This week in social media, Facebook's real name policy got it in even more trouble, while Snapchat and Pinterest both climb in value. It's time for Social Media Saturday!
Snapchat, by all indications, is involved in another round of venture capital fundraising that could increase financing of the ephemeral social media messaging company by up to $500 million. The funding round could also value the still privately held "startup" at $19 billion -- a number full of irony for Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel.
This week in social media, Facebook began cracking down on hoaxes, Twitter launched a new feature for infrequent iOS users, and -- this just in -- Google+ still exists!
Meanwhile, Snapchat wants almost $1 million for disappearing ads, advertisers are Pinterest for a fool, and Facebook announced Amber Alerts and AI tools for everyone.
This week in social media, Facebook continued encroaching on YouTube's turf, Twitter continued rolling out changes that mirror Facebook, Pinterest officially launched advertising, and Snapchat raised nearly half a billion in funding from an eager investment round.
When Snapchat turned down a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook late last year, it was hard to tell if Snapchat and its now 24-year-old CEO Evan Spiegel were incredibly confident, unbelievably filled with hubris, implausibly stupid -- or all of the above.
This week in social media was all about mobile growth and potential, as a new report shows how the major social media networks currently stack up against each other. Big surprise: Facebook is doing fine. But Tumblr and Pinterest both showed amazing growth, too.
This week in social media, Facebook clarified its privacy settings, Instagram finally lets users edit photo captions after posting, and Snapchat beefed up its security. Meanwhile, Ocho launched to rival Vine, and Twitter announced more new features while getting an official "junk" rating from a major Wall Street index.
This week in social media, Facebook welcomed Tor users, while Instagram wasn't as hospitable to Chelsea Handler's boobs. Meanwhile, Twitter continued to struggle and BBM joined the Snapchat imitation club.
This week in social media, Facebook launched a new app as CEO Mark Zuckerberg impressed everyone with his Chinese language skills. Meanwhile, Twitter is planning to kill the password for good, Skype launched its own Snapchat clone, Snapchat launched its first ads, Tumblr embraced video in a big way, and upstart Ello got attention by legally promising to never advertise on its social network.
This week in Social Media, Facebook began pushing into YouTube territory, while also testing Snapchat-style ephemeral posts on its flagship network. Meanwhile, Twitter began rolling out the long-rumored "buy" button, WhatsApp added a bunch of new features, and Snapchat settled with one of its co-founders, conveniently while everyone was paying attention to Apple.
This week in social media, we learned that messaging giant WhatsApp has hit a new milestone in active monthly users. Meanwhile, Twitter opened its analytics to everyone, Snapchat might officially be worth $10 billion, Facebook is expanding Graph Search, and Instagram unleashed an amazing app.
Snapchat may not just be for sending your friends quick quirky messages that disappear after a few seconds. The skyrocketing social media site could soon ad advertisements, along with TV and movie clips and news.
This week in social media, people are still complaining about the Facebook Messenger app, Snapchat is battling for the right to keep its "tap to hold" video capture feature, and we saw the power and problems of Twitter (and for that matter social media) in the Ferguson shooting and Robin Williams' death.
This week in social media, Facebook opened up the Internet to every person in Zambia through its Internet.org app. Meanwhile, things don't look so bleak for Twitter, partly thanks to the World Cup, and Snapchat could soon be valued at $10 billion -- no wonder Facebook just launched yet another Snapchat clone.
