📡 Cosying up to the creators
Pulse #122 — Twitter’s looking for a better relationship with creators, and is trying to entice them with new features and monetisation options. Will it work?
Last week, Twitter stepped into the realm newsletter publishing by acquiring Revue — and turning its PRO features available for free (I paid for them for over two and a half years and moved from Revue three weeks ago 🤦♂️💀) and working on integrating it to their main app already.
Not that these would’ve stopped me from moving, but it definitely was a contributing factor in addition to the slow development and lack of new features on the platform during the past year or so. Nevertheless, Revue was/is a fantastic platform. Good enough that we’re looking to start something on it 👀 — but that’s for another day.
From Twitter’s recent buying spree, I think you can get a sense of direction of the company. Acquisitions like Revue (newsletter service), Breaker (my favourite social podcasting app), Ueno (creative agency), Squad (real-time social video), and Chroma Labs (visual stories app) show Twitter’s move toward more features and a better relationship with creators: audio (audio tweets & TwitterSpaces), video/stories (fleets), and now newsletters — can’t say the same about developers though 🙄
Considering the development speed of new social platforms such as Clubhouse and their focus on creators seem to be pressuring Twitter to care more about their community of creators with new features and direct monetisation options — like paid newsletters.
This becomes a lot more important when you think about Twitter’s wrong bets like discontinuing Vine (could’ve been TikTok) or limiting their API (basically killing active development of third-party apps).
Are these the right bets? I’d say so.
PS. If you’re on Clubhouse, let’s connect; it’s @behrouz.
If you’re here for the Clubhouse invite, scroll down to the very bottom of this email.
News
WhatsApp using their status feature to assure people about privacy [link]
Google union in turmoil following global alliance announcement [link]
Coachella has been cancelled for the third time due to the coronavirus pandemic [link]
Apple just paid a record $25 million to buy a Sundance movie [link]
Apple’s privacy labels, the new Matrix movie, and the SolarWinds that keep blowing from Russia [link]
The Internet vs Wall Street, Facebook vs Apple, and YouTube vs TikTok [link]
Memes are coming for the stock market, Iran’s reaction to Signal, and Earnings of Apple, Samsung, and Facebook [link]
Twitter’s step into newsletter publishing, Vulnerabilities in iOS & TikTok, and a warning Signal [link]
Birdwatch, Apple’s mysterious new project, and Walking with celebs [link]
Clubhouse on the rise, Italy’s TikTok problem, and MagSafe’s safety issue [link]
🏠 a gift for you.
Worth Your Attention
When something’s really funny on TikTok, do you 😂 at it? Well, I did too, but I stopped; you have to, too! Apparently, that’s the boomer way!
Here’s the right way of laughing really hard on TikTok comments: 💀 — and it’s not just the laughs…
this is culture at its best — dynamic, live, breathing, and evolving.
Chart of the Week
What /r/WallStreetBets did for Reddit
Regardless of all implications, whether positive or negative, what the $GME/WSB saga did for Reddit was for it to become the centre of attention — hence:
Reddit had its most single-day downloads with 199k.
Reddit ranked its highest in the US iOS App Store at #2 Overall.
Read more on Apptopia.
there’s a lot about Robinhood as well — the fintech app, not the other ones!
also, here you can see a timeline of the events around the whole movement.
& more stats
TikTok [Android] users spent an average of 21.5 hours on the app per month in 2020, up more than two-thirds from the 12.8 hours users spent on the app in 2019. [link]
Finance apps grew 25% YoY to reach nearly 5 billion worldwide installs in 2020, led by payment apps such as Google Pay and PayPal. [link]
Tools & Apps
Shareful: Supercharge the macOS share menu [macOS]
if you’re a mac user, this is a lot more useful than you’d think.
this is a life-saver!
Brainiac: Database of 150 cognitive biases that control our decisions
it’s not totally free, but have a look at the free stuff and then decide.
Uppbeat: Free music for creators, no copyright issues
if you create content, specifically video, this is fantastic way to keep youtube/twitch off of your ass!
Pitch Deck Database: 700+ decks from the best startups that raised over $355M
not necessarily a new thing, but if you haven’t seen one before, it can be very helpful. it includes many interesting companies from facebook to snapchat to wework to airbnb.
Type Studio: Online text-based video editor
free 20min video upload per month
Spotted
Microsoft is working on the possibility of viewing emails in light mode or dark mode [link], and theme customization options in Outlook for Android [link]
Netflix is starting to test the sleep timer feature [link]
Twitter is working to include a “Newsletters” item in the menu in the web app [link]
Instagram continues to work on the new "Collab" sticker [link]
Meanwhile on Twitter
Ideas from around the WWW
that’s all for today
now, if you’re here for the Clubhouse invite, click here. one of you will be chosen by random and will be contacted by email. you’ve got till 11:50pm, monday 01 feb 2021.
What did you think of this issue?
Hey mate! Your link above to win the invite just links to your store. Is that a mistake?