Monday Insights: This Week’s Industry Updates

The marketing industry is constantly changing and evolving, with new trends emerging daily, sometimes even hourly. As marketers, it's crucial to stay updated with the latest industry developments. Here's a recap of recent updates to keep you informed:

The New App, Threads, now holds the record for the fastest app to reach 150 million downloads. 

The initial launch of Thread’s in the recent weeks has proven to be a big success. Since their launch, the new Twitter-like app has now received over 150 million downloads. Although the initial hype has mostly died down, Threads now holds the new record for fastest app to get 150 million downloads in just 6 days - now surpassing Pokemon GO at 33 days. 

Brands on Threads are experiencing good engagement, despite the app being in its early stages.

Though the app is still new, early data suggests that brands are seeing positive engagement on Threads.  According to an early study, active brands on Threads are starting to see more likes on posts in comparison to likes on posts on their Twitter account. The number of users on Threads is still a fraction of the number of users on Twitter, meaning there are less people to engage on Threads. Since the launch, the app has seen the overall engagement decline more recently as the app is settling in and people are figuring out how to use it. Officials are saying that with the upcoming app updates they are expecting to see higher retention.

Shopify introduces Sidekick, an AI assistant aimed at simplifying entrepreneurs' lives.
Shopify’s new AI assistant called Sidekick was recently announced over video, with the creators explaining the vision for it and what it should be able to do. Sidekick is a chatbox feature embedded into Shopify to help the user experience be more efficient. Sidekick is able to answer any questions, make changes, and provide outside knowledge and capacity that users may not know. The creators explain their vision for this stating that "entrepreneurs are heroes, and every hero needs a sidekick”. Shopify has not yet announced a release date for this feature, but users can expect testing soon. 

Instagram tests automatic product tagging in brand story posts based on catalogs.

Instagram has recently started testing this feature, which automatically tags products to story posts of brands from their brand catalog. Brands are able to update, edit, or remove the product tag if they would like. The main purpose of this feature is to ensure that brands are utilizing Instagram's tools to show a connection between the product and the Instagram shop. The app is not trying to tag just any product on a story, but is utilizing brand catalogs to generate and tag the product properly. 

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