Mobile

Meta’s formula for growth, shockingly, involves more ads: Instagram’s new placements might open up inventory for advertisers but irk some users.

The larger the mobile ad, the more time spent looking at it. Static interscroller ads, which fill the screen once users scroll past a certain point, receive the most attention from smartphone users worldwide—an average of 3.3 seconds. For the video interscroller format, that figure is 3.0 seconds.

Positive movement in the chip sector: Samsung aims for 2 nanometer chips, Intel tries its luck with GPUs, and Micron plans to invest $100 billion in a New York factory.

For real this time: Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44 billion after backing out of the deal and engaging in a public dispute that put personnel and shareholders through the wringer.

Google exits cloud gaming: Expect Big Tech to continue retreating from moonshots by abandoning underperforming services and products to focus on profitable assets.

Focus on cross-platform messaging: Google is ramping up pressure on Apple to adopt Rich Communication Services (RCS) as an equitable cross-platform standard. We breakdown RCS and its potential to unify mobile messaging.

We combed through Kaufman Hall’s 2022 State of the Healthcare Consumer Report. We’ll detail emerging trends that highlight how consumers are managing their own health.

Tencent’s stock value crumbles: The gaming giant loses its leadership position as regulators clamp down on new game releases and advertising revenues plummet. The outlook remains bleak for China’s Big Tech sector.

Reddit’s a winner when it comes to Google’s new update: The search giant’s new feature will surface relevant message board content more frequently.

Competition coming for the Switch: More powerful devices that can leverage 5G connectivity and vast libraries of popular PC and mobile games will be the foundation for next-generation handheld gaming.

Private 5G’s big debut: NTT’s multi-party, multi-phase private 5G project for Las Vegas will boost connectivity in schools, power security and monitoring systems, and make telehealth more accessible.

Podcasting’s questionable metrics could hurt its ad business: Major podcasters spent millions on mobile game ads that dramatically inflated listenership.

On today's episode, we discuss how the digital ad duopoly is evolving, the most interesting dark horse digital ad giant, and whether Netflix, not TikTok, is a bigger threat to Facebook and Instagram. "In Other News," we talk about ad industry practices coming under fire as privacy lawsuits surge and who the winners and losers will be when the third-party cookie says goodbye. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Paul Verna.

Spam texts are soaring: The FCC is fast-tracking regulation that could quash spam SMS at the network level to combat a growing telecommunications problem.

At the end of the day, we think the value of Hims & Hers’ new sex report lies more in the titillating topic than the novelty of its findings.

Netflix is learning that games are a long, costly business: The streamer announced that it’s building its own game studio after those it’s acquired run into trouble.

Instagram’s shopping tab sings its swan song: The app is testing a home screen without the tab that’s prompted complaints from celebrities and average users.

The average selling price (ASP) of smartphones will be $413 worldwide this year, up $70 from 2020.