% in part because privacy updates by Apple Inc (AAPL.O) made it more difficult for advertisers to gather user data to serve targeted ads. Digital pinboard company Pinterest is expected to post a 3% year-over-year rise in quarterly revenue on Thursday, according to Refinitiv data.

"At this point, we are no longer behind in building out our AI infrastructure," Zuckerberg said on a conference call. AI recommendations increased time spent on Instagram by 24% in the January-March quarter, Meta said. Reuters GraphicsCOST CONTROLSpending on the AI retooling has spiked the company's capital expenditures, which came in slightly under expectations at $7.1 billion for the quarter. "We've been focusing on both AI and the metaverse for years now, and we will continue to focus on both." Revenue for the first quarter rose 3% to $28.65 billion, beating an average estimate of $27.66 billion.

The company said its expenses for the year may be lower than it had forecast in March. Spending on the AI retooling has spiked the company's capital expenditures, which came in slightly under expectations at $7.1 billion for the quarter. Analysts had forecast $7.2 billion in capital expenditures in the quarter, based on the company's annual forecast of $30 billion to $33 billion, which it kept unchanged. Net profit for the first three months of the year fell to $2.20 per share from $2.72 a year earlier, but beat expectations of $2.03 a share. Revenue for the first quarter rose 3% to $28.65 billion, beating an average estimate of $27.66 billion.

☆ Artifact: Instagram's founders are back with a new app
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —More than four years after Instagram’s founders left the company, they’re back with a new app. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger on Tuesday announced the launch of Artifact, an app that promises “a personalized news feed” powered by artificial intelligence. Unlike Instagram, the app is more focused on articles rather than photos. A main feed will display popular articles from large media organizations down to smaller bloggers, and a user’s feed will grow more personalized based on what they click on. Jim Bennett/WireImage/Getty ImagesAfter launching Instagram together in 2010, Systrom and Krieger sold the app to Meta for $1 billion in 2012.

☆ Tech companies like Amazon and Meta are warning of tough times ahead — and only some are prepared
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

While Apple is a "bright spot," Meta, Alphabet, and others are in for a tough few months, analysts say. All signs point to choppy waters ahead — for tech giants, the people they employ, and the users they serve. So, if things are getting bad, how are the big tech companies likely to fare? AppleApple is in the best shape, a "bright spot" amid otherwise grim big tech earnings, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note. Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note Tuesday that there's potential for a rebound next year.

☆ Facebook will experience its slowest US user growth ever in 2021
▼ + stars: | 2021-06-16 | by ( Debra Aho Williamson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Facebook will experience its slowest growth ever in 2021 at just 0.8%. In 2021, the number of monthly Facebook users in the US will increase by less than 1% year over year, the platform's lowest annual growth rate to date. In 2021, the number of monthly Facebook users in the US will increase by less than 1% YoY. While the platform will gain 19.4 million users ages 25 and older between 2019 and 2025, it will lose 4.1 million users ages 12 to 24 during that time frame. Its sister property Instagram ranks second with 118.9 million monthly users expected this year, followed by Pinterest with 91.1 million.

☆ Social audio marketing challenges for 2021
▼ + stars: | 2021-04-22 | by ( Debra Aho Williamson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The following is a preview of one Media, Advertising, and Marketing report, Clubhouse and Social Audio 2021. But any marketer that's active in social media should weigh the drawbacks of entering social audio right now. Social audio sits at the juncture of four activities: social media, digital audio, virtual events, and conversations. For now, social audio is a fraction of the size of social networking or podcasting. Social audio marketing efforts: minimal payoffMarketers shouldn't enter social audio in 2021 with the idea of generating a massive return.

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