Snapchat's Spectacles are here, but they are not so easy to find. The new glasses are available only in certain vending machines popping up across the US. They capture video and send it automatically to your Snapchat app. Our friends at Cheddar lent us a pair to try out. Here's what they are like.
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Snap Inc, Snapchat's parent company, has opened a research and development (R&D) office in China, according to CNN.
The office, which is in Shenzhen, South East China, will reportedly be used to further develop Snapchat's Spectacles device. It is already home to around 20 employees, according to CNN.
Spectacles are Snapchat's camera-equipped sunglasses that can be used to record content for Snapchat. The devices — Snapchat's first hardware product and currently only on sale in the US — connect to people's smartphones using Wi-Fi and bluetooth. They are already assembled in China but the office represents an interesting move for Snapchat, given that its platform is banned in the country.
A Snapchat spokesperson told Business Insider that it makes sense for Snapchat to open a small office in China given that Spectacles are already made there.
People in China first realised that Snapchat has opened in Shenzhen after they saw job postings published on WeChat, which is a Chinese app that offers a variety of services, including instant messaging and payments.
The recruitment ad reportedly states that Snapchat is looking for experienced engineers to "join its first core China team," adding that they would ideally have previous experience working for Chinese tech giants like Alibaba, Tencent, or Baidu.
Snapchat's job board does not currently show the roles.
Successful candidates will reportedly be offered Snap stock, which is likely to be a highly desirable asset given Snap filed for a stock market listing last month that's expected to value it at around $25 billion (£20 billion).
Snapchat has around 1,500 employees globally, with the vast majority of those based in and around its headquarters in Los Angeles.
China has traditionally been a tough market for US companies to crack, with Google, Facebook, and Twitter all blocked in the country by the Chinese government.
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Snap Inc., the parent company of ephemeral messaging app Snapchat, has announced plans to form a research and development (R&D) team in China, according to CNN.
The startup indicated that it's building the team to focus on Spectacles, its connected, camera-enabled sunglasses.
Though Snapchat is currently banned in China, this move points to the company's desire to build relations in the world's largest market.
Setting up an office in Shenzhen is a clever strategic move for Snap.
Snap will still need to contend with China’s increasingly strict censorship rules. US tech companies — including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube — are banned from operating in the country, in part because of its strict regulations, which require that all user data remain within its borders and be made accessible to government scrutiny. Because of this, in the meantime it’s unlikely that the company will use the Shenzhen office for much besides R&D.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on mobile video that takes a look at how short-form mobile video has exploded. The report examines how YouTube, the historically dominant force in short-form video, was slow to implement a mobile video strategy, opening the door for new players —namely Facebook and Snapchat — to emerge.
It also takes a look at how winners will begin to emerge in distinct video content categories. YouTube, for instance, will rely heavily on its homegrown YouTube stars to distinguish its video library and drive loyalty. Facebook will become the go-to place for brands and media companies to engage with the largest audience. And Snapchat will utilize its live-events coverage and exclusive content to promote video communication among younger mobile audiences.
Here are some key takeaways from the report:
In full, the report:
To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:
The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the rapidly changing world of mobile video.
Snapchat's Spectacles may be hard to come by, but we got ahold of a pair to see how they work. Tech reporter Avery Hartmans shares her thoughts on the popular wearable device, which lets you record video, hands-free, and have it upload directly to your Snapchat app.
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Almost immediately, I felt like the one thing Snapchat was missing was a groups feature. I wanted to be able to send a Snapchat relevant to my college roommates and immediately Snapchat the five of them, rather than scrolling through and looking for their names.
The same goes for my high school friends, or my sisters, for instance.
But alas, I kept waiting for this one feature as Snapchat introduced other things like Stories, streaks and even a pair of hardware sunglasses called Spectacles. And yet, after three years of owning this app, I still found myself scrolling down my list of 150 Snapchat friends until I found the few that I wanted to send that particular Snapchat to.
But last week, Snapchat answered my prayers by finally announcing Groups, and I could not be happier.
During my sophomore year of college, Snapchat was the app I used, by far, the most often. I was that kid who was known for sending a bunch of hilariously embarrassing Snapchats. My birthday present from my roommates that year was printed-out Snapchats of my friends and family wishing me a happy birthday.
In the last year or so, however, I find that I use the app a lot less. I've stopped watching my friends' Snapchat stories. I rarely even open the app, and have contemplated deleting it altogether.
But since the new groups feature launched over a week ago, I am back on my Snapchat game.
My college roommates are now spread out all over the country and our regular iMessage group chat is only used when someone has major news to share. Snapchat provides a great everyday option. We can send Snapchats on our lunch breaks, in between classes, or after work. It gives us a chatroom to be able to talk about pictures we take, complain about our days, and laugh at one another.
So yes, this is my long-winded way of saying thank you to Snapchat for finally building the feature I have been asking for since 2013. It couldn’t have come soon enough.
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2016 was the year that Facebook recognized the threat Snapchat poses to its core business, and started relentlessly cloning the app's core features. It makes sense considering Facebook unsuccessfully tried to acquire Snapchat in 2013; CEO Evan Spiegel rebuffed a $3 billion offer from Mark Zuckerberg.
The result is that Instagram, Messenger, Facebook's main app, and even WhatsApp look much more like Snapchat than they did one year ago. And Zuckerberg now believes that the future of how people communicate on Facebook will be through the camera — a concept Snapchat pioneered.
SEE ALSO: If you think it's crazy that Snapchat might go public, here's something to consider
Source: Business Insider
Source: Business Insider
Source: Business Insider
Snap has reportedly made an investment in augmented reality, purchasing the Israeli-based startup Cimagine Media in a deal that's said to be worth $30 million to $40 million.
Originally reported by Calcalist News, this acquisition will provide Snap with a development center in the Middle East, one that will eventually house more than the 20 people currently working at Cimagine Media.
Founded four years ago, Cimagine specializes in computer vision, real-time image processing, mobile development, international marketing, and more. All of these areas are obviously compelling for Snap, whose Snapchat app is heavily reliant on augmented reality and the like. But Cimagine also brings to the table a focus on commerce, and as Snap looks toward going public, perhaps sometime next year, facilitating shopping through Snapchat might open up additional revenue opportunities.
Cimagine already has partnerships with Shop Direct, John Lewis, and Coca-Cola, and it's aiming to help more retailers tap into the potential of augmented reality. Snap itself may want to eventually strike partnerships with big-box retailers and department stores to accelerate engagement and time spent on its site. And merchants may want additional advertising opportunities, so the potential that Cimagine's technology and team could bring to bear may be enticing.
Or perhaps Cimagine's team will support Snap in laying objects over photos and videos captured through Snapchat.
Should an initial public offering be in Snap's future, it needs to remain one step ahead of Facebook, which has been rapidly copying features from Snapchat. Investors are looking for real market leadership, so Snap's acquisition of camera technology, especially around augmented reality, could give it a bit of a leg up.
Before the acquisition, Cimagine had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Explore. Dream. Discover, iVentures Asia Ltd., OurCrowd, and PLUS Ventures. This would be Snap's second acquisition this month — the company also purchased Flite to integrate its ad technology into Snap's offering. In fact, this year has been a busy one for the ephemeral camera technology company, as it has made four known buys, including the $110 million deal for Vurb, the purchase of Obvious Engineering (also known as Seene), and the $100 million it dished out for Bitstrips.
Though the Cimagine deal was reported by Calcalist News, no official word has been released — to be honest, Snap tends to be secretive about its acquisitions. We've reached out to Snap and Cimagine Media and will update if we hear back.
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Snap, the company behind popular ephemeral photo- and video-sharing app Snapchat, reportedly acquired Israeli startup Cimagine Media for $30 million to $40 million, according to Calcalist.
The deal, yet to be confirmed by either party, will give Snap access to Cimagine’s portfolio of augmented reality (AR) and camera vision technology. The startup focuses on computer vision, real-time image processing, mobile development, and international marketing. The acquisition will also give Snap the ability to build out a development center in Israel, expanding staff beyond the 20 Cimagine already has.
Snap could be looking to diversify its revenue stream ahead of its impending public offering in early 2017. Cimagine’s emphasis on marketing technology could help Snap as it looks to break into the commerce aspect of computer vision and image recognition. Cimagine is already partnered with a number of leading brands — including Coca-Cola, Shop Direct, and John Lewis — to help them market their products over AR. The purchase gives Snap an in with these companies already familiar with Cimagine’s technology.
The purchase will add to Snap’s already abundant AR offerings. Cimagine’s AR technology, which allows users to overlay objects on photos and videos, could be added to Snapchat's AR technology to add geo-filters to users’ photos and videos. But it could also be used further down the line, perhaps with Snap’s new wearable product, Spectacles. Currently, the recently launched glasses can take videos that can then be added to a user's Snapchat story. However, it’s not hard to imagine the company turning the wearable into a stand-alone AR offering — similar, but ideally more successful, than Google Glasses.
AR and VR research has been a hot topic in 2016, as tech companies look to keep up with the emerging technology.
The virtual reality (VR) market has made significant strides throughout 2016.
New VR headsets like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive debuted amid great consumer anticipation, while VR content launches kept pace, with Batman: Arkham VR and Chair In A Room garnering encouraging download totals.
At the same time, industry groups and conferences brought developers, investors, and content producers together, helping to further ramp up buzz in this nascent space.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, forecasts shipments of VR headsets to spike by 1047% year-over-year (YoY) to 8.2 million in 2016. This growth will help propel the virtual reality space to exceed $1 billion in revenue for the first time, according to research by Deloitte. Powering that growth is an estimated 271% increase in investment in AR (augmented reality) and VR companies from 2015, according to estimates from CB Insights.
But while 2016 has indeed been an important year for the VR market, it hasn’t necessarily been a big one — at least not compared to its future growth potential.
VR headset shipments will continue to grow in the years ahead, driven by the introduction of new content that will appeal to a broad swath of users.
Jessica Smith, research analyst for BI Intelligence, has compiled a detailed report on virtual reality that explores the highly fragmented and volatile VR market that emerged in 2016, lays out the future growth potential in numerous key VR hardware categories as driven by major VR platforms, and examines consumer sentiment and developer excitement for VR, presenting which headset categories and platforms are most poised for success in the near- to mid-term.
Here are some key takeaways from the report:
In full, the report:
Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:
Snapchat has begun using a new machine learning technique to determine which of its users are most likely to swipe up and engage with an ad on the app, AdAge reported.
This month, Snapchat began rolling out what it is calling "goal-based bidding," the company confirmed
The targeting technique allows advertisers to tell Snapchat whether they value ad engagement — such as swiping through to install an app, visit a website, or watch a movie trailer — versus simply reaching the maximum number of users.
While advertisers using goal-based bidding will continue to be charged in the same way — on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis — Snapchat will optimize ads to be delivered to the portion of their target audience that has the highest propensity to swipe on ads.
The new targeting option is currently available through the Snapchat API (application programming interface) it launched earlier this year, which allows advertisers to buy Snapchat ads through the third-party ad tech vendors they use to buy ads in other apps and elsewhere on the web.
Snapchat says around 20% of its advertisers are already using goal-based bidding and that it has helped them achieve up to 40% efficiencies in cost-per-swipe and increased ad view time (although it didn't specify by how much).
While goal-based bidding is an iterative improvement to advertising optimization on Snapchat, it marks another effort the company is making to bring its targeting options more in line with other digital advertising platforms.
Currently the only goal advertisers can optimize towards is swipes, but Snapchat says it's likely to add more goals in the future, which could include app downloads or ecommerce sales.
As one unnamed agency executive said to AdAge, this is what advertisers are really craving from any advertising medium: The ability to optimize their advertising toward the likelihood to achieve actual business outcomes.
Analysts at eMarketer predict Snapchat will generate $935 million in revenue in 2017, having taken early marketer criticism about its lack of measurement and targeting options on board and moving to roll out new ad formats, targeting, analytics partnerships, its API, and expanding its global sales team.
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Teenagers gathered for a panel at Business Insider's IGNITION conference to discuss what brands they can't live without. The high schoolers named Instagram, Snapchat, Sony, and Adidas as some of their favorite brands.
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2016 saw a dry spell for tech IPOs, but investors are already counting on 2017 to turn the tides.
Already, startups like AppDynamics and Snapchat have filed to go public in the new year. And our sources tell us there are many more in the pipeline.
Here's a look at which tech startups are IPO candidates to watch in 2017.
SEE ALSO: The 27 best startups that launched this year
IPO chances: Already filed
OK, this one is a bit of a gimme.
AppDynamics filed on Dec. 28 to go public in the new year. It made a name for itself in a field called "application performance monitoring." It watches extremely large and complicated software apps to give companies feedback on how those apps are behaving. They use AppDynamics to fix problems and to gain insight into what their customers are doing with their apps. The company is seeking to raise $100 million in the deal, and it’s looking to trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol APPD.
IPO chances: Very likely
Snap Inc.'s IPO is already drawing comparisons to Facebook's. Going public is likely, as the company has already chosen Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as its bankers. In November, Snapchat's parent company also confidentially filed its paperwork. Look for an IPO as early as March for the company.
IPO chances: Likely
HotelTonight reversed its course in 2016, laying off 20% of its staff after burning millions a month. Now, the company is profitable and its CEO has set his sights on another goal: going public. In an interview with Bloomberg, HotelTonight's CEO Sam Shank said that he wants to take the company public, possibly by late 2017. Sources familiar with the company told Business Insider that they also expect it to go public in the next year.
Snapchat is launching new measurement capabilities for advertisers in Europe as the company looks to boost its global revenue ahead of its forthcoming IPO.
From Tuesday, advertisers in the UK and France will be able to use third-party measurement firm Moat to analyze the effectiveness of their video campaigns on the app.
Snapchat beta-launched Moat measurement for US advertisers in June this year.
Now advertisers running campaigns in Europe will be able to measure metrics such as "human and viewable"— determining whether their ads actually seen by people, not bots — and "human, viewable, and audible," which lets them know whether users had the sound on when they were viewing their video ads.
One of the biggest early complaints leveled at Snapchat by advertisers was that it lacked the kind of measurement options they had come to expect from other digital platforms. But the company appears to be moving quickly to address such criticism. In the US, Snapchat now offers 15 different third party measurement solutions including Oracle Data Cloud, Millward Brown, and Nielsen Mobile Digital Ad Ratings.
The latest measurement announcement comes on the heels of a big recruitment drive from Snapchat's parent company, Snap, in Europe. The company recently posted almost 20 job openings in its London office, as Bloomberg reported in December, and Snap opened a location in France this summer.
Snapchat currently has 10 million daily active users in the UK and 50 million daily active users across Europe. Worldwide, Snapchat has 150 million daily active users.
Snap confidentially filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year to go public in 2017. The company is seeking a valuation of between $20 billion and $25 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Business Insider in November.
SEE ALSO: Snapchat is using machine learning to work out who is most likely to swipe up on an ad
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A former Snapchat employee is accusing the company of lying to investors as it pursues its plans to go public.
In a lawsuit filed in California on Wednesday, former growth lead Anthony Pompliano alleges that the company has been "falsely misrepresenting" itself, that he was hired away from Facebook so the company could gain confidential information, and that he was fired under false pretenses after raising his concerns.
"Snapchat will not let anything stand in its way of an IPO, including its obligations to represent material facts accurately," Pompliano's court filing says.
Snap Inc., as Snapchat is now called, has denied the allegations, countering that they are "totally made up by a disgruntled former employee."
We first heard about the case via The Hollywood Reporter, and you can read Pompliano's full court filing below.
Pompliano joined Snapchat on August 31, 2015, according to the filings — and was abruptly terminated three weeks later.
Much of the information in Pompliano's court filing is redacted, so we don't yet have all the details. We don't know the specifics of what Snapchat has been accused of lying about to investors, for example.
We do know that he also claims that Snapchat hired him away from Facebook to steal the larger social network's trade secrets.
"The real reason Snapchat hired Mr. Pompliano away from Facebook was not to build a growth team, but for the nefarious purpose of obtaining Facebook's confidential and proprietary information," the filing alleges.
Pompliano is seeking damages from Snapchat as well as an injunction to prevent the company from telling what he says are lies about the reasons for his termination.
According to the filings, Snapchat says it fired him because he was "incompetent" and "not adequately performing in his position." Pompliano says the real reason is that he refused to provide confidential information on Facebook's business and raised concerns that Snapchat misrepresented itself to "the public, advertisers, prospective employees, or in connection with its planned IPO."
The former employee is accusing Snapchat of damaging his reputation and hindering his efforts to find a job after working at the company. "Post-termination, Snapchat has sought to destroy his career and reputation by waging a smear campaign against Mr. Pompliano, by making false representations concerning the circumstances of his termination," the suit claims.
A Snapchat representative declined to comment to Business Insider, and the company has denied the allegations to other outlets. A representative told The Hollywood Reporter: "We've reviewed the complaint. It has no merit. It is totally made up by a disgruntled former employee."
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Life is good for Evan Spiegel.
His company, Snap Inc., is preparing for one of the most hotly anticipated initial public offerings of 2017 at a valuation of about $20 billion. The Snapchat app is beloved by teens everywhere, and Snap's recently released Spectacles glasses are one of the most sought-after gadgets.
And with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion, Spiegel, 26, is the youngest self-made billionaire in the world, according to Forbes.
He lives a charmed life and he knows it.
"I am a young, white, educated male," he once said at a Stanford business conference. "I got really, really lucky. And life isn't fair."
We've pulled the highlights of Spiegel's spectacular life and career from profiles by LA Weekly, Forbes, Business Insider, court documents, and more.
Now meet the secret power players who run Snapchat
Source: LA Weekly
On January 2, 2015, I wrote a viral post entitled “A Teenager’s View on Social Media,” in which I dissected popular apps and what I thought about them. It got over one million views. Many people have asked me to write a follow-up or, at the very least, an update. I haven’t felt there was a dramatic enough shift to warrant a new post, until now.
I will start this post off with transparency, since it influences my view of the landscape.
I am a 21-year-old male attending The University of Texas at Austin. I am heavily invested in social media and I try out all of the latest social apps whenever I can. I really love following and paying attention to the trends surrounding social media, often observing both my own and my network’s usage of it.
I have previously interned at Facebook and Google, but the views in this post are my own and any commentary about product feature requests or these companies’ product roadmaps are purely speculative. No hot scoops here.
Similar to the previous post, I will break this down by network and what I’ve observed over the past two years.
Facebook was definitely my hottest take in my first article, when I announced, “It’s dead to us.” It seemed like such a stale social network, with mostly publications and distant friends populating the News Feed. However, sharing among my friends has recently increased dramatically due to a few main factors I’ve noticed:
Messenger has also become a valuable tool. I know plenty of people who prefer Messenger to traditional texting. It’s the communication platform of choice when I (as an iPhone owner) have to message an Android user.
Facebook Live has also become increasingly influential among my peers. I know at least a dozen friends who have gone Live in the past month. For now the feature still seems fairly niche, with a ton of barriers to user participation (people often don’t have enough content for a continued stream, so they shut it down within a minute or two). Also, the fact that going Live (seemingly) notifies your entire Friend List can make for a pretty stressful process with a lot of pressure.
But for my friends and me, Facebook is still not the dominant social network many people see it as. If people meet at a party, they’re more likely to add each other on Snapchat or Instagram. That isn’t to say people don’t friend one another on Facebook anymore — they definitely do — but rather that other networks dominate the conversation. Facebook is seen as a fairly formal means of connecting. If a friend of mine meets a guy at a party, she doesn’t want him to see all of this information about her that’s on Facebook. She prefers Snapchat because it opens a line of communication, gives a more honest look into a person’s life, and is just more lightweight as a platform to talk on.
Instagram is still one of the most used social media outlets for my age group. I would argue that it isn’t the most, since Snapchat has definitely acquired more influence over the years. Many of the observations I made two years ago still hold true:
The one thing that has changed is my stance on links on Instagram. I believe links should be added to Instagram, given that the release of their new algorithm would prevent link spamming, and given that the integration Instagram did for links on Stories (having users simply swipe up from a Story in order to visit a link) was brilliant.
Speaking of Instagram Stories, I’m actually a huge fan of this feature. I don’t have too many friends who post on it, causing it to mostly be populated by celebrities or brands. However, the organization and implementation of Stories is genius, making me want to engage with it anyways. Their unobtrusive spot at the top of the feed, sorted based on the engagement you’ve had with the Instagram accounts, and the navigation of the Stories themselves is brilliant. Plus, tagging friends in the posts on Stories and adding links have both been integrated terrifically.
The content on the Stories often mimics what users see in the feed — highly curated, often artistic photos. That being said, you won’t see the sort of raw view into someone’s life on Instagram as you would on Snapchat. Snapchat is still a much more personal network and is the only place where I feel like I can be myself when I post. But I’ll get to Snapchat later.
Instagram’s Direct Messaging has also improved dramatically, mainly because of the addition of the share button on posts and the (seemingly forced) inclusion of comment tags → DMs. Whenever you tag a friend in the comments on Instagram, it defaults to sending them a message of the image, rather than leaving an actual comment with the tag. I don’t have conversations with anyone over Instagram DM, mainly just sharing photos back and forth on the platform, which I think is the perfect use case for it.
My views regarding Instagram’s Live functionality are the same as my views on Facebook’s, though I would feel more comfortable using Instagram’s because it deletes automatically.
Many people in my immediate circle hardly use Twitter at all, but I am aware of other groups within my age bracket who use it as their primary platform to connect and share. I’ve personally grown to appreciate Twitter much more. It’s a terrific place to express your views and meet like-minded individuals from around the globe. However, a few problems really plague Twitter that I think are inhibiting it from growing more:
This thread of tweets basically sums up my thoughts on Twitter:
USERS: we love twitter but it has problems
TWITTER: great we'll fix them
USERS: do you want to know what they are
TWITTER: absolutely not
— actioncookbook (@actioncookbook) January 5, 2016
USERS: could you at least look at addressing the pervasive harassment of women
TWITTER [twirling like Maria von Trapp]: M O M E N T S
— actioncookbook (@actioncookbook) January 5, 2016
USERS: you're alienating the people who actually use your product
TWITTER: likes are now florps
USERS: what
TWITTER: timeline goes sideways
— actioncookbook (@actioncookbook) January 5, 2016Snapchat has grown tremendously in the past two years. In my 2015 post I called Snapchat addictive and liberating, mostly for the way its design swept away social pressure. By now, everyone I know has a Snapchat account and almost all of them use it on a regular basis. It has become an essential app not only for posting and sharing photos, but for messages as well. The Chat functionality of Snapchat has improved tremendously and I have at least a couple conversations a day on it. Snapchat definitely helped spur its growth by having a “swipe up to reply” functionality for Stories, which I use daily and which makes it easy to start conversations on the platform.
What I love so much about Snapchat is that the product embraces being fun. People are their authentic selves when they post on Snapchat, using funny filters, lenses, stickers, or inserting their own Bitmoji into Snaps (which is fantastic by the way—a perfect acquisition for Snapchat to make. Everyone I know uses Bitmoji regularly). I also think Snapchat’s stickers are the best stickers in the game right now, and their search functionality for stickers is always on point.
When someone finds a new lens and tries it, you can see the network effect throughout your feed and see everyone else giving it a shot as well, even if the lens isn’t the most flattering. Snapchat allows you to have fun and be yourself in a way no other social network can right now, especially with the absence of most of the external social pressure of other networks, where you worry about how many likes you’ve collected.
Even so, lately I’ve been running into some issues with Snapchat. Because everyone I know uses it, there’s often too much happening, especially with Stories. Snapchat has implemented a few product features to try to combat this, but it still seems pretty tedious to go through my entire feed to find specific friends whose Stories I want to see. Snapchat should take a cue from Instagram (since Instagram took so many cues from Snapchat) and organize their Stories based on engagement/interaction from the user. As of now, my feed honestly kind of stresses me out. I also wish you could hide Stories from friends—for some people who post a lot, I don’t necessarily want to see their Stories, but I still want them to be able to message me (and vice-versa).
This section is for social networks that have essentially gone away and are completely off the radar for both myself and my peers. This isn’t to say that the networks themselves are bad or anything, just that no one I know ever uses them. Like…ever.
I was most surprised to see Vine and Yik Yak fall. As a user of Vine, I could tell the content on the app was becoming stale and people were moving to other platforms. However, I felt a better integration with Twitter could have saved it. Even though the app will become a “Vine Camera,” Twitter could have done more to engage with influencers on the platform and connect it more to the main Twitter app.
Yik Yak is different from others on the list because many students in college not only have heard of it, but have even tried it for themselves. However, the lack of continued engagement as well as bullying and harassment sadly proved to be detrimental to the app.
Social media has changed dramatically over the past two years. A perfect example of this is how Live video emerged at the forefront of companies’ product strategies.
I don’t think there will ever be “one network to rule them all.” Every network has its own merits. So if I were to offer one piece of advice, let it be this: social networks should stop trying to make one app that does everything. Instead, they should strategically focus on the communities or needs that aren’t already being served by other networks.
Want to get in touch? Shoot me an email or find me on Twitter!
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Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has chosen to base its international headquarters in the UK, The Financial Times first reported on Tuesday.
The move is unusual for a US-based tech firm. Companies including Facebook, Uber, and Google have chosen other European countries including Ireland and the Netherlands as their international bases, to take advantage of lower corporation tax rates.
Snap confirmed it will not be routing sales made in the UK through other European countries for tax reasons. Sales in countries where Snap does not have a local office or salesforce will also be booked in the UK.
Claire Valoti, general manager of Snap Group Limited in the UK, said in a statement: "We believe in the UK creative industries. The UK is where our advertising clients are, where more than 10 million daily Snapchatters are, and where we’ve already begun to hire talent."
Snap first opened its UK office in 2015 and it now has 75 staff, many of which have been hired from rival tech firms. Valoti was hired from Facebook at the end of 2015 and other recent hires include Ricky Leatham from Amazon, who leads the UK engineering team and Andy Pang, who joined from Instagram to lead its measurement division in the region.
Snap Group Limited currently resides in a three-floor office in Soho, London, but the company says it is set to open an additional site nearby.
Snap confidentially filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission last year to go public in 2017. The company is seeking a valuation of between $20 billion and $25 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Business Insider in November.
SEE ALSO: Snapchat is making a big push on measurement in Europe
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Apple has partnered with the German lens and optics manufacturer Carl Zeiss AG on a new pair of augmented reality smartglasses, according to technology blogger Robert Scoble.
Scoble said on his Facebook page that an employee from Carl Zeiss AG confirmed rumours that Apple and Carl Zeiss AG were working on "a light pair of augmented reality/mixed reality glasses."
The conversation occurred during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Scoble said. It specifically took place at the Zeiss stand in the AR section of CES, according to Scoble.
"Carl Zeiss is in the AR part of CES," Scoble wrote on Facebook. "But it is NOT showing off its mixed reality optics. Why not? I said 'Tim Cook didn't let you' and the employees around me smiled nervously."
Scoble has a mixed track record when it comes to Apple's future products. He claimed, for example, that the iPhone 8 would be "a clear piece of glass." That's almost certainly not going to happen.
But we do know that Apple is very interested in augmented reality. CEO Tim Cook said in September that he was excited by the possibilities of augmented reality.
"There's virtual reality and there's augmented reality — both of these are incredibly interesting," Cook said. "But my own view is that augmented reality is the larger of the two, probably by far."
Confirmed: Apple and @CarlZeissLenses are working together on augmented reality optics. Details: https://t.co/11bsLQn8GP
— Robert Scoble: VR/AR (@Scobleizer) January 9, 2017The glasses could be announced by Apple as early as this year, Scoble said, writing that he previously expected Apple to announce them in 2018.
Unlike Google and Snapchat, Apple is yet to release any form of computerised glasses.
If Scoble is right and Apple is planning to release a pair of glasses, it's unclear how they would be positioned versus competitor products or where they would be priced. Google's failed Glass product cost over £1,000, while Snapchat is selling its Spectacles in the US for $130 (£100).
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Instagram is moving quickly to introduce ads into Stories, the Snapchat-like feature it added in August that allows users to share a series of photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
The company announced Wednesday it is testing full-screen video ads within Stories with around 30 global advertisers, including Airbnb, Nike, Netflix, and ASOS.
The ads will be signposted with text reading "sponsored" and they will be a maximum of 15 seconds long.
Instagram says 150 million users interact with Stories each day, up from 100 million daily active Stories users in October. By comparison, Snapchat also has 150 million daily active users.
In addition, 70% of people on Instagram follow a business, while one-third of the most-viewed Stories so far have been produced by businesses, explaining the rationale for inserting advertising into the section.
Here's what an ad for ASOS might look like in a typical Stories feed:
Speaking to Business Insider, Instagram director of product management Vishal Shah, described the launch as an "unmatched ad experience for businesses in Stories."
While Shah agreed that the format is similar to ads users may be familiar with on Snapchat, the combination of "targeting, measurement, reporting" and the ability for advertisers buy Stories ads with the self-service tools they use for other Instagram ads make it a superior product.
Shah said Instagram couldn't comment publicly on the amount of ads users are likely to see on their Stories feeds, but added: "One thing that we our proud of is our thoughtful rollout of ads in the [main] feed. We will be applying that same level of rigor, a blend of art and science [to the Stories rollout]. We feel pretty good about using a lot of that playbook for what we are going to be doing [on Stories]."
Pricing will be dictated by an online ad auction, with advertising slots going to the highest bidder.
At first, Instagram will just be offering Stories ads based around a reach objective (advertisers looking to reach a certain amount of mothers, living in the US, aged between 25 and 40-years-old, for example) but it will soon expand that to other outcomes, such as a certain number of users swiping up on the ad to visit a website or to download an app — much in-line with Snapchat's offering.
Instagram also said on Wednesday its Business Tools dashboard will now include analytics about Stories, including metrics such as reach, impressions, and replies. Those analytics are generated by Instagram itself and are not yet verified by third-party measurement firms.
Facebook, Instagram's parent company, does not break out Instagram's advertising revenues in its earnings. Research firm eMarketer estimates Instagram will generate $3.64 billion in global ad revenue in 2017, up 96% year-on-year.
Separately, Facebook is also testing "mid-roll" video ads that will appear within videos shared by media companies on the platform, according to several media reports.
Both moves are indicative of Facebook looking at creative ways to increase the ad load within its apps. The company can't continue to keep flooding the Facebook and Instagram feeds with more and more ads, but it can look to increase its ad load by monetizing the various features that sit within the apps — like Instagram Stories or Facebook's Instant Articles.
SEE ALSO: Facebook ads are 'far less viewable' than some advertisers were expecting
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Snap Inc. has hired former state department official Rick Stengel, a company spokesperson told Business Insider on Wednesday.
Stengel previously served as under secretary of state for public diplomacy in the Obama administration, where he led the country's public diplomacy outreach. Before that he was the managing editor of Time magazine and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a political nonprofit and museum in Washington D.C.
A Snap spokesperson said that Stengel has been hired as a senior advisor and declined to comment further. Heat Street first reported the news.
As the company's most high-profile government hire to date, Stengel could help Los Angeles-based Snap deepen its ties with Washington. Snap is preparing for a hotly-anticipated initial public offering that could value its business at around $20 billion.
Snap has hired a number of former journalists over the past couple of years, including former CNN politics reporter Peter Hamby, who currently leads the Snapchat app's small news division.
Stengel has been a sharp critic of state-run propaganda and fake news, the latter of which has plagued Snap competitor Facebook in the months leading up the U.S. presidential election.
Stengel seems to have already familiarized himself with Snap's brand. Here's a photo of him buying a pair of Snap's Spectacles eyewear in New York City on December 20, which was sent to us by CNN's Brian Ries:
SEE ALSO: Meet the secret power players who run Snapchat
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NOW WATCH: Hands on with Snapchat's Spectacles — one of the most talked about gadgets of the year
If you've ever wanted to recapture the magic of playing with walkie talkies as a kid, there's an app designed to do just that — 2017-style.
Marco Polo bills itself as the "video walkie talkie," a video chat app that lets you send quick messages back and forth with your friends.
Much like Snapchat, Marco Polo traffics in messages that are only a few seconds long. Unlike Snapchat, however, the app saves your videos so you can have a running conversation with your friend or a group of friends.
Marco Polo was created by a company called Joya Communications, which says on its website that its mission is "to help people feel close no matter the distance, enabling people to remain connected in convenient and meaningful ways."
The app has been around for more than a year, but is starting to catch on: It has a 4.4 rating on the Google Play Store (out of 5) and more than 84,000 reviews, and a 4.5 out of 5 on Apple's App Store. Marco Polo is also the eighth top free social networking app in the App Store.
And a quick Twitter search pulls up hundreds of tweets about the app. Some users complain about Marco Polo spamming their contacts — the app does ask to access your contacts during the set up, but it apparently has texted some users contacts in the past — but most tweets look a lot like this one:
That Marco polo app is 🔥
If you wanna group video chat with your friends... download it
— LoveYourLife👑 (@MemeLovesLife) December 23, 2016Most users also mention using the app to communicate with their families— which means Marco Polo isn't just for teens.
Here's how to use it:
SEE ALSO: This beautiful credit-card-sized phone just might cure your smartphone addiction
I chose the "America" filter, meant to look like Shepard Fairey's "Hope" poster, in honor of President Obama's final days in office.
