Category: Percolate

Snapchat Gets More Daily Photos Than Facebook

Posted on by Lab Team

According to CEO Evan Spiegel, Snapchat now shares 400 million snaps every day, up from 200 million just this June. The 400 million mark surpasses the photo-sharing activity on Facebook and Instagram, who see 350 million and 50 million photos uploaded per day, respectively. It’s unclear how many of the increased photos on Snapchat are privately shared photos, as opposed to the new “broadcast” snaps. Nonetheless, these impressive numbers bode well for Snapchat’s upcoming round of funding, and the company’s prospects for brands and marketers in the future.

HBO Go Chromecast Support Arrives

Posted on by Lab Team

Rumors of Chromecast support for the HBO Go app are now a reality, as both iOS and Android support wireless streaming of HBO content to the Chromecast device. Google announced that you can also cast from the Chrome browser, but streaming from Chrome simply casts the image onto the screen, whereas casting from mobile or tablet pulls the data from the cloud; that is to say, casting from Chrome relies on the computer’s resources, while casting from mobile or tablet pulls data from the Internet. It’s an interesting way of streaming content, and continues to prove the vitality and popularity of the new technology. 

Macy’s Begins Apple iBeacon Testing

Posted on by Lab Team

Macy’s is the first major retailer to begin testing Apple’s new iBeacon technology in-store. Macy’s will use retail app Shopkick as a form of third-party integration, and users will receive a notification through this app when they walk into Macy’s Herald Square or Macy’s Union Square, San Francisco. The notification directs users right into Shopkick’s app, which will alert them to deals and remind them about product sales they might be interested in. As of yet, the trial is limited to pinging phones upon entrance to the store, but in the future it could work on a much more targeted basis. If customers who use the service are more readily converted into purchasers, expect to see Macy’s, and many other retail stores, run with the new technology.

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Google Wallet Reverts To Plastic

Posted on by Lab Team

After pushing NFC as the future of payments, Google Wallet will now provide a plastic, prepaid debit card. The decision is a sign that NFC is being adopted at a slower rate than many anticipated as many consumers feel there is not that much friction involved in the current system of payments after all. That said, Square and Paypal have been instrumental in payments going mobile and recent entrant Coin is trying to connect all your cards to a single one managed via an app. Stay tuned as the payments race continues.

Google Launches Newsstand On Android

Posted on by Lab Team

In a move to consolidate its assets within its platform, Google launched a unified Newsstand to combine subscriptions to newspapers and magazines with content from blogs, RSS feeds, and other sources. Though apps like Flipboard have dominated this space in the past, Google’s model works within the Android ecosystem, and features its now-familiar card view. As well, Google’s machine-learning comes into play, as tagged articles will prompt similar pieces to appear as related reading. Whether readers even want to get any news through newsstand apps is very much up for debate, though, and Google is risking creating something that might fall by the wayside, much like Apple’s iteration of the same concept. 

Twitter Updates Mobile App For Trending TV

Posted on by Lab Team

Twitter gave its mobile iOS and Android apps an overhaul with new search filters to enhance conversations around TV. In the “Discover” tab, Twitter can browse through trending shows by topics and hashtags, as well as trends relating to local content. The shows are organized either by popularity or by which show is airing next. It’s another move to more deeply integrate TV and advertising into the social platform to boost profitability in light of the recent IPO – whether it actually translates into ad spends and ultimately revenue will have to be determined in the near future. 

A Pinterest Pin Is Worth More Than A Tweet

Posted on by Lab Team

According to marketing and analytics firm Piqora, who just completed a nine-month study of more than 1,000 brands in Pinterest, each pin is worth about 78 cents in sales, a 25% year over year increase. Each pin drives two site visits and six page views, and is repinned about 10 times. The average pin is 100 times more viral than a tweet. And brands with a rich pin integration see an 82% jump in repin/pin ratio. These stats are important for brands to consider, particularly in light of PInterest’s recent API release. The virality of pins, in combination with their sales drive, means that if you’re not already taking the site seriously you need to consider its worth as high as – if not higher than – even Twitter. 

Xbox One Gameplay Broadcasting Delayed Until 2014

Posted on by Lab Team

Twitch integration was touted as one of the better collaborative elements of Microsoft’s next-gen console, the Xbox One. Today, however, Microsoft dropped news that the Twitch.tv app won’t be available on the November 22nd launch date. The Xbox team is, “working to ensure the initial Twitch on Xbox One broadcasting experience meets the expectations of the Twitch community.” For whatever reason, it seems like Twitch and the Xbox One aren’t quite ready for each other yet. It’s a bad realization for Microsoft, as the Twitch integration was a highly touted feature of the new console. For what it’s worth, Xbox gamers will be able to watch Twitch on the console as an app, but that’s only half the battle. How this affects gamers’ proclivity to purchase will have to be judged later in the month. 

Connected Home Fuels Anticipatory Computing

Posted on by Lab Team

SmartThings, a developer of software and hardware powering the Connected Home, released some surprising data points based on their network of 10,000 users. According to the startup, those active homes generate 150 million data points a day. Currently, those data points are being used to inform the smart home devices, but imagine a world where that data could inform auxiliary products and services. This would create a world of anticipatory computing, where your lights dim when you start Netflix or your oven logs all the recipes you’ve seen on TV.        

Apple Stores To Use iBeacon Customer Tracking

Posted on by Lab Team

To mark the release of the new iPhones – and in part to demonstrate a proof-of-concept – Apple retail stores will implement iBeacon customer tracking to reportedly enhance the shopping experience for customers. iBeacon is similar to GPS, but it works indoors and it can be used to trigger certain actions on iPhones that are in proximity to iBeacon sensors. The plan is for iBeacon to work in conjunction with the Apple Store app and offer customers deals and location-based information. It’s an important development for the technology, one that marketers and consumers alike should keep a close eye on; it could determine brick-and-mortar interactive behavior for the forseable future.