The Week in Social: YouTube on Portal, short videos, and social growth

Facebook Portal adds YouTube

Facebook Portal launched a few weeks ago, and we asked if users were ready for a stand-alone video phone. This week, Facebook launched a third-party app store called Portal Apps to add uses for the new line of devices. Among the apps in the new store, YouTube tops the list as a killer app. With the Portal as media viewing hardware, we’ll anticipate users turning to their portal for watching their favorite YouTube stars, or perhaps learning how to make pasta from scratch.

Youtube: how to do stuff

A Pew research paper surveyed 4,594 Americans about YouTube usage in 2018. 51 percent of YouTube users report they rely on the service to learn how to do things they’ve never previously done. “How to” videos on YouTube cover everything from how to make pasta from scratch, to installing a ceiling fan, to the finer points of beard grooming. The Pew Research study that revealed the numbers also said that how-to videos cross over in popularity for regular and less-frequent user categories. Want YouTube success? Teach.

Meet short-video app TikTok

After merging with Musical.ly, global video platform TikTok has reached more than 130 million users. The app surpassed Facebook and Google as the top downloaded social app in October. The app lets users create short, fun, looping videos of themselves doing things like dancing, lip-syncing and other activities. Meanwhile, apptopia attributes the surge in downloads to advertising.

Meet short-video app Lasso

Pew research reports that teen use of Facebook has shrunk to half of what it was in 2014. To help win them back, Facebook has created a stand-alone social app called Lasso. The app lets users create short, fun, looping videos of themselves doing things like dancing, lip-syncing and other activities. Users can view their friend’s videos, along with comments and hashtags on each and share them to Facebook Stories. Sharing to Instagram to come later.

Meet short-video app Byte

If you remember the social video app Vine, you might also remember it was purchased by Twitter. Twitter migrated all Vine’s functionality and dropped it within 4 years. Now, every social platform you’ve ever heard of can share videos. But, don’t dismiss it too quickly that one founder of Vine is launching a new app called Byte. The app lets users create short, fun, looping videos of themselves doing things like dancing, lip-syncing and other activities. Vine fans have pledged loyalty to any return of the original app, but will they be enough to keep it alive?

The contract for the web

It’s projected that more than half the world will be online by May of 2019. That number may summon mixed feelings. For the internet founding-father Tim Berners-Lee, it’s an opportune time to retake the internet. To protect the open web as a public good and basic right of everyone, Berners-Lee is calling for companies to sign the Contract for the Web. The contract aims, among other things, to eliminate misinformation on the web and protect individual privacy rights. Facebook, Google, and more than 60 other companies have agreed to sign the contract.

Paid influencers not performing?

In a unique lawsuit, Snapchat filed suit against Luka Sabbat for not fulfilling his contract. The contract speculated that Sabbat would post a defined number of Instagram posts, linked stories, and have his photo taken at events wearing Snap’s new version of Spectacles. In return, the Kardashian-adjacent actor would receive $60,000. Sabbat skipped out on the full total of elements defined in the contract, thus Snap has filed suit. Marketers and influencers everywhere should keep an eye on the court ruling.

WeChat’s app store is now half the size as Apple’s

China’s mobile messenger and social media multi-tool WeChat commands 1 billion monthly active users. In January of 2017, WeChat’s developer opened the platform for third-party mini-apps. Today, the platform has 1 million applications for everything from hailing a cab to mobile banking. This makes it nearly half the size of Apple’s app market of 2.1 million applications, developed in a quarter of the time in market.

LinkedIn ventures into events

If it’s happening in your industry and in your neighborhood, LinkedIn wants you to share it. A new test in New York and San Francisco will enable group organizers to create public events. Users can comment, share and mark attendance for said events. If the test goes well, private or group-only events may follow.

Social Growth may be maxed out

It’s one of the first marketing exercises business owners should understand. Calculate how many people can use your product. Segment from that group how many people have access to your product. Finally, factor that number with your sales, and you’ll know where you stand in market saturation. Social media platforms in the U.S. are seeing slowed growth, but it could very well be because at nearly 70% market engagement, there are no more users to conquer.