PayPal to develop new advertising platform
PayPal, a US-based payments company, is building an advertising business using its user data. According to the company, it will create the ad network by using information from what people buy and how they spend money. This data comes from people who use PayPal and Venmo. To lead the advertising business, PayPal has hired Mark Grether. He was previously the vice president and general manager of Uber Advertising and has over 20 years of experience in the advertising industry. The advertising business will include PayPal’s advanced offers platform. It will use customer insights to create a dynamic and personalised service. This will help merchants spend their advertising money more effectively and provide consumers with attractive offers.
3.3 MN fake reviews removed in 2023, as total reviews surged to a record 54 MN
Trustpilot, the global online consumer review platform, has released its latest Transparency Report, showcasing its efforts to uphold trust between businesses and consumers during a record year for reviews published on the platform. In 2023, 54 MN reviews were published on Trustpilot globally, a 17% increase from 2022. Meanwhile, over a million businesses were reviewed, one-fifth of them for the first time, helping consumers make informed purchasing decisions. Despite a surge in reviews on the platform, the removal of fake reviews has remained steady year-on-year, with Trustpilot removing 6% of total reviews in both 2023 (3.3 MN) and 2022 (2.6 MN). The majority of fake reviews were identified by Trustpilot’s automated detection systems, up from 68% in 2022 to 82% in 2023. This follows Trustpilot’s continued investment in technology and systems, including AI, to automatically identify unusual behavioural patterns and anomalies, while analysing hundreds of data points to detect reviews that breach the platform’s guidelines. Trustpilot’s active community of reviewers and businesses has also played a key role in maintaining trust. Both groups can flag a review to moderators on the platform at any time if they believe it breaches guidelines. Trustpilot also provides a whistleblower functionality, for people to confidentially report any problems.
Brand discovery via social media overtakes search engines and TV ads
Shoppers are discovering brands and products via social media ads, recommendations, and updates from brands’ social pages more so than other channels, with over a third (38%) discovering brands via these methods, more than search engines (37%) and TV ads (35%). This is according to the latest Social Media Trends Report from consumer research company GWI, which highlights the evolving habits, thoughts, feelings and actions of social media scrollers. Consumers depend on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram to both discover products and brands and to make purchases. The number of consumers using TikTok to follow or find information about products and brands has more than tripled since the end of 2020, reflecting its significant rise in popularity. And it’s doing great things for brand exposure, with over two fifths of consumers who’ve bought an item on TikTok Shop saying they last purchased from a brand or seller they discovered using the in-app feature. Even with its increasing influence in mind, TikTok isn’t the only platform consumers are using to find new brands. Gen Z shoppers are driving this shift to inspiration driven search on social media and are increasingly using platforms like Pinterest to inform their purchase decisions, with almost two in five (39%) Pinners using the app for style inspiration. Gen Z are 54% more likely than average to use the platform, and despite Instagram and TikTok being more popular overall, Pinterest is growing at a faster rate amongst this generation. Social media’s role in the purchase journey and product discovery is stepping up, especially among younger groups who like the customised content that platforms have on offer. 42% of Gen Z say they mainly use social networks for shopping-related research, and they’re 16% more likely than your average scroller to use them to find things to buy. There’s a clear opportunity for brands to inspire this generation of shoppers and bring their visions to life.
Not just AI superpowers, your iPhone is set to get these big changes with iOS 18
iOS 18 is shaping up to be the most ambitious iOS update in Apple’s history. While AI will be the hot buzzword—as Apple works to close the gap with competitors like Google and Microsoft—reports suggest the new update—to be announced at WWDC 2024 on June 10—will bring a bunch of other quality of life improvements to Apple devices. These changes span across various system apps, promising a more streamlined and intuitive user experience. Apple plans to overhaul the “Settings” apps for both iOS and macOS. The new design aims to offer a “cleaner” user interface, improved organisation, and enhanced search capabilities. This revamp will extend to the macOS System Settings app, ensuring consistency across Apple’s ecosystem. The Control Center in iOS will also see notable improvements. Among these is the introduction of a new music widget and improvements in the operation of smart home appliances. These updates are designed to offer users more control and customisation at their fingertips. The exact nature of changes remains a mystery at the time of writing. The Messages app is similarly set to receive several engaging new features. Users will soon be able to animate individual words in their text messages, adding a dynamic and personalised touch to conversations. Additionally, Apple will introduce new Tapback icons, expanding the range of reaction emojis available when long-pressing a message. The Photos app is also on the list for a user interface makeover, which is expected to streamline the photo browsing and editing experience. Meanwhile, the Mail app will benefit from “several improvements,” enhancing its functionality and user-friendliness. Apple and OpenAI have reportedly struck a deal to integrate OpenAI’s advanced generative AI technology into Apple’s software ecosystem. According to The Information, this collaboration aims to enhance Apple’s AI capabilities and could significantly boost OpenAI’s revenue.
Alexa will soon lose a popular shopping list feature
Starting in July, you won’t be able to add items to lists on third-party apps like Todoist and AnyList with Alexa voice control through their existing Skills. A post on Amazon’s developer site says it’s shutting down access to Alexa Shopping and To-Do lists on July 1st. You will no longer be able to use List skills or the List Management REST API to access Alexa lists, i.e., the Alexa Shopping and To-Do lists, in your skills or apps. For other ways to build custom voice experiences, see Steps to Build a Custom Skill. What this means is that unless developers choose to develop a new custom skill, their Alexa integrations will stop working, and you’ll have to rely on the Alexa app’s built-in list feature to use voice to add milk to your grocery list or put “take out the trash” on your to-do list. What this means is that unless developers choose to develop a new custom skill, their Alexa integrations will stop working, and you’ll have to rely on the Alexa app’s built-in list feature to use voice to add milk to your grocery list or put “take out the trash” on your to-do list. Today, if you enable their Alexa Skills, third-party apps can sync with lists in the Alexa app and show that data in their app. I personally use this feature to add items to my shopping list in AnyList. But, as of July 1st, they’ll lose this ability and you’ll either need to use the Alexa app’s lists or hope the developer of your favorite list app builds a custom voice skill to manage lists in its apps.
Indian AI Startup Beats OpenAI & Google To Become World’s Number 1
Home-grown health startup JiviAI said that its AI-based language learning model has outperformed machine learning algorithms of Google and openAI and ranked number one on a global benchmark. The ranking was measured by Open Medical LLM Leaderboard which tracked and evaluates performance of healthcare sector-focused large language models. Open Medical LLM Leaderboard is hosted by AI platform Hugging Face, the University of Edinburgh, and Open Life Science AI. JiviAI is a Gurugram-based startup, which was founded by Ankur Jain, a former chief product officer at BharatPe, and G V Sanjay Reddy, Chairman of Reddy Ventures. Jivi’s large language model ‘Jivi MedX’ has outperformed popular AI-based language learning models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Med-PaLM 2, with an average score of 91.65 across Leaderboard’s nine benchmark categories, the Indian startup said in a statement. The company is planning to launch Jivi MedX in August 2024.
Jio app to take on Google, Amazon
To take on competitors like Google and Amazon, RIL’s financial services arm Jio Financial Services announced the launch of a pilot version of ‘JioFinance’ app to offer UPI, digital banking and other services. This app seamlessly integrates digital banking, UPI transactions, bill settlements, insurance advisory, and offers a consolidated view of accounts and savings, all in one user-friendly interface. Designed for friction-less navigation, the ‘JioFinance’ app will cater to users of all levels of familiarity with financial technology, ensuring money management on finger-tips. Future plans include expanding loan solutions, starting with loans on mutual funds and progressing to home loans, demonstrating a commitment to evolving customer needs. It prioritises trust, relevance, and transparency, seeking user feedback for continual improvement towards redefining digital banking experience. Key features include instant digital account opening and streamlined bank management with the ‘Jio payments bank account’ feature.
Regional influencers soar in niche markets
Regional influencers are rising in India’s social media landscape, gaining followers and brand tie-ups as they dish out compelling content for niche audiences in local languages. While the brands get to tap newer audiences, the tie-ups open new avenues for creativity and revenue for the influencers. Agriculture influencer Rajender Reddy, who began full-time content creation in Telugu 2017, now has 477,000 followers on Instagram and 137,000 subscribers on YouTube. Reddy, who grew up in a farmers’ family, says seven out of ten subscribers of his channel Rythu Badi (meaning farmers’ school) are into agriculture, most of them from rural areas. “I get daily average 1.5-2 MN viewers in YouTube alone, of which about 50% come from rural areas,” said Reddy, once a journalist. Reddy said he gets frequent enquiries for brand tie-ups, and his Instagram feed shows tie-ups with sellers of pesticides, seeds and agricultural technology. Rythyu Badi, which has presence across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, charges fees depending on the format required by the client, and how many times the product needs to be promoted. Reddy said he researches on the brand, and agrees to promote it only if his farmer viewers are already using it for years. He said his remuneration for brands is sometimes “in lakhs”, without specifying a figure. An E&Y report on brands and influencer marketing said India’s creator economy will touch ₹3,375 crore in 2026 from ₹2,344 crore in 2024, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 18%. Regional influencers are a strong subset of this growth. For 32-year-old Sushil Nawadkar, who used to make automobile-related content in Hindi, the turning point was in May 2023, when he attended a commercial vehicle launch in Pune. He realized that his questions in Marathi were more impactful and made him stand out. Within a month, he began creating content in Marathi; while his Hindi Instagram channel still has around 2,100 subscribers, his new Instagram page Marathi Autoguru hit 53,300 followers in a year. Nawadkar says he earns ₹50,000 per month by collaborating with various automobile dealerships and online used car sellers, in addition to his regular income as a pharma sector employee. Regional languages like Marathi get a lot of subscribers. Irrespective of the region or the city they are living in, it is very important for them to speak in Marathi. “Regional influencers are growing at a faster rate of about 25% due to an increase in the localization of content and brand strategies targeting specific regional markets,” said Ramya Ramachandran, chief executive officer of Whoppl, an influencer marketing agency. Dabur, the consumer goods company connects with regional and rural markets by tailoring marketing strategies to local languages and cultural nuances. Among some of its tie-ups are for Dabur Red Paste (Lasya Manjunath in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana; Jaspreet Dyora, Parwinder Singh and Abhishek Bhardwaj it in Punjab), Dabur Honey (Ahiwarya Anand in Bihar, Megha Shetty in Karnataka, and Sameeksha Takke in Maharashtra), Dabur Amla (Naina Ahluwalia in Pune and Swati Gandhi in Karnataka.) It also has various tie-ups for Dabur Vatika, Dabur Chyawanprash, Real, Hajmola and Pudin Hara.
