Instagram restored in Turkey, TikTok and Pinterest enter shopping pact with Amazon and other notable stories from this week Welcome to "StockTok," The Fly's weekly recap of Wall Street's reactions to social media stock news.
TOO SOCIAL: More than 70% of high school teachers say student phone distraction is a "major problem," so states are now mounting a bipartisan effort to crack down on student cellphone use, Natasha Singer of The New York Times reported, citing a survey conducted by Pew Research. This year, at least eight states have pass laws, issued orders, or adopted rules to curb phone use among its students during school hours. The issue isn't only related to students compulsively using social media apps, but also, in many schools, students have used their phones to bully, sexually exploit, and share videos of physical attacks on their peers.
TO X OR NOT TO X: Shares of Trump Media (DJT) dipped after the company posted a loss for Q2 with revenue below $1M on Friday and former President Donald Trump returned to X, posting tweets ahead of his interview this past Monday with Elon Musk. Trump posted a campaign ad on his @realDonaldTrump account on X this morning, only the second time he's tweeted since January 2021. Shares of Trump Media are down 6% to $24.62 in afternoon trading.
CREATOR COMPENSATION: Meta (META) and Universal Music Group (UMGNF) announced an expanded global, multi-year agreement that will further evolve the creative and commercial opportunities for UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group songwriters across Meta's global network of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads and, for the first time, WhatsApp. The companies said, "The new agreement reflects the two companies' shared commitment to protecting human creators and artistry, including ensuring that artists and songwriters are compensated fairly. As part of their multifaceted partnership, Meta and UMG will continue working together to address, among other things, unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters."
META AND TURKEY COMPROMISE: Turkey restored access to Instagram on Saturday after a nine-day block after Meta agreed to cooperate with authorities regarding "catalog crimes" and "censorship imposed on users," Reuters' Ezgi Erkoyun and Tuvan Gumrukcu wrote. Turkey blocked access to the social media platform on August 2 for failing to comply with the country's "laws and rules" and public sensitivities.
TRUTH+: Subsequent to the second quarter, Trump Media launched its TV streaming platform, Truth+, across the entire Truth Social platform-iOS, Android, and the Web. The company said, "The streaming service relies on TMTG's custom-built CDN, which operates through a newly opened data center as the Company works to bring additional data centers into operation. TMTG's ultra-fast streaming technology is powered through specially designed infrastructure with its own servers, routers, and software stack. Thus, TMTG expects to gain full control over its tech delivery stack for streaming across private network CDN, consistent with the goal of rendering the service uncancellable by Big Tech. The Company further plans to introduce streaming apps integrated with the Truth Social platform that will offer cutting-edge features including an interactive 14-day electronic guide, instant catch-up TV on any show broadcast in the previous 7 days, network DVR, video on demand, subscription video on demand, a marketplace, and more. TMTG also plans to unveil apps that allow users to watch streaming content on in-home TV sets and to introduce new advertising capabilities. TMTG expects to expand its streaming options as the rollout continues, focusing on news, Christian content, and family friendly programming. TMTG anticipates that, as the rollout progresses, it will continue stress and beta testing the streaming technology while collecting input from users-and announce when testing is finished and the rollout is complete."
EARNINGS RECAP: Trump Media reported second quarter earnings on Friday, beating EPS results from last year and falling shy in revenue. CEO Devin Nunes said, "TMTG has opened the Truth Social platform domestically and internationally, gone public on the NASDAQ, amassed a strong balance sheet with no debt, created its own hardware infrastructure and software system to operate a unique content delivery network, and launched fast, reliable, high-quality TV streaming across the whole Truth Social platform-all, in less than three years since our inception. In addition to our plans to build out Truth+ with an array of new features, we continue to explore numerous other possibilities for growth, including mergers and acquisitions. From the beginning, it was our intention to make Truth Social an impenetrable beachhead of free speech, and by taking extraordinary steps to minimize our reliance on Big Tech, that is exactly what we are doing."
IN-APP AMAZON SHOPPING: Amazon's (AMZN) e-commerce business is huge but slow growing, while shopping on social media has been taking off, prompting the giant to look for ways to team up with popular social media apps, The Information's Theo Wayt reported. It has finally landed a key partner, TikTok, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed, which will enable TikTok users to buy items from Amazon advertisements without leaving the social media app, the author said. Amazon also struck a similar arrangement with Pinterest (PINS), the publication adds.
TARGETING TEENS: Google (GOOGL) and Meta entered a secret deal to target ads for Instagram to teenagers on YouTube, Stephen Morris, Hannah Murphy, and Hannah McCarthy of The Financial Times noted. Google worked on a marketing project with Meta set to target 13 to 17-year-old YouTube users promoting Instagram, according to people familiar with the matter and documents seen by the Financial Times. The Instagram campaign targeted a group of users labelled as "unknown" in its advertising system, which Google knew skewed towards under 18s, the sources added.
DISNIFORMATION VS. FREE SPEECH: U.K. officials say X, the platform formerly known as Twitter (TWTR), has been less responsive to removing disinformation than Google, Meta (META), and TikTok, The Financial Times' Anna Gross, Stephanie Stacey and Hannah Murphy reported. The National Security Online Information Team has been compiling examples of posts on the platform it believes are spreading disinformation and inciting violence since the outbreak of clashes across the U.K. last week, and while Google, Meta and TikTok have been quick to respond to remove flagged posts, X has been less responsive and has kept concerning content up, according to people briefed on its activities. X's owner, Elon Musk, has also been posting jibes at U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the report noted.
ANALYST COMMENTARY: Citi lowered the firm's price target on Snap (SNAP) to $11 from $16 and reiterated a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm emerged from Snap's Q2 results encouraged with the progress in its DR platform, but says declining Brand advertising spend, led by weakness across retail, tech, and entertainment verticals, highlights the importance of accelerating the adoption of its DR tools.
