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It's All About Advertising

When people think of Facebook as a company, they mostly think of it synonymously with Facebook the social network. However, Facebook Inc. is much more than that, as today’s chart nicely illustrates. With WhatsApp, Instagram and of course the namesake Facebook and Messenger, the company owns four of the world’s largest social media / messaging services. Facebook alone reaches more than 2 billion people per month and both WhatsApp and Messenger also passed the billion-user milestone recently. Tencent, the Chinese company behind WeChat and Qzone might also boast a billion users in total, but still doesn’t come close to Facebook’s global footprint.

What all of the services mentioned below have in common, is their immense attractiveness to advertisers. Not only do they all boast hundreds of millions of users, but they also have the ability to target specific groups based on likes, dislikes and past behavior. That is why social media advertising has grown immensely over the past few year

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While Google and Facebook are the undisputed advertising leaders online, companies are increasingly looking for other digital ways to spend their marketing budgets, according to advertising and public relations company WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell.

"What our clients want and what our agencies want is more competition of the space, anything that gives more competition to the duopoly of Facebook and Google," Sorrell said to CNBC.

The two tech giants account for about 75 percent of digital ad budgets, according to Sorrell. But, there are competitors ready to chip away at their dominance, including AOL and Yahoo's ad tech platforms and Snap. Even Amazon is becoming a threat, with its ad platform recently valued at $350 billion, he pointed out.

"Getting more than two solutions is important," he said.

But while Google's issue of ads appearing next to questionable content is causing companies to pull dollars right now, Sorrell doesn't think the moves will be permanent because of how big of

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Facebook Is Chasing A Much, Much Bigger Jobs Market

construction-workers-dc-e1487277957180.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=320&width=300Facebook is getting into a new type of networking.

The social media giant said this week that it is rolling out new features in the US and Canada to let businesses post job openings, and prospective workers find and apply to them through Facebook. “This new experience will help businesses find qualified people where they’re already spending their time—on Facebook and on mobile,” the company said in a blog post.

The system Facebook debuted on Feb. 15 aims to minimize hassle for job-seekers and employers, while also giving both more reasons to use Facebook products. Businesses will be able to post jobs and track applications directly from a company Facebook page, as well as communicate with applicants through Facebook Messenger. They can also pay Facebook to promote their job listings to a wider audience.

Job-seekers will see posts in their news feed and integrated with other posts on business pages. They’ll also be able to check “Jobs on Facebook,” a designated landing page for job list

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1200x-1.jpg?width=416A parade of up-and-coming musicians from Universal Music took the stage at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles Saturday in a pre-Grammy Awards performance for a room full of the executives who will make or break their careers.

Talent bookers from James Corden’s late-night show, marketing executives from top brands and executives from Spotify Ltd. and YouTube looked on. Sandwiched in between tables for Apple Inc., an imposing player in online music, and Pandora Media Inc., owner of the world’s largest online radio service, sat executives from a new act trying to break onto the scene: Facebook Inc. 

The world’s largest social network has redoubled its efforts to reach a broad accord with the industry, according to interviews with negotiators at labels, music publishers and trade associations. A deal would govern user-generated videos that include songs and potentially pave the way for Facebook to obtain more professional videos from the labels themselves.

“We’re hopeful that they are m

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tim-cook-future-of-tv-is-apps.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=320&width=400Apple doesn’t have a solid TV strategy yet. But CEO Tim Cook thinks he can see the writing on the wall—the much loathed cable-TV bundle is on its deathbed.

Speaking on the earnings call after Apple posted a record first quarter, Cook said (emphasis added):

The way that we participate in the changes that are going on in the media industry that I fully expect to accelerate from the cable bundle beginning to break down is, one, we started the new Apple TV a year ago, and we’re pleased with how that platform has come along. We have more things planned for it but it’s come a long way in a year, and it gives us a clear platform to build off of.

Apple is on the fourth generation of the Apple TV. It now has an app that makes recommendations across streaming-video services and has a universal search function; it is currently limited by only allowing you to find a program across a limited selection of third-party services, but it has the potential to become the online equivalent to a TV Guide

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facebook-1602262_1920_1_2.jpg?width=400The impending IPO of Snap Inc., the parent of social media platform Snapchat, is shrouded in mystery, typical of the way business is run at the company. To maintain control of the company, its founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy are expected to reportedly hold about 70 percent of the voting power following the IPO, with new investors getting no voting rights.

Ad Dollars On Upward Trajectory

Notwithstanding the limited visibility into the IPO, advertisers are warming up to Snapchat. Ad firm WPP's CEO Martin Sorrel told CNBC that its clients spend about $90 million on Snapchat in 2016, which is a notable increase from the $30 million WPP predicted at the start of the year. Given the ad spend statistics, Sorrel believes the company's total revenues could be higher than what the markets have been anticipating.

Advertising Revenues Of Facebook, Twitter

Quarterly filing by Facebook Inc FB 0.64% showed that ad revenue totaled $6.82 billion in the September quarter of 2016, with 50 percent

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Big Tech Lost A Boatload When Trump Killed TPP

1291359?profile=RESIZE_480x480The giant international trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership died last week. It was supposed to be the largest regional trade deal in history.

The TPP itself was a massive 30-chapter lawbook that would have freed access to markets for things like car manufacturing, data storage, online commerce, intellectual property and medicines.

Hoards of technology and media companies supported the trade deal. Google was pro TPP. As was Microsoft, Apple and Facebook. The Motion Picture Association of America supported it too. The deal would have allowed them to make it easier to store user data across borders, offer stricter copyright protections and clamp down on digital pirating.

President-elect Donald Trump positioned his opposition to the trade deal as one of the defining issues of his campaign. He compared the TPP to the North American Free Trade Agreement of the 1990s that allowed U.S. manufacturers to move jobs to Mexico.

President Obama, on the other hand, was betting on th

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Twitter Turns 10

"Just setting up my twttr" – those were the words that Jack Dorsey, founder and CEO of Twitter, tweeted on this day ten years ago to begin yet another social media success story. Twitter, with its simplicity and unique 140-character limit, hit a nerve and quickly gained a following among the tech- and media-savvy. In 2011, Twitter passed the 100-million user milestone and in late 2013 the company went public with huge fanfare.

Everything was well in the Twitter universe, but soon after the company’s successful IPO, the sentiment turned sour. Twitter’s user growth was tapering off quickly and the company continued to lose money. In 2015, Twitter’s share price began to tumble and has been on a downward trajectory ever since. It is becoming increasingly clear that, contrary to earlier projections, Twitter is not a second Facebook and probably never will be.

When Facebook celebrated its 10th anniversary a little more than two years ago, the company was much bigger in almost every aspect.

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The Top 10 Millenial Brands

millennial-brand-survey-chart.png

The market for U.S. millennials is expected to blossom to $1.4 trillion by 2020, according to international consulting firm Accenture. While this generation of digital natives is already a primary marketing target today, in the upcoming years millennials will make up a hefty 30% of all retail spending in the country.

However, millennials are complex and notoriously difficult to read, even for professional marketers. With values that seem to contradict one another, it’s a challenge for companies to successfully gain market share with this audience.

As millennials mature, researchers are gaining ground on the needs and wants of this generation. This week’s Chart of the Week shares data from a comprehensive survey of 3,500 millennials that were asked, without any prompt, about their favorite brands over the past three years. The results, which can be found in deeper depth here, help give us some insight as to what millennials look for in a brand.


Tech Brand Disparity

It’s likely that no

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Coming Soon: Instant Click To Buy

For Twitter and Facebook, the two principal combatants in the world of social media, e-commerce is emerging as the newest battleground.  One would think that Amazon's June unveiling of it's Fire phone should be pushing the transition even faster.

Twitter announced on Thursday that it had agreed to acquire CardSpring, a mobile payments infrastructure company that allows merchants to offer deals to consumers that can be loaded onto to their credit cards. When the card is used to pay at the store, the coupon is automatically applied.

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CardSpring advertises itself as a company that makes it easy for developers to link digital applications to credit or debit cards.

For Twitter, the potential uses are obvious: If you see a retailer’s tweet promoting a particular product and want to get the deal, you might soon be able to click a button or send a reply to simply add the discount to a stored credit card — without leaving Twitter’s site or firing up another app. For the last couple of years, T

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Throwback Thursday Reads

  • No shocker here as the FTC issues a blistering rebuke of states limiting sales of TSLA direct consumer sales.
  • So much for the peace accord with Russia as they begin military exercises (WSJ)  Markets will not like this continued uncertainty.  Watch crude oil, gold, silver and copper.original-old-apple-logo.jpg?width=235  You will note that bonds $BND (flight to safe haven) have been holding up.  Not everyone is pouring money into equities.
  • The first regulation proposals are coming out on e-cigarettes  $LO currently holds a 42% market share..
  • Talk about putting cash to work.  AAPL has bought 24 companies in the last 18 months.  Searching for innovation allthewhile announcing an increase to their stock buyback, stock split and quarterly dividend to keep value investors in the name.  Oh, and an earnings beat once again to a low bar set.  Way to go Tim Cook.
  • The FCC said it will propose rules today that could give high-speed Internet providers more power on what content moves the fastest on the Web based on which firms pay th

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Admin

Turnaround Tuesday Reads

  • Saving down, lending up and tapering combine in a perfect storm.  One of our favorite bloggers1290571?profile=RESIZE_480x480 CalifiaBeachPundit
  • More tech companies are experiencing DDoS cyber attacks including SAY Media (Typepad), Meetup, Basecamp, Vimeo, Bit.ly and others.
  • 51% of Americans are unsure of the validity of the Big Bang theory.  For many it's because it can't be seen or seems too far away  A look at the iron triangle of science, religion and politics,
  • For the first time in history, the rich find themselves working longer than the poor.
  • The Fed must choose:  more jobs or lower inflation.
  • Shipments through the port of Los Angeles jumped 34% spurring a bit of (recovery) conversation today on Wall Street
  • Google follows Facebook and Twitter with app-installed advertising.

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Turnaround Tuesday Reads

  • Amazon ($AMZN) is developing plans to roll out it's own payment solutions program to compete with PayPal ($EBAY) but sorry guys.........no Bitcoin is not part of their master plan. Note Amazong already has over 200 million credit cards already in their registered accounts.  This after plans came out the Facebook ($FB) is planning the same.  We have been accumulating EBAY for months but all of this is not good news for the online name.
  • People's Bank of China disclosed it withdrew 172B yuan ($28B) through repurchase agreements. China's money supply grew at its weakest pace in over a decade during March. Shares of banks and brokerage firms in China stumbled on concerns of capital outflow. 
  • Many will be watching for a follow through up day in the indexes today as the Nasdaq bounced off of February support.  If this is the case, watch for precious metals to take a beating.
  • Investor confidence in Germany fell for a 4th straight month which has a depressing effect on sentiment because German

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Hump Day Reading

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  • For all the worrying about weather impacting job creation, Trim Tabs say real time tax receipt data (allegedly more reliable than BLS data) suggests that the economy has been picking up steam.  24/7WallStreet
  • A 8.2% magnitude earthquake overnight off the coast of Chile with a 2 meter tsunami.  Supposedly mining operations have not been affected buy you try to tell that to silver and gold this morning.  They're not buying it (so far)
  • Interesting metrics from Flurry on mobile usage today.  GOOG accounts for 18% of time spent by consumers which includes YouTube, while FB is 17%.   Android web browsing is losing market share, going from 20% or usage down to 14%
  • Facebook apps continue to hold strength ahead of Google according to Comscore data..  Twitter's app was only used by 22.8% of U.S. smartphone users in January. 77.6% used Facebook's core app, and 27.5% Instagram. Five different Google apps were used by over 40% of users.
  • The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) met it's targ

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