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SEE, FACEBOOK'S TEENS HAVEN'T TOTALLY JUMPED SHIP: Since last year, the biggest story around Facebook has been the notion that teens have taken their social activity elsewhere, to sites like Snapchat and Instagram, with user bases known to be quite young. But this story has been overblown, as new data shows.
SocialBakers, a social media analytics company, looked at the interactions generated by 960 million Facebook Pages and found that among 13- to 24-year-old users the number of interactions with content on those Pages increased by nearly 30% over the course of 2013. This doesn't mean the actual number of teens and young adults increased over that period, but the increase in activity is healthy. This is a good sign that Facebook is still relevant to younger users.
However, when looking at the youngest teens, those 13- to 17-years-old, growth in engagement with Pages was flat, according to the data. This may mean teens become much more Facebook-reliant as they age out of high school. But as long as flat usage among teenagers doesn't lead to total abandonment by age 18, Facebook's teen problem is really a much more limited issue. And users aged 18 to 24 still represent the biggest, most active age group on the site. (SocialBakers)
LINE RAKES IN THE CASH: Mobile messaging app LINE now has 330 million registered users, which we estimate translates to about 202 million monthly active users. LINE boasts the highest revenue of any non-gaming app, according to App Annie's latest index. The platform has two different types of in-app content users can pay for - tokens purchased within LINE's in-app games and stickers, which are like emojis. Between a massive user base and a strong monetization model, LINE, based in Japan, has not only become the highest-grossing app, it has also helped push Japan ahead of the U.S. as the market that generates the most app revenue.
There's an important caveat, though: WeChat, an even bigger mobile messaging app with a massive user base in China, also started offering in-app purchases last year. However, its revenue isn't well represented in App Annie's data, which only covers the Apple App Store and Google Play. Most Chinese users download from app stores besides Google Play. Nonetheless, whether LINE is first or second worldwide for app revenue, there is no question mobile messaging apps are platforms that successfully pull in a tremendous amount of money from users. (Mashable)
TWITTER SEARCH IMPROVES: Twitter has added more targeted search features, allowing users to search by people, photos, video, news and location. Content is becoming increasingly important to Twitter, particularly photos, video and news, so the change is likely a way to help users more easily surface this content. The added features also come as some Twitter users have voiced complaints about a barrage of information that is turning the social network into an echo chamber of sorts. Better search functionality could help users cut through that noise to find what they're looking for. (The Verge)
BIG PLANS FOR FACEBOOK GRAPH SEARCH ... EVENTUALLY: In the fourth quarter earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg was asked about Facebook's Graph Search, which hasn't been terribly well-reviewed. Zuckerberg suggested that the effort with Graph Search and indexing the content on Facebook as a whole is part of a big, ongoing big data project, the likes of which might help Facebook eventually rival traditional search engines, maybe even Google. "There's just so much content that people have shared on Facebook that simply building the infrastructure to index all of it and start ranking it is a multiyear effort, which we're making our way through," Zuckerberg said. "The three-year plan is really all about building new kinds of experiences for sharing ... The five-year approach is really mostly about helping people use their network to answer interesting questions or solve problems that they have." (Business Insider)
THIS IS WHAT REAL-TIME SOCIAL SUPER BOWL MARKETING LOOKS LIKE: Marketing Land has a behind the scenes story on how Volkswagen is gearing up for its real-time social media efforts during the Big Game. The company will have a "war room" where they will shoot video in real time, and constantly monitor social conversations. Last year, Oreo showed what is possible with real-time social marketing when they created the campaign "You Can Still Dunk In the Dark" after the lights briefly went out on the game. This year, advertisers will be poised and ready for the next unprompted moment that can be adopted to the brand's message. (Marketing Land)
FACEBOOK TO ANALYZE SOCIAL TV: Facebook is partnering with a UK-based social analytics company, Second Sync, to start analyzing how people are talking about TV on the site. This is the first time Facebook is providing data on how people talk about TV to anyone outside of Facebook, according to The Next Web. A white paper is set to be released in two weeks analyzing the findings. We'll look out for that and let you know what the analysis uncovers. The effort is a sign that social TV will be a big push for Facebook this year, for both advertising and content curation purposes. (The Next Web)
FOURSQUARE AT YOUR SERVICE: Foursquare has teamed up with Grub Hub Seamless to now allow you to get delivery right through your Foursqaure app. According to Foursquare over 20,000 restaurants in the U.S. will be included in the service. Those searching for a restaurant to eat at nearby will see a delivery icon at the bottom on the screen when they click on a participating restaurant. The move represents part of Foursquare's ongoing effort to morph from a check-in service to more of a recommendations engine, that also happens to have a check-in feature. (Mashable)
Editor's Note: In yesterday's Chart Of The Day e-mail, "Mobile Dries A Huge Fourth Quarter For Facebook In Revenue And User Growth," we did not include a link to download the associated spreadsheet. Please find that download link here.
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