This week’s FWD covers the latest news from Facebook following the recent announcement that the platform will shut down its live shopping feature on October 1st and shift its focus to video Reels.
As social media platforms continue to fight for users with new features and updates, this move aligns Facebook more closely with Instagram and TikTok. After October 1st, users will no longer be able to host any new or scheduled live shopping events on Facebook. However, users will still be able to use Facebook Live to broadcast live events, but won’t be able to create product playlists or tag products in Facebook Live videos.
News:
- ITV announces new streaming service, ITVX, which claims to trump BBC iPlayer features and deliver a data-driven business transformation.
- Disney has announced details of its ad-supported tier. Disney Plus will cost $7.99 per month available from December 8th and the ad-free plan will now cost $10.99.
Start-up:
- BeReal is a photo-sharing app, which gives users a 2-minute window, once a day to upload an instant photo. The purpose of this is to capture an authentic, unfiltered snapshot of a user’s life.
Insights:
- Xbox partners with the National Trust to recreate real-life castle ruins in Minecraft to engage younger audiences in history.
- As the Twitter and Elon Musk trial looms, Musk teases X.com as a potential social media site of his own.
- Snapchat officially introduces parental controls through a new ‘Family Center’ feature for 13-18-year-olds.
- Disney Plus soars to 152.1 million subscribers after adding 14.4 million new users in Q3.
