CBC - Amintro, a new social network that helps adults ages 50 and up meets people in their communities, is expanding to northeastern Ontario. To expand in the region, the federal government's New Horizons for Seniors program granted Amintro $25K to build a northeastern Ontario advisory committee to help it expand in the region and cater to French speakers.
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Amintro, Social Network for Older Adults Sets Sights for Northeastern Ontario Expansion
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Meta Has Begun Laying Off Workers to Reduce OpEx by 10%
SPICE WORKS - Meta has reportedly started to lay off some employees as part of their efforts to cut down operating expenses. According to the current and former managers, they are looking to slash costs by 10%. Meta's plans to lower operating expenses (opex) by 10% equate to a reduction of $2.046B in absolute terms to $18.41B.
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Inkeverse Launches Social Metaverse Product Targeted at Gen Z
PANDAILY - Chinese social networking firm Inkeverse is continuing its push into the metaverse with the launch of a new social product for overseas markets called "The Place." As a 3D virtual social platform for Generation Z consumers in Europe and the United States, it provides users with immersive social experiences through virtual scenes and images, as well as through real-time audio interaction. Inkeverse achieved revenue of $573M in the H1, up 0.7% YoY.
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Instagram Is Developing a Nudity Filter for Direct Messages
TECH CRUNCH - Instagram is testing a new way to filter out unsolicited nude messages sent over direct messages, confirming reports of the development posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi. The images indicated Instagram was working on technology that would cover up photos that may contain nudity but noted that the company would not be able to access the photos itself.
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Sintra Raises $2M Seed Round to Spearhead Social App & Marketplace for NFT Investors
PR NEWSWIRE - Sintra, the social-powered NFT investment app, has closed a $2M seed funding round. The funding will be leveraged to accelerate product testing and development of new in-app features, and to drive comprehensive recruitment and marketing efforts. Sintra has also announced the launch of its first MVP - an innovative new social network for NFT investors, with analytics, community management and messaging features, connecting like-minded investors to build mutually-beneficial strategies.
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Amsterdam Business Owner Launches 'Happy Social Network'
TIMES UNION - Anthony Constantino, co-owner of Sticker Mule, has launched a social network called Stimulus that replaces traditional social network advertising with giveaways. It's the feature that allows users to enter giveaways by "restimming" - which refers to liking, commenting on or sharing a post. Launched in June 2022, Stimulus has a goal of giving away $1M and has currently surpassed $100K in giveaways to verified users.
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TikTok Takes Aim at Political Grifting and Fundraising in Latest Policy Tweaks
TECH CRUNCH - TikTok announced an incoming tightening of its policies around political accounts using its video-sharing platform, such as those belonging to political parties, politicians and governments. Political accounts will be ineligible for TikTok's Creator Fund, as well as being unable to access ad features by default.
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Nurse.com Acquires HOLLIBLU, Launches App for Nursing Community
BUSINESSWIRE - Nurse.com, an industry-leading online education company providing lifelong career support to nurses, announced its acquisition of HOLLIBLU, a social networking app designed exclusively for nurses. The Nurse.com app enables nurses to connect for peer support, knowledge sharing, and skill development to help every nurse thrive throughout their career journey.
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YouTube Targets TikTok With Revenue Sharing for Shorts, Partner Program Expansion
TECH CRUNCH - YouTube announced major changes to its YouTube Partner Program, allowing creators to earn ad revenue on Shorts. Now, Shorts creators can qualify for the Partner Program, which allows creators to earn ad revenue from YouTube. Shorts creators can join the Partner Program if they have at least 10M views on the platform over the last 90 days. As members of the Partner Program, these creators will earn 45% of ad revenue from their videos.
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Project Liberty Welcomes MeWe to Decentralized Social Networking Protocol
PR NEWSWIRE - MeWe, a 20M-member global social network, announced plans to integrate Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), a groundbreaking, open-source internet protocol released by Project Liberty last year, into its tech architecture. By utilizing DSNP technology, MeWe is doubling down on its core values of privacy and user control and strengthening its commitment to providing an authentic social media experience that's free from algorithms, amplification, and manipulation. This integration sets MeWe on course to become the world's largest decentralized social media platform.
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ByteDance Sees Valuation Drop a Quarter to $300B After Latest Share Buy-back
SCMP - ByteDance, China's most valuable unicorn, is budgeting up to $3B to repurchase shares from existing investors at $177 apiece. The company's valuation had dropped from a peak of $400B last year when it was reportedly looking to list in New York or Hong Kong.
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BeReal Could Start Adding Paid Features in 2023
MASHABLE - According to a report, BeReal is considering adding paid features to its free-to-use app. BeReal has ~15M DAU, up from only 10K just a year ago at an evaluation of ~$600M.
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Twitter Bot Traffic Jumps Depending on How It's Analyzed
MEDIA POST - CHEQ, a cybersecurity company, discovered that ~12% of website traffic from Twitter to its ~15K clients is non-human. Of 5.2M site visits from May 2021 through May 2022, it was found that nearly one-in-three site visits from Twitter in China are likely fake, and 29% of organic Twitter traffic from China was invalid. Data was measured against several key metrics for each site and how those metrics would change when removing the fake traffic. CHEQ also looked at the data by industry to see how much average page views per site visit increased when fake traffic was removed.
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Parler Forms a New Parent Company to Offer 'Uncancelable' Cloud Services
TECH CRUNCH - Parler has acquired a cloud company called Dynascale to expand its vision beyond offering an (ostensibly) anything-goes social app to provide infrastructure for businesses that run the risk of getting the boot from mainstream providers. Parler will now operate under a new parent company known as Parlement Technologies, which also announced a fresh round of $16M for the pivot toward infrastructure.
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YouTube Shorts Could Steal TikTok's Thunder With a Better Deal for Creators
TECH CRUNCH - YouTube is reportedly set to announce a Partner Program-like ad revenue sharing model on Tuesday at its Made on YouTube event. YouTube Shorts creators would get 45% of ad revenue - a smaller cut than they do on YouTube videos, but a substantial upgrade compared to a paltry Creator Fund payout.
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