Bullet Dodged: Monthly “Facebook+” Subscription Fees

The Facebook that could have been — a monthly fee that would have given your ad campaigns fewer impressions. Plus: E-commerce is down, so why is shipping going up? And more!

August 12, 2022

An Ad-Free Facebook?! Uh, No Thanks.

Once upon a time, before iOS 14.5 ravaged Meta's ad business, Facebook and Apple discussed working together. 

The Wall Street Journal spilled the tea today, giving us an inside look at the two tech giants' war on privacy. 

☕ Long story short:

  • Apple wanted to take a bite of Facebook's ad revenue. 

  • Facebook said no. 

  • Apple changed its iOS privacy setting.

But, there is more to the story. Before the change, Apple suggested a series of possible arrangements that would give its company a slice of Facebook's revenue.

🤯 Ad-Free Facebook

According to the WSJ, an ad-free subscription-based version of Facebook was discussed. Considering Apple collects a cut from subscriptions for apps in its App Store, Tim Cook could have made significant revenue from that product.

Meta allegedly revisited the idea of a subscription-based version of Facebook after iOS 14.5 to recoup revenue lost. But, the company ultimately decided against the idea in order to protect its advertising business.

The companies also argued over whether Apple should get a piece of Facebook's boosted posts sales. Apple, which doesn’t take a cut of advertising from developers, allegedly argued that Facebook boosts should be considered in-app purchases. Apple’s standard terms would entitle it to take a 30% share of those sales.

📖 Tim Cook’s happily ever after

As we now know, despite their efforts to work together, Apple and Facebook were unable to reach an agreement. However, according to an Apple spokesperson, the company's later changes to ad tracking had nothing to do with partnership discussions.

USPS Proposed Rate Hikes

It looks like you won't be getting a break on shipping costs this holiday season.

The U.S. Postal Service recently announced proposed temporary rate adjustments for the 2022 peak season. 

The temporary rate adjustment is similar to those in previous years. The company said that it would help cover extra handling costs during peak seasons. That said, the agency is facing a significantly different operating environment this year, as package delivery demand has dropped since its 2021 peak.

This year's planned peak-season pricing, would affect prices on commercial and retail parcels, including: 

  • Priority Mail Express

  • Priority Mail

  • First-Class Package Service 

  • Parcel Select and USPS Retail Ground

USPS said international products would be unaffected. 

Pending review, the temporary rates would go into effect on Oct. 2nd, and they would continue until the new year, on Jan. 22, 2023.

Zuck Delivers Anything That Can Fit in His Trunk

Now for a story that almost feels like it could be a news headline from The Onion. 

Consumers can now have items delivered to them by DoorDash Inc., from Facebook Marketplace. 

🤔 Why? 

  • The deal is Facebook's attempt to attract more users, especially younger ones.

  • While DoorDash aims to expand delivery options to more than food. 

Meta and DoorDash confirmed that they have recently tested the service in several U.S. cities, The Wall Street Journal reports. The service delivers items that fit in a car trunk, up to 15 miles away, and are made within 48 hours.

Sources say the two companies are enticing customers to try their services by offering free delivery. Currently, it's not clear how the service will charge for deliveries in the future.

Why Teens Don’t Need Google Search

The days when you had to find your information in an encyclopedia might be long gone but could the days of Google Search be over soon too? 

According to recent data, 2 out of 5 Gen Zers use TikTok for search. Social Media Strategist, Adrienne Sheares, hosted a mini-focus group with Gen Zers to find out why they aren't using the biggest search engine on the planet. 

So, why are Gen-Z's using TikTok for SEARCH of all things? Here’s what the youth of the nation had to say:

Adrienne also noted that when it comes to lifestyle content, TikTok is THE search engine of choice. It is the platform Gen Z consumers are using to find:

  • Where to eat

  • Where to shop 

  • Where to go on vacation 

MUM Knows Best

Teens might not be relying on Search, but Google announced updates to snippet results yesterday.

🚨 Using MUM more

First, the tech giant has changed its algorithms for generating Search snippets, which are the direct response results it displays at the top of queries, to use MUM more now.

Quoting Google: 

By using our latest AI model, Multitask Unified Model (MUM), our systems can now understand the notion of consensus, which is when multiple high-quality sources on the web all agree on the same fact. 

Our systems can check snippet callouts (the word or words called out above the featured snippet in a larger font) against other high-quality sources on the web, to see if there’s a general consensus for that callout, even if sources use different words or concepts to describe the same thing. 

Basically, the system now double-checks facts and claims in snippets.

Google also said that its AI models are getting better at recognizing when a featured snippet doesn't provide relevant context. According to the company, it has reduced the appearance of featured snippets in such cases by 40%.

🔎 About this result

Google is also adding more information to "About this result", to show searchers more context about why results are displayed, such as:

  • Info on how widely a source has been circulated

  • Online reviews about the source or company 

  • Information on site ownership

⚠️ More advisories 

Finally, the platform is expanding "content advisory" warnings on search results where its system has low confidence in the overall quality of the results. 

According to Google, this does not indicate that no helpful information is available, or that a particular result is low-quality, instead, it adds more context to the whole set of results on the page.

LinkedIn Updates

A couple of updates from LinkedIn to share with you. 

🆕 Templates

The professional network announced a new template feature yesterday for creating posts.

💡 How it works:

  • When creating a post, select "Use a template" 

  • Then you can choose from different custom backgrounds and fonts 

  • Add your text and hit "Share"

You can also add clickable links to your template, a new feature we reported on earlier this week.

💼 Layoffs

On another note, LinkedIn is the latest social giant to lay off employees. The company confirmed that its entire global events marketing team is being restructured. 

LinkedIn did not provide information about the number of employees that were laid off, but a spokesperson indicated that affected staff are being encouraged to apply for jobs on a new team focused on creating hybrid, in-person and virtual experiences.

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