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MORE TIME SPENT ON FACEBOOK APP THAN ENTIRE MOBILE WEB: New data from Flurry finds that Facebook has become so ubiquitous in people's mobile lives, that people now spend more time on the Facebook app, than they do browsing the entire mobile web. Facebook took 17% of total U.S. time spent on iOS and Android connected devices. Users spent another 14% of their mobile time using the browser. As for other social services, YouTube took another 4% of mobile time spent, Twitter 1.5%, and other forms of social messaging 9.5%. That means social media-related services accounted for a total of about 32% of time spent on Internet-connected mobile devices, excluding voice calls and texts. (Flurry)
TROUBLE FOR WEIBO IPO: China's microblogging social network Weibo has said that it will soon list on the Nasdaq stock exchange, one of a number of Chinese tech companies that have plans to IPO on the American market soon. The problem, though, is that Weibo is becoming less popular, according to a report in CNN Money. Total user numbers dropped 9% in 2013, although Weibo claims that monthly active users actually grew to 129 million.
Why is Weibo potentially facing headwinds? Tencent-owned WeChat, a mobile messaging app, is becoming phenomenally popular in the country, with over 300 million monthly users. The app offers services like mobile payments, which give it a good deal of utility, and it's much less subject to censorship than Weibo. (CNN Money)
Meanwhile, WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service owned by Facebook, announced that it is has hit 64 billion messages processed in one day, a new record. That's more than double the 27 billion messages WhatsApp was processing daily just one year ago. (The Next Web)
And Kakao, South Korea's mobile messaging service, announced that profits increased tenfold last year. (Wall Street Journal)
VKONTAKTE'S FOUNDER QUITS: Pavel Durov, the CEO and founder of the social network VKontakte— often called the Facebook of Russia — has quit, saying his ability to manage the company had been "significantly reduced." Durov has been known for unpredictable behavior, and previously clashed with other stakeholders in the company, including United Capital Partners. The founder sold his stake in the company in January, which likely marked the beginning of his exit. (Wall Street Journal)
SKYPE'S 300 MILLION USERS: Microsoft-owned video chatting service Skype is giving marketers a reason to consider the service when allocating their social ad spend. The company has announced that they have surpassed 300 million users, about one-quarter of whom are millennials. "While other companies have seen interactions with younger users decline, Skype has seen positive growth in numbers in recent years," said Lovina McMurchy, Skype's general manager for new monetization at Skype. The comment on rising millennial usage is a shot at Facebook, which has gotten a lot of press recently for declining millennial engagement. Skype also revealed that the average Skype user spends 150 minutes per month on the platform. (Ad Week, Microsoft)
WHY TWITTER'S SOCIAL TV MOVES REALLY MATTER: Mike Isaac at Re/Code argues that it's only going to get harder for Facebook to compete with Twitter in the social TV space if Twitter keeps buying up all the social TV analytics companies. "If Twitter can deliver that measurable data to domestic advertisers ... it’ll give the company a much better pitch to marketers with ad dollars to spend. Cutting Facebook out of that loop? Icing on the cake." (Re/Code)
LINKEDIN EMAIL HACK: A plug-in called Sell Hack, which works as a free extension to the Chrome browser, can be used to find email addresses associated with a LinkedIn account even if a user isn't connected to the targeted account. The BBC reports that Sell Hack bills itself as a legitimate service catering to marketing professionals and accessing data that is publicly available. The company is just making it that much easier to access that data. Unsurprisingly, though, LinkedIn is trying to shut Sell Hack down and has said that LinkedIn members who have been using Sell Hack should delete it immediately. (BBC)
SPOTIFY REDESIGN: Streaming music service Spotify will roll out a major new redesign across its desktop and mobile offerings. The overhaul comes just ahead of the debut of new streaming competition from YouTube and iTunes. (Business Insider)
ZUCKERBERG FOR $1: Regulatory filings from Facebook show that CEO Mark Zuckerberg was paid only $1 last year. Bloomberg points out that this is a "well-worn path" among Silicon Valley moguls. Zuckerberg saw his net worth rise phenomenally last year as Facebook's stock doubled. Who needs a dollar when you've got 27 billion of 'em? (Bloomberg)
And in other news from the executive ranks of Facebook, COO Sheryl Sandberg has sold more than half her shares in the company, leading to speculation that she's preparing to run for office. (Business Insider)
FACEBOOK LEADER BOARD: Dating app Tinder is gaining in popularity. On the Facebook daily active user app leaderboard, Tinder jumped to 17th place on April 1, from 25th place in March. Candry Crush and Farm Heroes Saga remain No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. As for Facebook fan bases, Shakira rocketed to number one, with 87.7 million fans, ahead of Rihanna. (Inside Facebook)
TWITTER ADDS SEARCH BY DATE: You can now search for tweets by dates easily in Twitter's advanced search page. Facebook and Twitter have both been making an effort recently to become more searchable resources. (TechCrunch)
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