Friday Social: WhatsApp Wobbles, Facebook Games & Royal Relief
- Social Media
Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days. Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf/@RachClayton1
WHATSAPP’NING?!
It’s been a topsy-turvy week for Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp. It began with the celebratory news that its version of Snapchat stories now has more users than Snapchat (not that they were ever directly copying competing or anything, obvs).
WhatsApp revealed that its Status feature now has 175 million daily users, which just about pips Snapchat’s 161 million.
“Well, fair play WhatsApp,” you might’ve been thinking, until on Wednesday the app went down and… people lost their minds.
According to Down Detector, the issue started at around 1pm and affected Europe, Brazil and parts of the USA.
#WhatsAppDown began trending on Twitter as users made no delay in expressing their upset.
It seems now as though the problem is being rectified. I don’t want to call karma but… well nobody likes a bragger, WhatsApp.
FACEBOOK GAMES
You may have found one of Facebook’s hidden games in the Messenger app – its football and basketball games have provided a dangerously addictive distraction to play with friends for some time now.
Having realised their popularity, Facebook is rolling out even more (less hidden) games within the app. The gradual rollout began on Tuesday and, after updating to the latest version of Messenger, you will find a new ‘Games’ option near the camera button.
Facebook has claimed that up to 50 games will be available, including:
Words With Friends
Pac-Man
Space Invaders
8-Ball Pool
Snake
Batman’s Bat Climb
Cooking Mama
EverWing
Solitaire
Blackjack
Gin Rummy
Sudoku
Happy procrastinating!
FACEBOOK WORLD DOMINATION
Slightly dramatic headline? – Facebook’s ascendency continues with the release of yet more staggering statistics this week.
The number of people using Facebook each month has increased to 1.94 billion, of which almost 1.3 billion use it daily.
The social media giants reported profits of just over $3.2billion, which is a 76% rise year-on-year.
Ad revenue has grown by 51% since the last results were revealed.
Chief Exec and Facebook Mastermind Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that they will be employing 3,000 extra people, just to moderate content on the site.
He’s looking to expand even further, and following the results he revealed that he now has his sights set on moving into TV, health care and politics.
That headline doesn’t seem quite so dramatic now, does it?
However, Facebook’s growth must slow at some point, as saturation point in people and the number of adverts squeezed into them are reached. Surely?
THE NEW FACE OF TWITTER
An instantly recognisable face – yes. An instantly appealing face – questionable…
Regardless, President Donald J Trump is the new face of Twitter in Tokyo.
Arguably one of the most well-known users of the social network, Trump’s famous features have been plastered across Twitter-branded billboards and posters throughout Tokyo’s railways. Aimed at promoting the nature of real-time news on the platform (no pun intended), the posters also include the hashtag #TrumpAdministration and the strapline “There is a ‘now’ you don’t know about.”
Perhaps not your ideal commute company, but it’s certainly gaining attention.
AND FINALLY…
We can join together in a national sigh of relief, as it has been confirmed that Prince Philip is not dead.
Tabloid newspaper and social media speculation had us all holding our breath on Thursday morning, as reports like this began to appear:
However, our fears were put to rest (again, no pun intended) when Buckingham Palace released a statement confirming instead that the Duke of Edinburgh is to stand down from his royal duties. Phew!
A guest has since approached the Prince at the Palace and expressed how sorry they are to hear of his standing down. True to form, Prince Philip responded, “Well I can’t stand up much.”
Long live a legend.
