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Twitter and Facebook Get a Boost from Apple and Alphabet

Date Published: 2016-09-22

Author: Ophir Gottlieb

Written by Ophir Gottlieb

BREAKING
Changes to the way Apple and Alphabet browsers handle video could be a major boon for Twitter and Facebook.

STORY
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Apple and Alphabet will be changing the way their browsers work to accommodate the growing usage of video. The changes look like an immediate uptick in advertising expose and revenue for both Twitter and Facebook Here's how the story reads:

   "

Apple and Google made tweaks to their popular mobile web browsers recently to enable video content to play automatically in web pages, provided audio is muted.

The changes could result in a boost in mobile video consumption for online publishers if they allow their videos to play automatically, and it could unlock new revenue opportunities as a result.

"   

Source: WSJ

The video support was added to Apple 's Safari browser via iOS 10 on September 13th and Alphabet added support to Chrome for mobile on September 7th according to the WSJ article.

HUGE GROWTH
The news story , oddly, got little play in the realm of connecting the dots for Twitter and Facebook , but we'll do that here.

Online video is an absolute revolution when it comes to content consumption and advertising. By 2020 some estimates have us consuming 80% of our content via video. The revolution that is spawning out of this change in consumption will change the advertising landscape like the radio did in the 1920's and the television did in the 1950's.

Remember, in the last earnings call from Twitter we learned that video was the number one contributor to revenue, and the company reminded us that video monetization didn't even exist a year ago.

On the flip side, Facebook reported over 10 billion video views a day on Facebook proper as did Snapchat.

When we take Apple iOS and Alphabet Android, we're looking at more than 95% of mobile market share -- so basically, all of it. That means that every mobile phone running the new operating systems has become an instantaneously better vehicle for video advertising.

The impact could be less for Facebook since the vast majority of usage is through the app, which bypasses the browser. But, recall that Twitter announced 500 million logged out users on the platform compared to 313 million logged in users (as measured by monthly active users or MAUs).

In English, Twitter still gets a heap of traffic from outside sources, mostly Alphabet , which provides billions of impressions a day on tweets through Google search. In a CML Pro dossier we broke the news that Twitter was finally starting to monetize that 500 million logged out user base, and it appears that Apple and Alphabet just did Twitter a huge favor by making Twitter's number one ad type more prolific.

The author is long shares of Twitter and Apple and has no position in Facebook or Alphabet.

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