Lab Weekly - 02/24/2023
Analyzing Bing’s latest moves; plus, the latest must-know news and stats
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Bing 2.0 Comes to Mobile as Microsoft Plots to Add Ads
Microsoft’s crusade to disrupt search continues, but not without some speed bumps. While the company continues to make the AI-powered Bing more widely available, it is also trying to fix some of the issues that early-adopters have encountered that grabbed headlines. Here’s a quick follow-up to the various new developments on the most exciting product in consumer tech at the moment.
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Mercedes To Bring Google Maps & YouTube Into Its Vehicle [TechCrunch]
With the incoming wave of people switching to EVs, more cars will become connected cars over the next few years, which will massively increase the audience reach of digital media in cars. A McKinsey study found that 37% of survey respondents suggested they’re eager to switch to cars with increased connectivity, and nearly half of premium auto consumers have an interest in exploring the digital capabilities of their new cars.
In this context, it makes sense that auto brands like Mercedes are now more open to work with tech companies like Google to integrate services like Maps and YouTube into their vehicles to ensure that prospective customers can be reassured that their in-vehicle experience will be familiar and seamlessly aligned with their digital behaviors elsewhere. That said, we’re only at the beginning of a brewing battle in which legacy car makers wrestle with tech giants for the control of the dashboard experience — not to mention all the data they generate and collect.
Related: Google Maps launches Immersive View in five cities, will roll out ‘glanceable directions’ soon [TechCrunch]; BMW will use Amazon Alexa to build its next voice assistant [TechCrunch]
Meta Tests Paid Verification For Facebook And Instagram Users [CNBC]
Following Twitter’s footsteps, Meta is also looking to get more value out of their most avid users by launching paid verification programs for Facebook and Instagram. While this program is supposedly aimed at "increasing authenticity and security across our services," as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post announcing these blue badge subscriptions, it really highlights the company’s desperate need to generate trust among users along with some extra revenues. For creators that rely on Facebook or Instagram to make a living, this subscription plan may become an additional tax on the creator economy.
Related: Instagram launches a new broadcast chat feature called ‘channels’ [TechCrunch]; Facebook now has 2 billion users worldwide [Engadget]; Meta plans to layoff thousands, after Zuckerberg said no more job cuts [WSJ]
Spotify Launches AI-Powered Personal DJ Feature [9to5Mac]
In an interesting example of consumer-facing generative AI application, Spotify used ChatGPT’s technology to create a virtual DJ that will hype up your personal dance parties. This optional tool adds a new dimension to the user experience and becomes a new differentiating point for Spotify against its competitors. It certainly benefits Spotifty’s business if users are spending more time on content that Spotify owns (podcast, virtual DJ, etc.) than licensed content that it has to pay the record labels for. Reports suggested Spotify’s push into podcasts and audiobooks have not paid off financially so far, so it makes sense for the company to explore new frontiers of improving user experience with generative content that it doesn’t need to pay licensing fees for.
Related: Max Cutler, the Spotify executive overseeing podcast partnership deals to exit company [Bloomberg]; Roblox is working on generative AI tools [The Verge]; Microsoft brings updated Bing search to mobile devices [The Verge]
Snapchat announced it has grown to over 750 million monthly active users in its latest quarterly earning report, TechCrunch reports. While the number falls far short of the roughly 2.96 billion monthly active users Facebook reported earlier this month, it’s ahead of others, including Pinterest, which recently said it reached 450 million monthly users.
Gen Z users make up 34% of all iPhone owners in the US, versus 10% for Samsung, according to new data from Attain, Financial Times reports. The figure helps to explain how the iPhone grew its overall market share of actual phone usage from 35% in 2019 to 50% last year, according to Counterpoint data.
Subscription OTT services’ global spend on sports rights in 17 major markets around the world will reach $8.5 billion in 2023 — up 64% versus 2022, projects Ampere Analysis, MediaPost reports.
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