TikTok has partnered with global concert ticketing agency AXS to help music lovers discover and buy tickets to live events in-app. The new feature, which is going live in the U.S., UK, Sweden and Australia, with more markets to follow, allows any TikTok “Certified Artist” to promote and sell tickets on the platform through AXS. The enhancement is designed to help TikTok artists “expand their audiences globally and build their careers, simply by allowing them to add their AXS event links to their videos before publishing,” according to TikTok. Since 2022, the short-form video platform has been in a venture with Ticketmaster. Continue reading TikTok Expands Its Ticketing Features in Global Deal with AXS

Airchat is the latest app to take tech leaders in Silicon Valley by storm. Described as a “combination of voice notes and Twitter,” Airchat lets you follow other users and scroll through posts — adding replies, likes and shares — but the twist is the content is generated through audio recordings the app then transcribes. Airchat ranked 27th on the App Store’s social networking chart, even though users must be invited to join. Launched last year by Naval Ravikant, founder of AngelList, and erstwhile Tinder product exec Brian Norgard, Airchat was just relaunched on iOS and Android. Continue reading Audio-First Social Platform Airchat Has Successful Relaunch

Meta will release a new Quest educational product later this year. As with 2023’s workplace-specific Meta Quest for Business, the as yet unnamed learning tool will allow teachers, trainers and administrators to access education-specific apps and features, and make it possible for them to manage multiple Quest devices at once. The classroom convenience of not having to individually update and prepare each headset for the same lesson was one of Meta’s key findings in researching what teachers wanted from virtual reality, Meta says, positioning education and training as a growing tech product sector, with lots of app activity. Continue reading Meta Education Initiative Aims to Put Quest VR in Classrooms

Meta is testing a new large language chatbot, Meta AI, on social platforms in parts of India and Africa. The chatbot was introduced in late 2023, and began testing on U.S. WhatApp users in March. The test is expanding to include more territories and the addition of Instagram and Facebook Messenger. India is reported to be Meta’s largest social market, with more than 500 million Facebook and WhatsApp users, and has big implications as the company scales up its AI plans to compete against OpenAI and others. The Meta AI chatbot answers questions and generates photorealistic images. Continue reading Meta Tests Image-Generating Social Chatbot on Its Platforms

Microsoft’s LinkedIn social business platform has joined forces with NBCUniversal to enter the connected TV advertising market. At its B2Believe customer event in New York, LinkedIn unveiled three new offerings — LinkedIn CTV Ads, LinkedIn Premiere with NBCUniversal, and Live Event Ads. Advertisers can get their creative in front of the LinkedIn audience against streaming content on connected TVs with LinkedIn CTV, target U.S. decision makers across NBCUniversal’s premium CTV content with LinkedIn Premiere and promote corporate live events before, during, and after with Live Event Ads. Kantar and iSpot are offering measurement insights. Continue reading LinkedIn Gets Advertisers Connected with CTV, NBCUni Deal

Meta Platforms has updated its Facebook video player to offer a consistent vertical view for Reels, Facebook Live and long-form content, making vertical the default view. The upgraded player adds controls including fullscreen mode for horizontal videos, a slider to parse through longer videos, and “tap” functionality to bring up additional options, like “pause,” or jumping back or forward in 10-second increments. The new video player will roll out first on iOS and Android in the U.S. and Canada, then globally in the coming months. Continue reading Facebook Updates Video Player to Take On TikTok, YouTube

Messaging app Telegram has added business account features to create a custom start page, listings, maps, hours of operation, chatbot support and more. Anyone can turn their Telegram account into a Telegram Business account, and users don’t need coding skills. Public channels with 1,000 or more subscribers can receive 50 percent of the revenue from ads shown in their channels. Based in Dubai, Telegram says the channels of its global users generate over 1 trillion monthly views. In February it unveiled an ad program that adopted the TON blockchain’s Toncoin as its native currency. Continue reading Telegram Adds Business Features to Challenge Meta, Google

Microsoft-owned business and employment-focused social platform LinkedIn plans to add games and a vertical-scroll feed of short videos. But the career-centric platform will still be all work, even as it adds play. The intent is to have the TikTok-like video feed filled with professionally themed content, and the games will be geared toward relationship building, while also potentially getting people to spend more time using LinkedIn. The video feed is in the test phase, while code hinting at the direction of the gaming feature has been discovered by some astute app watchers. Continue reading LinkedIn Tests Vertical Video Feed, Experiments with Games

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law preventing children under 14 from creating new social media accounts, and requiring platforms to delete existing accounts, with no opportunity for parental consent. For children 14- to 15-years of age, consent of a parent or guardian is required to create or maintain accounts. Without it, or upon request, the accounts and personal data must be deleted, with fines of up to $50,000 per incident per platform. The law, set to take effect in January 2025, is being called the most restrictive passed by any state and is sure to face First Amendment scrutiny by the courts. Continue reading Florida Enacts the Nation’s Most Restrictive Social Media Law

Spotify is launching a test for video-based learning courses in the United Kingdom. Users are invited to test two-free classes before deciding whether to subscribe to a course series, studying topics from DJing to Microsoft Excel. The company has partnered on content with educational tech companies BBC Maestro, PLAYvirtuoso, Skillshare and Thinkific on series averaging $25 to $100 per course (£20 to £80). Topics are organized into four main categories: make music, get creative, learn business and healthy living. Pricing is the same for premium and free members. No word on when the test might expand beyond the UK. Continue reading Spotify Testing Paid Subscription Learning Courses in the UK

A 2024 Digital Media Trends study by Deloitte says media and entertainment companies “should be thinking more about the world ahead than the one they’re being forced to leave behind,” a suggestion underscored by the fact that 60 percent of Gen Zs surveyed prefer watching user-generated content on social platforms to programming offered by streaming services “because they don’t have to spend time searching for what to watch.” Both Gen Zs and Millennials also believe they get better recommendations from social media than the commercial platforms (54 percent). Continue reading Gen Z, Millennials Prefer Social Videos to Streaming Services

Meta Platforms is showing off fediverse integration for Threads, the Instagram spinoff launched last summer to take on Twitter, now X. At this week’s FediForum virtual conference, Meta Platforms software engineer Peter Cottle demonstrated how users will be able to connect accounts to use the fediverse, simultaneously reaching multiple audiences. Currently, “a limited number of Threads profiles can share their posts to other fediverse platforms,” according to Instagram. In an alpha test, interactions, such as likes and replies, from other fediverse platforms “won’t be viewable on Threads.” Continue reading FediForum: Meta Demonstrates Threads Fediverse Integration

YouTube has added new rules requiring those uploading realistic-looking videos that are “made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI” to label them using a new tool in Creator Studio. The new labeling “is meant to strengthen transparency with viewers and build trust between creators and their audience,” YouTube says, listing examples of content that require disclosure as “likeness of a realistic person” including voice as well as image, “altering footage of real events or places” and “generating realistic scenes” of fictional major events, “like a tornado moving toward a real town.” Continue reading YouTube Adds GenAI Labeling Requirement for Realistic Video

Elon Musk’s xAI has released its Grok chatbot and open-sourced part of the underlying Grok-1 model architecture for any developer or entrepreneur to use for purposes including commercial applications. Musk unveiled Grok in November and announced that it would be publicly released this month. The chatbot itself is available to X social premium members, who can ask the cheeky AI questions and get answers with a snarky attitude inspired by “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” sci-fi novel. The training for Grok’s foundation LLM is said to include X social posts. Continue reading Grok-1 Architecture Open-Sourced for General Release by xAI

Decentralized social platform Bluesky has open-sourced a tool called Ozone that facilitates custom moderation. Debuting this week, Ozone lets individuals or teams collaboratively review and label content on the platform. “We’re opening up the ability to run your own independent moderation services, seamlessly integrated into the Bluesky app,” the company says, explaining “you’ll be able to create and subscribe to additional moderation services” on top of that which is administered by Bluesky’s moderation team, “giving you unprecedented control over your social media experience.” Continue reading Ozone Helps Users Customize Content Moderation on Bluesky