Instagram announced Wednesday that they've reached the 1 million advertiser mark, up 200,000 advertisers in a year. The company credits its growing ads accounts to small businesses, which they've been strategically courting for a while with free "business profiles," and a new "Insights" feature, which lets business access real-time account analytics.
Next up: Instagram plans to evolve business profiles with the ability to book a service with a business directly from their profile later this year. It will also add more business insights on stories, posts saved, and multi-post images.
Why it matters: With roughly 80% of Instagrammers following a business and more than 20% of Instagrammers engaging with business accounts, Instagram has set itself up to be a top e-commerce social platform, which is key in drawing advertisers away from Snapchat, its less commerce-friendly competitor. RetailDive notes that Instagram's relationship with Facebook makes e-commcerce growth easier, by allowing retail advertisers to plug product information into Instagram's shopping platform that's already stored on Facebook.
The members of the House Oversight Committee don't always agree, but there was bipartisan outrage on the panel Wednesday over aspects of an FBI facial recognition database.
The setup: The Government Accountability Office expressed anxiety last year over the accuracy and privacy implications of the facial recognition system.
The barrage: Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz hammered away at FBI official Kimberly Del Greco over how the FBI had dealt with the privacy implications of the system. Democrat Rep. Stephen Lynch, said that the system "is really Nazi Germany here" and that it was "corrosive of our very liberty."
Why it matters: The bipartisan frustration with the government's use of facial recognition speaks to a broader sense of unease some feel about the technology, which could also be implemented by private businesses.
Following in the footsteps of other social networks like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is adding a "Trending storylines" section to its main news feed that will feature news articles and commentary from others tailored to each user's interests.
In short, it's LinkedIn's take on Facebook's "Trending topics."
Why it matters: Consuming news has become one of people's main activities on social media, so it's no surprise that LinkedIn wants to add better ways for its users to do that on its service. It's also in line with the company's growing focus on increasing user engagement.
No fake news: Unlike other social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn isn't worried about fake news, mainly because users don't want to risk their professional reputation, as VP of product Tomer Cohen told Axios. And data seems to support this: LinkedIn was the most trusted social media service as a source of news in a recent study by the American Press Institute.
Artificial Intelligence expert Andrew Ng announced late Tuesday that he is stepping down as chief scientist for Chinese search giant Baidu.
Ng, who is also co-chairman and co-founder of Coursera and a Stanford adjunct professor, announced his departure in a post on Medium. Ng, who has been at Baidu since 2014, was circumspect on just what he plans to do next, but said the task of pioneering artificial intelligence "cannot be done by any single company."
I will continue my work to shepherd in this important societal change. In addition to transforming large companies to use AI, there are also rich opportunities for entrepreneurship as well as further AI research. I want all of us to have self-driving cars; conversational computers that we can talk to naturally; and healthcare robots that understand what ails us. The industrial revolution freed humanity from much repetitive physical drudgery; I now want AI to free humanity from repetitive mental drudgery, such as driving in traffic. This work cannot be done by any single company — it will be done by the global AI community of researchers and engineers. My Machine Learning MOOC on Coursera helped many people enter AI. In addition to working on AI myself, I will also explore new ways to support all of you in the global AI community, so that we can all work together to bring this AI-powered society to fruition.
The U.S. military is expecting North Korea to launch another missile in the "next several days," according to U.S. defense officials who spoke with the AP. North Korea claims it is in the final stages of building its ICBMs, which could reach the U.S. mainland in the next couple of years.
The U.S. has increased surveillance operations in the region with satellites, drones, and other aircraft after North Korea launched four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
Uber, whose CEO has long resisted releasing company data on employee demographics, will release its first report by the end of the month, HR chief Liane Hornsey said on Tuesday during a conference call with reporters.
Hornsey, along with board member Arianna Huffington and regional manager Rachel Holt, reiterated past statements about the company's commitment to change, during the call, but offered few specifics. Huffington also continued to defend CEO Travis Kalanick.
For the second time in two weeks, Microsoft has been experiencing glitches with its online services. Many customers have been unable on Tuesday to sign on to Xbox Live, Outlook.com, Skype and other services.
Microsoft has acknowledged the issues on its various status pages and said it is working to deploy a fix that should restore service.
"We're aware that some users are having difficulties logging in to some services," a representative told Axios. "Our engineers are working to fully resolve this as soon as possible."
Screenshot by Axios
Update: Microsoft says most services are working properly now, but OneDrive is having some residual issues.
MGM Television will partner with Snap Inc. to produce "shows" for Snapchat's Discover platform. The shows will be 4-5 minute episodes of television-like content that are created specifically for vertical viewing on mobile.
Why this matters: This is Snapchat's first deal with a major entertainment studio and follows a set of exclusive deals between Snap and high-end TV companies. Platforms signing exclusive mobile-content deals with Snapchat can be seen as a sign of confidence that the networks see Snapchat as a way to reach an incremental audience, mainly millennials, in a way that will bolster — not compete — with their brands.
A Nielsen study finds that Snapchat reaches 41% of U.S. millennials on any given day, compared to the top 15 U.S. TV network that reach only 6% of milllenials per day.
Snap's push to technologically support mobile video content, through vertical viewing, "tap to swipe" navigation cues, etc., is helping them land exclusive deals with TV networks experimenting on mobile. Recode reports they hope to monetize through content licensing agreements, not just ads, similar to how TV broadcast companies work with telecom companies that distribute their content.
The bitter rivalry between Google and Oracle that has been unfolding in court rooms over the past 7 years is now spilling over into a Capitol Hill lobbying campaign.
Oracle has stepped up lobbying efforts against Google on issues like privacy, according to industry sources. Now Google is pushing back. Last week the tech giant began circulating to congressional offices a deck taking issue with Oracle's claims, a copy of which was obtained by Axios.
