TikTok Goes Landscape and Other Changes in the Online World

Now TikTok wants you to turn your phone sideways?

Having popularised vertical videos, TikTok is now trying to dominate horizontal video too. The platform is incentivising the use of horizontal video by promising to increase views for some creators who submit. As the algorithm rewards content creators for generating a certain type of content (regarding format, content or style), user behaviour tends to be affected in accordance. This recent development may pull traffic from YouTube (where users have typically gone to consume horizontal content), to TikTok where they can watch both portrait and landscape content without the need to switch environments.

This most likely relates to TikTok’s mission to dominate search, learning from YouTube and understanding the relevance of horizontal and longer form content for this. Searching on TikTok may never have been more user-friendly, with the platform now testing invites to? users to install a TikTok search widget on their home screens: allowing users to explore content directly from their smartphone’s home pages; landscape or portrait. Read More.

Threads rises to 130M users, seeing steady growth

In Meta’s Q4 2023 earnings announcement, Mark Zuckerberg stated that Threads now has 130 million monthly active users and counting. Meta’s answer to Twitter may even pose an existential threat to X, as the platform seeks to usurp the reigning champion of real-time discussion platforms. As things stand, X is here to stay; not least because loyal supporters will likely prove hard to shift from the platform.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri pointed to some incoming features to the app including trending topics, lists and more. Threads has a number of points of difference with X including 500-character maximum post length for Threads (280 on X), and Instagram-Threads integration. With the advent of these engagement driving features, 2024 will see Threads competing with X for users, begging the question: to what extent will X give way to Threads? Read More.

Expedia signs up as Netflix’s first global ad partner

Netflix and Expedia are utilising their international coverage with a campaign set to target more than 23 million global monthly active users. This partnership will look to air contextual creatives in respective markets, and will begin in Japan. Netflix’s advertising segment increased by 70% from Q3 to Q4, with overall company revenue up 12.5% YoY.

We expect this partnership to mark a pivotal moment in Netflix’s position as a global advertiser. With Expedia becoming their alpha testing partner, the streamer now has a large international partner onside, creating opportunity to prove the effectiveness of advertising and build confidence of brands to invest in this space. Read More.

Amazon strikes landmark deal in response to Google’s third-party cookie depreciation

This week, Amazon secured a deal with Reach (the UK’s largest publisher) to access its customer database for targeted advertising. For Amazon, the deal with Reach means they’ll be able to leverage information such as which articles users are viewing across publications like the Mirror, Daily Star and OK! Magazine.

This comes in the wake of the unfolding ‘cookiepocalypse’. Without cookies, consumers risk becoming unidentifiable online, reducing the attractiveness of advertising here. Vendors are broadly, small and large, responding to this by acquiring contextual first party data to signal relevance of advertising to consumers online. It’s one of the ways businesses will be able to access high-value customers online in a cookieless environment, with Reach's vast quantity of data giving Amazon an advantage.?Read More.