Tuesday, December 01, 2015

The Big Players Battle for Breaking News

Four huge players are launching new products that aim to capture share of the breaking news segment. Facebook just announced its standalone app called Notify in response to Twitter's launch of Moments while Apple pre-installed Apple News on all iPhone 6s phones. And Snapchat's recent Live Stories serves up related user-generated content and has been a huge success with millennials.

I hadn't heard of Notify or Moments until reading this article and it sounds like that is one of the problems - low awareness for these new products. This seems a bit shocking given the products are being put out by two major players. Perhaps time will tell.

After trying Moments, I actually really like the concept. Tweets are organized by content (News, Sports, Entertainment, etc) and easily searchable. I appreciate the value in being served up the most popular tweets across all users (not just the random ones I follow) and based on content I'm interested in. The article also outlines opportunities for the app to incorporate Twitter-owned Periscope as well. In addition to some drawbacks called out in the article, I think my main concern is the vetting of the news being served up. Unlike a trust-worthy app like New York Times Now, a breaking news app from Twitter doesn't make me think I'll be getting the most well-sourced information. In my opinion, it may be a fun add-on but won't be a substitute for real news.

http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/technology/why-its-game-tech-companies-battle-over-breaking-news-168297

No comments: