🎬Losing ads

January 14, 2025

Good morning. This one’s going to be a little classist but we don’t discriminate out here. If you have a Schengen visa and January is starting to January on your pockets, the Scottish Wildlife Trust is hiring a ‘manager’ for its island of Handa.

It’s a six-month gig providing housing and a $31k salary. And not to worry, because Handa is devoid of human residents, we won’t be able to find you to get our cut.

And remember to update your LinkedIn when you get the job.

— Geraldine Ndzomo.

CURRENCIES

Currency exchange rates against the US dollar as of market close. Here’s what these numbers mean

SOCIAL MEDIA
Will Meta’s attempted rebrand end up costing it ad revenue?

Hannah Nightingale

Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to dress up Meta for the Trump era took a surprising turn last week when the CEO announced his company would end its use of third-party fact-checkers in favor of a crowdsourced community notes system similar to the one employed by Elon Musk’s X.

Now, some marketers say that the change could limit their ad spend on the platform if it resulted in the unchecked spread of fake news, harmful content, and hate speech. Several advertising bosses told the Financial Times that brands will begin reevaluating their plans to advertise on Meta’s platforms over brand safety concerns.

Meta’s ad revenue is key to its business

Actually, it is Meta’s only business at the moment. In the third quarter of last year, advertising accounted for 98% of Meta’s total revenue of nearly $40.6 billion. Its enormous 21% share of the US digital ad market is second to Google, according to Emarketer. Meta’s ability to keep advertising dollars flowing not only keeps the lights on now, but it’s also crucial for subsidizing futuristic, money-sucking bets like the metaverse and AI (Meta’s Reality Labs hardware division has lost $58 billion since 2020).

Do community notes work as a check on fake news? It may be too early to know. Research has shown that X’s user-generated community notes are often too slow to slap a label on inaccurate misinformation before it goes viral. And the share of community notes rated “helpful” on X has been falling consistently, down to 6.9% in November 2024 from 11.3% in January 2023. However, another study from last year found that community notes worked just as well as professional fact-checkers on COVID-19 vaccines.

A different perspective: Other advertising leaders told Insider that they don’t expect Meta’s pivot to community notes to dissuade brands from spending money. After all, Meta became one of the world’s largest companies by delivering unmatched ROI for brands that advertise on its platform—and as long as performance remains high, brands will stay -GN.

TRENDING
While you were asleep…

Jeff Bezos definitely wasn’t. Bezos’ rocket outfit, Blue Origin, was set to launch its first vehicle into orbit overnight. At press time, New Glenn, one of the most powerful rockets ever built, was on track for its historic liftoff, but the unmanned mission has been delayed due to ice buildup in one of the hydraulic systems of the engine.

It fits Blue Origin’s moseying narrative. Progress has been slow for the 24-year-old company, at least compared to its younger competitor SpaceX, which ran up the score with 134 orbital launches last year alone.

SHOWER THOUGHTS

“Graveyards would have a lot more visitors if tombstones had the cause of death written on them.”

NEWS
Round the continent

Denis Balibouse/AFP

  • Mali’s military government has escalated its scuffle with gold miner, Barrick Gold after they seized 3 tons of gold from the miner’s facilities yesterday.

  • A Nigerian military airstrike targeting armed groups in the northwest of the country has killed several civilians. This is the army’s third misfire in over a year.

  • Daniel Chapo is set to be inaugurated as Mozambique’s new president amid ongoing protests over October’s disputed election.

  • Alassane Ouattara, Cote d’Ivoire’s outgoing president is seeking reelection for a fourth term. He’s just turned 83.

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