At the Goldman Sachs Annual Communacopia Conference, head of CBS TV Les Moonves confirmed what we already know: “overnight ratings are virtually irrelevant now.” While stressing that CBS is still “monetizing the majority” of the time-shifted audience, the executive also praised OTT service Netflix for facilitating year-round programming, which CBS has been dipping its toes into. After this rather candid remark, it will be interesting to see how the broadcaster will continue to evolve its business model.
Category: Percolate
Global Watch: How The Hike Messaging App Wins India
Editor’s Note: This marks the first entry of our new publishing series “Global Watch”, where we look at the emerging markets around the world and highlight stories that feature new, disruptive media and technology.
Hike is a messaging app that is gaining popularity among the young people in India. The reason? The app tailors its features to the unique reality of India’s emerging market.
For one, it prioritizes the privacy of its users. It is culturally common for young folks in India to live with their parents until marriage, and the special Hidden Mode of Hike makes it harder for nosy parents and siblings to snoop around their private messages. In addition, Hike supports sending messages between smartphones and “dumb” phones, giving it another big advantage in India, where the majority of mobile users still use phones with limited Internet capability.
With $86 million investment from telecomm companies like Bharti and SoftBank, Hike is not thinking about monetization yet. Less than two years old, Hike’s free app currently has more than 35 million users. And it still has plenty of room to grow, as the Indian market has more than 1 billion mobile subscribers and no single dominant messaging app.
What U2’s Apple Deal Means For The Music Industry
By now you’ve probably heard that Apple is giving away U2’s new album away for free via iTunes. But U2 is obviously no charity; Apple is licensingthe Irish band’s new music, for an estimated $100 million, as a “free gift” to the iTunes customers, along with the right to use the lead single off the album in its upcoming global ad campaign. Apple gets an extra selling point and a promotional tool; U2 gets enormous exposure through mass sampling and “the world’s largest album launch;” iTunes users get free music. Apple’s move heralds a paradigm shift in the music industry, where merchandise and tour ticket sales replacing music sales as the main revenue channel.
Why Apple Restricted Health Data For Medical Purpose Only
With the introduction of its HealthKit, Apple is set to become the “centralized hub of health data”. But marketers shouldn’t get too excited: Apple’s updated app store guidelines restrict the data gathered from HealthKit API to medical, fitness, or research proposes only, and prohibits it from being used for advertising or other data-mining purposes. This move is understandable due to patient privacy concerns.
Twitter Rolling Out The Buy Button
Twitter continues its confident slide into e-commerce with the roll-out of a “buy now” button on both web and mobile portals. The new function allows users to buy products directly from a tweet with a few taps without ever leaving Twitter. The idea is to make mobile shopping quick and easy, so as to facilitate easy purchase. Twitter is currently working on this new feature with 28 partners, including retailers like Burberry and Home Depot, several big pop music acts, and some non-profits.
“Hearable” Is The New Wearable
NASA To Send 3D Printers Into Space
NASA is reportedly planning to fly a 3D printer into space for the first time. This special 3D printer is made to function in a zero-gravity environment and, if successful, would enable astronauts on the space station to print out needed parts right onboard without waiting for the next resupply mission. Such on-demand capability could revolutionize the constrained space supply chain, further validating the legitimacy of 3D printing.
Why Facebook’s Privacy Check-up Falls Short
Facebook appears to have learned its lesson from the recent “psychology experiment” controversy and moved informed consent up on its priority list. The social media platform is planning to push a multi-step privacy checkup that re-educates the users on privacy settings. Well-intentioned as it might be, this check-up program falls short as it is only designed for the web platform. With over 78% of its U.S. users now accessing Facebook primarily through mobile, this program clearly needs to develop on mobile version to cover its bases.
Verizon Fined For Violating Customer Privacy
Verizon has agreed to pay a record-high $7.4 million fine to the US Treasury for violating its customers’ privacy rights, especially for “failing to notify 2 million new residential and business customers of their privacy rights to deny Verizon permission to access or use their personal information for certain marketing purposes”, according to FCC. Although nothing severe in comparison to the $31.5 billion quarterly revenue the telecomm giant just made, the verdict nonetheless serves as a cautionary tale for brands to get informed consent from their customers.
Interpublic Invests in Mobile Measurement Company Placed
The Lab is very happy to report that our parent agency Interpublic has taken a minority stake in Placed, the Seattle-based mobile attribution company that we just featured in our partner spotlight last week. Placed measures mobile ads’ effectiveness in driving customers into stores, using a panel of consumers who in exchange for rewards have agreed to share their physical location data when they download a Placed app. They currently have the largest opt-in panel of mobile location data, with more than 200,000 smartphone users.
This investment was led by The Lab, and highlights our ongoing efforts to better measure the fast-growing mobile ad market.
“Attribution is a pain point of mobile,” said Chad Stoller, managing partner of IPG Media Lab, IPG’s media innovation and investment unit that will oversee the holding company’s relationship with Placed. “How do I know this is working? There need to be better metrics when it comes to mobile.”
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For IPG, the Placed investment will help clients make more efficient mobile media buys, Mr. Stoller said. IPG will work with Placed as it develops its own proprietary ad products as well as leverage Placed’s data to strategize other types of media buys for clients, he added.
