Apple’s Priority in Mobile
By: Jiho Chung

Scheduled for a mid-September release, the new iOS 14 features will include an emoji search, more user-friendly app library, and removal of the full-screen takeover when using Siri and calling someone among others. However, what’s been making waves in the advertising industry is its latest mobile privacy update: upon launch, iOS 14 will ask users to either continue allowing apps to track their personal data & mobile usage, or simply opt out.

Installed in most apps, the IDFA (Advertising Identifier) currently allows digital marketers to track specific user activity for personalized ads. Although Apple will still permit apps to collect anonymized data, marketers won’t be able to leverage key user insights such as site activity, user location, and e-commerce purchases. With over 100 million users in the United States, the tech world is being rocked with many concerned of users opting out, especially Facebook and Google both of which generate most of their revenue through advertising. For instance, Google has invested more than 1 billion dollars annually to make its search engine Apple’s default; and  this can only massively inhibit data from organic & paid search to fuel its soon-to-be-once extraordinary ad targeting to an exponential degree.

With most Apple users not realizing how much apps track their mobile activity (especially when not using them), this is a step in the right direction with the consumer coming first. In a time when brands are being boycotted for their lack of attention or action to society’s needs, this couldn’t have arrived at a better time to further cement trust with us.

Quibi Struggles to Keep Subscribers
By: Jessica Bedussi

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last 7 months, you’ve surely heard of Quibi. The mobile-first streaming service offers users “quick bites” of content under 10 minutes in length. The platform gained massive awareness with a barrage of paid advertisements on social and streaming TV. These paid ads turned to real potential when they enticed 4.5M downloads with a hefty 3-month free trial. 

However, reality set in when the 3-month trial ended and only 8 percent of accounts converted to paying subscriptions. There are a lot of theories as to why the platform has been unable to keep subscribers but most focus on: length and format. 

Shorter isn’t always better. In today’s social-first world, we’re told 1 minute of content is a lifetime. But as the realities of COVID-19 have forced us indoors, mobile time has dropped in favor of larger screens and longer form content. 

Flexibility is key. Quibi’s product is only available on mobile devices. But with the ease of connected devices, modern streaming consumers prefer to seamlessly switch between screens. The format of Quibi is limiting as many of us don’t want to squint at phone screens to consume content. 

Will Quibi abandon its principles in order to gain more subscribers or is it too far gone at this point?