This week in social media news, Twitter debuts Spaces dedicated to Super Follows, Snapchat and eBay announce a new shopping integration and Apple promotes mobile data protection features in a new ad spot.
Twitter’s Debuts New Super Follows-Only Spaces
Twitter has expanded its live audio offering, Spaces, to Super Follows, its paid subscription service that gives users access to bonus content from their favorite creators and influencers.
Why it matters: The new Super Follows-only Spaces could help popular Twitter influencers grow their user base by engaging fans with exclusive audio content. Though not all users can access Super Follows yet, the ones that can get to decide on a monthly subscription rate between $3 to $10 a month.
According to its most recent earnings report, Twitter brought in $94 million from subscriptions and other revenue (including data licensing) in the period, a decrease of 31 percent year-over-year.
The details: Super Follows-only Spaces give users bonus content and extra perks. Within the app, the new feature takes on a different color palette for the Spaces link while a note above describes it as a “Super Follows only” broadcast.
Snapchat Announces New eBay Shopping Integration
More than 142 million buyers shop on eBay globally and now Snapchat is looking to target some of that audience on its app. The platform announced a new shopping integration that lets Snap users share eBay listings with their friends right into Snaps using the Snap Camera on Android and iOS.
Why it matters: Snap’s new eBay integration comes on the heels of younger generations buying upcycled products more frequently and prioritizing climate change and sustainability. eBay has bolstered its efforts to reach these conscious shoppers recently—in 2020 it launched a sneaker authentication service that verifies shoes sold on the platform match what their listings claim and expanded the service to include handbags in the summer of last year.
The details: To access the new Snapchat feature, users have to open their eBay app and select their listing then tap the “Share” icon and the “Snapchat” option. This will automatically open the Snapchat Camera with the automated eBay sticker. From there, users can create an original Snap with the eBay sticker and add design touches using Snap’s creative tools.
When a user sends a Snap that includes an eBay sticker to their story or directly to friends, the recipient or viewer will be able to tap the eBay sticker to jump back to the listing in the eBay app.
Apple’s New Pro-Privacy Ad Aims To Assuage User Concerns About Selling Of Personal Data
With a new ad campaign spotlighting how the data broker industry trades in mobile users’ personal data, Apple is hoping to raise awareness around its features aimed at protecting personal data, like its app tracking transparency option and mail privacy protection feature.
Why it matters: According to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, 81 percent of the public say that the potential risks they face because of data collection by companies outweigh the benefits. When asked whether they think their personal data is less secure, more secure or about the same as it was five years ago, 70 percent of adults say their personal data is less secure. Only 6 percent report that they believe their data is more secure today than it was in the past.
While Apple’s pro-privacy stance and features might mitigate users’ concerns about being tracked, tech giants and developers who rely on tracking and ads to monetize free apps take a hit each time a user clicks the “Ask app not to track” button their iPhone.
The details: In Apple’s new 90-second spot, which will run across 24 countries this summer on broadcast and social media, a shopper in a record store stumbles upon an auction where data brokers are bidding on her personal data, including her read emails, drugstore purchases, location data, transaction data, browser history and more—until she looks down at her iPhone to click the “Ask app not to track” button and enable the email privacy protection feature. Then the entire auction and quirky cast of bidders instantly disappear. The spot concludes with: “It’s your data. iPhone helps keep it that way. Privacy. That’s iPhone.”
