Category Archive

 We’ve seen startups helping brands tap influencers to promote themselves on social media platforms like Vine and Instagram, so it might be time for a new influencer marketing startup, Applause, that’s focused on live video — particularly Twitter’s Periscope app. It’s certainly a platform that CEO Jon Jacques is familiar with. In addition to working for a couple… Read More

 Instagram today announced that it began running its first 60-second video ads, starting with T-Mobile and Warner Brothers. Until now, the maximum length for video ads was 30 seconds, already longer than the 15-second videos users are allowed to post. Instagram tells me that “We recognize that advertisers have a variety of creative resources and want to bring more choice to help them… Read More

 Geofeedia, a startup that pulls real-time, location-based data from social media, has raised $17 million in Series B funding. Co-founder and CEO Phil Harris said the company “invented a new way of organizing social data” — most other analytics tools allow businesses to look at the data based on things like keywords and hashtags, while Geofeedia is focused on location. The… Read More

 Pinterest. Instagram. Tumblr. The future of the web is visual, but how does anyone make money on that? By understanding what’s in the images people post and connecting them to where you can buy what you see. That’s Curalate’s job. The image recognition marketing startup just raised $27.5 million led by NEA, bringing it to $40 million in total funding. Read More

 Well, we sort of expected this one to happen.
After its core Internet business has continued to flounder, Yahoo says it is now exploring “strategic alternatives,” which could imply a number of things — including selling off its core business to another company, as was previously reported.
“The Board also believes that exploring additional strategic alternatives, in… Read More

 Twitter announced two updates today that should make it easier to use for logged-out users — a group of people the company has generally not taken as seriously as it should. First of all, Twitter is now rolling out its updated homepage, which makes it easier for logged-out users to drill into interesting messages, pictures and videos on the platform without having to sign up for it, to… Read More

 That was hard on Facebook’s bottom line. These people’s homes didn’t have high-speed mobile networks or them couldn’t afford them, which meant loading the ad-filled News Feed was an agonizing experience. They were on feature phones or older smart phones with small screens so ads didn’t look that enticing. And some simply didn’t have the buying power to… Read More

 Today was a huge day for Alphabet — the first day it finally broke out its “other bets” in its earnings report — and boy did the company not disappoint.
The company smashed expectations on both ends, bringing in $21.3 billion in revenue and earnings of $8.67 per share. Analysts were expecting earnings of $8.09 on $20.8 billion in revenue.
And with that, Alphabet… Read More

 Korea’s Kakao is making a big change to Path eight months after acquiring the social app. Path people can now message each other inside the app, rather than having to open the separate Path Talk app. It could be a move to invigorate users, and streamline the product. While building an entire companion app for chat worked for Facebook, splintering users between Path and Path Talk might… Read More

 Until now, Facebook ranked stories in News Feed with an emphasis on what you click, Like, comment on and share. But thanks to insights from new qualitative surveys where users gave each feed story one to five stars, Facebook is now leaning heavily on a second signal — what you want to see. That could reduce the visibility of stories with sensational headlines, or that overtly beckon you… Read More