Survey Reveals TikTok Tops Video Content Platforms for Brands and Retailers

According to Digiday+ Research Survey of brands and retailers, many of the marketers are preferring TikTok over YouTube for video-focused social media marketing. When it comes to video-focused marketing, most brands and retailers are using YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat for it. In the summer of 2024, TikTok was the most favorite app for brands and retailers with 67% of them saying that they have posted their content on TikTok in the past month. 60% of the brands and retailers reported posting their content on YouTube in the past month, while 16% of them posted their content on Snapchat in the past month.

Last year, YouTube was ranked the highest among these three apps, but many brands are focusing more on Tiktok this year and also increasing their ad spend on the app. In summer of 2022, 42% of the brands and retailers reported posting content on TikTok and in 2023, the percentage increased to 63% and now it is hitting 67%. In 2022, only 24% of the brands and retailers purchased ads on TikTok which increased to 35% in 2023. In summer 2024, 40% of the brands are buying ads on the platform. The jump in ad spend was more prominent from 2022 to 2023, but it wasn’t that high from 2023 to 2024 likely due to a potential bill to ban TikTok in the USA.

As TikTok has started growing a lot, YouTube is seeing a significant drop among brands and retailers. 74% of the brands posted content on YouTube in 2023, but now it has decreased to 67% in 2024. Even with all of this, YouTube reported a higher ad spend on the platform than last year. In 2022, 55% of brands and retailers purchased ads on YouTube, while 35% did so in 2023. In 2024, 40% of brands and retailers are purchasing ads on the platform.

Snapchat is still trying to gain popularity among brands and retailers. 19% of the brands and retailers posted their content on Snapchat in summer of 2023, but percentage has gone down to 13% in 2024. The ad spend on the platform is also slow, with 12% of brands and retailers buying ads on Snapchat last year to 13% of brands and retailers who are buying them this year. It is disheartening to see, especially when Snapchat was trying out its high-profile brand marketing campaign.

Read next: New Report Shows Meta Has the Highest Share of Time Spent on its Platforms as Well as Highest Digital Ad Spending
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Nearly 39% of Americans Believe AI Etiquette Matters for the Future

During conversations with AI chatbots, you might wonder if politeness is necessary. Most people use words like “please”, “thank you” and other polite words while talking to AI chatbots. Talker Research conducted a survey of 2,000 Americans to find out how many of them talk politely with AI. The survey found out that only 7% of respondents describe their way of talking with AI models impolite and inconsiderate.

On the other hand, 48% of Americans think that they talk nicely to AI robots, with Gen-Z talking politely the most. Four in ten Americans (39%) believe that the way they behave and talk with AI models will somehow affect them in the future. 25% of the respondents said that they don't say “please” or “thank you” to AI models but aren't impolite. They just expect AI models to answer their questions and that's it.

56% of the Gen-Z were found to be the most polite while talking with AI. 52% of Millennials, 44% of Gen-X and 39% of Boomers are polite while talking with AI models. When the people who talked politely with AI were asked why they do it, 68% said that they just talk that way with everyone, while 29% of the respondents categorized themselves as compassionate and said that everyone deserves to be talked with politely. 48% said that they feel that AI deserves to be spoken to politely.

27% had a different approach and said that AI models and Alexa/Siri have no feelings so it's okay to speak to them rudely. 49% of men and 47% of women said the AI also deserves to be treated politely, while men (34%) are more likely to speak rudely to AI models than women (20%).

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• Users of Coinbase Are Increasing Rapidly in the US and UK, Leaving Binance Far Behind

• BroadBandNow's Analysis Claims Internet Prices Have Remained Steady Despite Inflation
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Users of Coinbase Are Increasing Rapidly in the US and UK, Leaving Binance Far Behind

Apps play an important role in crypto financial and trading systems. Two of the apps, Bianance and Coinbase, are the top apps in the crypto market. Binance is the leading crypto app in the world, however, it is not doing well in the US and UK. Instead, Coinbase is leading because of its better consumer-friendly experience and reputation. In the US, Binance faced some civil and criminal rulings, along with some regulatory challenges like SEC lawsuit. Binance is also not doing well in terms of regulations and having conflicts with regulators in the UK.

According to SimilarWeb's findings, in the US, Coinbase got 16.7 million monthly users in July 2024, which is a 71.2 percent up YoY and 3.1% month over month. Another popular crypto exchange app in the US is crypto.com which got 2 million monthly users. Even though the UK doesn't have as many monthly users of Coinbase as in the US, it still got 1.3 million monthly users. On the other hand, Binance had 729.5K monthly users. Even though Binance stopped accepting customers in October of last year, it is still one of the most used crypto apps in the UK.

Crypto customers in the US have also started using a new crypto app called Robinhood which is more diverse and supports crypto trading. Other crypto apps that have been gaining some popularity in the US are Blockchain.com with 164.6% increase in active users YoY, OKX with 260% increase in active users YoY and Bybit with 50.7% increase in active users YoY.

On the other hand, Bianance app has been growing worldwide with 53.9 million visitors on the web in July alone. Coinbase.com got 32.2 million visitors in July. The iOS version of Coinbase is also growing rapidly with 87.9% increase in users YoY.

Read next:

• Why Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is Crucial for Modern Cloud-Native Applications

• Stunning Job Revision Revealed: U.S. Added 818,000 Fewer Jobs Than Initially Reported

• BroadBandNow's Analysis Claims Internet Prices Have Remained Steady Despite Inflation
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

BroadBandNow's Analysis Claims Internet Prices Have Remained Steady Despite Inflation

In this raging inflation period, nearly every product and service is increasing their prices. But internet plans are as steady as ever. A new study found out that consumers have not experienced any price raise on internet plans.

The analysis done by BroadBandNow suggests that broadband prices have been steady ever since 2015, with $90 average a month. BroadBandNow analyzed nearly 2000 ISPs delivering services via cable, Fiber Technologies and DSL and found out that these internet services had no effect of inflation on them.

There was a 40% price drop on fiber service after adjusting for inflation. This shows that fiber technology has made its way to many markets and is now delivering high speed and reliable internet connection services.

BroadBandNow also noticed that the Affordable Connectivity Program had helped people a lot in choosing affordable monthly internet services. But now it has ended because of lack of funding from Congress which has 23 million households in the USA. Democratic Party said that they will continue fighting to reinstate the Affordable Connectivity Program in the USA.

Even though the internet price per month is $90 on average, it is still higher as many people say that internet pricing should be $60 or lower. On the other hand, many consumers claim that their internet pricing was $20-$60 dollars when they first subscribed to the internet service, according to the US News & World Report survey.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Stunning Job Revision Revealed: U.S. Added 818,000 Fewer Jobs Than Initially Reported

According to the preliminary estimates of the annual benchmark revision to U.S. employment figures, U.S. job growth wasn’t as strong as initially estimated. Between March 2023 and March 2024, 818,000 fewer jobs were added to the U.S. economy than originally reported, resulting in a 0.5% growth in employment. This is the largest downward adjustment since 2009.

The revised data indicates that the U.S. added 2.08 million jobs during the 12-month period ending in March 2024, down from the initial estimate of 2.90 million. Average monthly job growth was adjusted from 242,000 to 174,000. Although this is still solid growth, it is below earlier expectations.

The sectors experiencing the most significant declines, accounting for more than 90% of the downward revision, include: professional and business services (-202,000 jobs), retail trade (-47,000 jobs), manufacturing (-96,000 jobs), and information (-103,000 jobs). The Leisure and Hospitality industry also saw a decline, but Private Education and Health Services experienced a growth of 1,144,000 jobs, up from 1,057,000 in the original estimate.

The downward revision of U.S. job growth points to a slower economic recovery. Key sectors facing declines suggest potential challenges for overall economic momentum and consumer confidence.

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• A New Study Finds AI Text Detectors are Not as Accurate as Some Claim

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Why Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is Crucial for Modern Cloud-Native Applications

Amid the rapid evolution of the digital landscape, organizations are adopting cloud-native architectures to streamline operations, reduce costs, and accelerate scaling. The shift towards microservices and containers has become increasingly popular as businesses demand agility, resilience, and ease of deployment. This movement is central to Kubernetes's emergence as a go-to orchestration platform for containerized applications.

Image: ThisIsEngineering/pexels

However, managing Kubernetes clusters can be complex, which is where Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) enters the picture. AKS offers a fully managed service that simplifies Kubernetes operations, enabling developers to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure management. For those seeking additional details on how AKS fits into this evolution, it’s essential to understand why it’s a game-changer for modern cloud-native applications.

The Transition to Cloud-Native Environments

Cloud-native applications mark a new paradigm of how software is constructed, produced, and delivered. Cloud-native applications are a set of microservices, while in monolithic architectures, applications are created as a single block with interdependencies. Microservices are small and self-contained services that can be built, deployed, and even managed without having to worry about the other microservices. This affords immense flexibility because each microservice can change without affecting the whole system.

However, when it comes to managing microservices, some new challenges appear. Questions related to scaling, load balancing, network traffic, and state management of containers must be addressed. This is where Kubernetes comes into play, as it is an orchestration layer that handles the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized workloads.

Kubernetes is a mighty tool by itself, but configuring and managing clusters can be quite time-consuming and require extensive experience. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) was designed to address these challenges by providing a fully managed service, enabling teams to take advantage of Kubernetes without the additional burden.

Simplified Kubernetes Management with AKS

Another critical reason AKS is necessary for current cloud-native applications is because it can help manage Kubernetes clusters properly. Previous methods of implementing Kubernetes required setting up the underlying environment, handling cluster nodes, networks, and fault tolerance. AKS also hides this complexity by providing a managed environment where Microsoft manages the underlying infrastructure, resources, and services such as provisioning, scaling, and monitoring.

AKS also works well with other Azure tools, such as Azure Active Directory for identity management, Azure Monitor for monitoring, and Azure Policy for compliance management. This tight integration minimizes interaction between the development and production environments and helps the developers sustain a strong, safe, and compliant environment. Furthermore, the fact that AKS is an Azure service means that organizations do not need to worry about updating, patching, or scaling clusters, as these are handled automatically.

In addition, AKS provides intrinsic security features like network policies, pod security policies, and Azure Security Center integration. These features assist in shielding applications from threats and maintaining compliance with various standards. With AKS, teams are free to concentrate on developing and deploying cloud-native applications and not worry about the details of Kubernetes management.

Scalability and Flexibility for Growing Applications

The fourth and final benefit of AKS is that it is highly scalable and very flexible, which makes it ideal for applications where the workload is expected to vary. Applications deployed in organizations should be scalable, meaning that as organizations get more significant, the applications have to accommodate this growth and not slow down. AKS is also capable of horizontal scaling, increasing or reducing the number of nodes in a cluster.

This flexibility is especially beneficial for busy platforms like online stores during the holiday season or streaming services during popular events. These changes are acceptable for AKS as it can quickly scale up the resources to meet the demands and keep the application up and running at all times.

AKS also supports hybrid and multi-clouds, which makes it possible for organizations to execute tasks in various locations or across multiple cloud service providers. This is particularly useful for companies with strict data sovereignty rules or those who want to avoid being tied down to a particular provider. AKS empowers developers to place the applications where they are most suitable for the company while ensuring that they receive standardized management and orchestration from Kubernetes.

Driving Innovation with DevOps and CI/CD Integration

Another reason why AKS is so vital in modern cloud-native applications is its integration with DevOps pipelines. AKS automates the whole software development process, which means that new features and updates can be delivered faster while remaining high-quality and reliable. AKS can consume various pipelines for continuous integration and continuous delivery, where developers can release changes to production rapidly and securely.

CI/CD platforms like Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and others natively support AKS and provide capabilities to test, deploy, and monitor applications running in Kubernetes. This minimizes the chances of making mistakes and shortens the development cycle while enhancing innovation.

Moreover, AKS offers rich tools for monitoring and observability, like Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics, to help developers gain insights into their applications. These tools assist the teams in easily flagging and addressing problems that may affect the execution of applications in production environments.

Conclusion

Regarding modern cloud-native development, AKS is a must-have technology for building modern applications. AKS helps businesses be more innovative while easing operations by scaling Kubernetes management, improving workloads, and integrating with pipelines. With the increasing popularity of cloud-native applications, AKS will remain an essential solution that enables the construction, deployment, and expansion of applications that address modern, digital-first environments.

by Asim BN via Digital Information World

A New Study Finds AI Text Detectors are Not as Accurate as Some Claim

A study by researchers from University of Pennsylvania finds that AI text detectors aren’t as reliable as people think. AI text detectors are used to analyze if a text is AI generated or not. But these AI text detectors are developed in a way that they only look out for some specific signs that can easily be written by humans too. Sometimes, AI detectors easily find the AI generated text but they do not do well when presented with some specific texts like news articles. Sometimes, these AI text detectors also mark completely human written text as AI generated content.

The researchers of the study proposed a new way to generalize an AI written text by giving these detectors a data set of 10 million documents from news articles to blogs and recipes, and benchmarking them. A public leaderboard will then rank AI detectors according to their performances based on those datasets. They said that they are trying to benchmark AI detectors so if someone comes up with a new idea, we can validate that their text is in fact human written.

Ever Since the release of GPT-2 in 2019 and GPT-3 in 2022, there have been so many problems regarding the text produced by AI text generators. Many teachers have also shown their concerns about their students using LLMs to write their assignments and academic papers. Many AI detectors claim 99% accuracy which is too good to be true. Some even claim that AI is hard to detect.

The researchers say that AI detectors are easy to deceive if we replace certain words and add British spellings on the words. Some detectors also work best on the AI text models they were trained on, so they sometimes cannot accurately detect text written by models like Anthropic’s Claude. Some AI detectors which were specifically designed to detect news may also struggle on recipes. All in all, as LLMs are getting better, AI detectors are struggling to detect AI written text accurately.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next:

• What’s the Best Tool for Detecting AI Generated Content?

• How To Use Google Docs Secret Feature to Detect AI Content Writing

• Survey by GitHub Shows Regional Variations in AI Usage Among Programmers and Developers
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World