Facebook Is On Top Of Its Game

Facebook plan for Messenger monetization will be fruitful in the long run.

Facebook Inc. has come up with various plans for its Messenger platform that were communicated during its annual F8 Developer Conference in San Francisco. The company talked about how it will make use of artificial intelligence for Messenger. The companies talked about numerous strategies that will help them retain and engage users resulting in monetization. The analysts at Deutsche Bank are optimistic about the company’s future prospect and are appalled by the increase in its user base.

The thing that attracted Deutsche Bank a lot during the F8 conference was the company’s demo of the artificial intelligence equipped bots for Messenger. As per the analysts, such features are intriguing for users belonging to the west. Humans are now inclined towards better access to the basic utility services. The bots can be used for numerous purposes like flight check-ins or communicating with businesses with little or no human intervention.

It needs to be noted that Deutsche Bank believes that some apps and websites are actually working on the same phenomenon but the accessibility of Messenger is focused to mobile ecosystem with little need for PCs. The sell side firm initially proclaimed that Messenger monetization ideas are even worse than that of Instagram. However, they are now of a different view altogether.

In the times to come, the social media giant might also render support for cross promotion of bots via the main Facebook News Feed advertisements. The company’s future plans are in correspondence with the revenue projections accumulated to $10 billion from Messenger and WhatsApp.

Another reason why Deutsche Bank is optimistic is the growing user base of Messenger. The tech giant has not revealed about its monthly average users (MAUs) in 2016, but the growth seems to be promising. In 2014, Messenger observed a 50% growth on a year over year basis achieving the 900 million user milestone. The growth has superseded the MAU growth for Instagram and Facebook by 40-50% and 14% on a year over year basis.

Messenger also boasts of a steady rate of user engagement where almost one billion messages are communicate between users and businesses. This means every user does one message each month which denotes a 100% year over year growth. Deutsche Bank also noted about the company’s disclosure at the F8 conference where it has observed all its applications to reach the 2 billion mark denting 54% year over year growth.

The ratio of developers associated with FB is gone up by 40% on a year over year basis resulting in a payout of approximately $9.5 billion. Moreover, they have also come up with Facebook Live video that will improve the performance of the native application which in return will increase the monthly active users of Messenger.

At this point the monetization obtained from Messenger is in its nascent stage and categorized. However, the strong engagement trajectory remains on top of its games in contrast to rivals. As per the sell side firm only Google and Snapchat has the potential to keep pace with Facebook’s growth.

Facebook Free Basics- Questioned For Its Credibility

Free Basics by Facebook has been facing a backlash for its credibility.

Facebook Inc. seems to be in despair since it will never get a chance to offer free Internet to underprivileged emerging nations. The Free Basics app was launched after it came up with its Internet.org service that was halted in Egypt in 2015. Thus, a few months later it observed a similar incident in India.

As per the report published by Reuters, the reason why the Free Basics service by the social media giant has been halted in the region is that Facebook did not agree to the barriers set by the Egyptian government. The government asked the company to spy on the local populace through its platform. The service was launched in Egypt which was targeting the groups with low incomes who owned a smartphone which allowed them to have Internet access. Other than that, a few other services were also being offered free of cost. Thus at this point, Free Basics is stumbling since the advocates of net neutrality is only believe that the service targets the platforms associated to Facebook only. This disregards a free and fair experience over the Internet.

On December 30, the government of Egypt suspended the operation of Free Basics. This was right after the company’s local network carrier; Etisalat got the approval to offer the service for a time span of two months. The reason behind this is that the social media behemoth refused to conduct surveillance for the government. So far the demands of the government aren’t clear.

This is not it since the local authorities have a different story to narrate. Reuters was reported by the spokesperson belonging to the Ministry of Communications that the suspension of Free Basics is merely because it causes a dent on the operations of local companies by incentivizing. The service is being offered in 37 countries, where it does not sell any advertisements so far. But what it does is collaborate with wireless carriers to offer data to enable browser. As per Facebook, three million individuals were taking advantage of the service before it got halted. Amongst those one million were new users using the Internet for the first time.

The decision put forward by the Egyptian government clearly indicates that the Free Basics service is not welcome all over the globe. India, which is said to be the second largest population across the globe, was also taken on board but after a lot of drama by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), it was finally decided that the service will be abandoned in the region fighting against the other zero rate service. On the other hand, the debate in Egypt was extremely publicized.

The good part pertaining to the news is that Facebook is certainly not the privacy intruder who is ready to compromise on your data for its own purpose. As per a study, the company abides to almost 80% of the demands set by the government of United States. However, it still continues to fight for the consumers wherever it is possible.

Now You Can Share Your Spotify Playlist Via Facebook Messenger

Facebook has integrated Spotify with Messenger enabling the sharing of music merrier.

Facebook Inc. along with music streaming giant Spotify is geared up to make the sharing of music easier and fun. Both the companies have collaborated to come up with a new integration within Facebook Messenger that will enable individuals to quickly navigate to Spotify, to select a playlist or a song which can then be sent to a friend.

The company has launched this service and all those who use Facebook Messenger can take advantage of it. As experienced by various individuals, the service actually works however; many of them complain that the way it has been implemented is not that appalling.

The button that leads you to Spotify is disguised within the extremely appealing “..” menu on Messenger. Thus, when a user sends a playlist or a song then it becomes quite hard to figure out what needs to be done next. If a user taps on the picture of the item then the user is navigated to a massive view of the album art. In order to listen to the playlist or song, the user is required to tap on the “open” button which is extremely tiny placed underneath the image which will then transport you to the Spotify app.

Ironically, there is no way to follow these steps if you are using the platform via your desktop whatsoever. According to Spotify it needs to be noted that this integration is one of the first iteration. As per the company’s spokesperson while talking to The Verge, “"users can expect further enhancements as we continually work to improve the integration and ensure the best user experience possible."

On a better note, it is extremely easy to search for your favorite song or playlist, the moment you are navigated to the Spotify app. Irrespective of the numerous shortcomings; the accessibility of the service once you land on the platform is catchy and intriguing. The social media giant is working on an entire ecosystem of applications that are compatible with Messenger. Several alliances have been made in this regard but Spotify is one of the big names that have joined forces with the company. Several other big names are likely to surface during the company’s annual conference which is scheduled for April.

It needs to be noted here that the social media giant is striving hard to push Messenger and increase its usage amongst the masses. Since the time Messenger has been launched, the company is rendering the service for free with no advertisements on this platform whatsoever. However, things might just change now since the company will start monetizing the platform. Soon advertisements are going to surface on the app which will give a new medium for the company to capitalize on via advertisers.

Facebook Video Tactics Are Below The Line

Facebook is taking the wrong ruote to get views on videos.

You might not be aware of but almost eight billion videos surface everyday on Facebook Inc. However, the renowned creator of popular video streaming platform, YouTube, Mr. Casey Neistat claims that the manner in which the social media platform has pushed the growth is actually quite “underhanded and dirty.”

Mr. Neistat, who recently hit the snow glazed streets of Manhattan claimed that he along with an assistant the spent around the first 36 hours after revealing the video of the adventure they embraced actually became viral. He them alleged the social media giant calling them as “freebooters” who stole his original content. An analysis was done after which they deduced that the company got access to 200 rip offs on FB whereas four were present on YouTube.

Back in August, Facebook stated that it would initiate the testing software that will prevent the unauthorized videos from being uploaded on the platform.

The CMO and Mr. Neistat sat down today to talk about his journey in the corporate sector as an entrepreneur and video creator. He emphasized on the fact that companies can actually pave way for high quality content through the YouTubers. The previous year, he came up with a video application known as Beme.

The conversation was rather intriguing and gave clear insights regarding his perception and future endeavors. According to Mr. Neistat, the most appalling thing they can come up with is that there are minimal measures that can take care of the freebooters. Necessary action needs to be taken against all those who rob other’s content and then upload it by calling it their own. This is said to be the biggest misery that can happen to a video streaming platform since it can turn out to be a major rip and sabotage your existence in the industry. It is important to pay homage to your creators. Every view that comes on YouTube needs a targeted action. Once you click on play and the video starts. On the other hand, all the views that appear on Facebook are counted after three seconds of the automatic playing without any audio. So in general it takes more than three seconds to skip the video. Thus this gives them a chance to tamper the stats and call it a view.

The allegation made by Mr. Neistat is actually a big blow on the integrity of the social media platform. In other words, the creator of YouTube claims that the social media platform is cheating on the masses by forcing them to get access to content and then consider it as a view. YouTube on the other hand gives leverage to the user to decide.

Facebook has seized the opportunity to respond to the allegations. According to a statement made by the spokesperson of the company, “In News Feed, if you have stayed on a video for at least three seconds, it signals to us that you are not simply scrolling through [the] feed and you’ve shown intent to watch that video.”

Facebook Bids Farewell To Free Basics In India

With a heavy heart, Facebook gives up on India in terms of its Free Basics campaign.

It is that time when Facebook Inc. is observing a moment of silence since the company has decided to put an end to the Free Basics Internet campaign in India. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently, imposed a ban on the differential pricing mechanism preset in the region which means that no company operating in India can charge the data tariffs differently on the basis of the content. This will result in a ban on zero rated and free data services similar to the product offering by the tech giant.

A public debate has been taking place in the country regarding net neutrality and differential pricing. The network carriers came up with offerings where consumers making use of various genres of digital data were asked to pay different rates. This incorporated those data packages as well that could be offered free of cost such as Airtel Zero derived by the largest Internet carrier in India, Bharti Airtel as well as the Free Basics initiative.

Initially the service was known as the Internet.org, Free Basics initiative is a offering that enables the masses to get access to free Internet in the developing countries via the Free Basics app. The social media giant collaborated with various service providers to offer free apps and services that were limited to its own social media network. The company collaborated with Reliance Communications for the project.

The tech giant had to deal with a lot of criticism in the country since many critics complained that the company vouched to offer free and open experience which was not being delivered in most scenarios. They also claimed that the service was actually against the principles of net neutrality and the data regulators are not supposed to gate keep apps and services that are present on the web. The program was not offering access to the company’s competitors such as Twitter and Google. However, after an ongoing debate that took place between Facebook and net neutrality supporters, Reliance was ordered to put an end to this plan where the ruling will be revealed in the future.

Both the parties came up with campaigns so that they could acknowledge the regulators about their concerns. Facebook made use of the abundant emails it received in favor of the Free Basics Internet service by the masses. However, critics claimed that there was no credibility of these emails and it could merely be a spam. According to the activists against the cause claimed that the company wishes to gate keep the Internet so that they can improve its user base and in return generate more profitability in terms of its advertisement business.

Irrespective of the efforts made by the company, the purported philanthropic plans of the company through this venture have gone down the drain. The company has invested a huge amount in its operations for this venture since it wanted to establish a positive image of the service. All Facebook wanted was free access to the Internet which is now a dream.

Twitter Inc. introduces New Search Results Interface to Strengthen user Engagement

Twitter started a new search results interface that precisely classifies searches using a number of tabs, streamlining the process of search.

Twitter Inc. is introducing a latest feature to update its search engine.  The previous search interface witnessed chaotic appearance. Now it seems more organized, involving tabs for search result division into different categories. For the time being, the new feature is only available for web version and includes further options than just showing “Top Tweets” or “All Tweets”.

The new search interface has now been developed for all logged in users on Twitter website. It is the conclusion of efforts which started in April. The feature was in beta testing mode and was available to limited users. From today it is open to all the customers.

Twitter has lately launched several new features to attract users to the site. These features include partnership with Domino’s Pizza, which help the users to place order directly via Twitter by using hash tags or emojis.

The service seems very simple to use, it just requires user to type almost 140 characters or less than that. However, it has been a worrying for some old and new users. Anthony Noto, an executive at Twitter unintentionally Tweeted acquisition plans of the company, which he had specified to send to a contact ass direct message.

Fresh users are frequently confused by the site and by the procedure by which they entice fresh followers and make tweets visible.

Searching now disclose applicable tweets the individual is seeking for intends, instead of something favorited or retweeted. This accommodates users to search relevant news rather than something went viral. When there are updates regarding search, they are posted on top of the page at status bar. They can be viewed by clicking on the status bar. Additional features involves a latest Live tab to substitute the All tweets tab. And parameters of search can be saved for later use.

Spokesperson of Twitter confirmed the news that the feature is now available for all users and said, “We’re rolling out a new search experience to users on web,” said a Twitter. Like other features, we will continue to iterate and improve on this, to make it even easier for users to find what they are looking for when they search on Twitter.”

In recent times, the social media giant has added features like recap by the name of “While You Were Away”.