February 17-2025: A Recap of What Happened in The Digital Space Last Week

Welcome to this week’s edition of Digital Trends and Insights—your curated roundup of the latest tech breakthroughs and digital trends. From groundbreaking AI launches to headline-making product unveilings, we’ve got the stories shaping our digital landscape.

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Now, without further ado, click through the links to explore the stories in detail. Thanks for reading, and let's dive in!

Personal News...

Last week, I had the pleasure of conducting a two-day Digital Marketing training for Minet Kenya, with a focus on social media strategies.

If your team needs digital marketing training to sharpen their skills and boost your brand's social media efforts, feel free to reach out via DM!

Last Week in Tech: Grok 3 Debuts & Apple's Big Event Recap

Elon Musk announced the launch of Grok 3, X AI Chabot, on Monday, February 17, with a live demo. As posted by Musk, he described Grok 3 as the "Smartest AI on Earth."

Meanwhile, Apple’s much-anticipated #AppleLaunch to take place on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. Announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook, the event introduces new products, with the iPhone SE 4 probably being major highlight.

Social Media Insights

• ?? BuzzFeed’s Social Media App: BuzzFeed is entering the social media space, challenging Instagram, TikTok, and X with a new platform designed to spread ‘joy.’
• ?? TikTok Dominates Downloads: TikTok was the most downloaded app worldwide in January, with 49M downloads, surpassing Instagram despite the US ban. Indonesia contributed 10% of TikTok’s total new downloads in December.

Meta Updates

• ?? Instagram is testing a dislike/downvote button in comments. Instagram head Adam Mosseri clarified in a Threads post that dislikes won’t be publicly visible but will act as a signal of disinterest.

• ?? Meta is investing in AI-powered humanoid robots. Read about their robotics projects here.
• ?? Instagram added DM & Stories Effects for Valentine’s Day.
• ?? WhatsApp is currently working on bringing a feature to add social media links to user profiles, making it easier for their contacts to connect with them on other platforms in the future.

• WhatsApp is currently working on bringing a feature to introduce a dedicated tab for AI-powered chats to a future update of the app

TikTok Updates

• Apple and Google have returned TikTok to mobile app stores in the U.S. The app was removed on January 18 just hours before a ban was set to go into effect
• TikTok launched a new Valentine's Music Experience in-app music campaign, with support from some very special artists to celebrate Valentine’s Day
• TikTok added ‘Most-Loved’ Tag for Popular TikTok Shop Items
• TikTok published the Music Impact Report, which analyses data from 2024 - considers the impact that TikTok and its users have on the music industry and artists in terms of music discovery, consumption, chart success, and contribution to industry revenues
• ?? TikTok unveiled The Discover List 2025: Kenya’s @roy.kanyi made it to the Educators category in this year's top 50 creators!

Spotify Insights

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Spotify revealed that Kenyan male listeners streamed heartbreak songs more (107%) compared to female listeners (105%).

?? ‘You Broke Me First’ by Tate McRae was Kenya’s top heartbreak anthem of 2024.

Other popular heartbreak songs included:

? ‘Someone You Loved’ – Lewis Capaldi

? ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ – James Arthur

? ‘Let Me Down Slowly’ – Alec Benjamin

? ‘In The Stars’ – Benson Boone

X (Twitter) Updates

• X added a new Like animation for Valentine’s Day.
• Apple resumed advertising on X after halting ads in November 2023 due to Elon Musk’s controversial remarks.
• X made Community posts visible to non-members, though replies from members will be prioritized. You can join my X Community here

YouTube Updates

• YouTube is integrating Google DeepMind’s Veo 2 AI video model into YouTube Shorts, enabling creators to generate AI-driven video clips.
• New features include Reply with a Short, expanded Data Stories for Posts, and a fresh membership sign-up experience.

Google Updates

• Google confirmed a Business Profiles reviews outage and is working on a fix.
• Google plans to use machine learning to estimate user ages for more tailored experiences.
• Google removed cultural event listings (Pride Month, Black History Month, etc.) from Google Calendar, citing sustainability concerns.
• Hackers used Google Tag Manager to steal credit card data during online checkouts.

AI & OpenAI

• OpenAI removed its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page from its website.
• OpenAI’s board unanimously rejected Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion takeover bid, calling it an attempt to disrupt competition.
• Google expanded Whisk, an AI image-generation tool, to 100+ new countries. Try Whisk at labs.google/whisk.

Brand Spotlight: Duolingo’s Viral Marketing Stunt

On Tuesday, Duolingo declared its mascot Duo dead and launched an investigation into its cause of death. A day later, the company shared a video on socials showing Duo was hit by Cybertruck and the CEO later made a statement mourning his death.

While at it, In Duolingo, users are being encouraged to take daily lessons to build a streak, earn points and progress on leaderboards in a bid to mourn and possibly revive it. What away to push online classes.

The latest on their socials is a video of Duolingo, selling Duo's coffin. Yes you read it well. In the video, they say they are a corporation and they are monetizing grief, the money will help them with their future marketing efforts.

They have a link to visit the store and buy Duo's coffin at $29. This marketing gimmick has seen them trend on web and amassed millions of views on social media platforms.

So what's next for Duolingo? In my view it could be a rebrand. As we wait to see what's with this campaign, what are your thoughts?

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