#veganuary has finally come to an end and your long list of good resolutions for 2019 is now down to “please let me find the strength to get out of bed today.” VROOM Digital can’t help you stay dry, but we might assist you in keeping one goal: stay ahead of the eternally transforming digital landscape with a compendium of freshly baked, crunchy news. Let’s dive together in these seething waters.
Facebook Cross-Communication Project
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to integrate the social network’s messaging platforms, namely WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger to “build the best messaging experiences we can.” The project, which won’t realistically be ready before the end of 2019, consists of unifying and encrypting the underlying infrastructure of the three networks to allow users to send messages between apps.
Some say that this move was dictated by the need to regain people’s trust after the big scandals of the past two years, but this decision, from a business perspective, actually makes a lot of sense: if Mountain View manages to pull this off, the integrated platforms will have an audience of 3.8 billion monthly active users (!), a gold mine for marketers and brands, who will be able to reach their audiences no matter the platform they are using.
Facebook might be losing credibility, but not its ability to reinvent itself and keep up with its competitors. Otherwise, why would they decide to hire an additional 1,000 people in Ireland this year, taking over an 870,000 square feet building in Ballsbridge? It doesn’t look like a dying business at all.
Instagram’s ‘Share A Link To Your Story’
We all knew it was going to happen, we just didn’t know when. Instagram is rolling out a new exciting feature that might have a huge impact on advertisers and influencers. Go to one of your stories, click on the three dots and you’ll notice a couple of new options: ‘Share Link To Entire Story’ and ‘Promote.’ This means that you can now share stories as a link and promote your stories to reach also people who don’t follow you.
Facebook Moments Termination
After all these innovations, there is a funeral to go to: Facebook is burying Moments. Launched in June 2015 as a stand-alone app with the function of organizing and syncing photos, it didn’t receive much appreciation among Facebook users. Maybe we’ve been tagged in too many embarrassing pictures to be wanting to save them.
YouTube Fights Misinformation
YouTube said no to borderline content and false information. Videos “promoting a phoney miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat or making blatantly false claims about historical events like 9/11” will be penalised by not being displayed as recommendations, thus, reducing their visibility. We are a bit sad for flat-earthers, we kind of liked the Pac-Man World theory.
But Google has gone even further. In view of the upcoming EU parliamentary election, the web giant openly declared war against campaign fraud and fake news, issuing an update to prevent “abuse, clamp down on malicious activity, and react rapidly to breaking threats.” In the attempt to fight distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), Google deployed some very lethal weapons: Project Shield and a new verification process for advertisers in the EU parliamentary election. Moreover, it’s providing online security training and dedicated elections teams clamping down on abuse. Fraudulent politicians, you can’t escape Google’s army!
YouTube 15-second Non-skippable Video Ads
All advertisers can now avail of 15-second non-skippable ads, a variety of creative length that up to now was only granted by the video sovereign upon reservation. But Google is a magnanimous king and recognises “that advertisers should have access to the full range of creative options regardless of how they buy.” Let’s confide in his clemency and hope it will stop spoiling movies and ban Wix Ads.
Five-Time Finalists
Last but not least, VROOM’s personal big piece of news: we are delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted as a FINALIST for 5 Digital Media Awards this year! 🙏
We promise we didn't let this go to our head@digitalmedia_ie pic.twitter.com/MD7uhH1WXa
— VROOM Digital (@VROOMDigital) January 27, 2019
The #tenyearschallenge fever gave us a tangible proof that time is inexorably passing, revolutionising everything it encounters on his course. From the image of a simple egg beating Kylie Jenner for the most liked post on Instagram to the Venezuelan political turmoil, from the Brexit deal failure to the astonishing revelation that Australia does not exist, we shouldn’t be surprised by anything. Who knows what will happen next?
