Every week the Insights Team at The Goat Agency pull together the latest news from the social space in a weekly social media industry news round-up. This week we cover TikTok potentially abandoning live commerce in Europe, Khaby Lame launching NFTs and the latest updates from Meta, Twitter, YouTube and Spotify.
Don’t forget you can follow us on Linkedin, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter for real-time announcements of all our new blog content!
Contents:
Logan Paul’s Multi-Year Contract With WWE
Khaby Lame Is Getting Into NFTs
NFT Display Options Launch Across Facebook
YouTube Channels Can’t Hide Subscriber Counts
Is TikTok Abandoning Live Commerce In Europe?
TikTok’s Dedicated Shopping Feed
Spotify’s New Supergrouper Feature
Twitter’s New Bitmoji Integration
Logan Paul’s Multi-Year Contract With WWE
Logan Paul has not only ventured into the world of boxing through his clashes with KSI, but now turned his hand to the WWE. Logan at high school was a talented wrestler who went on to build a presence across Vine with his brother Jake, then found success across YouTube.
However, Logan has led the way of creators going beyond social media, starring in movies, creating his own clothing and energy drink brands and now signing a contract with WWE, which will see Paul compete at multiple events per year.
Logan first got involved with WWE when appearing at Wrestlemania 38, where the creator walked to the ring with a rare pokemon card around his neck and teamed up with The Miz to take down Rey Mysterio and his son.
Since then, Logan’s return to WWE has been highly anticipated, which had led to this multi-year deal. Following the announcement of the deal, some wrestling fans have expressed negative feelings about Logan being a bigger face in the sport. However, this is much of the appeal of the Paul brothers, who notoriously lean into a villain role to get people to tune in.
Khaby Lame Is Getting Into NFTs
Following the news that Khaby Lame has become the most followed person on TikTok, the creator is now launching NFT collections. Khaby will serve as a brand ambassador for crypto exchange Binance.
In this new role with Binance, the creator will launch NFTs and produce clips that debunk Web3 myths. Khaby has amassed a huge following from videos that showcase his disapproval of false logic/hack videos where he entertains his audience with his silent reactions.
Therefore, this partnership will Binance will tap into his content style in order to dispel myths in the crypto and NFT space. At this point in time, there are no details on the NFT collection but Khaby will join a whole host of celebrities that have partnered with the crypto exchange in the past, including Cristiano Ronaldo.
YouTube Gaming Signs Nobru
YouTube Gaming continues to compete with Twitch with a recent signing that sees the largest Brazilian gamer Nobru, now steam exclusively across YouTube.
The gamer currently has over 13.5 million subscribers across YouTube and is known for playing battle royale titles such as Free Fire.
YouTube has been focusing on signing huge talent over the last year with the likes of Ludwig. The platform is locking in huge gamers into exclusivity deals, taking them away from Twitch.
July will also be a huge month for YouTube Gaming, with new episodes dropping of its existing series including uTure, hosted by gamer Ali-A as well as Ludwig’s IRL edition of Mogul Money, which puts streamers head-to-head in a game show format.
NFT Display Options Launch Across Facebook
Meta is launching display options on Facebook, allowing users to create custom NFT posts with a “Digital Collectible” tag, while profiles also have a dedicated NFT section.
Instagram began testing similar features earlier this year. Now both Instagram and Facebook have the functionality for users to tap through to NFT images and see who owns the artwork, who created it and a description of the piece.
The information on NFTs is sourced through the public blockchain with Facebook looking to provide support for Ethereum, Polygon and all significant exchanges, whilst allowing NFT owners to connect Rainbow, Trust Wallet and MetaMask accounts to verify NFT ownership.
This latest NFT update from Meta sets up how blockchain technology will play a part in the company’s future metaverse plans.
YouTube Channels Can No Longer Hide Subscriber Counts
YouTube is no longer allowing channels to hide subscriber counts due to ongoing efforts to reduce comment spam. In the past accounts have hidden subscriber counts to appear as more prominent channels, then commenting on other videos to lure others over to the impersonating channel.
So this move makes sense, ensuring YouTube users have more information on accounts they are looking at when browsing the platform. In fact, numerous creators on YouTube have spoken up about this issue, seeing a surge in this activity as of late.
Unfortunately, those who simply want to hide subscriber counts as they grow will no longer be able to, due to the abuse of the function among spammers. YouTube is also introducing a crackdown auto-moderation setting for comments named “increase strictness”. This has been in testing for some time but is being rolled out for everyone to turn on in the YouTube Studio.
It doesn’t end here for spammers, YouTube is reducing the character set available when choosing a channel name, so other users don’t impersonate other channels.
Is TikTok Abandoning Live Commerce In Europe?
Following a Financial Times article that stated TikTok was pulling live commerce in Europe, it has now been reported that the offering was never planned to launch in the first half of the year and that it was still being developed. Furthermore, a European launch was not planned, TikTok’s current focus is getting the live commerce product right for the UK.
TikTok has to consider a range of factors before the global rollout of live commerce which is currently available for users in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
TikTok has come under fire as of late with data concerns in the U.S and then UK staff reporting an aggressive workplace culture. This later report of an alleged product failure with live commerce was quickly denied by TikTok as it continues to assert dominance on the social media app marketplace.
TikTok’s Dedicated Shopping Feed
TikTok is testing a new “Shop” tab for users in Indonesia that sits on the top navigation bar on the app beside “Following” and “For You”.
The test also features a cart icon in the top right of the app, allowing users to see what products they are wanting to purchase whilst they also consume other content across the app.
It was only last month that the platform also started testing mini-games for users in Vietnam. The app is clearly venturing beyond short-form video, finding new ways for users to use the app, and keeping them on TikTok for longer. TikTok could soon look like WeChat in China, which allows users to order taxis, shop, play games, and connect with friends and family whilst never leaving the app.
Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has focused heavily on eCommerce capabilities through live shopping tools, and creator monetisation, among other things, which have resulted in Douyin becoming a highly profitable platform. So it makes sense for TikTok to follow in the footsteps of Douyin as TikTok looks to become the number one platform in the west.
Spotify’s New Supergrouper Feature
Spotify has announced a new in-app feature named “Supergrouper” that allows users to create a group consisting of up to five artists. After a user has set up this supergroup, Spotify then curates a playlist of songs from the selected artists.
Spotify will also provide a custom card that allows users to share the supergroup across social. The overall aim of the playlist is to provide a personalised playlist of your favourite artists and then share the playlist with friends.
The feature is available in the U.S, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Philippines, and feeds into Spotify’s focus on personalised features, setting the service above competitors.
Twitter’s New Bitmoji Integration
Twitter is testing a new integration that allows users to display Bitmoji characters as their Twitter profile images. This is a timely addition to the Twitter UX, considering virtual avatars have been a key focus for most social platforms as of late.
This test was first spotted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, who posted about the update showing how the new integration works. Twitter has added the option to the profile image upload flow, allowing users to connect Bitmoji avatars that link your Twitter to Snapchat.
This is the first direct integration between Twitter and Snapchat, allowing Twitter the piggyback off Snap’s virtual avatar offering that has proved popular with a younger userbase.
You can catch up on our latest insights piece on the topic of virtual avatars across social here!
And that’s all for this week, but don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter for real-time announcements of all our new blog content!
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