Welcome to the Summarin - your weekly dose of commentary and summaries of the most interesting topics from the world of culture, media and commerce. If you are new around here and like what you read, hit the subscribe button below.
In today’s edition (12.3.22):
Learning to love technology
Good use of web2
Disney building its own advertising platform
Twitter’s future according to its executives
What a chip company is working on
Technophilia
By Marin Gerov
To be a successful operator today, one has to develop an intimate relationship with technology. Like it or not, software and hardware are at the core of all innovations worth talking about and they are accelerating the change being experience across the board - in society, media and commerce.
That means that at least a surface-level understanding of technology is necessary to be able to maintain a leading position in one’s work and industry. In today’s culture, technophilia is a virtue.
Developing such a relationship does not come naturally to everyone. For some, this is very easy and they eagerly embrace all new things. For others, not so much and they are prone to resistance towards the new. Focusing on this group, how can one make sure they stay in the loop and develop the habit of seeking out these new developments?
It starts with the acceptance that technology is an integral part of our lives and it is only going to accelerate the rate of change in the world. Once it is understood that nothing stands still and one’s environment is due to change, it should be enough of a motivation to spark the interest at least a little.
Maintaining this interest is then a product of the habit to actively seek information about what is coming up and what is being conceived for the future. To keep your interest in those fields is one of my main motivation with this newsletter and I hope that by sharing articles and conversation from the Twitterverse, I am able to nudge you into this direction.
Are you a technophile?
Ear-piercing brand Studs talks social media strategy (Retail Brew)
While all the talk is on web3, I still like a good old-fashioned web2 case study highlighting successful tactics and strategies on still the world’s largest platforms. Studs is one example of that and it is worth checking out how they approached video over YouTube and TikTok to deliver two different, yet complementary messages. In short, tell personal stories at length on YouTube and go for TikTok when you have a product and message highly skewed towards Gen Zs. Read story
Once you have the platforms and the audience you end up in a much more resilient position against the big advertising networks dominated by Big Tech. In a move that is becoming quite common in the industry now - the pursuit of first-party data (customer data that a company can collect and own directly from its services and products), Disney is working towards developing its own advertising solutions. On the one side, this is driven by the need to develop revenue streams and monetize the attention. On the other, such a move will give the company the reassurance that it can access a large pool of audiences that is unrestricted by privacy controls which companies like Apple and Google are implementing across devices. A win-win situation. Read story
How Twitter plans to add its next 100 million users (The Verge)
A look at the new management structure at Twitter and the changes they hope to deliver in order to increase user participation. As a platform, Twitter is still the most conversation-native platform. Faced with the challenge of attracting and engaging a user base, the company’s leadership is working on solutions that can help surface popular conversations that may otherwise be left unseen by communities. Twitter’s desire to compete for the attention of its users and maintain its relevance is ultimately going to put it in contention with TikTok and crypto. In fact, I think that Twitter has been by far the most impactful platform for the proliferation of web3 and crypto. This commitment is also evident in the company’s integration of crypto features that further bridge the gap between web2 and web3. And they don’t seem to be discarding the importance of staying on the bleeding edge. Read story
Magic Leap 2 Hands-On: AR Glasses That Can Dim the Real World (CNet)
AR glasses are still lagging behind VR headsets on the consumer front. That said, multiple companies are working towards bridging this gap and giving us the experience promised in science fiction. In this piece, a bit more techy and for those wanting to learn more, the new Magic Leap device is being reviewed. If you want to know more about where the AR glasses market is today, this article will give you a nice summary. In summary, we are not there yet. Read story
Interview with Intel’s Raja Koduri: Zettascale or ZettaFLOP? Metaverse what? (AnandTech)
More techy, geeky stuff! Processing power is key to the development of new technologies and all the talk about a metaverse, for example, is reliant upon the understanding that a huge amount of processing power will be available to hardware and software developers in order to deliver consumer-ready products. A company that is in the middle of it all is Intel and they are deep into R&D in order to ensure their products answer to the demands of visionaries and technologists all over. This interview is a nice behind the scenes look at what the company is cooking and how it plans to develop its offerings over the next years. Read story
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That’s all for this week. Catch you all in the next one.
Have a good week(end)!
Marin