How to Make $300K at Seventeen: Depop and Social Shopping
TL;DR
- Teens use social shopping to rake in as much as $300,000 annually with apps like Depop.
- Research finds that Instagram Stories are becoming a content distribution platform of their own.
- Looking at how AirBnB, Netflix and major brands leverage Stories to capture new users.
- How brands distribute their Stories everywhere with Tappable.
- Why did Spotify back Libracoin, and what does that mean for Spotify’s revenue?
Depop social selling app
Teens are making more money than ever, and it’s not thanks to part-time jobs.
Depop, a social shopping app targeted at Gen Z shoppers, is allowing teens to create personal fashion brands by selling second-hand clothes.
Depop, which has just raised $62 million in funding, was originally launched in Milan in 2011.
Today, it has over 13 million users in 147 countries, and they want to expand their influence in the US market.
The app allows users to create Instagram-like profiles. They can use them to flip the clothes they no longer need, all the while telling stories of their personal brands.
Depop sellers are encouraged to post images and videos to increase their chances of selling. And, fitting for the Instagram generation, they can connect their IG profiles with Depop to promote their shops even more.
It’s up to sellers to decide how they want to price and ship their items. Depop only takes a 10% cut from each sale and serves as a crossover between eBay and Instagram, letting Gen Z users recreate the traditional shopping experience.
With the significant backing they recently received and overwhelmingly positive user reviews, Depop may just be the unicorn that will change the way we shop for good.
Instagram Marketing Trends
According to the latest survey results from Social Media Today and SEMRush, Instagram and Instagram Stories are the hottest platform(s) today:
- SMT and SEMRush surveyed over 800 marketers
- 90% of respondents use Instagram
- 80% of respondents use Instagram Stories
- 72% of respondents stated that Instagram will be an essential platform for their future marketing endeavors
- Over 1,25 billion people use Stories across Facebook properties every day
The findings paint a clear picture: the student has become the master.
The Stories feature is noticing significant daily growth in active users, practically becoming a content distribution platform of its own.
It’s important to note that still images still produce the best results, likely due to the fact that they get more screen time.
And as a mobile-only platform, Instagram is a great indicator of what we can expect in the future: more mobile content that is snackable and highly visual.
It’s up to marketers and brands to adapt, and give consumers what they want.
Marketing Lessons from AirBnB and Netflix
Nothing’s been the same ever since Stories rose to popularity. They’ve brought about one of the most significant shifts in consumer behavior as consumers have less time and shorter attention spans than ever before.
According to Satej Sirur, CEO of Rocketium, a video creation platform, the changes are here to stay.
If brands want to be competitive, they’ll have to adapt:
“We are moving away from a world of static content to a rich, visual world that combines different types of media.”
Contemporary consumers want content that is:
- Relevant
- Capable of providing information within seconds
- Natural and non-intrusive
It’s no wonder that Stories were and continue to be the perfect solution for smart brands.
Major players like AirBnB and Netflix were among the first to take notice of this consumer shift, and they responded to it by creating engaging story-format content.
However, they had to make some pretty important decisions to get maximum ROI from their storytelling:
- Content distribution — Would they publish stories in apps, on their websites, or both?
- Device compatibility — Which devices would the stories be created for?
- Formats — Do images or videos work better?
Inevitably, progress comes with associated costs. Major brands like AirBnB and Medium can handle it, but what about smaller businesses?
Harnessing the Power of Stories Everywhere with Tappable
Businesses are facing dilemmas when it comes to the creation and distribution of Stories.
Often, they can only publish Stories through apps or go through lengthy development processes to adapt them for their websites.
With Tappable, this is not a problem:
- Tappable Stories work across devices and platforms
- They don’t disappear after 24 hours
- No content restrictions; you can choose image, video, text, and/or audio
- You don’t have to spend money on development. Tappable Stories are already optimized.
You can create immersive experiences to be displayed on your site, Instagram and Facebook, without spending dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars on the creation of a single Story.
Daily Paper is already harnessing the power of Tappable AMP Stories to give their brand a boost.
Ultimately, Tappable is the perfect solution for marketers and brands who want to use Stories across different platforms to attract the new generation of consumers.
Gen Z want information now, and they want it pretty.
Why Spotify Backed Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency
Facebook’s Libracoin is more than a cryptocurrency. It’s a way to streamline micropayments.
But what does that really mean for publishers?
Spotify was one of the first media companies to jump on the Libracoin train, seeking to connect with their total addressable market which they have previously been unable to reach.
With Libra, Spotify will increase their potential user base, and make sure that the platform is available to all of them.
Processing payments for individual songs, albums and much more will be seamless. This is due to Libra’s nature; as a cryptocurrency, it can process micro transactions smoothly and safely, without additional fees.
It’s a massive opportunity for Spotify to reach nearly 2 billion people worldwide who don’t have traditional access to safe online payments.
With this precedent, media companies and publishers worldwide open the door to a new way of earning money with Libra.
Or in the words of Alex Nordstrom, Spotify’s CPBO: “In joining the Libra Association, there is an opportunity to better reach Spotify’s total addressable market, eliminate friction and enable payments in mass scale.”
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