Social Media Daily News Roundup 16.08.19
Today’s social media news, rounded up in one place so you don’t have to go anywhere else.
🌴Twitter leads $100M round in top Indian regional social media platform ShareChat
🌴Social media has become a battleground in Hong Kong’s protests
🌴Facebook's Will Open Several Pop-Up Cafes in London to Assist Users with Privacy Settings
🌴 Facebook Adds New Booking and Reminder Prompts to Movie Ads
Twitter leads $100M round in top Indian regional social media platform ShareChat - Tech Crunch
Is there room for another social media platform? ShareChat, a four-year-old social network in India that serves tens of million of people in regional languages, just answered that question with a $100 million financing round led by global giant Twitter .
Other than Twitter, TrustBridge Partners, and existing investors Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital also participated in the Series D round of ShareChat.
The new round, which pushes ShareChat’s all-time raise to $224 million, valued the firm at about $650 million, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. ShareChat declined to comment on the valuation.
Social media has become a battleground in Hong Kong’s protests - CNBC
Hong Kong demonstrators have remained largely anonymous, using social media to avoid being identified and arrested by police authorities. Media experts said such tech has played a significant role in the documentation, organisation, and assembly of the large-scale demonstrations.
Using social media as a tool to galvanise support during a political movement isn’t new — the image of a yellow umbrella was widely shared on Facebook to show support to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement in 2014. But this time around, the protesters are using social media in a way demonstrating a heightened awareness of cybersecurity and an increased understanding of how to effectively communicate with the medium.
Facebook's Will Open Several Pop-Up Cafes in London to Assist Users with Privacy Settings - Social Media Today
In its latest attempt to prove to the world that it's not actually an evil corporation, hell-bent on gathering as much personal data as possible in order to use it against us, Facebook will open up five temporary cafes in the UK, where users will be able to get assistance and advice on their privacy settings, along with a free beverage.
As reported by The Evening Standard, the Facebook cafes will open up in different locations across London between August 28th and September 5th. Each outlet will be open for two days, providing an opportunity for people to come in and ask any question they may have - with a particular focus on helping people better understand their Facebook privacy settings (in fact, the cafe will reportedly only provide drinks to those who undergo a free privacy check-up).
Facebook Adds New Booking and Reminder Prompts to Movie Ads - Social Media Today
Facebook is rolling out two new options for movie ads on its platform - reminder prompts for movies you've registered an interest in, and direct booking options to streamline the process.
As you can see in the first screenshot above, now, when a movie ad appears in a users' News Feed, they'll have the option to tap on an 'Interested' CTA button. When they do, they'll get a reminder in their notifications listing when the movie is released, which may help spark more people to head to the cinema.
The other new option comes via search (third image above) - when users go looking for a movie on Facebook, they'll now be able to view a new detail page, where they'll also be able to book tickets directly.
