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☆ Snapchat breaks down how creators can qualify to make money from ad-revenue sharing, as it expands access to the program
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Dan Whateley | Shriya Bhattacharya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Snapchat is widening its stories ad-revenue sharing program to more creators. The expansion comes as competitors YouTube and TikTok also test ad-revenue sharing with users. Snapchat is opening up ad-revenue sharing to more creators, the company announced during its partner summit on Wednesday. TikTok began testing an ad-revenue sharing program called Pulse for creators with at least 100,000 followers last year. Outside of its stories ad program, Snap pays creators via other initiatives like content challenges and a fund for its short-video feature Spotlight.

☆ Snap expands AI chatbot with ability to create images
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Snap's chatbot, called My AI, which can help users with everything from writing poems to searching for information, was built using startup OpenAI's ChatGPT technology. My AI is now available free to all Snapchat users and can be invoked to respond to questions in conversations between friends on Snapchat, Snap said on Wednesday. My AI's ability to respond to users with its own AI-generated images will be available first on Snapchat+, which has reached 3 million subscribers, Snap said. Snap analyzes conversations with My AI and has found that 99.5% of the chatbot's responses adhere to Snapchat's community guidelines, Spiegel said. The venture could also help Snap diversify beyond digital advertising, which currently makes up the majority of its revenue.

☆ Big Tech employees are getting culled. Their European colleagues get stronger labor laws and softer landings.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

European Big Tech employees have better labor protections"There are regulations in Europe that apply to collective situations, based on European law: the so-called Mass Dismissal Directive," said Dr. Jordan. But in January, Twitter employees were reported to have been paid just one month's severance, according to CNN. Twitter employees in other European hubs such as Germany, Spain, Ireland, and the UK are also pushing back, with the help of the countries' labor laws and unions. Twitter employees in Germany have also worked with the Verdi union to push Twitter into making a better severance offer, Fortune reported. The process could take months instead of weeks, Brittin added — another testament to Europe's stronger labor protections for its employees.

☆ Leaked documents show how Snapchat's lucrative Snap Stars program pays influencers and best practices the company shares with creators
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Shriya Bhattacharya | Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Creators who are part of the Snap Stars program are eligible for the ad-revenue-share beta. When asked about the ad program's eligibility criteria by Insider, Snap declined to comment. Meanwhile, Snap Stars who aren't in the beta program are posting more on the platform in the hopes they'll be selected for this financially lucrative opportunity. "I was really excited because being a Snap Star really helps with your growth," he said. A document for creators shows Snap's best practices for postingSnap has sent some Snap Stars guidelines with best practices for posting.

☆ Google Glass was just discontinued — again — raising questions about whether anyone still cares about AR devices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The original Google Glass was axed in 2015, and reintroduced as a business-focused product in 2017. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. An older version of Google Glass, the latest business-focused version of which was discontinued Wednesday. Ultimately, the lofty price point of Google Glass, as well as privacy concerns tied to the camera, led to its lack in mainstream acceptance and subsequent discontinuation in 2015. The latest version is "built for creators looking to push the limits of immersive AR experiences," according to the product's website.

☆ As Big Tech employees get culled, their European colleagues get stronger labor laws and softer landings
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Big Tech layoffs at Meta, Twitter, Amazon and Snap have laid off thousands of workers globally. Until recently, tech employees haven't had to think too seriously about mass layoffs. European Big Tech employees have better labor protections"There are regulations in Europe that apply to collective situations, based on European law: the so-called Mass Dismissal Directive," said Dr. Jordan. But in January, Twitter employees were reported to have been paid just one month's severance, according to CNN. Twitter employees in Germany have also worked with the Verdi union to push Twitter into making a better severance offer, Fortune reported.

At some Silicon Valley Bank branch locations in California, depositors gathered early Friday to attempt to get their cash out, fearing it could be inaccessible in the coming days. It has had financial relationships with a who’s who of Silicon Valley firms over the years, including Snapchat's parent Snap Inc (SNAP.N). A locked door to a Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) location on Sand Hill Road is seen in Menlo Park, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. A Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. As of Friday, FarmboxRx’s funds were still tied up with Silicon Valley Bank.

March 10 (Reuters) - The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday sent shockwaves through the startup community, which has come to view the lender as a source of reliable capital, particularly for some of tech’s biggest moonshots. It has had financial relationships with a who’s who of Silicon Valley firms over the years, including Snapchat's parent Snap Inc (SNAP.N)Snap declined to comment. A Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. Uncertainty swept through Silicon Valley as startup founders and venture capital firms worried they could, among other things, fail to make payroll. As of Friday, FarmboxRx’s funds were still tied up with Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Snap, Apple, Boeing and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Apple — Shares advanced more than 3% after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the big technology stock as a buy. Credit Suisse — Shares were down about 1% after former top shareholder Harris Associates sold its entire stake in Credit Suisse, according to a Financial Times report. The Wall Street firm said the luxury housing market is struggling to stabilize, which will impact RH's business. The Wall Street firm said the derating of Emerson Electric is overdone. Domino's Pizza — Domino's Pizza shares advanced more than 4%.

☆ ChatGPT is coming to Snapchat
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Snapchat is launching its own ChatGPT-powered chatbot called My AI starting this week. A spokesperson said that its AI launch is part of an effort to attract users to the social media app. Starting this week, Snapchat users will have access to its new conversational chatbot, which can write haikus, plan a hiking trip, and recommend birthday gifts, according to a Snap blog post. "My AI was trained to have a unique tone and personality that plays into Snapchat's core values around friendship, learning, and fun," a Snapchat spokesperson told Insider. "Incorporating this technology into Snapchat's messaging platform has the potential to make these interactions with AI part of what draws our community to Snapchat," a spokesperson said.

☆ Beijing pulls the plug on ChatGPT over fears it could help spread US 'disinformation,' reports say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

China has reportedly clamped down on access to ChatGPT by its citizens, Nikkei Asia reported. The bot is not officially available in China but some have found ways to use it. Regulators have instructed major Chinese tech firms to cut off such access, per Nikkei Asia. Beijing uses its "Great Firewall" to block many foreign websites and applications, including the full version of Google Search. Earlier this week, China Daily, a state-controlled media outlet, released a video called "How the US uses AI to spread disinformation," according to Forbes.

☆ Meta could bring in nearly $2 billion this year from new Instagram and Facebook verification subscriptions, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta rolled out a new subscription offering for Instagram and Facebook. Meta is rolling out a new paid version of verification on Instagram and Facebook that could prove valuable to the company in a short amount of time. As the monthly subscription costs $11.99 for web or $14.99 for mobile, that could mean $1.7 billion in additional yearly revenue, the analysts said. "In addition to Meta Verified, we think there are opportunities for content and commerce subscriptions to help Meta diversify its revenue base over time," Bank of America analysts wrote. While Meta's core business is and very likely always will be ads, influencers have been "under monetized" at the company, Shmulik said.

☆ Snapchat has a plan to start charging users to restore broken Snapstreaks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Some users have hundreds, or even thousands, of consecutive days of Snaps with friends on the app. The company is planning to have Snapchat users pay a fee to restore a broken Snapstreak, according to two people familiar with the situation. Many users have Streaks going for more than 100 days and some have streaks for thousands of days. Users frequently go to the Snapchat Support website to try to get their Streaks restored, both of the people said. Snap often does restore a streak at no cost, but it's a process that can take several days, further upsetting users.

☆ USC has an influencer group that helps students get deals with brands like DoorDash and American Eagle. Here's its 7-page pitch deck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Nhari Djan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Student organization USC Reach is here to prove that you can finish a degree while furthering your career as a content creator. President Dylan Huey was conflicted about this in 2016 when he was in high school. USC Reach pitches brands with an email template and slide deckWhen contacting brands, Reach typically cold emails companies using the following template. I am currently the President for USC Reach, USC's first and only social media club. Let me know if you have 15 minutes to chat and I'd love to get a partnership between [company] and USC Reach going.

☆ Snapchat's role in fentanyl crisis probed during House roundtable: 'It's a Snap-specific problem'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The roundtable featured the mother of a child who died after taking a drug containing fentanyl allegedly purchased over Snapchat, apparently believing it was a prescription painkiller. "Big Tech has many problems," said Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer who works on cases seeking to hold tech platforms accountable for often offline harms. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice are also investigating Snap's role in fentanyl sales. That's because it does not incentivize safety features, she said, and also prevents tech platforms from reaching the discovery stage in many cases, which could otherwise reveal internal information. But legislation weakening encryption for law enforcement investigations would also likely be at odds with the committee's other goal of increasing digital privacy protections.

☆ Analysis: Tencent bets big on WeChat Channels in push to build its own TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

"Tencent hopes it can turn Channels into the next WeChat Pay. Two sources familiar with Tencent said the importance of Channels has been repeatedly communicated within the company. In November, Tencent President Martin Lau said Channels' advertising revenue was on track to reach 1 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2022. "For example, in Douyin or Kuaishou, you won't be able to ask your viewers to add you on WeChat. But on Channels, you can quickly add somebody on WeChat," Yang said.

☆ Microsoft's reported $10 billion OpenAI bet is a gamble on the future of AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

We're less than two weeks into 2023, and it's already become clear that OpenAI's ChatGPT will be the defining technology of the year. But it just goes to show you how much confidence Microsoft and others have in the future of AI. Still, that $29 billion valuation is rich for a company with limited revenue and the high costs of running advanced AI. Read Insider's list of the top 12 AI tools that are helping content creators do their work, from dubbing to writing copy, according to industry insiders. Read Insider's guide on how to take a Snapchat screenshot without alerting the other party.

☆ Apple needs another hit product. But the rumored new AR/VR glasses will not be it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Michael Gartenberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Apple is widely rumored to be releasing augmented-reality/virtual-reality glasses in 2023. It has long been rumored that Apple will create a car to take on the likes of Tesla. What does seem likely is that Apple will release augmented-reality/virtual-reality glasses, rumored to be coming in 2023 with an OS called xrOS. While I'm always excited to see what innovations companies like Apple have in store, I have some serious concerns about betting on AR/VR glasses as a growth market. Beyond the practical concerns of battery life, comfort, and price, there's the fundamental issue of the lack of a compelling use case for AR or VR glasses.

☆ Even Elon and Zuck don't have the juice to make an all-in-one 'super app' happen
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel harbor super app ambitions; Microsoft reportedly wants to build its take on a super app that would rival Google. At Facebook's parent company Meta, "super app" is a taboo word precisely because it's too abstract, Insider's Kali Hays reported last month. A newcomer super app has a tougher sell accessing this sophisticated, less trusting type of user. Silicon Valley's gatekeepers stand in the way of the super app dreamUS tech firms harboring super app ambitions will need to fend off their own regulators, overseas regulators, and Apple's App Store. As the CPP Investments white paper notes, super apps "can be thought of as operating platforms for mobile devices."

☆ If you use Snapchat, you could get a $117 check from a data privacy lawsuit—the deadline to apply is Saturday
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Snap Inc., the social media app's parent company, is set to pay out $35 million to current and former Illinois residents for allegedly storing their facial recognition data without their consent. You'll need to include your Snapchat username and at least one Illinois address where you lived. Facebook, TikTok, Google, Shutterfly and Pret A Manger have all settled similar cases in Illinois over the last 14 months, too. California residents already have some data protection under the California Consumer Privacy Act. Fennessy also notes that as our collective understanding of data privacy grows, future lawsuits will focus less on user consent and more on what companies do with biometric data once they have it.

☆ Elon Musk's plan to turn Twitter into a super app is a step closer now that he owns the platform
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

According to Musk, the Twitter acquisition will play a part in the creation of a super app called X. If Musk plans to turn Twitter into X, it will likely mean bringing in many new features. Although reports vary about Musk's full intentions, the billionaire has made repeated claims that the acquisition would play a part in the creation of a super app, or what he has also referred to as an "everything app." If Musk plans to create his everything app with Twitter it will mean bringing in many new features. 'Grand vision'Musk has stated that the Twitter acquisition may speed up the creation of his super app by three to five years.

Snapchat has reduced the size of its creator fund for its short-video feature Spotlight. Snapchat has once again lowered the total amount it's paying to creators who use its short-video feature Spotlight. Two other Snapchat creators similarly told Insider they saw drops in their Spotlight payments in this year and that Spotlight is less lucrative than it was when it first launched in November 2020. Snapchat doesn't say exactly how it decides which creators get paid from the Spotlight fund. Snapchat's move to reduce its Spotlight fund comes at a perilous moment for Snap.

As earnings season ramps up, one thing that can help investors get a jump on upcoming announcements is readily available: already reported results. What Alphabet tells us about Meta Meta Platforms issues third quarter earnings after the closing bell Wednesday. What GM tells us about Ford Ford (F) issues third quarter earnings after the closing bell Wednesday. What GE, Raytheon tell us about Honeywell Honeywell (HON) reports third quarter results before the opening bell Thursday. Honeywell is again expected to generate $2.9 billion in sales in aerospace in its third quarter, according to FactSet.

☆ Snap CEO Evan Spiegel's fortune plunged from almost $14 billion to $2.3 billion in just a year as Snapchat struggles for new users
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Evan Spiegel has lost 83% of his wealth over the past year, per estimates by Bloomberg. The Snap cofounder and CEO's net worth fell from $13.9 billion to $2.3 billion. Snap posted a quarterly net loss of $360 million amid advertising struggles and stagnating user growth. Snap, Snapchat's parent company, posted a net loss of $360 million for the third quarter, up from a $72 million loss during the same quarter in the previous year. Snap is also giving up its office lease in San Francisco, a person familiar with the matter told Insider.

☆ Snapchat's disappearing message function helped teenagers obtain fentanyl with deadly consequences, lawsuit argues
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Snapchat's disappearing messages helped teenagers to obtain the drug fentanyl, a lawsuit stated. A Snap spokesperson said several allegations in the complaint appeared to be "wholly inaccurate." The lawsuit stated that Snapchat is marketed to minors, and that the erasing messages function encourages drug dealers to use the social media app. A Snap spokesperson told Insider "several allegations in the complaint appear to be wholly inaccurate," but did not give further details. One of the parents' lawyers, Laura Marquez-Garrett of the Social Media Victims Law Center, previously led a lawsuit against Meta alleging Instagram caused eating disorders among children.

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