1. Trump’s Post Removed by Warner Bros.
Before President Donald Trump can “Make America Great Again,” he’ll have to follow the rules. On Tuesday, he posted a 2020 re-election campaign video on Twitter that reached over 1M views but disappeared after less than three hours. The video played to the film soundtrack, The Dark Knight Rises, so Warner Bros. Pictures filed a copyright infringement and had the video taken down.
Only the caption remained on Trump’s post. What was said in the video? The dramatic video featured one statement after another: “First, they ignore you. Then, they laugh at you. Then, they call you racist.” A montage of powerful Democratic news outlets and figures follows. The video wraps up with victorious images of Trump and the message: “Your vote proved them wrong. 2020.” The dramatic music foreshadowed the dramatic removal of the video from Twitter.
2. Snapchat to Lose U.S. Market
According to a report by eMarketer, Snapchat could lose the U.S. market, its core customer base, this year. “In 2019, Snapchat will have 77.5M monthly U.S. users, down 2.8% from last year,” eMarketer stated. The news comes after an unpopular redesign of the app. Snapchat recently switched up its interface by placing chats and stories from friends on one side of the screen and branded content on the other. Users hated the redesign so much that 1.2M people signed a petition begging Snapchat to change it back. In just a quarter, Snapchat lost 2% of its daily users.
At its Partner Summit on April 5, Snapchat introduced a new round of revamps, including updates to its Lens Studio and Discover features. The company also introduced Snapkit, which will allow users to post Snap stories on other platforms, and Snap Games, where users can play games with their friends such as Bitmoji Party. Does this change anything? Even with these revamps, Snapchat may not be able to regain its U.S. market. However, recent updates to Snapchat’s Android platforms create promise for expanding in countries like India and China.
(Source: SocialMediaToday, The Verge)
3. YouTube’s Interactive Programming
YouTube is creating Choose Your Own Adventure shows, a style of interactive programming that has the potential to increase viewership and ad sales. The company plans to produce live interactive specials and integrate the style into YouTube original content. YouTube has experimented with interactive advertising in the past but plans to bring interactive content to a whole new level as they have just dedicated an entire unit to its production. Netflix has already released interactive content in kids shows and its original movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Walmart is a competitor too, as they invested in a joint venture with Eko, a producer of interactive series. However, a children’s books publisher isn’t happy with YouTube’s news and sued them for $25M. The publisher, Chooseco LLC, owns the trademark to “Choose Your Own Adventure” and thinks that Netflix is stealing the name. YouTube’s new programming style faces challenges with looming competition and a lawsuit, but it also holds big potential.
