In influencer marketing news, a Reuters study confirmed that young viewers are favouring social creators over traditional news sources. A Gen Z creator in Singapore has gained millions of views on TikTok with a series aimed at saving her mum's light business. Cirque du Soleil has created its own influencer network, and comedy group The Inspired Unemployed have launched a new fragrance in partnership with Chemist Warehouse. Other updates include Elon Musk's plans for X to become a dating app, Instagram's addition of song lyrics display in Reels Clips, and X's efforts to sell disused user handles for up to $50,000.
Key takeaways:
- X is testing its first chatbot, 'Grok', which is expected to be a more accurate source of truth on real-time news topics.
- TikTok Shop US is exploring ways to help brands sell their products and services directly through the app, including possible partnerships with retailers for deliveries.
- YouTube is cracking down on ad-blocker usage globally, showing warnings about breaking the platform’s terms of service and in some cases, preventing users from viewing more videos unless they disable ad blocks.
- Instagram is developing a customisable 'AI friend' feature that users can converse with, selecting the gender, age, ethnicity, personality, name, avatar, and interests of the AI chatbot.