Lab Weekly — 06/13/2024

Apple WWDC recap, Plus, the latest news on Google TV Network, BeReal being acquired, and some cool stats

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Apple Intelligence All The Way Down

In this recap of Apple’s WWDC announcements, let’s dive into Apple’s “safe yet impressive” approach to AI integration, the headline-grabbing partnership with OpenAI, software updates for Vision Pro, and more must-know tidbits for brand marketers.

In case you missed it…

The Backlash to Google’s AI Search, Explained

Why Google Search telling people to eat rocks is just the tip of the iceberg that’s about to hit online media ecosystem

Microsoft Rallies Developers Around Copilot

Following the developer events from Google and OpenAI last week, Microsoft laid out the next chapter of its AI playbook this week with two events. Taken together, the deluge of announcements coming from Microsoft this week paints a picture of a company eager to jumpstart the AI revolution in personal computing.

Outlook 2024: APAC POV

With the era of passive growth over, here’s how brands can navigate the downstream effects and ensure sustained growth in APAC. Written by Sharon Soh, Chief Planning & Audience Officer, UM APAC

Google To Launch Google TV Network [The Verge]

Google is reportedly planning to launch an advertising network that will enable brands to place ads in Google TV streaming boxes and smart TVs. Google’s new TV ad network targets the growing audience of free streaming channels on over 20 million Google TV devices. And the audience base expands to 150 million monthly active viewers when TV viewing of YouTube content is included. Advertisers can place unskippable ads across 125+ live channels, capitalizing on the popularity of FAST channels and reaching a captive audience averaging 75 minutes of daily viewing.

Overall, Google’s entry is likely to accelerate the growth and evolution of the FAST market. Some FAST providers might find opportunities to partner with Google, leveraging its ad network to monetize their content more effectively while focusing on content creation and curation. For advertisers, this new connected TV ad network will launch with a considerable audience base, which, combined with Google’s ability to offer highly targeted ads, could be compelling for advertisers looking for specific audience segments.

Related: Apple signals that it’s working on TV+ app for Android phones [Bloomberg]; Roku touts a ‘solid rebound’ in video advertising [AdExchange]

BeReal To Be Acquired By French Gaming Company Voodoo [Business Insider]

Surprise! The one-viral-now-forgotten social platform BeReal is back in the news for its out-of-blue acquisition by Voodoo, a French gaming company, for 500 million euros. CEO and co-founder Alexis Barreyat is stepping down and Aymeric Roffé, head of Voodoo-owned app Wizz, will take over as CEO. This change of stewardship spells an impending change in monetization strategy, as Voodoo reportedly plans to launch paid advertising on BeReal soon.

BeReal, once popular among VCs and Gen Z in 2022, was part of the wave of alternative social platforms that emerged in response to the dominant social platforms moving away from content from people you know, and towards more algorithmic feeds full of creator content. BeReal’s rapid rise saw daily active users peak at 8 million in 2022 but it never generated revenue. Its current 40 million “active users” fall short of past targets. Time will tell whether Voodoo can revive BeReal as an authenticity-driven social platform and potentially turn it into a social channel where brands can target younger audiences shunning conventional social platforms.

Related: X is reportedly making likes private by default [The Verge]; New York passes legislation to ban ‘addictive’ social media algorithms for kids [CNBC]

Meta to Roll Out New “Communities” Feature on Messenger Globally [TechCrunch]

Meta is rolling out a new Communities feature on Messenger to all users globally, allowing up to 5,000 people to join a Community through shareable invites. Needless to say, this is like group chats on steroids, and it continues a long-gestating trend of people leaving public social platforms for more private, topic-based niche online communities. The continued growth of Discord and Reddit is also part of the evolution of the social media landscape.

As online interactions shift towards smaller, private groups, brand marketers must adapt their strategies and follow the migration. Instead of targeting broad public audiences, they need to identify and engage with niche communities where their target audiences are highly active. This requires creating personalized, relevant content to foster authentic interactions and build trust within these smaller communities.

Related: WhatsApp Channels, which has 500M+ MAUs, relies on community guidelines to tackle election interference [Politico]; Messaging app Telegram launches Ton-linked ‘stars’ currency after Toncoin hits all-time high price [Decrypt]

Situational Awareness:

Redstone’s National Amusements ends merger talks with Skydance [WSJ]

In a twist to what I wrote last week about the pending Paramount-Skydance merger, it looks like Shari Redstone has called the whole deal off. Deadline has a pretty good piece on why the deal fell through and what may happen next.

Wix’s new tool taps AI to generate smartphone apps [TechCrunch]

The irony here is that most smartphone users do not need more new apps, and AI is about to become a new interface layer that sits on top of the apps and extracts information from the apps on demand.

Quest v66 update “significantly” reduces Quest 3 passthrough distortion & warping [UploadVR]

This is a good example of “rising tides raise all boats.” The launch of Vision Pro has revived investor and, to a lesser extent, consumer interest in immersive mixed reality headsets. It’s no surprise that Meta is striking while the iron is hot by rapidly improving the Quest headsets.

TikTok Shop is now the ninth-largest online beauty and wellness retailer in the US [The Verge]

If anyone wonders if TikTok can make social commerce happen in the U.S., the answer is that it will be on a category-by-category basis: some trend-dependent categories like beauty and wellness are better suited for TikTok to sell than others.

Forget Sora — Kling is a killer new AI video model from China [Tom’s Guide]

The examples of Kling’s video creations floating online sure look impressive. If only there’s a way for non-Chinese users to try it out!

• If you’ve ever wonder how much influence BookTok has over book sales, the New York Times reports that TikTok influencers helped a self-published author sell 1 million copies of her book, including ~700K on the TikTok shop, showing how TikTok changed book marketing.
• Spotify users are the least likely to cancel among major video or audio streaming services in the US, Bloomberg reports, citing data from app tracking firm Antenna, which found that Spotify has a ~2% monthly churn rate, similar to that of Netflix. In contrast, the average churn rate among video streaming services hovers around 35%.
• Looks like the Wall Street analysts responded well to Apple Intelligence, as Apple shares soared 7.3% a day after its AI announcements at WWDC events, rallying to a record high since December, Bloomberg reports.

If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at chelsea@ipglab.com.

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