Tag: The Guardian

Hello and welcome to the first FWD of 2018!

As we say goodbye to 2017, we look at who ended the year on a high:

• AirBnB was the hottest ticket in town as 3 million people partied the night away in AirBnBs on New Year’s Eve (compared to just 1,400 eight years ago).
• WhatsApp set a new messaging record with 75 billion messages sent globally using the service on New Year’s Eve.
• Spotify started the new year with 70 million paying subscribers, as it files to become a public company.

However, it is also time to look forward to the year ahead as we hear predictions from experts from the ecommerce world, The BBC and The Guardian on what will be the biggest tech and media trends in 2018…

HEADLINES

• Spotify gains 10 million new paid members every 6 months and files to go public on the New York Stock Exchange
• On New Year Eve, three million people partied the night away in Airbnbs, compared to just 1,400 eight years ago and many of them were WhatsApping – a massive 75 billion messages globally were sent using the service
• Instagram is letting a select few users post directly to WhatsApp

INSIGHTS

• Google have newly released their voice search stats
• Ofcom’s communications market report gives a handy compilation of stats across Digital and Offline, as the Office for National Statistics reveals young people spend a third of their time on devices
• Here are some of the most significant apps of 2017
• In the world of ecommerce, experts round up the biggest trends in 2017 and give their predictions for 2018

COOL

• Footlocker’s unboxing experience across Snapchat Lens lets users ‘try before they buy’
• A new Twitter bot turns threads into easy to read blogs
• Audi puts safety first, with a script for websites that blocks people who are browsing whilst driving

DEEP READS

• Here’s a look at some 2017 highlights of content marketing from beauty brands and experiential marketing
• The BBC, The Guardian and Fast Company give their rundown of what they think will happen in media in 2018, including consolidations, fake news and politics
• Take a look at the future of Blockchain

Please share anything of interest using #OMDFWD

Hello and welcome to our Halloween 🎃 issue of FWD! This week, iPhone X pre-orders are off the charts, and Facebook Workplace, an ad-free platform version of Facebook for the office, is set to crush Slack. Facebook also launches a screen-sharing feature into Live videos, opening possibilities in the gaming space, and denies eavesdropping on users’ conversations to target advertisements.

Into Stranger Things, Snapchat’s 3D World Lenses lets users access the experience by physically walking into an AR portal door and eBay launches computer vision search tools to find items using photos. If you follow the latest mobile apps, you will know HQ, a viral trivia sensation, that looks like the future of mobile gaming and live TV. Lastly, Amex and Acxiom create a prediction engine based on purchase data that can successfuly predict fraud.

Is it Man? Machine? Or Monster? Get spooked 👻 with these terrifying horror stories generated by an AI.

HEADLINES

• Facebook launches screen sharing into its Live video, opening up a wealth of potential in the gaming space, in a week when it’s continued to deny that it’s listening to your conversations to garner targeting information
• Facebook are also touting the strong adoption of Workplace as it looks to draw users from Slack
• UK Ad viewability reaches an 18-month high
• Reports suggest Apple’s iPhone X (US) pre-orders are very healthy

 INSIGHTS

• The Guardian have persuaded 800K readers to pay for their content without a paywall as Facebook allows 10 publishers to test subscription models on Instant Articles
• Mobile devices are going to account for a third of online Christmas orders 
• Acxiom and Amex are building a prediction engine based on purchase data

COOL

• Snapchat launched their first World Lens for the Netflix Series ‘Stranger Things 2’
• Viral trivia app HQ is causing a stir and has people touting it as the future of both mobile gaming and live TV
• eBay launches visual search integration

DEEP READS

• Benedict Evans postures Facebook role in culture as the same as an ‘haute couture’ fashion house’s on fashion. Less shaping public style and more reflective of it. Fave line: “Social is pop culture”
• Why AlphaGo Zero is so impressive and what it means for machine learning
• According to The Economist we are entering a more grown-up era of tech that will see Silicon Valley companies needing to lean into existing political power structures to protect their interests. Conversely the AI ‘industry’ is already applying pressure to ensure it remains un-shackled from regulation.

If you see anything of FWD worthy in the week ahead, please share using #OMDFWD

Just in time for this summer’s Olympics in Rio, Facebook has launched its very own Snapchat-style camera. It comes at a time where, despite strong business success, Zuckerberg’s social platform has recently seen a 21% decline in the amount of posts shared per user and a rise in competition from rival Snapchat. According to the company, “people are increasingly sharing via videos and photos”, so this measure has been taken with the aim of boosting the number of posts uploaded daily. So now, when someone wants to share what’s on their mind, they will now be given the option of an open camera. After all, video is definitely on the rise. Please do share anything interesting you spot on Twitter with #OMDFWD

HEADLINES

• Rio special: Facebook has launched filters, as of course has Snapchat
• Instagram launched Stories, a Snapchat-esque feature and uses a Facebook like algorithm to order content priority
• Twitter adds ‘Instant Unlock’ feature, offering users to option to Tweet to unlock content
• LinkedIn uses its 500 ‘influencers’ to launch 30 second in feed video

INSIGHTS

• The Economist dissects WeChat and ponders what social channels can learn
• Six big bets for Digital Transformation for CIOs
• How The Guardian is using data to inform creative decisions

COOL

• The Financial Times partners with Google to explore hidden Rio
• The world’s first website went online just over 25 years ago
• Most shared Olympics ads, and how its playing out on Snapchat and Instagram  

DEEP READS

• ‘Complementarity’ and the audacity of copying well
• The ten types of corporate innovation programme
• Digital detox goes mainstream