Tag: video

Top Five Takeaways From Facebook’s F8 Conference 2015

Posted on by Lab Team

With more than 30 million apps and sites currently on Facebook’s platform, Facebook is much more than just a social network. At their big F8 Developer Conference today, Facebook made some major announcements that uncovered their detailed plan for building out its platforms, as well as helping developers and publishers alike connect with users and monetize their content.

Messenger App To Become A Platform And Disrupt Ecommerce

As we reported earlier this week, Facebook is expanding its Messenger app into a full-fledged media platform by allowing integration with third-party apps and content. More importantly, it is also looking to disrupt ecommerce with a new mobile shopping experience. Equipped with real-time shipping notifications and enhanced receipts, the new Messenger Platform promises to connect shoppers to businesses by integrating all disconnected emails generated through online shopping into one cohesive chat thread for easier access and tracking.

New Parse SDK To Connect The Internet of Things 

Parse, a mobile development platform that Facebook acquired 2 years ago, is coming out with a new SDK that will make it easier for developers to create apps to connect a variety of connected devices. One demo featured a garage door opener build on Parse’s new platform. This puts Facebook directly in competition with Apple’s HomeKit and Google’s Nest Platform, as well as a handful of other IoT platforms.

Mining Insights From App-Generated Data

Mobile apps generate tons of untapped data all day, and Facebook is looking to make better use of them with a new Facebook Analytics for Apps. Essentially a “Google Analytics” for mobile apps, it will help developers and content owners alike gain valuable insights into engagement or conversion rates of Facebook-powered apps.

Bringing New Video Experiences Into Social

Besides a new video plug-in tool that allows easy embedding of Facebook videos on other sites, Facebook is also looking to integrate its new Spherical Videos, which let viewers move around in a 360-degree view, right into the News Feed, laying the groundwork for virtual reality video in your social stream.

New Ways Of Monetization Glue The Platform Together 

To help publishers better monetize their content, Facebook unveiled an upgrade of its video ad platform Live Rail that will add support for mobile display ads—especially native ads, Facebook’s Audience Network—while also improving content targeting using Facebook’s anonymized data. Moreover, the previously mentioned deep integration of content and apps on Facebook Platform will undoubtedly bring in ample opportunities for monetization.

 

 

YouTube’s March Towards Sophistication

Posted on by Lab Team

With over 1 billion users, YouTube has held onto the top spot for video sharing on the Internet since its founding a decade ago. Since then, YouTube has steadily grown and matured, slowly but surely transitioning from a pure video-sharing website into a sophisticated video platform with diversified content and a corresponding monetization system.

Music has long been one of the most popular content categories on YouTube, and in fact, a mid-2012 Nielsen study reported that two-thirds of U.S. teens used YouTube as their primary choice for streaming music. Not surprisingly, YouTube has been building out its music business, beginning last February when it started promoting curated playlists in search results and culminating in YouTube Music Key, its own Spotify-like subscription-based music service in late November.

However, this newfound focus on music hasn’t stopped YouTube from diversifying its content. In fact, earlier this week, the company released a brand new family-friendly mobile app showcasing its kid-friendly content and easy parental controls. The movie rental feature it introduced back in 2011 has also been gaining traction lately, thanks to the online release of controversial movie The Interview. Moreover, it has been credited with revolutionizing modern journalism by reducing entry barriers and the video game industry by enabling streaming commentary.

YouTube is also developing a correspondingly sophisticated monetization system. Besides offering advertisers guarantees on views and chances to purchase Nielsen ratings, its unique Content ID system helps content creators and media owners monetize all videos containing copyrighted material, which accounts for over a third of the monetized views on YouTube. Recently, the company has been criticized for aggressively pushing its monetization system on users and allegedly strong-arming indie musicians into strict contracts, adding to the many growing pains for YouTube on its road to online video domination.

Another Messaging App Ventures Into Video Content

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

LINE, Japan’s most popular messaging app, continues to expand its core business as it starts testing LINE TV, a YouTube-like video service in Thailand. Available via Android and iOS apps as well as on the web, the platform features a wide range of TV shows and music videos from local Asian markets.

More importantly, LINE TV is deeply integrated with LINE’s messaging app so that users can easily share content with friends. Some videos even contain quick links to follow the official accounts of featured actors within the messaging app. By trying to take control of both the media channel and content, LINE is ambitiously building its business towards a multi-faceted media channel, not unlike what Snapchat is doing.

Snapchat Experiments With Original Web Series

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: AdAge

We reported last week that Snapchat is venturing into original content with its new Discovery feature, and now the company is taking that foray one step further. On Tuesday, Snapchat announced a “scripted series” of mini-movies made by social media stars and sponsored by AT&T. Dubbed “SnapperHero”, the soon-to-debut 12-episode original web series marks an important step in Snapchat’s continuing evolution from messaging app to media platform.

Twitter Adds Group Messages And Video Uploads: Is It Too Late?

Posted on by Lab Team

Read the original story on: The Verge

In an obvious attempt to catch up with Instagram and increasingly popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat, Twitter started rolling out two long-awaited features today: direct video uploads (limited to 30 seconds only) and group messaging in DM. These features should make Twitter more versatile and completive, but it might be too little too late as users have already been comfortably enjoying similar features on rival platforms. Still, brands should explore these new features to find new ways to connect with the audience.

Facebook Users Prefer Native Videos Over YouTube Links

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: BusinessInsider

For the first time ever, Facebook Page owners uploaded more videos directly to Facebook than they did via sharing from YouTube, according to new data from Socialbakers. Part of that is due to that fact that videos on Facebook automatically play as a user scrolls through the news feed, and Facebook’s algorithm allegedly ranks posts with natively hosted videos higher in news feed.

Meanwhile, YouTube still has much higher volume, and has recently started rewarding bonuses to its video creators for temporary platform exclusivity. So the fight over the leading position of online video distribution is likely to continue.

 

What’s New About Twitter’s New Promoted Video Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

Today Twitter launched a beta of Promoted Video ads, a service that will give brands a new set of video tools for uploading and distributing video on its platform. Interestingly, Twitter opted for a Cost Per View (CPV) ad buying model, only charging the advertisers by the play counts of branded videos. While the jury is still out on whether promoted videos will effectively create a more engaging brand experience on Twitter, advertisers will no doubt welcome this fair pricing model.

YouTube Blames ISPs

Posted on by Lab Team

Shots fired, again! Joining the blaming game that was just played by Netflix, YouTube is now publicly shaming the internet service providers for the low streaming speed experienced by some users. Now when your buffering speed is less than optimal, a blue notification bar pops up under the video that directs you to a comparison page between other ISPs in your area, which ranks providers based on the average speed they provide for their customers on YouTube.

The message is loud and clear: ISPs are responsible for whether your video playback is smooth. As the heat between OTT service companies and ISPs continues to rise, especially with the debate over net neutrality caught in recent media spotlight, Google, along with other internet-based companies, is no doubt working this user-experience angle as a subtle PR campaign. The effectiveness of this campaign, however, remains to be seen.

Anti-Smoking Campaign On Vine

Posted on by Lab Team

Quit, an anti-smoking charity, has released a series of Vines to relay the age-old message of smoking cessation. Each video starts “Before the video starts again, another smoker will die” as a smoker dies every 6 seconds. It’s a novel, albeit grim way of marrying medium and message. Additionally, the three videos have separate sign-offs to hit their distinct targets – the uncommitted youth, the invincible Millennial and the resigned older smoker. On Gen Z week, we need to recognize Vine as a new medium to deliver succinct messaging that cuts through the clutter in today’s fully mediated world.

Coke Rewards Workers With Care Packages Sent From Drones

Posted on by Lab Team

As part show of goodwill and part marketing stunt, Coca Cola has dropped care packages to migrant workers building skyscrapers in Singapore. Some 2,500 workers, often overlooked and underpaid, were given encouraging photos from Singapore residents as well as cans of Coke, of course. Coca Cola has been exploring all sorts of stunts as part of their “Where Will Happiness Strike Next” campaign and drones certainly fit the bill. The buzzworthy tech is capable of delivering all sorts of goods and capturing stunning aerial shots.