Reports that Amazon.com Inc has doubled its ad profits, is growing its ad business fast, and may be outselling ads on Twitter Inc and Snapchat, may soon see it in serious contention for ad dominance with its bigger rivals : Google and Facebook.

Multi-Billion Dollar Program

Reports that Amazon has achieved around $2 billion advertising revenue and with predictions by eMarketer last October that Amazon would hit $3.19 billion in net U.S. digital ad revenues by 2019 (which is 3.0 percent of digital ad spending), show that Amazon clearly has a multi-billion dollar program underway that is growing fast.

How?

Some commentators put the rapid and impressive rise in ad revenues down to the fact that Amazon has two non-retail businesses that are experiencing fast growth, and are profitable.

Firstly, Amazon’s fastest-growing business segment, which hit $2.0 billion in the first quarter, and showed a 72 % increase from a year earlier, and 100% growth in the last quarter is its “other” section. This segment is mainly Amazon’s growing advertising business which is experiencing strong demand from advertisers that spend money to highlight their products over competitors’ in Amazon’s catalogue. The ad business now generates multiple billions in revenue. For example, the world’s largest advertising company, WPP, directed $200 million of its clients’ ad budgets to Amazon in 2017, and has also predicted that this number could rise to $300 million this year.

Secondly, Amazon’s other key profit driving non-retail business is Amazon Web Services (AWS). This leases computing power and data storage to companies large and small, and has just experienced a 40% growth. The fact that AWS has earned $17.5 billion in 2017 compared to its $9.2 CapEx spending means that it is even making a profit from a business that typically requires a huge amount of investment. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google collectively spent $35 billion on data centres to power their cloud businesses in 2017.

One key thing that both of these important business segments have in common is that they deliver big profit margins. For example, AWS’s operating profit margin is consistently over 20% and Amazon’s ad business also contributes big profits to the company’s main bottom line.

Some commentators have said that Amazon’s strong position in the Cloud market, search and advertising, and the voice assistant market with Alexa are boosting the competitive position of the company as well as its profits.

In Competition With Google and Facebook?

This huge surge in advertising profits is still not quite in the same ballpark as Google and Facebook’s Internet duopoly, with Google and Facebook accounting for more than 60% of global online ad revenues, although Amazon is now on the right trajectory to start taking more of their business.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Amazon has expanded and diversified in recent years and the big advantages of its advertising that are attracting more business customers are its reach, the fact that Amazon has users’ purchase data and knows what shoppers need, and the fact that advertising on Amazon is delivering results for customers in terms of driving brand awareness, discovery or/and purchases.

These recent ad revenue figures show that although Amazon isn’t seriously challenging Facebook and Google just yet, it is generating significant profits from non-retail parts of its business, and is certainly going in the right direction to challenge the current duopoly. For businesses, this gives them more choice, and another potentially effective advertising platform that could drive more potential buyers their way.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has announced that Facebook, the world’s largest online social network, will soon be providing an online dating service, thereby putting it in competition with the likes of Match Group Inc.

On The Cards

Bearing in mind Facebook’s origin as a college dating website and Mark Zuckerberg’s early ‘Facemash’ program, and the fact that Facebook is known to have been wanting to move into online dating for at least 10 years, this move has been on the cards.

Why Now?

There are several key reasons why Facebook has chosen to actually make the move into the online dating world. These include:

• The need to make people spend longer on the Facebook platform (and not on other platforms). For example, time spent by Facebook users on the platform fell by 50 million hours a day in 2017.
• The need to attract more young people to the platform.
• The commercial attractiveness of the booming and growing dating market.
• The fact that there are 200 million people on Facebook that list themselves as single.
• The fact that Facebook already holds many facets of information about users that could be used for matching and dating purposes e.g. interests, local events they could attend.

How Will It Work?

The proposed platform is an optional feature that users will be able to use by clicking on a heart shape at the top-right corner of the Facebook app, and setting up a dating profile. The profile will be based on a first name, won’t be visible to friends and users who aren’t on the dating feature, and won’t show up in the News Feed.

Once set up, users can browse events in their local and groups that match their interests, select ‘unlock’ for dating, and then be able to see the profiles of other potential dates who have unlocked that surface. These profiles will show a few photos plus some basic information about potential dates.

The system will not work using the “swipe” left or right on potential matches like Tinder, but there will be two buttons for “pass” and “interested.”

Users will be able to start a conversation with a potential match by commenting on one of their photos, but the conversations will be text-only, thereby eliminating the risk of unsolicited nude photos being sent. Conversations will take place in a special inbox that’s separate from Messenger and WhatsApp.

Security

In the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has been quick to stress that the service has been built and will operate with an emphasis on privacy.

Not Just Hook-Ups

Facebook has also said that the new dating service is intended to be a standalone feature that will focus on legitimate long-term relationships, rather than just hook-ups. There are already many stories of couples who have met via the normal Facebook platform.

Dating Service Competitors – Stock Value Falls

Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg announced the move into the dating arena, and even though Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg said that she was flattered by Facebook’s entrance into its space, Match’s stock traded down about 22%. Match is the owner of mobile dating apps Tinder and OkCupid and describes itself (on its website) as the “global leader” in online dating.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

If it wasn’t for the recent scandal about data sharing with Cambridge Analytica and the lack of trust that it has created, Facebook would be almost perfectly position to seriously and quickly take on the current online dating giants such as Match. It remains to be seen, therefore, how quickly Facebook users forget or are willing to throw caution to the wind with the promise of powerful motivators and positive reinforcement in the form of dates and possibly, a love match.

Some competitors, such as Bumble, have seen Facebook’s move as an opportunity rather than just a threat, and Bumble has reportedly reached out to Facebook to explore ways to collaborate.

Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service is raising its minimum age in Europe to 16 to comply with GDPR which comes into force on May 25th.

Was 13

Up until now, the minimum age has been 13, and that minimum age will remain for the rest of the world, in line with its Facebook parent company. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, has an estimated 1.5 billion users.

Just Asking

Users will be asked to confirm their minimum age by the new WhatsApp Ireland Ltd in the next few weeks, when they will be prompted to agree to new terms of service and a privacy policy. Some critics have pointed out that even though users will be asked if they are 16 or over, it is unclear from the information that the service holds about users how their age can be accurately checked and verified and, therefore, how the new rule can be enforced.

Based on US Law Until Now

The age 13 limit up until now has been based upon the US law “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule” (Coppa), which bans online services from collecting personal information about younger children. This is why the usage of many other popular social media apps e.g. Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Musical.ly and Reddit are restricted to persons aged 13 and over.

WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook faced criticism after announcing last December that it would be targeting younger children with its ‘Messenger Kids’ service. At the time, Facebook’s primary (stated) motive for the new junior version of its platform was to provide a safer, more age-appropriate version, but some tech and business commentators suggested that it may also be an ideal way for Facebook to recruit its next generation of users, and to capture the attention of 6 to 12-year-olds before Snapchat or a similar social network competitor.

Collecting and Sharing Information

The recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal has brought the matter of collecting and sharing of our personal data into sharp focus. WhatsApp, however, has said that the new changes do not mean that it will be asking for any new rights to collect personal information in the agreement it has created for the European Union. WhatsApp says that the goal of the change is simply to explain how they use and protect the limited information they have about users.

As well as the age restriction change, WhatsApp is also, therefore, rolling out a feature with the latest version of the app that allows users to download a report detailing the data that WhatsApp holds on them e.g. the make and model of the device they used, their contacts, their groups and any blocked numbers.

Facebook Nominate

Facebook is also updating its data policy to comely with GDPR which involves asking 13 and 15-year-old users to nominate a parent or guardian to give permission for them to share information on the platform. If they won’t / cannot do so, the young users will not be able to see a fully personalized version of the social media platform.

Also, Facebook’s Instagram is launching a data download tool to provide users with a file containing the photos, comments, archived stories, contacts and any other personal data that they’ve posted to the service in the past.

Twitter Too

Twitter Inc is also changing its privacy policy so that users can view information they share with the micro-blogging service and show how it’s being used, ahead of the introduction of GDPR. Twitter has said that the changes are to make the privacy policy visually clear and easy to use, and to clarify legalistic or technical language.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This story is another clear reminder that the introduction of GDPR is just around the corner as the tech giants, who have more to lose in fines, potential lost customer numbers, and serious reputational damage, make the necessary legal moves to ensure compliance. For Facebook especially, they have faced some very high profile bad publicity this year over their handling and sharing of personal data, so getting their GDPR compliance house in order may be a way to help avoid any further problems.

There is also a very serious ethical element to this story. It is estimated that Facebook has 20 million under-13-year-olds currently using the network, and there may also be a very large number of children using WhatsApp. Parents may understandably have serious concerns about what content children can have access to and, equally importantly, who can have access to children via social networks. Unsuitable material, commercialisation, bullying (or predatory behaviour by some adults) are just some of the issues to consider.

As well as these concerns, governments (such as the UK) are looking to stop end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp, GDPR is just around the corner, Facebook is now facing more tough questions about its Cambridge Analytica links, Martin Lewis (OBE) is taking Facebook to court for defamation and calling for Facebook to take responsibility for its actions … the pressure is now seriously on big social media platforms to make some changes, particularly where EU users are concerned.

Google has begun the rollout of ‘Chat’, the messaging service that, it is hoped, will replace SMS text messages on Android phones, and bring it into the same ballpark as WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage.

What’s The Problem?

The SMS messaging system for Android phones has suffered over many years from being simply a succession of poorly supported, different apps all using the same basic the short message service (SMS) from the1990s to send text messages over a mobile network. The result has been that none have been particularly popular among android users, who have been envious of the simplicity and ease other messaging services e.g. iPhone that have better features and send messages over the internet instead of using SMS.

New System, New Features

The solution to the problem for Google has been to take many years to develop a whole new messaging system that is based on a standard called the “Universal Profile for Rich Communication Services” (instead of simply making another app), which allows Android users to send messages and image files over a data network.

The new ‘Chat’ service offers many more features such as group texts, videos, typing indicators and read receipts. Since RCS is a communications standard, it will be up to mobile operators to enable the service, but Android will still have SMS to fall back on anyway.

Carrier-Based Service

Chat is a carrier/network-based service (i.e. not a Google-based service), so one of the key ways that Google has gone about making sure that Chat will work is to try to convince as many carriers as possible to take the new standard, and make the Chat services interoperable between carriers.

If you text someone who doesn’t have Chat enabled, or who is not an Android user, your messages will revert back to SMS, in the same way that an iMessage does.

It is thought that Google has done enough work with 50+ carriers to ensure that most of them will enable the use of the Chat service this year, which is handy since the global rollout by Google is already underway.

Au Revoir ‘Allo’

Another indicator of Google’s commitment to getting Chat ‘out there’ is the pausing of its work on its ‘Allo’ messaging service.

Data Plan Instead of SMS

Since Chat messages will be sent over the data network i.e. sent with your data plan instead of your SMS plan, it is expected that charges for messages could be less, although this will be up to the networks.

Security Flaw

One flaw in the Chat service could be the fact that messages are not encrypted, and could, therefore, be a security risk if intercepted.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Business and individual users of Android will be pleased to hear that at last there may be a messaging service that is built-in, allows plenty of modern functionality, and is up there with competing services e.g. WhatsApp and iMessage.

Hopefully, the main networks will support the service as soon as possible, and with messages being sent over the data network the hope is also that costs for the service could be kept at a very reasonable level (depending on the network).

The one question mark for many users may, however, be the lack of encryption of the messages, especially at a time when data security is at the forefront of their mind with the introduction of GDPR next month.

These days, many of us use the WhatsApp messaging service as part of our business communications. Thanks to functionality introduced last year, you can now send multiple file types e.g. APK’s, Zip and RAR files using WhatsApp. Here’s how:

– Open your WhatsApp chat thread and tap the Attachment icon.
– Tap on Document from the list of the options.
– Select your file and send it.
– This sends the file in its original size, thereby keeping the quality.
– If you select Gallery in the WhatsApp attachment option, it compresses the size of media (but this can adversely affect its quality).