APPS
As ride-hailing app Uber CEO Travis Kalanick departs the company under shareholder pressure, Uber has finally unveiled an in-app gratuity enabling driver tips. It represents a pretty big U-turn for company, which also will now provide compensation for drivers for trips cancelled more than two minutes after booking, new insurance plans, and better pay for transporting teenage passengers.
SOCIAL MEDIA
BET is ramping up its digital and social offerings surrounding the BET AWARDS 2017, which airs live on Sunday evening June 25. Among other activities, viewers who upload an original, one-minute video using hashtags #BETAwardsGloUp and #contest are eligible to win a custom dress designed by celebrity designer Thai Nguyen.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has fallen six spots to No. 10 in Glassdoor’s list of Highest-Rated CEOs for 2017. He was No. 4 last year. The good news for Zuckerberg is that he is one of only four CEOs to crack the Glassdoor list for five consecutive years. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is ranked No. 38 but for the company Square, not Twitter.
Twitter’s Periscope is giving users another way to express support for their favorite live streamers: they can help pay them. Users can buy a virtual gift product called Super Hearts, with some of the revenue going to the streamers. Super Heart givers are incentivized to give because they will be listed in order of their generosity.
RESEARCH
Standard Media Index reports that national TV ad spending rose 2% in May from a year go, with broadcast networks posting a 1% increase compared to 2% for cable networks. Cable news revenues climbed by 17%, with MSNBC up by 43%.
The University of Oxford’s Computational Propaganda Research Project is out with an exhaustive look at how various players manipulate public thinking with propaganda, disinformation and fake news on social media platforms – and a lot of it is through bots. In Russia, the researchers discovered 45% of all Twitter activity is carefully managed by automated accounts, many of them apparently under the control of government organs. Twitter discussion in Poland is controlled by a small group of highly active right-wing and nationalist accounts powered by bots, according to the research.
Seven out of 10 early consumer adopters of virtual reality technology expect to see its biggest impact on media, education, work social interaction, travel and retail, according to Ericsson. Lack of mobility, bulky headsets and network lag are hurdles the technology needs to overcome. Ericsson surveyed 9,200 consumers in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the US.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
Players’ Tribune, the sports site launched by former New York Yankee Derek Jeter, has its first CEO in the person of Jeff Levick, whose most recent affiliation is with investment group Greyrock. Before that he headed up revenue at Spotify for five years.
TRIVIA
Our Last Trivia Question: Narcos co-star Pedro Pescal played a character in the fourth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Which one? Kudos to Brian Lozynski-Turner Broadcasting/NY, Dan Quitério-Understood/NY, Daniel M. Rak-WME | IMG/NY, Luke Watson-Essential TV/NY, John Carlo-SBGTV/NY, Gabrielle Fredrick-National Geographic/DC, Kayla Baines-PR Newswire/MD, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/CA, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/CA, Gayathri Jayakumar-THREE/NY, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/CA, Lorrie Shilling/CA, Sarah Gaspar-Sony Pictures Home Entertainment/CA.
This YouTube star who plays in the band We The Kings holds a Guinness World Record for posting a daily, uninterrupted video about his life for more than eight years. (Email trivia@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and state.)
