Twitter has revealed two new updates this week. Firstly, it is testing a new ad format, where ads show up after the 1st, 3rd or 8th reply under a Tweet. Secondly, in a bid to give users more control, it now allows you to remove someone from your followers list without blocking them entirely – otherwise known as a ‘soft block’.

News:

• Snap takes over Shake Shack ? As part of a live AR experience during Advertising Week, Snap has hijacked Shake Shack’s “shake,” and rebranded the burger joint as “Snap Shack.”
• Keeping the conversation going ? Users can now call a WhatsApp group and join from the group chat window. Joinable calls allow users to join an ongoing group call after it has begun.

Startup:

• Data exchanges made simple ? Trufan is an AdTech startup with an audience engagement platform built on 1st party data. “Trufan makes it possible for a data exchange to become a value exchange”.

Insights:

• Live-stream shopping is taking over. Live-commerce in China is predicted to become a $423 billion market by the end of next year.
• It’s time for a holiday! On Pinterest, searches for “dream vacation destinations” are up 482% year over year.
• The ICC T20 Cricket World Cup kicked off last weekend, producing 4200 minutes of content on Facebook.
• Squid Game has caused a Netflix subscription boom. There were 4.4 million new Netflix users in Q3 2021, more than double the previous quarter.