Snapchat claims 500 million monthly active users

Snapchat, the social network popular with young smartphone users, said Thursday it has 500 million monthly active users amid surging growth in many parts of the world.

The platform, which has expanded its offerings beyond its original disappearing messages, had not previously announced a figure for monthly active users, but had said last month it had 280 million daily active users.

"We now reach over 500 million monthly active users, and nearly one of every two smartphone users in the United States is on Snapchat," chief executive Evan Spiegel said in opening parent firm Snap's partner summit.

"In the US, France, UK, Australia, and the Netherlands, Snapchat is becoming an indispensable part of people's lives, reaching 90 percent of 13- to 24-year-olds, and 75 percent of 13- to 34-year-olds."

Spiegel said Snapchat has seen sizzling growth over the past year with many consumers locked down due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a doubling of daily active users in India over the past five quarters.

"Our community outside of North America and Europe is growing rapidly," he said.

"In fact, roughly 40 percent of our community is now located outside of North America and Europe."

Known for its disappearing messages, Snapchat has expanded partnerships with a range of media companies including games, news, entertainment and sports snippets.

It is also known for its augmented reality features allowing users to share their own content and shop while virtually trying on items.

The company on Thursday unveiled a number of new partnerships including with the dating app Bumble, allowing users to share their content with Snapchat augmented reality technology.

Agence France-Presse

Google lets users map their steps

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Google on Wednesday began letting smartphone users automatically map where they have been.

A "Your Timeline" feature being added to Google Maps lets users see histories of trips taken and, if they also use Google Photos, see where they took images on any given days.

"We're rolling out Your Timeline, a useful way to remember and view the places you've been on a given day, month or year," Google product manager Gerard Sanz said in a blog post.

"Your Timeline allows you to visualize your real-world routines, easily see the trips you've taken and get a glimpse of the places where you spend your time."

The feature is enabled by geolocation on smartphones, with users allowed to turn this on or off. Google said it was a feature users would find useful in recalling trips and memorable places.

Timeline is being rolled out with controls that keep information private and visible only to individual users, who can choose which locations to keep and which to delete, according to Sanz.

"This means you can easily delete a day or your full history at any time," Sanz said.

"You can edit any place that appears in Your Timeline, including removing a specific location or giving a frequented spot a private name like -- Mom’s House or My Favorite Running Spot."

Whereabouts timelines were being made available on desktop computers and Android-powered mobile devices to those who permit location tracking, which powers other Google features such as reminding people where they parked a car.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Dining guide launches mobile app for food photos

MANILA -- Asia's premiere dining guide OpenRice on Monday launched the OpenSnap mobile application in the country.

Jenna Sung, product manager of Hong Kong-based OpenRice Limited, said the 20 million smartphone users in the Philippines can be a good source to beef up its subscriber base.

"It makes perfect sense for us to launch this app in the country,'' said Sung in the media briefing held in Mandaluyong.

"We hope Filipinos would use the app to promote Filipino eateries,"she added.

Being connected to the OpenRice database, Sung said OpenSnap enables users to locate over 1 million restaurants in the Philippines and Asia through the i-cloud technology.

Moreover, OpenSnap allows users to develop their own food photo albums, photo sharing, hash tag locations, photo filtering and use of stickers in photos.

OpenSnap users can also tag their friends in their photo uploads, as well as share the information to their personal social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter,Instagram and Weibo.

The OpenSnap app is available on iOS and Android.

"OpenSnap is not just a Facebook or any social network. It gives you a wealth of information that includes restaurant address, map, contact details, reviews and comments," said Sung.

Enril Magdato, country manager of OpenRice Philippines Inc., said they plan to invite the local restaurants to join the site. "That's part of the plan,"he said.

At present, OpenRice Philippines has more than 80,000 restaurants around the country grouped by cuisine, district and price range to allow users to quickly and easily find their favorite restaurants.

"We are still inviting other restaurants to join OpenSnap and promote Filipino food," said Magdato.

Established in Hong Kong in 1999, OpenRice is also present in China, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Local Apple store vows 'faster' repair for iPhones

MANILA -- Local authorized Apple service provider, Power Mac Center, has introduced a more efficient way for Filipinos to have their iPhones repaired, without having to wait several weeks or have the unit replaced entirely.

Starting this week, Power Mac Center is rolling out its iPhone Same Unit (SUR) program, which will allow iPhone users in the country to have their units repaired by trained Power Mac engineers. The program boasts a vastly improved 72-hour turnaround time.

“We at Power Mac Center are glad to be able to bring to Filipinos the convenience of having iPhone repair service made locally available,” said marketing director Joey Alvarez.

The iPhone SUR program covers iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5S and 5C units purchased not only from any Power Mac Center location but also from other Apple authorized resellers.

It is also free for all units that are within the standard one-year Apple warranty.

Units that are no longer under warranty, however, will be considered as “billed service,” which will include diagnostic fees, price of parts and labor fees.

Before availing of the SUR program, all iPhone units will be subject to unauthorized modification check to be conducted by Power Mac Center’s mobile device engineers.

These mobile device engineers are mandated to pass the iOS Qualification Exam and adhere to the strictest standards set by Apple.

“Through the iPhone SUR, customers are assured that the replacement parts are genuine Apple parts. Both the parts and the service are of the highest quality to give iPhone users the best value for their money,” Alvarez said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Twitter adds photo sharing to direct messages

SAN FRANCISCO - Updated mobile software rolled out Tuesday by Twitter lets smartphone users send pictures in direct, personal messages seen only by recipients instead of being shared publicly on the social network.

"For the first time, you can share and view photos via direct message on your mobile phone," Jeremy Gordon, the company's senior director of product engineering, wrote in a post on the Twitter blog.

"We've also introduced a new tab in the navigation bar that makes it easy to access direct messages -- they're just one tap away from wherever you are on Twitter."

The Instagram-style feature is in the latest Twitter applications tailored for Apple or Android smartphones, according to Gordon.

Twitter users now also have the option to "swipe" from their home screen timelines to a "discover" section to explore trends or popular 'tweets.'

"There are a bunch of other great updates in this release," Gordon said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Twitter to be available on mobile phones without Internet

Twitter Inc is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones which cannot access the Internet.

U2opia Mobile, which has a similar tie-up with Facebook Inc, will launch its Twitter service in the first quarter of next year, Chief Executive and Co-founder Sumesh Menon told Reuters.

Users will need to dial a simple code to get a feed of the popular trending topics on Twitter, he said.

More than 11 million people use U2opia's Fonetwish service, which helps access Facebook and Google Talk on mobile without a data connection.

Twitter, which boasts of about 230 million users, held a successful initial public offering last month that valued the company at around $25 billion. (Full Story)

U2opia uses a telecom protocol named USSD, or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, which does not allow viewing of pictures, videos or other graphics.

"USSD as a vehicle for Twitter is almost hand in glove because Twitter has by design a character limit, it's a very text-driven social network," Menon said.

Eight out of 10 people in emerging markets are still not accessing data on their phone, he said.

U2opia, which is present in 30 countries in seven international languages, will localize the Twitter feed according to the location of the user.

"So somebody in Paraguay would definitely get content that would be very very localized to that market vis a vis somebody sitting in Mumbai or Bangalore," he said.

The company, whose biggest markets are Africa and South America, partners with telecom carriers such as Telenor, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel Ltd. U2opia usually gets 30 to 40 percent of what users pay its telecom partners to access Fonetwish.

"For a lot of end users in the emerging markets, it's going to be their first Twitter experience," Menon said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Smart's mobile bank starts operations

MANILA, Philippines – The mobile microfinance firm of Smart Communications Inc. has started its operations, according to a circular letter by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

BSP said mBank Philippines (A Thrift Bank), Inc. started its operations on October 16.

"The corresponding Certificate of Authority to Operate as a microfinance-oriented thrift bank was issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Sept. 23, 2013 and its operation started on Oct. 16, 2013," the central bank said.

The BSP's policymaking Monetary Board approved the microfinance firm on November 29, 2012.

Smart was tapped to empower mBank to capitalize on the growing market of mobile phone users who access bank services such as savings and loans.

Through mBank, Smart and Talk 'N Text subscribers will be able to open a savings account, apply for loan products and pay obligations via their mobile phones.

The bank's target market include micro entrepreneurs with limited or no access to financial services.

According to its website, mBank was first rolled out in Leyte and Eastern Visayas and was later introduced to the Central Visayas.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Chat app LINE eyes PH's growing mobile users

MANILA -- Messaging platform LINE is now eyeing the Philippine market, after successfully growing its users to more than 160 million around the globe following its launch in June 2011.


Jin-woo Lee, general manager at LINE Business Office, said the growing number of smartphone users in the country coupled with telcos' aggressive marketing of mobile data plans translate to the potential of making LINE popular in the local market.

"We see high potential from the Philippines. Whenever I come here, I see more and more people using smartphones, also there are data plans... and mobile operators are aggressively expanding," Lee told ABS-CBNNews.com earlier this week.

"I see [a] very bright future for Philippine mobile market," he continued.

LINE, a free application one can use to send messages and make calls, utilizes the Internet. The application is available for iOS, Android, Windows and Blackberry devices, and for Nokia Asha phones. It is also available for desktops running on Mac OS X, Windows and Windows 8.

"We are beginning to make some efforts for the Philippine market [and] definitely, we are going to be investing more," Lee said.

"That's why we are here--our main job is to make more, more people know about LINE," he added.

One of the application's main features is its Official Accounts made up of artists and corporations. This means any LINE user can add these so-called Official Accounts and receive updates--which can come with pictures or videos--from the artist or get promos and discount coupons from companies.

Lee recounted his team is now talking with a number of Philippine artists so as to draw in more Filipino users.

"That's part of our mission. We're already discussing with several artists," he quipped, without giving details.

Darin Hwang, manager at LINE Business Office, added his firm is also meeting with companies in the Philippines so they can have their own LINE Official Account.

"We are currently meeting companies and corporations to actually grow with us," Hwang told ABS-CBNNews.com.

Official corporate accounts on LINE are popular with users in Thailand, Taiwan and Japan, Lee noted.

"We form partnerships with major companies but we make sure they can provide good information or for example, discount coupons, for our users," Lee shared.



The application's "explosive" growth in its number of users to more than 160 million today from its June 2011 debut was owed to its popular stickers, Hwang said.

"We've seen global success around the world and also across platforms... a big factor is our stickers themselves," he shared.

"It's become prevalent because our designs, our characters are very lovable and I think a lot of the expressions they convey are very, very likable and you can really relate to them," he continued.

LINE offers free stickers which features the brand's own characters, and also sells a number of favorites such as Doraemon and Winnie the Pooh.

And as testament to LINE's popularity, there have been two animation series dedicated to the brand's own characters. Line Offline and Line Town, which were broadcast in Japan earlier this year, are also being marketed in other Asian countries, Lee noted.

Merchandise--stuff toys, fans, pens, etc.--featuring the characters are also selling like hotcakes in some countries, Lee said.




But the messenger's edge over its competitors hinges on the various applications under the LINE brand.

"We consider ourselves not really as an instant messenger, we consider ourselves more of a mobile platform because our core is instant messaging but we also offer so many other services so that's one edge that we have over our competitors," Hwang said.

The firm has more than 30 games linked to its messenger, and also a number of other applications such as LINE Camera, with which you can edit photos and pepper them with stickers; LINE Card, used to send greetings; and LINE Brush, for creativity needs.

Lee said all LINE applications will continue to be free of charge as his firm focuses on its end-users and their "digital lives".

"In the end, our vision is to become a sort of like an ecosystem. We want line to be a vital part of peoples lives. We want them to use it on the go, at work," he said.

LINE is most popular in Japan, where it has more than 45 million users, Hwang said.

He stressed the firm has "high hopes" for the Philippine market as it has already seen some growth in the number of users even before LINE started promoting its product in the country through media advertisements.

 source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Wealthy smartphone users less likely to play games, tweet

TORONTO — Wealthier smartphone users are less likely to play games or tweet and will opt for news, travel or finance apps, according to a new study.

The research by The Luxury Institute focused on app usage among wealthy consumers, who earn an annual income of $150,000 or more. They tend to be older, with a mean age of 52.

“As you get older and have family and significant others, aging parents, and a lot more assets and investments, you’re going to need apps for far more relevant things than playing games and chatting with your peers,” said Milton Pedraza, CEO of The Luxury Institute.

The findings are in contrast to smartphone usage as a whole, which research firm Nielsen showed is dominated by games and social networking categories.

The wealthy use Facebook and Angry Birds, the two most downloaded apps of 2011, but overall, higher-income consumers use apps for entertainment far less than the average smartphone user, according to Pedraza.

While wealthy consumers are only slightly more likely to have a smartphone than the general population, Nielsen said the breakdown of devices owned differs considerably.

Forty-five percent of wealthy smartphone users own an iPhone, followed 35 percent with an Android device and a quarter who had a Blackberry. But Nielsen found that overall Android had 46 percent of market share, followed by the iPhone with 30 percent and Blackberry with 15 percent.

“Google’s strategy with Android is that they have multiple manufacturing partners,” explained Jonathan Carson, the CEO of digital at Nielsen. “There’s a broader choice with Android in the number of devices, and that may offer some opportunities for lower-end consumers.”

He added that the iPhone has always done quite well with high-income consumers.

Carson also noted an upswing in the number of smartphone users adopting iPhones within the last few months, which he attributes to the iPhone 4S, and Apple’s strategy to keep lower-priced models on the market at lower-price points to appeal to a wider range of consumers.

The study also showed that more than 80 percent of affluent consumers have downloaded apps and many have opted for paid apps and in-app upgrades. But on average, wealthier consumers download about half as many apps as the average consumer.

Among wealthy smartphone users, 67 percent have used their mobile device to shop for products or services online with tickets, gift cards, food or electronics the most popular purchases.

“There are a large number of people that still love to shop in the store, and I don’t think it’s only older people,” Pedraza said, adding apps can augment the in-store experience.

The marketing firm Plastic Mobile polled 603 consumers whose mean income was $295,000 and net worth was $2.8 million for The Luxury Institute study.

source: interaksyon.com