November 11-2024: A Recap of What Happened in The Digital Space Last Week

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To new readers, welcome to Digital Trends and Insights Newsletter, where I curate and aggregate social media feature updates, tech news, digital trends, and weekly insights to keep you updated and informed!

Here is a recap of what happened in the digital space last week that you need to know. To catch up with previous updates, click here.

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Personal News

From 1st to 4th November 2024, I had the pleasure to be invited by the AfricanUnion Commission to facilitate a masterclass on branding and strategic marketing for young and vibrant youth drawn across the continent who were attending the 4th Pan-African Youth Forum in Oran City, Algeria.

Internet

Starlink suspended new subscriptions in Nairobi and 5 neighbouring regions: Kiambu, Machakos, Narok, Murang’a, and Nakuru due to network overload.

#Telegram

It's that time of the year. NetBlocks confirmed Telegram has been restricted in Kenya to curb cheating during the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam period. Telegram has been known to be a platform where KCSE exam leakage is disseminated

#Meta

• Meta's Threads surpassed 275 million monthly active users? in November 2024
• Meta will continue to block political adverts until a few days after the polls have closed. That means that "new social issue, electoral, and political ads" are blocked during the final week of the U.S. general election
• Facebook now allows users to quickly share a story on Instagram by tapping the IG logo.
• Instagram now allows access to Insights from the long-press menu on any post
• WhatsApp is rolling out a reminder notification feature for status updates. When you turn this feature on, you will receive occasional notifications reminding you of status updates from your contacts that they may have missed

#TikTok

• TikTok is adding another music integration with a new “Share to TikTok” option that enables users to share music from Apple Music and Spotify on TikTok.
• The Canadian government ordered the ByteDance-owned TikTok app to shut down its operations in the country due? to national security concerns but users will still be able to access the app
• ICYMI: About a week ago, TikTok updated its TikTok Academy with enhanced learning content hosted on a brand-new interface. This is a place for you if you want to learn about TikTok basics, ads and how to build your brand on TikTok

Link: https://www.tiktokacademy.com/student/catalog

#X

• A free tier of X? Grok AI is coming soon

• How many X Premium subscribers are engaging with your content? X has officially shifted/ rolled out the creator payout program from ad impressions to the engagement of premium subscribers.?"Payout amounts are based on quality engagement, not ad impressions, and increase as overall X Premium subscriptions continue to grow."
• X rolled out a block feature update where if one has blocked you or you block someone, you can still see their content but you can't engage.? Don't be surprised to see content by the person who blocked you
• Visualizing the Decline in Brand Value of X (Formerly Twitter) by Visual Capitalist. In 2022, Brand Finance valued Twitter at $5.7 billion. By 2023, this dropped to nearly $3.9 billion, and by 2024, the brand’s value had fallen to $673.3 million.

#YouTube

YouTube is testing "data stories" to show creators their video's first 24-hour performance in a visual format. More YouTube updates in the video below

Online Search

Did you ever think Google Search giant would get a competition? OpenAI recently released its anticipated search engine, which allows you to get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources.

OpenAI also realised Chrome extension, which allows you to set ChatGPT as your default search engine easily

Pros: Currently it has no ads or sponsored links

Cons:? It takes a couple of seconds longer to respond than a typical search engine and you may not get the answers you are looking for

What's the future of search?

AI?

• ChatGPT, the 8th biggest website, was down for 30 minutes on November 8th, affecting thousands of users worldwide
• ChatGPT rejected over 250,000 requests to generate DALL·E images of President-elect Trump, Vice President Harris, Vice President-elect Vance, President Biden, and Governor Walz as key safety measures to prevent its AI tools from being used for deceptive or harmful purposes.
• OpenAI bought Chat.com domain. Chat.com is one of the older domains on the web, having been registered in September 1996. Last year, it was reported that HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah acquired https://Chat.com for $15.5 million, making it one of the top two all-time publicly reported domain sales.?
• Google is building a? new AI-focused data centre in fossil fuel-dependent Saudi Arabia—TechCrunch

Influencer Campaign: Analysis of How Influencers shaped the US 2024 elections

Kamala focused on short-form content on TikTok and Instagram, while Donald Trump focused on long-form partnerships with live streamers and podcasters.?

Donald's long-form approach builds deeper connections with people. People could listen to him, unlike Kamala's approach, where the influencers who were invited to attend campaigns and share short clips were treated as media outlets

A shift from traditional media to embracing digital influencers and partnerships to? pass their messages and woo voters

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See you next week!