Topic: platform competition
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Pew: X Defies Competition, Holds Strong in U.S. Social Media
X remains the dominant platform for real-time, short-form text in the U.S., with 21% of adults using it, despite new competitors like Threads and Bluesky gaining minimal traction. User adoption of emerging platforms is low, with Threads at 8% and Bluesky at 4% of U.S. adults, and X's usage has re...
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Google Now Allows Subscriptions in Shopping Ads
Google now allows U.S. merchants to sell physical goods through subscriptions directly in Shopping ads, enhancing shopper convenience and seller flexibility. Merchants must include the subscription_cost attribute in their product feeds, specifying billing details, and only one subscription price ...
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YouTube's AI Search Dominance: 200x More Citations
YouTube dominates AI-generated search results, receiving approximately 200 times more citations than its closest video platform competitor across major AI systems like ChatGPT and Google's products. In Google AI Overviews, YouTube holds the top domain position with 29.5% of citations, significant...
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Meta Wins Monopoly Case: Judge Rules Social Networking Era Over
A federal judge dismissed monopoly claims against Meta, ruling that the FTC failed to prove the company holds a dominant position in the evolving digital landscape. The court recognized that platforms like TikTok and YouTube are significant competitors, challenging the FTC's narrow definition of ...
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YouTube's New Feature Will Finally Organize Your Home Feed
YouTube is testing "Your Custom Feed," a feature that gives users more control over their viewing experience by addressing issues with the platform's algorithm. Users can type specific prompts to guide the algorithm, allowing them to actively shape their feed based on interests like cooking tutor...
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Patreon Adds Tweet-Style Features and Recommendations
Patreon is introducing social media-style tools like Quips, which are public posts to help creators attract new audiences while maintaining direct supporter connections. The update includes collaborative posts and an improved recommendation engine to foster discovery and audience sharing among cr...
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5 Must-See AI Search Stories: September 2025 Update
SEO remains essential in an AI-driven search landscape, requiring a strategic, brand-conscious, and user-first approach to maintain competitiveness. Google continues to dominate search despite the rise of generative AI and answer engines, though AI overviews are reducing click-through rates and c...
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Spotify Aims to Dominate Video Streaming Next
Spotify is launching a major video initiative by integrating music videos into its app, aiming to evolve from an audio-first platform into a comprehensive video service that rivals YouTube and TikTok. This strategic pivot is driven by the need to capture more user attention and improve monetizati...
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Why Newsletter Saturation Doesn't Scare Beehiiv's CEO
beehiiv is expanding from a newsletter platform into a comprehensive content toolkit, adding an AI website builder, podcast support, and digital product sales to meet user demands for flexibility. The platform's growth increases competition with other creator tools, but beehiiv believes its maste...
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Facebook's New Look: The TikTok Transformation
Facebook is adopting a TikTok-inspired short-form video strategy, enhancing its recommendations engine to deliver more relevant Reels and revitalize the platform under Meta's leadership. The platform now prioritizes fresh content by showing 50% more same-day Reels and introduces "friend bubbles" ...
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OpenAI's AI Commerce Race: Who Will Win?
OpenAI is integrating applications and services like Spotify and Figma directly into ChatGPT, positioning it as a central hub for digital interactions and complex tasks. The company introduced a commerce ecosystem with Instant Checkout and in-chat storefronts, enabling transactions and partnershi...
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Spotify Tests AI-Powered 'Prompted Playlists' for You
Spotify is launching a beta feature called Prompted Playlists for Premium subscribers in New Zealand, allowing them to create highly personalized playlists using detailed text prompts based on their full listening history. The feature uses advanced AI with "world knowledge" to understand complex ...
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Why Sony Can't Ignore Xbox's Shooter Fans
Despite lagging in hardware sales, Xbox retains a powerful allure for publishers due to its fiercely dedicated community, particularly within the shooter genre, which demonstrates high engagement. Microsoft's strategy is pivoting to merge its console identity with PC, as the Xbox Series X|S under...
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Fizz CEO Explains the Power of Anonymous Social Apps
Fizz is a new social media platform for university students that emphasizes authentic, everyday interactions over the curated perfection often seen on apps like Instagram and TikTok. The app fosters genuine connection through a model of user anonymity and hyperlocal, campus-specific networks, cre...
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Soapy Micro Dramas: Hollywood's Next Big Bet
Short-form micro dramas are experiencing a surprising resurgence in the entertainment industry, learning from past failures like Quibi to adapt to modern viewing habits and generate substantial revenue. These serialized stories, often featuring pulpy romance and female empowerment themes, are str...
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Meta's 'Vibes' Feed: AI-Generated Short Videos Arrive
Meta is launching "Vibes," a new feed for AI-generated short videos within its Meta AI app and website, similar to TikTok but populated entirely by AI-created content. The platform will feature personalized, algorithm-curated videos that users can create, remix, and share, with Meta partnering wi...
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YouTube Reinstates Banned Channels: Advertiser Impact Explained
YouTube is reinstating channels previously banned under old COVID-19 and election rules, marking a major shift in moderation toward free expression. Reinstated channels can monetize content again, expanding ad inventory but raising brand-safety concerns for advertisers. The policy change allows s...
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X Tests AI-Powered Community Notes via Chatbots
X is testing AI-powered chatbots to help generate Community Notes, its crowd-sourced fact-checking feature, aiming to improve speed and scale while maintaining human oversight. Community Notes rely on user consensus for accuracy, and AI-generated suggestions will undergo the same human review pro...
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VR Thrives: A Reassuring Look for Adults
Despite reports of struggles, VR hardware like Meta's Quest remains commercially successful, indicating a resilient and growing user base. The technology's vitality is driven by a major demographic shift, with younger users, particularly Gen Alpha, now forming its largest and most active audience...
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Reddit Tests In-App Article Reading to Keep You Engaged
Reddit is testing an in-app article reading feature to keep users on the platform and provide publishers with a new traffic source amid declining referrals from other channels. The feature allows users to read articles directly within the app with comments visible, respects publisher paywalls, an...
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The Sports Streaming Chaos: A Fragmented Nightmare
Sports streaming has become increasingly fragmented, frustrating fans like JJ Watt who face access issues due to carriage disputes and the need for multiple subscriptions. Streaming giants like Amazon, Netflix, and Apple are securing exclusive sports rights, making more games available online but...
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Amazon Music Canada Launches Social Streaming and Chat
Amazon Music has launched a beta feature called Fan Groups in Canada, allowing users to create and join communities based on music genres and artists for social streaming and chat within the app. The feature enables members to post messages, share and save songs, and stream shared music directly ...
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Google's Cameyo Lures Businesses to Switch from Windows to ChromeOS
Google has integrated Cameyo into its enterprise portfolio to enable legacy Windows applications to run on ChromeOS, addressing a major barrier to business adoption. The service allows employees to use specific Windows programs like Excel alongside web tools without needing full Windows licenses,...
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YouTube's First-Ever Year in Review: Your Watch History Recap
YouTube has launched its first "YouTube Recap," a personalized year-end summary of users' video watching habits, distinct from its existing music recap. The feature assigns users a personality type based on viewing preferences and highlights top channels and interests, with a global rollout under...
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Agentic Browsers: The Future of Digital Marketing
Agentic browsers are transforming digital marketing by autonomously interpreting content and executing tasks, shifting how consumers discover and purchase products online. Major tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and SAP are integrating AI tools and frameworks, with widespread ent...
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Instagram's New Custom Icons Are Just for Teens
Instagram has introduced customizable app icons exclusively for teen accounts, offering six design options to personalize their home screen experience. The feature has sparked frustration among adult users who feel excluded, as Instagram confirmed no immediate plans to extend access or offer it v...
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Instagram's Content Push vs. My Photo Posts
Instagram has evolved from a simple photo-sharing platform into a complex ecosystem with features like Stories, Reels, and AI tools that distract from the core experience. The platform now prioritizes content creation and engagement, encouraging users to optimize posts with numerous features, whi...
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OpenWav's New App Is Fixing the Broken Music Industry
Wyclef Jean criticizes the current music industry as broken, citing unsustainable revenue from streaming services that offer minimal payouts to artists. OpenWav, a new platform, aims to empower artists by providing direct-to-fan monetization tools for releases, merchandise, and events, allowing t...
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TikTok Tests Broadcast Channels Like Instagram's Feature
TikTok is testing "bulletin boards," a one-way communication tool for creators and brands to share updates, similar to Instagram's broadcast channels. Early adopters like People Magazine and the Jonas Brothers highlight the feature's potential for media and entertainment engagement, with limited ...
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Top Games Are Becoming Impossible to Dethrone
The top five most-played video games on major consoles remained unchanged from 2024 to 2025, indicating a stagnant hierarchy driven by entrenched player habits and economic factors. These dominant titles, like Fortnite and Minecraft, retain players through features like cross-platform availabilit...
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WhatsApp Bans ChatGPT and Copilot
WhatsApp will remove third-party AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot by January 2026 due to new terms of service that restrict how businesses use its platform. OpenAI and Microsoft are withdrawing their chatbots in response to Meta's updated WhatsApp Business Solution terms, with ChatGPT users a...
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Facebook Reintroduces Job Listings Feature
Facebook has relaunched its job listings feature, focusing on connecting local businesses with candidates for entry-level, service, and trade roles, accessible via Marketplace and community groups. The platform enforces safety guidelines, requiring users to be 18 or older and prohibiting certain ...
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Stereogum's Survival Guide for the Streaming and AI Era
Stereogum, founded in 2002 as a pioneering music blog, has evolved into a major voice in music journalism and recently underwent a significant relaunch to adapt to challenges like AI in media. The site's recent updates include technical improvements, a visual refresh with dark mode, and a shift t...
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AWS Outage Disrupted College Students' Education
The AWS outage disrupted education by disabling Canvas, a key learning management system used by millions of students for coursework, communication, and resources. Students nationwide were unable to access assignments, submit work, contact instructors, or use digital textbooks, highlighting their...
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Google Ads Tests View-Through Conversion Optimization for Demand Gen
Google Ads is testing a new optimization tool for Demand Gen campaigns that incorporates view-through conversions into bidding strategies, improving performance for ads that influence behavior without clicks. The feature currently supports YouTube placements for image and video ads, with plans to...
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