📡 Become a better marketer with one sentence

Pulse #143 — and evolve like Instagram. I’m back btw.

Jul 25, 2021

Hi friends 👋

It’s been a couple of weeks, and I missed you; even if you’re one of those who didn’t miss me.

Things are almost back to normal, and I can now continue sending you Pulse [and hopefully see you at the second Intersection at some point].

Meanwhile, here’s something I just read and did relate to, while thinking about improving my newsletter:

“It’s pretty straightforward to grease a squeaky wheel, or repair a broken window.
Far more difficult is to realize that your room would be a lot more pleasant if you added a window in the first place.”
— Seth Godin, Improving what’s not there.

Now, all I wanna do is to add a window [or something] to Pulse — or maybe remove one of its windows…

While I’m thinking, let’s dive into this week’s Pulse.

Last Week in the News

A new job posting shows Amazon seeking a digital currency and blockchain expert [link]
Apple Silicon in Apple Displays, Facebook in mixed reality, and Apple Music on Android [link]
Section 230, more transparency from Google, and what happens when a porn company buys an old domain [link]
Clubhouse is now open, Twitter’s testing upvote & downvotes, and Facebook’s slow fight with misinfo [link]
Netflix’s expansion into gaming, next Samsung event, and TweetDeck’s overhaul [link]
Astronaut Bezos in space, spyware on phones, and new ads format on TikTok [link]
Spyware on the loose, attraction value in an Italian museum, and Tesla’s self-driving subscription [link]

🦅 a gift for you*.

Worth Your Attention

The one sentence that will make you a better marketer from Shounak’s newsletter, Market Curve.
here’s the sentence, but there’s a lot to it and Shounak explain’s it quite well:
“people will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, calm their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies.”

Instagram’s Evolution by Ben Thompson on Stratechery.
a couple of weeks ago, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, posted a video about where Instagram is going, what it is, and what it’s not. one thing it’s not anymore, according to Mosseri, is a “square photo-sharing app.”
in this post, Ben Thompson goes through the stages of instagram’s evolution as an app: from photo filters to network to video to algorithmic feed to Stories — and now reels and more.

Chart of the Week

Number of ASMR themed mobile games

The number of ASMR games are increasing — Credit: Apptopia

ASMR stands for ‘autonomous sensory meridian response.’ It’s when your body responds to audio stimuli by giving you a tingling sensation and/or pleasant chills. Many people find this sensation to be calming and relaxing. ASMR can be used to relieve stress and anxiety.

The number of games ranking across iOS and Google Play with the word “ASMR” in the title and/or description has been rising for 13 straight quarters. Q2 2021 ended with 405 games, an increase of 72.3% YoY.

Read more on Apptopia.

& more stats

Slowest growth. Netflix added just 5.5 million subscribers in the first half of 2021, compared to more than 25 million during the same period a year ago [link]
Competition. TikTok becomes the first non-Facebook mobile app to reach 3 billion downloads globally [link]
Music streaming. Global music subscriber market shares Q1 2021 [link]
Influencers. The most useful type of content from influencers — according to consumers [link]
Vax Passes. Vaccine passport apps hit 12 million downloads globally [link]
Creator funds. Here are some details 👇
Kaya Yurieff@kyurieff
Facebook is (belatedly) joining the parade of tech companies offering to pay creators for showing up. Here's a handy chart of how creator fund programs compare bit.ly/3B5prH1
11:36 PM · Jul 14, 2021
10 Reposts · 32 Likes

Tools & Apps

Tweek: Minimal Weekly Planner & To-Do List App [iOS | Android]
it’s what it says it is — and it’s good.
Notion: All-in-one workspace
i don’t know how i wasn’t obsessed with Notion so far! it’s awesome!
Real-time Banner: Make your Twitter banner update in real-time
this is pretty cool!
Bio.Link: the one link for all your links
it’s free and has analytics — what else do you want? here’s mine in English, and in Farsi.
Clubhub: Fantastic analytics tool for Clubhouse
now that Clubhouse isn’t invite-only and anyone can join, analytics is even more important…

Quick Tips

Google on Desktop: press ‘/’ to go to the search bar (and not browser’s address bar)

Spotted

Instagram keeps working to automatically play videos in full screen [link]
Instagram is working on an iOS widget [link]
Instagram is working on the possibility of adding a location to Reels clips [link]
Instagram is working on the “Account Health” section [link]
Instagram is working on a new chat theme: Birthday [link]
Instagram is rebranding “IGTV Ads” to “In-Stream Video Ads” [link]
Instagram is working on a video trim option for the website’s post creation tool [link]
Twitter is working on Video Trimmer for Twitter Web App [link]
Another look at Twitter Ticketed Spaces [link]
Twitter is working on Voice Transformer for Twitter Spaces [link]
Twitter is working on a button to quickly scroll down the conversation [link]
Twitter is working on requiring application approval for access to Tip Jar [link]