The Frenemy Report: Are Reddit and Pinterest the New Google and Facebook?

Want to reach Millennial males? Create a crypto podcast, a crypto shaving cream, crypto anything. But now those capitalizing on crypto are SOL, as public frenemies Google and Facebook have banned all cryptocurrency ads. Perhaps publishers are better off investing in partnerships with Reddit and with Pinterest. Are they the new Facebook and Google? Probably not, but never underestimate rebels with a cause (to undermine the duopoly).It's not news that Facebook is for adults. But recently, it seems the platform is maturing -- Facebook hit a home run with MLB streaming rights, and Axios reports that Facebook is aiming to launch News for Watch this summer. And yes, Facebook will pay publishers up front for News content for Watch.Ah, regulation. YouTube's Robert Kyncl discusses policing the world's largest video platform and the Logan Paul controversy. The New York Times dives into the plethora of Instagram bots, and what brands can do about it.ICYMI, the OG fearless leader, Barack Obama, is in advanced talks with Netflix for a collection of shows.BuzzFeed’s Jonah Peretti: Platforms need to pay publishers or risk regulation [Digiday]My big criticism of the strategy so far is all their revenue is generated in the news feed, and they only share revenue for new surfaces — Instant Articles or Watch — but don’t share any of the revenue from their main source of revenue, the news feed. There’s no way to influence what’s in the news feed if the algorithm is only about distribution. You’re not getting to the economics of the traffic production. So it’s in Facebook’s interest to share news feed revenue, not because it’s good for the world, but it allows Facebook to have some control of what’s showing up in the news feed.Uncovering Instagram Bots With a New Kind of Detective Work [NY Times]Some believe that the new awareness around bots highlights the misguided expectations that marketers have for how many people they can reach through influencers.YouTube's Robert Kyncl on Policing World's Largest Video Platform, Logan Paul Controversy [The Hollywood Reporter]“We should have done better," the chief business officer says of how the company handled the star’s widely condemned vlog as he also addresses accusations of political bias and his original-content strategy.With an eye on TV ad budgets, YouTube debuts search-based video ad targeting [Digiday]Now, the Google-owned video service is adding the search-based targeting option to its Google Preferred ad-buying program, which packages the most popular 5 percent of YouTube channels into category-specific bundles that brands can advertise against.YouTube TV pricing goes up by $5/month starting tomorrow [TechCrunch]YouTube TV has grown quite a bit since its launch in April of last year. The service now has more than 300,000 users, according to a report, and is available in nearly 100 markets.Scoop: Facebook aiming to launch News for Watch this summer [Axios]This would be the first standalone news product for national news in Watch. The tech company previously launched several products, like Instant Articles and Facebook Live, with an array of publishers which included but was not limited to news companies.For News Publishers, Facebook Is a Less Reliable Friend [WIRED]Data from Parse.ly, which tracks visits to more than 2,500 publisher sites, shows that ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, more than 40 percent of traffic to those sites came from Facebook. By the end of 2017, Facebook accounted for less than 26 percent of traffic to those publishers. That trend will likely continue as Facebook rolls out the changes to news feed.After Facebook news-feed changes, publishers look hopefully to Pinterest [Digiday]Whereas Snapchat and Facebook started as social networks that bolted on content later, Temple described the relationship between Pinterest and publishers in mutually beneficial terms. He said most users come to Pinterest to discover content from publishers and individual creators and that “without that quality content, there wouldn’t be anything for pinners to be discovering and pinning. Publishers aren’t competing with friend content on Pinterest.” Unlike Facebook, which optimizes for likes and shares, Pinterest also is a place where publishers can trigger real-world actions.Facebook Signs Exclusive Deal to Stream 25 MLB Games [Bloomberg]It’s the first time a major U.S. league has agreed to show regular season games exclusively on Facebook, which has been building a portfolio of live sports. Twitter will livestream Major League Soccer games [Engadget] Variety has learned that the social network has struck a 3-year deal with Major League Soccer that will give it a selection of weekly video, including "at least" 24 live matches.‘We’re making inroads’: Reddit is trying to tighten its relationship with publishers [Digiday]“Everyone who came up in the early social media for news days, one of the first things you learned was: Reddit is anti-publisher,” said Amanda Zamora, chief audience officer of the Texas Tribune. “It’s been a remarkable shift, I think.” Riccomini’s earliest moves were designed to smooth relations between Reddit’s users and publishers. Tools were launched in May 2016 to encourage publishers to source and credit Reddit users in their pieces.Snapchat’s @-tagging test could help brands & influencers build their follower numbers [Marketing Land]According to a Snap spokesperson, the feature is in “test mode” and currently works for any type of account, including “organic” brand accounts. The bonus for brands with this new feature is that any call-out from an influencer on the platform will make it more easy for the influencer’s audience to find and follow the brand — giving company-branded Snapchat accounts more exposure and upping follower numbers.Twitter may eventually let anyone become verified [The Verge]The idea is that if everyone is verified, the company can change the meaning of the checkmark and get users to perceive accounts without verification as suspicious. Dorsey also adds that identity, as well as anonymity, is an important part of Twitter. James Corden’s Snapchat show premieres today [Engadget]The premise of James Corden's Next James Corden is that the Late Late Show host is looking for his eventual successor, though he has no plans to leave his post just yet. The six-episode series also includes Haley Joel Osment and Sabrina Carpenter as guest judges as well as The Late Late Show's bandleader Reggie Watts.The Obamas Might Be Headed to Netflix: What Kind of Shows Will They Make? [Vanity Fair]According to The New York Times, the former president is in advanced negotiations with Netflix to produce a collection of shows “that will provide him a global platform after his departure from the White House.”