BlackBerry is dead; at least, that’s the conventional wisdom. But looking at BBM tells a very different story: with 85 million users engaging with the platform on at least a monthly basis, the platform has better numbers than Tango when it finished its $280 million round of funding. To continue to drive those numbers, the company has released stickers in an attempt to monetize the platform, much like many messaging apps before it. The packs of stickers will run at $1.99 to start, but as BBM starts to look at different pricing models, that will likely change. Already, brands have gotten out ahead of BBM stickers; WWE Inc. has a pack called “WWE Superstars,” and other third parties have packs up on the store as well. The update is now available to BlackBerry 10, Android, and iOS users. It will be very interesting to watch BlackBerry build this product out, and whether messaging – ironically, one of the features that brought BlackBerry to prominence in the first place – can truly salvage the company. Whether or not the move works in the long run, it’s indicative of the fact that messaging companies and brands see stickers as a valuable, lucrative way to engage customers on their platforms.
Category: Percolate
Square Now Supports Bitcoin
Square announced today that it’s adding support for Bitcoin to its mobile payments service, which means that buyers can import the digital currency into its mobile wallet and use it to pay for items on the Square Market in stores that support the service. The goal, as far as Square is concerned, is to maintain the product’s relevance as digital currencies become more mainstream, and to ensure that their adoption into the platform is as painless as possible. It’s interesting because one of the biggest barriers to widespread adoption of Bitcoin has been the fact that mainstream retailers don’t accept the currency in their stores; but, if Square accepts Bitcoin in its wallet and the financial transaction is carried out through Square, it means that retailers won’t necessarily notice a difference in their bottom lines as long as the money comes through the Square platform. If alternative currencies are to be accepted by a broader part of society, look for mobile payments providers to play a big role.
MRC Lifts Advisory on Viewable Impressions
The MRC has lifted its advisory on viewable impressions, encouraging the industry to transact based on the metric. A recent blog from the IAB has also officially announced the standard for viewable impressions – 50% of pixels in view for at least 1 sec. While it still does not guarantee ad exposure, it does revalue inventory below the fold and makes us consider new proxies for attention. Viewability has been around for quite some time, but the lack of standards would lead to quite a bit of chaos when it came to transacting with the data. The IAB anticipates viewable video to come by this summer but viewability is just the start. I’d imagine we can expect viewability to be calculated based on total time and perhaps priced on a sliding scale in the future.
Rdio Comes to Chromecast
Rdio announced support for Google’s Chromecast media accessory, meaning that Rdio users can cast their music from their iPhone, iPad, Android phone, and Chrome, wirelessly. And with Rdio’s existing remote feature, users will also be able to control playback on the TV from wherever they are, as long as they’re logged into their Rdio account. As with other Chromecast-ready technologies, the icon for casting now appears in the Rdio app, enabling easy casting. It means that there is now well-defined music streaming for cord-cutters and other early adopters of the technology, taking Chromecast’s transition from a TV replacement to a living-room dominating media center to the next phase.
The Cloud Services Price War May Have Just Started
Google, looking to lure startups away from the ever-popular Amazon Web Services cloud, announced a cut in its cloud storage and access rates, effectively kicking off a price-undercutting war with Amazon that seems likely to leave other, third party cloud providers in its wake. On one level, competing with Google and Amazon on a price to features and scale ration seems impossible for companies without their financial clout. To startups, the new progressive pricing models and features mean that Rackspace and Amazon are now only on par with – or indeed less attractive than – Google’s service. As more and more business is done on the cloud, watching the price for access and services is integral to keeping pace with how digital business develops; don’t expect this to be the last time this story crops up in the media this year.
YouTube To Offer Advertisers Guarantees
In YouTube’s latest attempt to pull advertisers away from the TV, the Google-owned company will offer marketers some time guarantees; they’ve pledged to air ads across its channels until a certain number of target viewers see the ads. The company will also reserve ad space for companies that purchase time in advance for the best performing 5% of shows on its channels. One could view the move as a reaction to Yahoo’s move into the online-streaming community, as well as a reaction to CEO Marissa Mayer’s statement that Yahoo is very advertiser friendly. The new ad scheme will go into effect in the coming months, and is a big concession to advertisers for a medium that, at least in the past, was slightly averse to advertisers coming into its fold.
Last.fm Pivots Away From Subscriptions
Last.fm announced that it will be ending its subscription based music service, so as to put more attention on music discovery and tracking personal listening. Last.fm was one of the pioneering music streaming services, followed by companies like Pandora, Spotify, and Beats Music, who are now the de facto industry leaders in the space. Realizing this, Last.fm will focus on maintaining its desktop streaming service and “scrobbler” app which allows the company to track listener’s songs – and in turn lets Last.fm target listeners. In essence, the company wants to return to its core purpose of helping people find new music they’d like to be hearing. For now, it means that the streaming music space is over saturated – don’t expect to see any more high profile streaming services in the near future.
Amazon To Announce Video Box Next Week
Amazon’s push into the set-top box realm has been delayed and push back for months – but we’re finally set to hear about which set of rumors are correct. We’ve heard almost everything, from a Chromecast competitor to a full-fledged set-top box, to a Netflix-like upgrade to Prime, and the image sent around to those invited to the event features a couch and popcorn – a pretty clear indication that they will be announcing TV-related news. Those in the know suggest that we’ll likely see a slightly more conservative set-top box, which would firmly position Amazon in the ongoing battle to control the living room that’s being waged by companies like Roku, Apple, and others. Whichever form it takes, it will be important for advertisers to take note of the continued trend towards cord-cutting, and to create new ways of reaching less and less cable-dependent audiences.
Facebook Messenger Gets Big Upgrade
Facebook’s Messenger iOS app has begun to lag behind other big names in the messaging space – namely the app it just bought, WhatsApp. Nonetheless, for the time being Facebook is doing its best to differentiate itself from, or at least compete with, its new acquisition with its latest update to its in-house Messenger. Version 4.0 brings group messages and message forwarding to the platform, letting users add friends to groups, set group photos, and other functions that have become associated with the concept of messaging in the mobile age. It signals that, at least for the time being, WhatsApp and Messenger will remain distinctive entities, with Facebook looking to profit from both apps while getting the best of both worlds.
Twitter & Billboard Create Real-Time Music Chart
Twitter Music failed; it’s something we all watched happen from afar. Even big sponsorships couldn’t save the attempt at monitoring music on the social network – but now Twitter is trying again, with the premier music partner, Billboard. It wants to do to music what Nielsen does to rank TV shows with a real-time chart – slated to appear in Billboard.com – that keeps track of who is talking about what music, and when on the social network. The stated goal is to create a new industry standard for tracking the conversation about music on a platform on which music is heavily discussed. Twitter wants brands, artists, and managers to understand how people are talking about their product, and when; even though they failed with the initial attempt, Twitter’s new partnership could be promising moving forward with the company already known for its ability to track music as it moves throughout the world. With over 40 million tweets per day about music, the content is there to be tracked – it’s just a matter of Twitter getting it right.
