EXCHANGE4MEDIA - July 28 - Vinco Ventures has completed the acquisition of Lomotif Private Limited, which owns the Lomotif short-form video platform, through their joint venture entity ZVV Media. This acquisition makes ZVV Media a subsidiary of Vinco Ventures. LoMo will be Lomotif's new name and rebranded and re-positioned in a new North American marketing campaign.
Vinco Ventures' JV company ZVV Media Completes Acquisition of Lomotif
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TikTok Expands Live Platform With New Features
TECH CRUNCH - July 28 - TikTok expands its LIVE platform, allowing creators to live-stream to fans while responding to viewer comments and questions and accepting virtual gifts. It will include the ability to go live with others, host Q&As, use moderators and improved keyword filters, and more. For viewers, TikTok is also adding discovery and viewing tools, among other changes.
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Instagram Now Supports 60-second Videos on Reels
TECH CRUNCH - July 28 - Instagram announced that users can now upload 60-second videos on Reels, the platform's TikTok competitor. This update also adds functionality for a captions sticker on Reels, which transcribes audio to texts. Right now, the caption sticker is only available in a handful of English-speaking countries, but Instagram says they plan to expand to additional countries and languages soon.
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Lomotif and Universal Music Group Announce Worldwide Agreement
PR NEWSWIRE - July 27 - Lomotif and Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a global agreement that allows Lomotif's users to tap into UMG's catalog creatively of music for their videos. UMG becomes the first major music company to globally license Lomotif, empowering the company's community of users to create clips using songs from UMG's music library. Lomotif users will also easily add UMG's music to a clip right from the app.
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Twitter CFO Eyeing Subscription Model
CFO DIVE - July 27 - Twitter got its fastest quarterly revenue growth since 2014, CFO Ned Segal told. It generated $1.19B in revenue, a 74% YoY jump. The vast majority of Twitter's revenue stems from advertising; $1.05B came directly from ad sales, an 87% YoY jump. Total advertising engagement exceeded the high end of the company's guidance range by 10% or ~$110M. Segal said that Twitter envisions subscriptions being a "big part" of the company.
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Clubhouse: There Has Been No Data Breach
GIZ CHINA - July 27 - Marc Ruef, a Swiss expert on digital security and data protection, said that 3.8B phone numbers were leaked through the Clubhouse service on Twitter. Clubhouse informed that there had been no data breach. According to independent security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia, the data leak claim appears fake as the alleged Clubhouse data contains only mobile numbers without names.
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Against Rules, 37.8% 10-year-olds Have Facebook Accounts, 24.3% on Instagram
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA - July 26 - ~37.8% of children aged 10 yrs have Facebook accounts, while 24.3% in the same age group are on Instagram, which is in contravention to the guidelines laid down by various social networking platforms. The age barrier for creating an account on Facebook and Instagram happens to be 13 yrs.
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Tencent Faces Music Licensing Rights Removal
TECH TIMES - July 26 - China is currently targeting Tencent as the Asian government wants to remove the company's music licensing rights. The Chinese antitrust regulators also said that the developer needs to settle a fine for its anti-competitive behavior. Tencent and its affiliate companies need to pay the required $77,141 to relinquish its exclusive music rights.
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VSN - July 26 - We're dedicated to providing executive summaries on the news you can use, to get smarter, and make better decisions.
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Announcing LTR Edition 10
VSN - July 26 - LTR stands for Love, Technology, Relationships. Think of is as an online TED for leaders of online social communities and Internet dating companies. This is where we meet, learn, and share.
LTR Edition 10 is on Wed 4th August starting 11:30am EST (New York) and this month we're focused on personality, gamification and Facebook marketing. We have a half hour of networking on virtual tables, three world-class speakers for 20 mins each plus a few mins Q&A, and then a final half hour of networking. 2.5 hours all-in.
If you hold a full time leadership role at an online social community then you are welcome to join OSCA for free, and welcome to join LTR events for free. See the LTR Edition 10 overview, speakers and invite page here. Email mark@courtlandbrooks.com to RSVP for LTR. There are 80 places only.
LTR is kindly sponsored by RealMe, vPaaS by Meet Group, and Courtland Brooks
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Snapchat Acquires Vertebrae to Enhance Its In-App AR Shopping Experience
NEWS18 - July 23 - Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc, has just bought Vertebrae, a firm specializing in 3D product modeling. The acquisition of Vertebrae follows the previous purchase of WaveOptics, Fit Analytics, and Screenshop. Vertebrae is a company that brings products to life virtually with 3D versions. AR allows apps and businesses to bring a virtual version of reality to consumers' devices.
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SageSpot Raises $2.1M to Connects Creators With Passionate Followers
ALLEYWATCH - July 23 - SageSpot, a platform for creators to share their knowledge and expertise with loyal communities, raises $2.1M. Creators are able to monetize their following by setting up subscriptions as well as through one-time revenue options like setting up a time to speak with individual members. SageSpot plans to launch by the middle of August with 15-20 creators onboard onto the platform.
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Former Pixonic CEO Raises $500K for New Games Social Network
POCKET GAMER - July 23 - Former Pixonic CEO Philip Gladkov has secured $500K in funding for a new social networking platform specifically for video games. Named Gameram, the new platform aims to connect "gamers" in communities. The deal follows an inceptive pre-seed funding round that raised $400Kthat was used for hypothesis testing, marketing research, and launching the app.
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Instagram Is Testing a New Anti-harassment Tool, Limits
TECH CRUNCH - July 23 - Instagram is testing a new feature called "Limits," which would give users the ability to temporary lock down their accounts when they're being targeted by a flood of harassment. It was announced during a video where Instagram head Adam Mosseri condemned the recent racism that took place on Instagram's platform following the Euro 2020 final. Instagram declined to say when the feature would become publicly available.
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Clubhouse Is Now out of Beta and Open to Everyone
TECH CRUNCH - July 22 - Clubhouse is finally out of beta. It would end its waitlist and invite system, opening up to everybody. Clubhouse is also introducing a real logo that will look familiar - it's basically a slightly altered version of the waving emoji the company already used.
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