Category: Social Media

Facebook tops list of least-trusted tech cos

MUMBAI: The year 2018 has been a stormy one for social media giant Facebook. In the latest stir of data breach events surrounding company, the company is said to have sidestepped its own privacy rules to give more than 150 companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify, special privileges to its user’s data.

Now, in a recent survey conducted by research company Toluna, it reported that out of 1,000 participants, 40 per cent of participants trust Facebook the least with their personal information. This gave Facebook the number one position in the list of least-trusted tech companies.

With 8 per cent, Twitter and Amazon are tied for second on the list followed by Uber on the fourth with 7 per cent of participants saying they trust the company least with their data.

Google and Lyft with 6 per cent are tied on the fifth position. Apple and Snapchat at 4 per cent, Microsoft at 2 per cent, Netflix and Tesla both at 1 per cent making them the most trusted company with personal data in the survey list.

Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has seen a bumpy ride as controversies have been following the social networking company.

December 31, 2018
Facebook India reports 27% rise in profit in FY18

MUMBAI: According to Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings sourced by data platform Tofler, Facebook India Online Services reported a 27 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 77 crore for the year ended March 2018.

Facebook reported a 53 per cent rise in revenue from operations to Rs 521 crore in FY18 from Rs 341 crore in FY17. At the same time, expenses went up 55.4 per cent to Rs 443.8 crore in FY18 from Rs 285.5 crore.

The company’s employee benefit cost also rose 18 per cent to Rs 110 crore from Rs 89.6 crore last year.

Although, Facebook reported a 53 per cent rise in revenue in FY18 but as per filings, it reveals that there has been a slowdown in the rate of growth. Facebook had reported a 93 per cent jump in revenue to Rs 342 crore in FY17 from Rs 177 crore in FY16. And with that, the growth in net profit also looks to have been slowing down as Facebook’s net profit had jumped 31 per cent to Rs 40.7 crore in FY17 from Rs 31 crore in FY16.

After the Cambridge Analytica data breach, Facebook had drawn a lot of criticism both from users and advertisers. Since then, Facebook has tried to take several measures to fix the issues.

To call attention, in India, Facebook has undertaken an offline process to verify identity and locations of political advertisers in India as the country’s general elections arrive next year.

December 27, 2018
Twitter collaborates with young personalities for #PowerOf18 initiative

MUMBAI: As part of #PowerOf18 initiative, Twitter is collaborating with renowned Indian personalities to encourage the youth of India to vote in the upcoming general elections. It has kick-started an online video series on its official handle featuring young personalities from across India, including singer Jassie Gill, boxer Nikhat Zareen, and writer, poet, and #MeTooIndia voice Mahima Kukreja.

The first video in the series features Gill who is seen talking about youth, politics and what #PowerOf18 means to him. In the video, Jassie can be seen recalling his younger days. He shares how excited he was to get his driver’s license on turning 18. He insists that young people should express themselves on Twitter.

On youth empowerment, the singer says that it is the youth that fuels the growth of a nation through fresh perspectives. Efforts should be put into good things and if the youth of India sets their minds, they can do great things and make their family, neighbourhood, and country very proud.

December 26, 2018
Cosmos-Maya acquires rights to ‘The Smurfs’, ‘Boonie Bears’, ‘Little Baby Bum’

MUMBAI: Cosmos-Maya has acquired the Hindi language rights to the widely popular series The Smurfs. The series had premiered on its YouTube channel WowKidz on 19 December 2018.

The company has also acquired the English language rights of the successful Chinese franchise Boonie Bears and the same will be aired on WowKidz for the holiday season. For the pre-school category, WowKidz will begin airing content from the massively popular YouTube channel Little Baby Bum.

Bablu Dablu, the Hindi version of the show, has garnered around 400 million views on the channel.

Commenting on the acquisition, Cosmos-Maya CEO Anish Mehta said, “It has been our endeavour to provide the best in class entertainment for kids across the globe. Now with iconic global brands from The Smurfs to really popular digital IPs like Little Baby Bum to one of China’s biggest IPs, Boonie Bears, WowKidz has a diversified mix of great content and kids will not have to look for any other destination when it comes to entertainment this festive season.”

WowKidz currently provides a wide range of domestic and international shows in 8 languages to its subscriber base of more than 13 million. The channel offers an eclectic mix of shows across 20 diverse sub-brands like WowKidz Action, WowKidz Comedy, WowKidz Rhymes, and more. Apart from its brimming domestic catalogue, it also features foreign shows like Simba, a spin-off of Lion King, Jungle Book, Hotwheels, Jackie Chan, and Lilly The Witch among others.

December 24, 2018
Mahesh Narayanan appointed country manager for LinkedIn India

MUMBAI: Professional networking website LinkedIn has announced the appointment of Mahesh Narayanan as the company’s country manager for India. He will handle his responsibilities from 7 January 2019.

Previously, Narayanan has also served as the India managing director for Saavn and led Google India's mobile advertising business from 2010-2013. He also led the digital transformation and market-entry strategies for a host of marquee digital businesses such as Sociomantic Labs and AdMob among others in the past.

On his appointment, Narayanan said, “I am grateful for the opportunity to further LinkedIn's vision and mission in an important market that is rapidly digitising.”

Narayanan will be reporting to LinkedIn's Asia Pacific (APAC) region managing director Oliver Legrand and will join the company's Asia Pacific senior management team.

To Narayanan’s appointment, Legrand said, “India continues to be a strategic market for LinkedIn, and we are pleased to have Mahesh join our team to take our business to its next growth chapter.” Further adding he said, “As we continue to invest in the market, Mahesh's strong track record in leading growth businesses and his deep market experience will bolster our efforts in India.”

LinkedIn has over 59 crore members globally and more than 5.3 crore members in India. As LinkedIn's fastest-growing and largest market outside the US, India has seen its member base grow from 34 lakh members in November 2009 to more than 5.3 crore members in July 2018.

December 21, 2018
Facebook ties up with Business Standard as part of subscription programme

MUMBAI: American social media giant Facebook has tied up with Business Standard as part of its subscription programme. Facebook on Friday announced that it had added a total of 28 such partners globally, Business Standard being the only one from India.

In November 2017, the Mark Zuckerberg-founded company had stated it was developing a paywall for subscription publishers to use in ‘Instant Articles’ with the goal of improving subscriber acquisition from the social media site. This newspaper is Facebook’s first India partner for the product.

Around the world, Facebook has partnered publications including Bild, The Boston Globe, The Economist, Hearst (The Houston Chronicle and The San Francisco Chronicle), La Repubblica, Le Parisien, Spiegel, The Telegraph, Tronc (The Baltimore Sun, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Diego Union-Tribune), and The Washington Post.

“We have seen consistent, positive performance of paywall ever since our earliest results were announced in June and today we're announcing several updates to our subscription tools, and the addition of 28 publishers to the test,’’ Facebook said in a blog. To make the subscriptions tools more accessible to a wide range of publishers, the company has redesigned the implementation approach to cut the development time by 75 per cent to a maximum of two weeks, it said. Also, the social media major is testing the ability of a publisher to allow a reader to continue reading if he shares his email address.

December 18, 2018
YouTube removed 7.85 mn videos last quarter

MUMBAI: According to Google’s YouTube community guidelines enforcement report, YouTube removed 7.85 million videos and 1.67 million channels in its last quarter.

The report wrote, “At YouTube, we work hard to maintain a safe and vibrant community. We have community guidelines that set the rules of the road for what we don’t allow on YouTube. For example, we do not allow pornography, incitement to violence, harassment, or hate speech.”

In the past year, YouTube faced increased criticism for pushing users towards content which would be misleading and would violate its policies on spam. In order to deal with that, the video sharing website removed videos and channels which violated the policies of the company.

YouTube explained that it will delete a channel if it receives three strikes in 90 days or if it has a single case of severe abuse like “pornography, incitement to violence, harassment, or hate speech, or violating guidelines (as is often the case with spam accounts).” When a channel is terminated, all of its videos are removed, the report added.

79.6 per cent of the channels removed were spam, misleading and scams, 12.6 per cent channels because of adult sexual content. “The majority of channel terminations are a result of accounts being dedicated to spam or adult sexual content in violation of our guidelines,” said the report.

Overall, 74.5 per cent of the videos were removed before any views and the other 25.5 per cent of the videos on the platform were removed after views. In this the majority 72.2 per cent of the videos were removed because they were spam, misleading and scams.

December 16, 2018
Facebook Watch garners 400mn monthly users

MUMBAI: Three months since the global launch of Facebook Watch, there are already already more than 400 million people monthly and 75 million people daily who spend at least one minute, revealed head of video at Facebook Fidji Simo.

In a blog post looking back at 2018 and looking ahead to 2019, Simo described 2018 as “a big year” for Facebook Watch. “Watch launched to every country around the world, the platform opened to videos from all Pages, and we debuted dozens of Facebook Originals,” he said, adding that Watch also screened live LaLiga football matches in the Indian subcontinent.

According to Simo, on average, these 75 million daily visitors spend more than 20 minutes in Watch. “We’re seeing that people are regularly coming back to catch up on the videos they care about and watching for longer periods of time. In this post, we’re sharing more details on our video strategy and a range of new updates for Watch,” he revealed.

He added that there is a range of video offering available, but Watch is more than just library of videos where people can follow video creators they care about, start conversations about videos with friends, and build communities of fans who share their interests.

As per the reports, Simo said that Facebook was focused on bringing more social experiences to Watch, making it easier to find and watch videos together with friends. “We’re also working to unify the video experience across Facebook. Right now, people can find videos on Facebook in a number of different places — Watch, News Feed, Search, Pages and more — and all of these can feel different. Today we’re sharing that people can now find Watch on more surfaces. In August, we rolled out Watch globally on mobile, and from today, Watch is now available around the world on desktop and on Facebook Lite.”

He revealed that the initial launch of ad breaks was to five countries in August, and it has been focused on rolling out the product over the past few months. “Today we are announcing that Ad Breaks are now available to eligible Pages in 40 countries around the world,” he revealed.

“In 2019, we will continue to expand the ways publishers and creators can make money on Facebook. We’ll bring Ad Breaks to video creators in more countries around the world, and will test new Ad Breaks placements, like in livestreams from gaming creators. We want to bring brand collabs manager to more countries to help match brands and creators for sponsorship deals, and will be expanding our fan subscriptions test. We’re also exploring new opportunities for advertisers. In September, we introduced In-Stream Reserve for premium online video and TV buyers to deliver their ads alongside the highest-quality Watch content, and next year we will continue to provide advertisers with more options to tailor their video ad campaigns and connect with their target audience,” he said.

He advised that moving into 2019, Facebook would continue funding Originals, announcing the renewal of four shows for a second season: Huda Boss, Five Points, Sacred Lies, and Sorry For Your Loss. “These shows all cultivated deeply engaged fan bases who came for the episodes, but stayed for the conversations — and are a great example of what can happen when content and community come together seamlessly,” he suggested, adding that Facebook’s content strategy goes beyond Originals — including licensing, partnerships, and more — so that it could test and learn about new video experiences. “Above all, our strategy is about identifying the type of content that people want to talk about, and helping people have meaningful connections around that content on Facebook,” he said.

December 16, 2018
Instagram’s Year In Review sees heart emoji top the charts

MUMBAI: Facebook-owned photo and video-sharing platform Instagram has released its ‘Year In Review’ 2018 report, sharing all the different ways Instagram's global community expressed itself to get closer to the people – and things – they love.

As per the report, Heart Love Sticker by Arata was the most-used Giphy sticker in stories, while Heart Eyes was the most-used Face Filter in Stories. In feed, the heart emoji was used in comments over 14 billion times.

The ASMR became the top niche community trend of the year while the game Fortnite also saw explosive growth with #fortnite being the fastest growing hashtag globally. BTS “Army” became the top fandom community on the platform. #inmyfeelingschallenge was the biggest viral dance challenge of the year, as revealed by the report.

The year's top advocacy hashtags were #metoo (1.5 million), #timesup (597K) and #marchforourlives (562K).

Across India #love secured the top spot when it came to the most used hashtag which was closely followed by #instagood and #fashion. Beyond this, the highest growth hashtag in India was #lovequotes.

December 13, 2018
#ThisHappened: 2018’s Biggest Moments in India on Twitter

MUMBAI: In 2018, people on Twitter connected, campaigned, learned, debated, and had conversations. They came to share opinions and see other points of view. From #MeToo to #Sarkar, #IPL, state elections, and everyday interests, Indians flocked to Twitter to find out what’s happening in the world and to talk about it.

As we reach the end of 2018, Twitter reflects on the year of national and global significance across topics and regions. Here’s our lists of the topics and accounts Tweeted about the most in the worlds of TV, politics, sports, entertainment, music and social movements in India:

The Golden Tweets: Most Retweeted and Most Liked

Indian football team skipper, Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) had an eventful 2018. His appeal to football fans across the country asking them to fill the stadiums in for the Intercontinental Cup 2018 tugged at heartstrings as citizens united to support the home team and earned him the most Retweeted Tweet of the year for 2018. The video Tweet from @chetrisunil11 has been Retweeted almost 60K times:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/B6_4jH4Xt617wO4-qvSVplNRYZPnq2kh37qFnOxPKZsDGq-cjozZE_Qb6771_4Rte7Afae0ycS3c5BEZufWN9Z3sNtht1qq4Pc-1kXIpiJI_68tm1xFVwuKC6SOHnYFuLmpMpXyt

Embeddable Tweet Link: https://twitter.com/chetrisunil11/status/1002892448513679361

Virat Kohli's (@imVkohli) Tweet featuring a picture with Anushka Sharma (@AnushkaSharma) on the occasion of Karvachauth, quite literally won hearts on Twitter. With over 215K Likes, the Tweet showcasing the celebrity couple in ethnic wear emerged as the Most Liked Tweet of 2018*.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6NuE1mS92jcAQCaNKJQsnk-ZyVWOPSe0VDVnSp4W_4tRT4z5rqefP3wh0A6d06XKjXst-vQQCJT8G0QCFKAL1yYdc3-kAdPjivh8z-npmGEgPoHVFFjjnNHQ2GdjjTw50Q9BxDMa

Embeddable Tweet Link: https://twitter.com/imVkohli/status/1056235319685722112

TOP 10 HASHTAGS IN INDIA ON TWITTER IN 2018*

Tweets and hashtags connect people across the world during key moments in news, politics, entertainment, music and sport. They share joy, humour, news, ideas and opinions about the biggest conversations in real time. In 2018, regional entertainment conversations expanded and generated massive engagement on Twitter in India. South Indian films #Sarkar, #Viswasam, #BharatAneNenu, #AravindhaSametha, #Rangasthalam, #Kaala and TV show #BiggBossTelugu2 clinched 7 of the top 10 Hashtags this year.

Beyond entertainment, the return of Chennai Super Kings with #WhistlePodu and the emergence of #MeToo in India added to the top hashtag trends. Here are the 10 biggest hashtags in India on Twitter in 2018:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/EuYX5vxJPb3oxD-OutiQceNr9ihYmNrRCqXRJCq5XDV0KIgB1mpwdn-AYraAqNJhHd5ImPMlJrR2dQg73QYi9KJFdNw1J5N-ghbkrZmxcrY_aEqJaZ86qIFVkEwYgrBXtKehROMK

1. #Sarkar

Released in 2018, #Sarkar the Tamil film starring Thalapathy Vijay (@actorvijay) has been making massive gains worldwide, winning the appreciation of fans on Twitter. Underlined by a political theme, the buzz around the movie was further amplified with audiences taking to Twitter to express their opinions, and making #Sarkar the top hashtag trend of 2018.

2. #Viswasam

Viswasam, the upcoming 2019 Tamil action film featuring Ajith Kumar in a dual role, has started making waves on Twitter. The unveiling of the first look of the film led to the industry and fans Tweeting their excitement, enabling #Viswasam to emerge as a top hashtag on Twitter in anticipation of its launch.

3. #BharatAneNenu

The Telugu blockbuster Bharat Ane Nenu was released in 2018 and became one of the biggest hits in the lead actor Mahesh Babu's (@urstrulyMahesh) career so far. The film received positive reviews from the audience and critics, with fans taking to Twitter to celebrate its success.

4. #AravindhaSametha

Aravindha Sametha – the 2018 Telugu release broke all records at the box office as the movie minted more than Rs 100 crore in just three days worldwide. Starring Pooja Hegde (@hegdepooja) and Jr NTR (@tarak9999), the movie’s huge success reflected on Twitter as fans voiced their appreciation.

5. #Rangasthalam

Rangasthalam is a 2018 Telugu-language period action drama film that became the third highest grossing Telugu movie of all time after the Baahubali series. The success of the film was evident from the volume of conversations on Twitter, with the industry and audiences pouring in their praise and applause earning the film one of the top hashtags of the year.

6. #Kaala

The Tamil-language socio-political drama film starring superstar Rajinikanth, #Kaala, evoked a massive response from fans worldwide. The first-ever Rajinikanth emoji on Twitter further led the movie to be a topic of high interest on Twitter amongst fans, audiences and industry.

7. #BiggBossTelugu2

Now in its second season, the Telugu edition of the reality TV series Bigg Boss continued to be one of the most talked about shows in the world of television in India and on Twitter.

8. #MeToo

The #MeToo movement emerged in India this year. As the hashtags #MeToo and #MeTooIndia continued to trend in the country, people started to pay more attention to women’s safety issues across sections of the Indian society, including government, media and the Bollywood film industry.

9. #WhistlePodu

With 2018 being their comeback year, Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) had the crowd chanting #WhistlePodu as they made the dash for the coveted IPL 2018 trophy. Encouraging fans to cheer for the team, @ChennaiIPL made a special video for #WhistlePodu, the colloquial expression in Tamil which means ‘to whistle’, and drove the fans into a Tweeting frenzy with their performance.

10. #IPL2018

India’s biggest cricket extravaganza #IPL2018 continued to be a major topic of conversation on Twitter even in its 11th edition. Special Twitter emojis for all the eight franchises this year added to fans’ enthusiasm on Twitter in support of their favourite teams and amplified the cricket excitement on the platform.

MOST INFLUENTIAL MOMENTS ON TWITTER IN 2018*

2018 was also the year when Twitter reacted en masse as people demanded #JusticeForAsifa, engaged in ongoing political debates on #KarnatakaElection and #Aadhaar. But it wasn’t just politics and movements that had people Tweeting in 2018. India celebrated #DeepVeer’s romance as well as major wins at global sporting occasions like #AsianGames as Indian athletes, including Bajrang Punia (@BajrangPunia), Hima Das (@HimaDas8) and PV Sindhu (@Pvsindhu), won laurels.

These are among the most influential moments on Twitter – where Indians went first to get answers or share their opinions around the biggest conversations happening in India and the world throughout 2018:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/5kfgvTDq9MFp2NIXVBjKHQZmg3eNm6lrANgdDVPLXQp9U1XIqjLfinG37vCQLjA6KnCi4kf-sdiazKgK1D2BWIwuTVCPIGoLl_rtq1gJ3cxqZjoFH-yjKw7DsTAaSn9UaeGp0Odl

ENTERTAINMENT:

#Sarkar and the rise of regional entertainment

South Indian film #Sarkar led the rise of regional entertainment conversations on Twitter this year. The film starring Thalapathy Vijay (@actorvijay) earned massive engagement from the film aficionados on Twitter for its star power and generated conversations on its political theme.

The #DeepVeer Wedding

From the launch of Padmaavat (@filmPadmaavat) earlier this year to wedding bells in November, celebrity couple Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) and Ranveer Singh (@RanveerOfficial) continued to give people major relationship goals and became the talk of the town on Twitter in 2018.

NEWS & POLITICS:

Women speak up against sexual harassment in the #MeToo movement

The emergence of the #MeToo movement in India saw women across industries speaking out against sexual harassment. The movement has drawn global attention and increased awareness of women’s safety in India, an exemplary representation of hashtag activism.

Karnataka election

Twitter saw more than 3 million mentions in relation to the #KarnatakaElections2018 from Apr 25 – May 15, 2018. Despite the fact that the election occurred in one State of India, i.e. Karnataka, discussions on Twitter were vibrant all over the country and even overseas.

Kerala floods unite the nation

The #KeralaFloods brought together government agencies, relief organisations, famous personalities and regular people on the platform to help rebuild Kerala. The people utilized Twitter to share information and crowdsource relief and assistance.

India demands Justice for Asifa

The heinous crimes committed against 8-year-old Asifa Bano led to widespread protests and international attention. Outraged citizens flooded Twitter, expressing their angst and demanding #JusticeForAsifa.

The Aadhaar debate

Conversations around the Aadhaar’s privacy issues resurfaced in 2018. As the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, Indians across the world exchanged their opinions on the platform regarding the verdict and the provisions on linking the unique ID with various non-essential services.

SPORTS:

IPL 2018 Mania

Fan engagement touched new heights on Twitter as the #IPL completed its 11th season. To mark this landmark season, fans on Twitter cheered on their teams and celebrated with specific emojis for all the eight franchises part of the competition this year, based on their taglines.

CSK’s #WhistlePodu comeback

With 2018 being their year of comeback, Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) had the crowd chanting #WhistlePodu as they made the dash for the coveted IPL 2018 trophy. Encouraging fans to cheer for the team, @ChennaiIPL made a special video for #WhistlePodu, the colloquial expression in Tamil which means ‘to whistle’, and drove the fans into a Tweeting frenzy with their performance.

India shines at the Asian Games

As Indian athletes, including Bajrang Punia (@BajrangPunia), Hima Das (@HimaDas8) and PV Sindhu (@Pvsindhu), won laurels at the #AsianGames2018 and clinched a total of 69 medals, congratulatory Tweets poured in from all parts of the country to rejoice in their victory and welcome the heroes home.

MOST TALKED ABOUT INDIAN ACCOUNTS ON TWITTER IN 2018*

With the backdrop of the state elections in India, it is no surprise that political conversations were at an all-time high in 2018, with 6 politicians making it to the Top 10 Most Talked About Indian Accounts list. Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@NarendraModi) tops the charts. Entertainment completes the rest of the Top 10 represented by actors Pawan Kalyan (@PawanKalyan), Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk), Thalapathy Vijay (@actorvijay), and Mahesh Babu (@urstrulyMahesh).

December 5, 2018