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  • Will social audio apps like Clubhouse make it big in India?

    Will social audio apps like Clubhouse make it big in India?

    KOLKATA: Audio-chat app Clubhouse has raced ahead in the last few months, especially it has gained more momentum after its Elon Musk moment. The Tesla CEO’s debut on the platform has not only maxed its craze but has thrown limelight on a new rage in the social media ecosystem. While emerging social apps based on audio chat are knocking on the door, established platforms are also making strides in the segment.

    What is the ‘Clubhouse’ frenzy?

    The invitation-only social media app Clubhouse has found takers in silicon valley investors, venture capitalists, tech executives, artists, musicians, TV presenters. Even before reaching its first anniversary, the company had amassed close to 10 million users and reached a valuation of $1 billion. Given the buzz the San-Francisco based app has generated in the international markets, it’s no surprise that a number of prominent faces in India are also jumping on the bandwagon.

    Another app which offered live voice chats way before Clubhouse is Discord, a niche platform popular among gamers. The app, boasting over 100 million monthly active users, secured $100 million in funding last year and is positioning itself as mainstream with the new tagline – “Your place to talk.” After it saw massive growth in voice users, it started to emphasise heavily on the voice chat feature. According to media reports, tech giant Microsoft is in the running to acquire Discord, in a transaction pegged at $10 billion. It is one of the most popular apps among the booming gaming community of India.

    The bottom line is that Clubhouse and Discord are relatively lesser-known names in our 1.3 billion-strong nation. However, social media platforms that have already made headway in the mass Indian market like Twitter, Facebook are investing big time to take on these emerging apps.

    “Audio-based apps are liberating for the user as it allows users to multitask than any other media out there. You can drive, text, run or do your chores while dropping in to listen to Elon Musk,” Tonic Worldwide chief strategy officer Unmisha Bhatt says.

    Will Indians adopt this global trend?

    The Indian digital ecosystem has kept up with all new global trends so far. No doubt the charm of something new will onboard users initially, but Mirum India joint CEO Sanjay Mehta is sceptical about the sustainable growth of audio based social media apps.

    He notes that the overall audio segment, as well as voice technology, is a high growth area in terms of consumption of content and creation of audio content. When it comes to apps like Clubhouse, the structure being used there is almost similar for all. Under the open discussion format, if any user just walks into a chatroom, one cannot be sure that the content they will get access to will be valuable. It leads to appointment listening – that is, joining the chats at the time when a particular well-known person is speaking on a topic of interest.

    According to Mehta, the concept of appointment consumption does not work well in a busy life. Hence, he is of the view that these apps will have limited value if the structure does not change. To have long-term growth compared to established social media players, the template or format needs to change.

    Isobar India COO Gopa Kumar also says that audio as a platform has been well accepted in India overall, giving examples of Gaana, Saavn, and Spotify. Which is why apps like Clubhouse will also see good uptake in India. Moreover, these audio-based social apps give users a certain kind of privacy. People can actually move around at their disposal and still interact, he explains.

    The reason users are receptive to audio is because they can consume content on the go as well, observes Kumar. But in the end, it’s the nature of the platform and the kind of content it puts out that makes all the difference. And since social audio apps is still a very niche segment, Kumar says it is too soon to judge if it can turn into a mass medium.

    “The growth of Clubhouse has been fuelled by high profile early adopters. With celebrities and Silicon Valley leaders leading the early adoption, users discovered and flocked to the app. Since these are live conversation apps, the audience consumption has been skewed towards quality content by well-known creators. For it to succeed in India, it would need a similar pattern. Mainstream content creators, celebrities and film folks would bring in the masses, otherwise, it will remain a niche product in India,” Bhatt adds.

    Moreover, India being a multilingual country has its own challenges. IdeateLabs founder and managing director Amit Tripathi is of the view that adoption in India might struggle until voice and vernacular marries. Video on the back of visuals and subtitles make it easier to be consumed in unknown or little known languages but audio does not stand that chance. So, regional content needs to be on platforms like Clubhouse to make them successful.

    How are big tech giants gearing up their efforts?

    Twitter announced a new voice chat room called Spaces last November. The microblogging network rolled out the feature gradually for some of its users globally, including India. It plans to make it available for all users in April so they can “Tweet and Talk”.

    Internal teams at Facebook are reportedly developing a product similar to Clubhouse to catch up with the trend. Notably, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg himself appeared on Clubhouse in February to talk about augmented/virtual reality. Messaging app Telegram that rose to fame in India after the WhatsApp privacy policy controversy has launched Voice Chats 2.0 that lets channels conduct live voice chat sessions with unlimited participants.

    With so many dollars being pumped into social voice features by these deep-pocket players, it will be interesting to see how this space evolves, Tripathi adds. He points out that adoption, penetration can be of a lesser challenge for the audio-based social apps compared to acceptance and usage which will be driven by content on the platforms.

    “Without proper content, customisation, a lot of education, I am not sure how far it will grow, how fast it will grow,” Tripathi sums up.

    Will brands jump on the bandwagon?

    Brands are already experimenting on Clubhouse to cash in on the craze. Isobar’s Kumar says that it is tough to project what kind of advertising opportunities will open up in the future, though he mentions that brands can open their own chat rooms and engage with consumers.

    “Brands will have to wear a creators hat to explore opportunities on these apps. For the right brand – one that’s willing to curate quality content and truly add value – there's an early mover opportunity. But these are early days and as adoption grows, we will see interest from brands,” Bhatt concludes.

  • WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram restored after global outage

    WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram restored after global outage

    KOLKATA: WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram were inaccessible all over the world for a brief period on Friday. In India, services went down around 11 pm (local time) and were restored by 11.40 pm approximately.

    “Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have trouble accessing some Facebook services. We resolved this issue for everyone, and we apologise for any inconvenience,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

    During the outage, messages were not being delivered on WhatsApp and Messenger and no content could be loaded on Instagram.

    “Some people were having issues with their Instagram accounts earlier, but we're back now. The issue's been fixed and we're sorry for the trouble,” the photo-video sharing app tweeted.

    According to the website DownDetector, more than 100,000 users reported issues with Instagram, over 24,000 users reported issues with Whatsapp, while 5,000+ users reported issues with Messenger.

    Facebook Gaming also said it has restored services. In a tweet, it has urged users to contact support or report directly from the stream if they continue to have issues going live, or see issues on a stream.

    Hashtags like ‘Facebook down’ and ‘WhatsApp down’ started trending on Twitter, with the widespread service outage giving fuel to meme makers. Some took a dig at the Mark Zuckerberg-owned family of apps by saying they were now more motivated to or had already switched to rival apps like Telegram and Signal.

    “Signal registrations are through the roof; welcome everyone. Solidarity to the folks working on the WhatsApp outage. People outside of the tech industry will never understand how weird it sounds when someone says that they are "looking forward to some weekend downtime," Signal tweeted while many users complained about the outage.

  • Clash of the tech titans: it’s now Google Vs Microsoft

    Clash of the tech titans: it’s now Google Vs Microsoft

    MUMBAI: Google’s Global Affairs senior VP Kent Walker has lashed out at software giant Microsoft in a blog post, accusing it of “reverting to its familiar playbook of attacking rivals” and “lobbying for regulations that benefit their own interests”.

    This was after his counterpart Microsoft President Brad Smith dissed Google’s business policies while testifying before the United States congressional subcommittee hearing on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law. Microsoft later also published the transcript of Smith's testimony on its blog titled ‘Technology and the Free Press: The Need for Healthy Journalism in a Healthy Democracy’, where he blamed Google's business model for "devouring" ad revenue on which news groups rely.

    The heated war of words between the two conglomerates comes after Microsoft backed legislation that could force big tech companies in the US like Google and Facebook to pay to feature news on their platforms. Google and Facebook have resisted mandatory payments, while Microsoft has taken a more collaborative stance, even going so far as to lobby for other countries to follow Australia's lead in calling for news outlets to be paid for their online content. A move opposed by both the tech companies.

    The software giant took on the search engine leader head on in its blog while talking about the accelerating crisis in news and journalism, that reflected the shift away from traditional advertising  to digital advertising, enabled by the emergence of the internet. It goes on to say, “While Google and Facebook have gained the most revenue from the shift to digital advertising, Google in multiple ways is unique. Google has been the biggest winner, capturing about a third of all digital advertising revenue in US in the last year.”

    It further adds, “Google’s full impact, however, is based not on its large numbers but its multiple roles. Google accesses and uses news in a way that is different from Facebook. More important, it is the dominant technology firm in virtually every corner of the digital advertising ecosystem. Google’s digital advertising business encompasses the entire internet. It enables Google to aggregate the content of others, attract users, harvest their data, and then directly target them with ads at an unprecedented scale.”

    Only stopping short of suggesting that it has “unlawfully” built up its business, it concludes by saying, “Google’s business model is fed by the very content that these ailing news organisations create.”

    Google, on its part, has launched a scathing counter-attack saying it was “no coincidence” that Microsoft’s interest in attacking the tech company came “at a moment when they’ve allowed tens of thousands of their customers-  including government agencies in the US, NATO allies, banks, non-profits, telecommunications providers, public utilities, police, fire and rescue units, hospitals and, presumably, news organisations – to be actively hacked via major Microsoft vulnerabilities.” This was in reference to the SolarWinds Hack ransomware attack, which has left several companies reeling across the world.

    The search engine colossus further states, “This important debate should be about the substance of the issue, and not derailed by naked corporate opportunism”, while also declaring Microsoft’s claims about Google’s business and how it work with news publishers are “just plain wrong”. It concludes by saying, “Microsoft’s attempts at distraction aside, we’ll continue to collaborate with news organisations and policymakers around the world to enable a strong future for journalism. “

  • Eye on TikTok, Facebook to let content creators earn money from short videos

    Eye on TikTok, Facebook to let content creators earn money from short videos

    MUMBAI: The short-format video space is heating up and social networking giants are fighting tooth and nail against ceding ground, or more importantly, revenues, as more and more people turn to the short, snackable content form. Last month, Twitter announced the Super Follows feature that lets users charge for exclusive material not shown to their regular followers; likely a way for the microblogging platform to augment its revenue stream which is primarily advertising driven.

    Now, Facebook has come up with new monetisation opportunities for content creators on its platform. The company detailed its plans to help creators make more money, as smaller tech rivals have been racing to attract famous social media personalities. Video creators will now be able to earn money from videos as short as one minute long, with a minimally interruptive ad running at 30 seconds. For videos three minutes or longer, an ad can be shown 45 seconds in.

    Facebook made the announcement on its blog Thursday. Previously, only three-minute or longer videos could monetise with in-stream ads, with an ad shown no earlier than one minute. Its aim, they said in the blog post, was to help content creators diversify their revenue on the platform.

    "Content creators — digipubs, video creators, gaming creators, media companies, cultural institutions, businesses of all sizes and more — build vibrant communities on Facebook. We want them to have the tools and support they need to earn money and thrive, whether creating and sharing content is a primary business, one of many revenue streams, or a lifeline that’s kept their business afloat during the pandemic," read the blog.

    Highlighting more ways in which creators can earn more on Facebook, it said: 

    Earn revenue from short-form video: Making it possible for content creators to monetise all video types and testing sticker ads in Stories.
    Opening monetisation to more content creators: Updating in-stream ad eligibility so more video creators can access the program, opening access to in-stream ads for Live and expanding paid online events and fan subscriptions to more countries.  
    Accelerating fan support: Making it easier for content creators to get access to fan support while growing consumer adoption via free Stars giveaways to viewers.

    To be eligible for Facebook's in-stream ad for video-on-demand program, pages must now have 600,000 total minutes viewed from any combination of video uploads – on-demand, Live and previously Live – in the last 60 days. There also should be five or more active video uploads or previously Live videos.

    "We’re especially focused on short-form video monetisation. In the coming weeks, we’ll begin testing the ability for content creators to monetise their Facebook Stories with ads that look like stickers and receive a portion of the resulting revenue. While the initial test is small, we hope to soon expand to more content creators. And then broaden it to short-form videos on Facebook, eventually providing a way for content creators to monetise this popular content," Facebook explained.

    The company said going ahead, it is exploring in-stream ad formats that increase engagement through rewards or product interaction — intending to help content creator pay-outs grow. By doing this, it also hopes to provide a good viewing experience for people and a way for advertisers to reach relevant audiences.

    More creators can now qualify to earn ad revenue from live-streaming videos on Facebook, previously an invite-only program. The tech giant also said it would give away $7 million in free Facebook Stars, which users can pay to creators on Facebook Live as a form of tipping.

    Facebook’s decision to incentivise videos of brief duration is the latest in a series of measures it has taken to stave off its biggest competitor – TikTok, which has been siphoning usage from Mark Zuckerberg's family of apps since its launch in 2018. At present, Facebook is testing out a feature in India that allows some content creators to share short video clips, known as Reels, on their Facebook accounts. It is no secret that Instagram’s Reels feature is basically a TikTok clone, wherein users can record short mobile-friendly videos, and add special effects and soundtracks pulled from a music library.

  • Facebook celebrates the possibilities of connections with ‘More Together’

    Facebook celebrates the possibilities of connections with ‘More Together’

    NEW DELHI: Facebook has launched a new phase of its consumer marketing campaign in India – ‘More Together’. This phase marks the first anniversary of Facebook’s consumer marketing journey in the country, a key strategic focus area for the company, and continues to celebrate the power of connections and communities, and how people can do more together than alone.

    Facebook India director- marketing Avinash Pant said, “Facebook is deeply entrenched in the cultural fabric of India. The ability to connect and share with the world can lead to endless possibilities, and we feel humbled with the stories where our family of apps have provided this value to the people. Our consumer marketing journey over the past year has been focused on showcasing these diverse stories with the underlying belief that people can do more together than alone, and we continue to rally behind it.”

    The 360-degree campaign has been conceptualised and executed by Taproot Dentsu and Dentsu Webchutney and will go live in multiple languages across TV, digital, print, radio and OOH.  

    Taproot Dentsu Executive Creative Director Pallavi Chakravarti explained, “People want to be more, experience more, inspire more, help more, relax more, shine more – it’s in our DNA, this need to do more for ourselves and indeed for the world we live in. Facebook is a means to that end – a place where people come together resulting in delightful, sometimes entirely unexpected outcomes. This campaign will capture many such stories and trace the trajectories of people like you and me, who shared something with the world and got so much more back in return.”

    As part of the campaign, Facebook will leverage the power of its platform extensively to bring these inspirational stories to life and has partnered with Dentsu Webchutney to craft the creative strategy and communication across digital and social media including a digital campaign #FBPePoocho highlighting how people can get support and solutions by reaching out to their connections on Facebook. 

    Dentsu Webchutney vice president GD Prasad said, “On Facebook, everyone is just a conversation or comment away from unlocking the potential of achieving more together. With #FBpePoocho, we are celebrating the power of community. Our aim is to encourage people to activate their network, and in the process, help themselves and others grow. We've done this through interesting, everyday stories of people who've come together through the platform to realise impactful, incredible outcomes.”

  • Brands in US pause political donations after Capitol Hill episode

    Brands in US pause political donations after Capitol Hill episode

    NEW DELHI: Multiple brands in the US have decided to pause political donations to both Republicans and Democrats following Wednesday's Capitol siege. These include the likes of JPMorgan, Citibank, Facebook, and Microsoft.

    Media reports say that JPMorgan will pause all political funding for at least six months, Citibank for the remainder of the quarter, and Facebook for the next three months.

    Other companies that are following the suite include 3M, Dow, Marriott, and Morgan Stanley. These companies have expressed their discontentment around the Capitol Hill attacks and have stated that the focus of all the leaders should be on governing and helping those who need it. Some organisations have decided to suspend political contributions to representatives and senators who voted against the certification of Biden’s election last week.

    FedEx, Target, CVS Health, AT&T, and Walmart are among the companies currently reviewing their positions on political contributions

    Facebook told Axios it would pause political donations to the Democrats and the GOP for at least three months. The social media giant also indefinitely suspended Trump's Facebook account on Thursday, which will last at least until President-elect Biden is inaugurated on January 20.

    Microsoft is also freezing all political donations for the remainder of the quarter, Ashley Gold of Axios reported.

    The attack that took place last Wednesday left five people dead and several injured. There was an intense clash between the police authorities and local people after they were incited by the outgoing US president Donald Trump.

    People across the world condemned the attacks and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have suspended Trump’s account, citing the risk of him disturbing the peace in the country.

  • Twitter permanently bans Donald Trump

    Twitter permanently bans Donald Trump

    NEW DELHI: After years of hectoring allies, attacking opponents and disseminating disinformation, US President Donald Trump’s favourite online mouthpiece has been shut down. Twitter on Friday permanently suspended Trump’s account citing “risk of further incitement of violence,” thereby effectively cutting him off from his 88 million plus followers on the microblogging platform.

    Twitter’s move comes days after hundreds of pro-Trump protesters stormed Capitol Hill in Washington DC and unleashed chaos in the very seat of American power. The service clearly stated the incident was the trigger leading to the permanent ban on Trump, especially since the president had taken to Twitter to further propagate false claims about the 2020 US elections.

    Initially, in the wake of the Capitol riot, Twitter had locked Trump’s account for 12 hours following three tweets that violated the company’s terms of service. It restored his handle after 12 hours had elapsed, even as Facebook indefinitely suspended Trump’s page as “the risks” of allowing him to post on the platform are “too great.”

    No sooner was his Twitter account restored that Trump took to it and posted a video message telling his supporters to go home. He not only did not censure them for their actions, but instead, referred to them as “special people” and told them “we love you.” While he eventually posted another video statement saying he would support a peaceful transition of power, he followed it up with a tweet stating his intention to skip president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on 20 January.

    And while many commentators agree that it was a long time coming, Jack Dorsey gave Trump the boot from his platform as “in the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action.”

    Trump, of course, did not take the snub lying down, and accused Twitter of having “coordinated with the Democrats and Radical Left” to suspend his @realDonaldTrump account. He also, according to several media reports, tried multiple times to post from alternate handles, like the official @POTUS account, but these tweets were promptly deleted by the platform.

    Apart from Twitter and Facebook, other social media networks have also shown some spine and are finally cracking down on Trump. Instagram, Snapchat and Twitch barred access to the president’s account, while YouTube enacted a stricter misinformation policy which makes it easier to suspend Trump for posting false election claims.

    Calls for Trump’s impeachment have been gaining momentum over the last couple of days, as bipartisan lawmakers and the common people alike hold the president responsible for spewing unfounded lies of voter fraud and provoking the mob that broke into and defaced the US Capitol. Five people, including a policeman, died in the riot.

    Democrat and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the House would move ahead with the process to impeach Trump if he did not resign immediately. A CNN report stated that "multiple Republicans" and former Trump allies are considering supporting his impeachment. And while Trump was the third US president to have impeachment proceedings initiated against him (in January 2020), he may well be the first leader of the free world to be impeached twice.

  • Donald Trump barred from Facebook ‘indefinitely’

    Donald Trump barred from Facebook ‘indefinitely’

    NEW DELHI: Facebook has indefinitely banned US president Donald Trump from its platform after he tried to incite violence at the US Capitol earlier this week.

    Mincing no words, a far cry from the social media giant’s prior treatment of Trump with kid gloves, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the president intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.

    “We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” he wrote in a community post. As a result, he said, Facebook and its photo-sharing site Instagram would extend blocks on Trump’s ability to post “until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

     

    The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining…

    Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, 7 January 2021

    Trump is also banned from using Instagram.

    Earlier in the day, when Trump made false claims about election fraud and the legitimacy of the next US president Joe Biden, nearly all social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat — locked his account for a brief period. Facebook imposed a ban for 24 hours and Twitter for 12 hours. The latter also asked the US president to remove three tweets for severe violation of its civic integrity policy, and failing to do so would lead to permanent suspension of his account.

    Trump’s Twitter account had been unlocked at the time of filing this report.

    The diverging actions showed how social media companies were still grappling with how to moderate one of their most powerful and popular users. Trump has routinely used his online mouthpieces to attack others, rile up supporters and disseminate disinformation, and these social media platforms had offered platitudes of “upholding free speech” to defend their inaction in the matter of not curtailing such provocative posts.

    YouTube had also removed the video where Trump told his supporters who had broken into the Capitol ‘I love you’ and described the agitators as patriots. The platform also cited that the video violated its policies. 

    The march was partly organised online, including on Facebook groups and pages. Facebook has mentioned that it was looking for and removing content that had incited or supported the storming of Capitol Hill. The violence at the US Capitol led to the death on one person and several injured.  

  • Tips Industries mulling demerger of film division

    Tips Industries mulling demerger of film division

    NEW DELHI: The board of directors of Tips Industries has in-principal agreed to consider the demerger of the film division of the company into a separate entity.

    A demerger committee formed by the board will appoint the valuer, merchant banker for fairness opinion and other intermediaries for this purpose. The board on receipt of the valuation report will study, discuss and initiate the next steps.

    Following this announcement, the Kumar Taurani-led company’s stocks declined 1.2 per cent on the NSE.

    Over the years, Tips’ film division has churned out many popular Bollywood flicks like all three instalments of the Race franchise, Coolie No.1 , Entertainment, Ambarasiya, and Kunwara, to name a few.

    Tips Industries is extremely popular for its large library of music and has a strong forte in music promotion. It recently inked a global deal with Facebook, under which the social media giant has licensed its music for videos and other social experiences across Facebook and Instagram. With the move, Facebook and Instagram users will be able to add Tips' music catalogue to their posts and stories.

  • Facebook’s chief of advertising integrity moves on

    Facebook’s chief of advertising integrity moves on

    New Delhi: Rob Leathern, Facebook's chief of advertising integrity, who handled the company's ad products, stepped down earlier this week after serving the social media giant for over four years.

    He announced the development in one of his tweets where he also thanked his colleagues and talked about the great experience that he had at Facebook.

    Leathern has been in the tech, product, adtech space for over 15 years and was responsible for building the team at Facebook.

    Talking about his future endeavour Leathern tweeted, "What's next? While I'm not going to be working on ads directly, it will be a part of what I work on as I will be staying in the tech/data/privacy space. I will share more about where I'm going in the next week or two," without disclosing where he headed next.

    He also talked about the great work that his team did on US elections and many other projects.