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Instagram Updating Algorithm to Become a Creator-based Platform

According to Social Media Today. Instagram announced that it is currently working on an algorithm to boost original content and downrank aggregated content. Professionals believe Instagram's initiative is related to the high flush of Reels' videos with TikTok watermarks.

As Verge suggested, Instagram's new initiative helps reemphasize the platform's nature and position as a place for creation besides connecting with friends. Instagram would like to use the algorithm to give more credits to creators who spend more time on the content. Instagram has launched a series of innovations to boost the platform's commercialization and monetization. Along with announcing its original preference, Instagram also announced that the product tags feature would be open for every user. By freely tagging brands, users have more chances to build connections with brands and draw more traffic to each side. 

Creators have raised a series of questions about how the algorithm could detect whether a post is original. Instagram answers the question with a few methods. First and most obvious, contents with watermarks will be treated as resharing and thus not original. Second, Instagram will cross-compare the posting time and detect late posters. Last but not least, Instagram will look up uploaders across platforms. If the uploaders are not consistent, the algorithm will look for replicated posts. 

At the same time, the spokesperson admits the new system is not perfect, and there will be errors occurring during detections. Instagram will keep improving the algorithm and be more accurate in detection to encourage more original content and shape itself as a creator-based platform.

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Snapchat Added 13 Million Users in Q1: The Future Focus

According to Social Media Today, Snapchat announced its 2022 Q1 earnings on April 21st. The Q1 report suggests a steady increase in both Snapchat's users and revenues. Snapchat added 13 million new users, a good number across competitive platforms, just in Q1. The increase of Snapchat users suggests the importance of the global market since the majority of user increase comes from the "rest of the world" category, especially India. Social Media Today points out India is a huge market for any platform's future growth due to its huge population. However, Snapchat's major revenues are still coming from North American users, same as Twitter, which suggests the importance of North American users in terms of monetizing contribution. 

Even though the user and revenue increase seems optimistic, Variety suggests Snapchat's net loss increased by 25%. The head of Snapchat states that 2022 Q1 is an especially challenging time for the operation. The net loss is primarily due to Snapchat's unpublished investment. The Russia-Ukraine war has also led to a loss of ad sales. Apple's iOS privacy system also increases the difficulties for Snapchat's accurate targeting, as suggested by chief business officer Jeremi Gorman. 

Snapchat's report shows its bet and the platform's future focus on Spotlight, AR, and VR products. Snapchat's TikTok-like short video feature Spotlight grew 230% in Q1 in terms of user spent time. Snapchat also continues developing AR features to help Snapchat keep up with new trends. The company is also developing VR tools to build avatars, intending to create extra digital connections. Overall, the three features will be Snapchat's main focus in the next quarters.

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Instagram’s New Reels Monetization Tool adding pressures on Tik Tok

Reels overlay ads, initially launched only on Facebook, are now being tested on Instagram. Inserting ads in short videos is always challenging and highly relies on the creator's side. Reel's overlay ads enable brands to insert ads in videos once creators enable the "Allow Ads" feature. Once brands insert ads, creators will receive part of the Reels ads revenues, which Instagram hasn't published specific details. 

The overlay ads feature enables direct monetization for creators without extra effort. Brands will review eligible videos and choose to insert the ad independently. According to Verge, the overlay ads and YouTube Shorts program will increase pressure on Tik Tok to pay and benefit its creators. After joining YouTube Partner Program, creators will be paid shares of revenues based on videos' viewing exposures. The logic is as simple as more views paid more. Seeing the benefits of other platforms and the decreased payments from Tik Tok, Tik Tok creators are unhappy with Tik Tok's creator fund, which decreased each month and fluctuated according to Tik Tok changing policies. Tik Tok has launched "Creator Marketplace" as a response to facilitate brand sponsorships deals. However, creators still need to spend considerable time signing up for the programs and negotiating with each brand. Reels' simple and direct monetization tool may attract more creators to Meta's platforms and thus decrease Tik Tok's market share.

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WhatsApp “Communities” -- A Potential Monetization Channel

Starting April 14th, 2022, WhatsApp officially started to expand its group chat feature. WhatsApp was known as a private message app where one needed to have another's phone number to chat with them. Now, based on its privacy foundation, WhatsApp incorporates an encrypted "Community" function into the platform.

WhatsApp officially started to develop its community feature that admins have the right to delete messages, manage sub-chats, and moderate the community. In addition, WhatsApp sees the importance of emoji reactions in people's daily communication and decided to incorporate the "Reactions" feature in the group chat. WhatsApp will still maintain its private characteristics in the "Communities." Communities will not be searchable in the app. To join the community, one would need to receive an invitation to join the group, creating extra privacy and protection for the community. 

According to the head of WhatsApp, WhatsApp's expansion into "Communities" is based on current users' needs. WhatsApp receives multiple requests for having private messages for organization groups. After consideration and evaluation, WhatsApp chooses to enter the group community field.

WhatsApp's Communities is similar to Discord but differs in multiple aspects. "Communities" is a more top-down structure where only administrators can broadcast messages, and members are limited to sub-group chats. WhatsApp does not make money out of the "Communities" feature but states, "potentially there are premium features you can charge for." The statement indicates WhatsApp may add a source of monetization from this channel.

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Tik Tok Artists Won Grammys: Potential to Enter Music Industry

On April 3rd, musical industry newcomers Bear and Barlow accepted their Grammy awards for "Unofficial Bridgerton Musical" that they started on Tiktok. Bear and Barlow made it to the Grammys thanks to Tik Tok traffic and fans' support as they acknowledged in the Grammys speech, "We want to thank everyone on the internet who has watched us create this album from the ground up, we share this with you."

When making the album, Bear and Barlow live-streamed their production each time. As indicated in the NYTimes interview, the two girls see the power of Tik Tok and decide to invite fans "watch writing sessions in real-time" and "give suggestions on the creation." After Bear and Barlow won the Grammys, Tik Tok surged a trend that independent artists and producers feel inspired and see the hope of their future in Tik Tok, and fans feel rewarded for their long-time efforts supporting the two Tik Tok artists. This trend reminds me of Kaya Yurieff's comment on how Tik Tok serves as a platform to enable creators who can't make it for years on other platforms to become a figure suddenly. 

Through the lens of Grammys, the potential of Tik Tok is being confirmed and promoted. Grammys serve as empowerment and free advertising for Tik Tok's power. However, through Bear and Barlow, we also see that independent artists still need to move from the emerging platform to a more traditional established platform to get approval. The musical's original videos remain on TikTok, but the independently produced album is on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services.

Due to the platform's music-based nature, Tik Tok booms thousands of songs' popularity and enables artists to be seen by the listeners. Tik Tok reported that 430 songs reached 1 billion views in 2021 alone, which tripled the number of 2020. Tik Tok changed how the music industry works and how artists attract attention. After seven years after launching, Tik Tok may want to consider stepping into the music industry or find a way to make the independent music producers feel more proud and beneficial as a Tik Tok-based artist. By taking advantage of the popularizing and star-making process, Tik Tok has the potential to serve as an all-in-one empire from advertising to streaming.

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Instagram Testing a Direct Fund-raising Feature

Like Twitter, Instagram currently launches many new features to retain and attract new users. On March 16, Instagram officially launched the parental control function in the U.S. to deal with the ongoing concern of children's usage. On March 28, Instagram made a big decision to prompt users to help raise funds when they search for help-related hashtags. According to Instagram, the intention of launching the new feature is to provide more ways to "support the social movement."

Besides good intention to show the platform's corporate responsibility and encourage social awareness, Instagram's new features benefit its platform. Before the new feature arrives, users usually need to link to other fund-raising platforms like GoFundMe to raise funds. After adding the new feature, Instagram serves as a one-stop platform for both message spreading and the following direct fund-raising. It is a good try-out for its following e-commerce long-term planning and solidifies its dominating position. 

However, the new fund-raising feature may bring concerns to the community by having the risk of potential scams. Instagram did not clarify how the platform will regulate the applications to set up a fund-raising and how the platform will make sure the information is legit. After fundraisers receiving the money, how will Instagram make sure the money was being used as described. To supervise every fund-raising event and track the following processes, Instagram needs a new department and a new labor force to ensure financial safety. In addition, the fund-raising feature may lead to an overwhelming flow of traumatic information since more users may move to Instagram to ask for help. As a platform that many users turn to for entertainment, the new feature may lead to unexpected results and an increasing churn rate in the future.

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Twitter Aims to Add 100 million New Users

According to Verge, Twitter set ambitious goals to add 100 million more users by the end of 2023, while it only added 6 million users in the last quarter of 2021. According to Social Media Today, Twitter's potential is centered around the international market; its American market shows a stagnant trend since 2020. However, Twitter’s majority of revenues is still coming from the US market. Therefore, flat growth is a weakness and threat regarding Twitter’s future growth. 

According to Verge and Social Media Today, Twitter is trying to serve as a conglomerate of all-in-one platforms by “engaging” or cloning features of multiple trending platforms—Spotify Podcast, Clubhouse, Tik Tok, etc. Twitter seems to have launched an original community feature that users could post in a Reddit-alike community without posting on its account page. However, the feature has been launched and widely used in Weibo, Chinese Twitter counterpart, since 2015. 

Twitter’s ambitious innovation lacks originality. With that, it is doubtful whether users would migrate to a cloning platform while they are comfortable with what they have right now. In order to successfully add 100 million users following the current model, Twitter would need to invite and sign lots of exclusive content creators from multiple platforms, just like how Spotify used Joe Rogan to open its podcast market. It is doubtful whether Twitter has enough financial ability to boost every new feature. Besides its current drawbacks, Twitter’s new plan shows an optimistic sign that the executive committee, which limits Twitter to make new decisions, was being reorganized by the new CEO Parag Agrawal.

While Twitter is trying every method to attract new users, it is crucial to research the features that retain old users and then avoid dramatic changes on those functions. Twitter recently announced that the system would default show algorithm-recommended tweets instead of reverse-chronological tweets. Twitter users were very disappointed and asked Twitter to return the old function. Days later, Twitter decided to hear the feedback and return to the original chronological order. Even though the reverse change shows Twitter listens to customers' feedback, a platform needs to show consideration of every decision it makes without changing back and forth. 

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Twitter launches a fact-checking tool to control misinformation

According to Verge, Twitter will start launching its fact-checking tools while misinformation about Ukraine is exponentially spreading currently. Twitter named the fact-checking tool Birdwatch, a "crowdsourced" fact-checking program. Birdwatch enables contributors to write a note and attach sources about a tweet and rate the helpfulness of the tweet. Now, users will see tweets with high ratings and be able to rate their helpfulness. Twitter reports that people who've seen Birdwatch notes are 20% to 40% less likely to believe and agree with the possibly misleading Tweet. 

While some believe it is a brave and positive program to control misinformation actively, some perceive it as a platform's overstepping act and will have problematic consequences. We can see a trend for social media platforms to increase self-regulation about misinformation. Twitch, especially, justifies and updates the right to block harmful users and live steamers' accounts to enhance the community atmosphere. However, the consequences of such actions are doubtable. Under such censorship, platforms start having political perspectives in their judgments.

The line between individual misbehaving and self-expression is unclear, and misinterpretation could exist in many cases. As The Washington Post suggests, such a tool could be used as a weapon to attack those having different perspectives. If malicious users report live streamers saying things they don't like, it is easy for live streamers to get in trouble. Those who did not speak up about recent events, such as the Ukraine wars, are being treated as problematic by many users at the moment. 

Former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler points out a lack of official regulation after turning into an information era. Both FTC and FCC do not have full regulation over platforms, and it is platforms that make their own rules to regulate themselves and the users. New regulations may kick in in the near future and impact how social media platforms run shortly.

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Trump’s Truth Social - The Next Dark Horse?

According to WSJ, Truth Social, run by Trump Media and Technology Group, became available to download for iOS users on Monday and soon became the top of the App Store's free apps chart. Users reported some errors encountered when signing up; the app's download still ranked the top. The app will soon be available for Android users on Google Play. According to former president Trump, the launch of the app is aimed to "communicate freely." The app is modeled similarly to Twitter. Each post is called "truth," and" retweet' is called "retruth" in Truth Social.

According to NYT, there is a trend of alt-tech launches that aims to replace or substitute existing mainstream apps. MoWe, a platform positioned as Facebook's substitute, aims to provide a platform for users that value privacy and free speech. The platform receives $24 million investment from over 100 investors. 

In addition, there is an increasing launch of right-wing political media platforms — Gettr, Parler, etc. NYT suggests that such political media can hardly impact the status of mainstream platforms since these new alt-techs highly rely on giant platforms to market their products. Additionally, NYT suggests that the majority of users only spend a limited time on political media content. While politicians are already available on mainstream platforms and have a decent fan base, such apps are not attractive enough for ordinary users to download. 

In short, while several media giants monopolize the social media industry, there is an increasing trend of alt-tech emergence. At this point, it is unlikely that such apps will become a threat to the mainstream, but some investors are showing an optimistic projection of the alt-tech prospects.

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Facebook vs. Apple vs. TikTok: An Ongoing Battle

On February 3rd, Meta's stock plunged more than $200 billion in value after announcing that Apple's privacy adjustment led to more than $10 billion in lost sales. According to Vox, Apple's software changes, which enable users to limit apps' data collection, led to the inaccuracy of Facebook's ad targets. Facebook made nearly $40 billion in the last quarter from advertising. Advertising accuracy is the key for Facebook to attract investors and businesses. 

The ongoing battle between Facebook and Apple started years ago. To respond to Apple's iOS system, which cut 30% of revenues on fans subscriptions and other purchases, Facebook developed a new monetization tool that directs users to avoid Apple's transaction fees. Another way of interpreting it, quoted from Mark Zuckerberg, is to ensure creators "get fully paid" for their efforts. 

In addition to the challenge, Facebook's user growth declined for the first time. According to Meta's quarterly earnings report. Facebook lost about half a million global daily users in the last quarter of 2021. To solve the aging user base and attract younger users and fight back TikTok, Meta invested more in its TikTok clone Reels, a short video feature consisting of music, audio, effect, and more. To encourage creators to use Reels, Meta offers a bonus program to earn money when people view their Reels. This act shows Meta's commitment to attract young users and start the battle against TikTok, the gathering place of Gen Z.

In short, Facebook is facing a challenge to transform to continue growing user bases and maintain its advertising giant position. Overall, the parent company Meta, which includes Instagram and WhatsApp, is slowly growing its user base. It would be interesting to take an eye on how Meta, especially Facebook, would fight back Apple and TikTok, the two biggest threats at the moment.  

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Hang Su, Business of Media Spring 2022: Social Media

My sector is Social Media and I will be following the Social Media Today, The New York Times, Ad Age.