Mediaboss Marketing

On March 25, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted final approval to a $1.1 million class action settlement resolving claims that the operators of two video social networking apps (defendants) surreptitiously tracked, collected, and disclosed the personally identifiable information and/or viewing data of children under the age of 13, without parental consent in violation of federal and California privacy law. Specifically, plaintiffs asserted violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), the California constitutional right to privacy, the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Businesses Practices Act. Defendants countered that plaintiffs state-law claims were preempted by the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, and that, furthermore, the alleged conduct is not within the scope of VPPA or the cited state consumer protection laws and does not amount to a common law invasion of privacy or a violation of Plaintiffs rights under the California Constitution. Moreover, defendants argued that plaintiffs could not recover actual damages. According to plaintiffs supplemental motion for final approval, following months-long negotiations, the parties agreed to settle the action on a class-wide basis.

The settlement requires defendants to pay $1.1 million into a non-reversionary settlement fund, to be dispersed pro rata to class members (anyone in the U.S. who, prior to the settlements effective date and while under the age of 13, registered for or used the apps) who submit a valid claim after the payment of settlement administration expenses, taxes, fees, and service awards. The courts order, however, declined to award an objectors counsel any attorneys fees for his efforts to negotiate modified relief because the agreement was negotiated in a separate proceeding in related multidistrict litigation. The court also denied plaintiffs motion for sanctions against the objectors law firm.

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Social networking apps settle claims related to the collection of minors' data for $1.1 million - Lexology

The startup culture at Spinny really left a mark on Neeraj Joshi when he was working there, back in 2017-18. A veteran daydreamer, as he calls himself, Neeraj was brimming with his own startup ideas and plans, but when hed try to engage his friends in a conversation around building something, he realised they didnt reciprocate his enthusiasm, and were instead more concerned about postgraduate studies.

Seeking like-minded people to bounce ideas off, the then 22-year old joined various entrepreneur-focused communities, as well as reached out to people over LinkedIn to no avail.

The communities he joined were filled with people selling their services and products, and were devoid of any meaningful connections, while the entrepreneurs on LinkedIn didnt really respond.

Entrepreneurs are an ilk unto their own, and while it may sound like puffery, people in the ecosystem often talk about having this metaphorical entrepreneurial gene that makes founders so willing and able to endure a lot more than usual. People whove made it often profess the importance of finding your own tribe of entrepreneurs whose brains are wired to troubleshoot problems creatively and Neeraj found that lacking in his initial attempts to make contact with such people.

So he decided to go out and create his own community of entrepreneurs where conversations, discussions, problem-solving and just having a tribe took precedence over sales connections and PushStart came into being in 2018.

Beyond that, it also aims to provide a networking platform for founders so they can connect for business purposes too such as finding digital marketing partners, SEO experts, public relations experts, etc.

Neeraj started the platform as a Facebook group, but Pushstart now has its own website. Its communities are accessible on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, and Facebook only the signup is done via the website, after which admins of the platform add users to various communities depending on their indicated interests.

Pushstart has 30+ communities, and a network of over 25,000 entrepreneurs across India. The startup has impacted nearly five lakh entrepreneurs, and sees 75,000+ conversations per month. The bootstrapped, profitable venture is currently doing around Rs 8 lakh in monthly recurring revenue, aims to hit Rs 20 lakh by the end of the year.

Mumbai-based Pushstart does not charge users to join its communities or enrol on the platform. Most of its revenue, instead, comes from two offerings:

"We have guided more than 2,000 startups and directly helped 500 of them. Startup such as Upgrad, Leap Finance, Fitternity, Headout, Motilal Oswal, etc., have hired verified vendors via our network in the last one and a half years of starting this offering," Neeraj tells YourStory.

The PushPartner offering has helped over 500 member customers connect with 100+ vendors. Its GMV from the business is Rs 10 crore-plus.

Pushstart has helped make over 450+ introductions via this offering and the conversion rate for startups using those services after the introduction currently stands at 25 percent.

To join the communities on Pushstart, one simply has to fill up a form that captures some details and areas of interest about people interested in signing up. After that, Pushstarts community managers add people to communities theyve indicated interest in, and reach out to new users, individually, to see if theyd be interested in joining any other communities.

Neeraj says the company has an engagement rate of 336 percent, perhaps due to being available and present on highly used and accessible platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp. Not creating a separate, dedicated platform and yet another web page or app for users to flock to has helped make Pushstart more active than some other online startup communities.

Founders, including Shashank Kumar of Razorpay, Naiyya Sagi of The Good Glamm group, Ajeet Khurana from Zebpay, and Sanchit Malik of Townscript, are members of the platform and have contributed by responding to queries by users, as well as connecting them with their own industry contacts, Neeraj says.

Others like Zerodhas Nithin Kamath, Zohos Sridhar Vembu, Yulus Amit Gupta, CoinDCXs Sumit Gupta, Dharmil Sheth of Pharmeasy, Vamsi Krishna from Vedantu, and Harsh Shah of Fynd, along with other hundreds of top startup founders have held AMA sessions and attended offline meetups.

Neeraj says the company is also going to launch courses to help entrepreneurs get started in their journeys.

Pushstarts competitors include Startup Grind; the Indian startup fraternity on LinkedIN; Startup Network, India, on LinkedIN; Headstart; as well as several individual startup groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp, run independently by entrepreneurs, founders, and community managers.

With India poised to continue seeing the proliferation of startups and entrepreneurs, communities like YS Club and Pushstart are helpful in not only networking, but also finding people undertaking similar journeys. The scope for growth of such communities is immense in a young startup nation like India.

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How Pushstart is helping the startup community make connections and engage in meaningful discussions - YourStory

Earlier this month, LinkedIn held its second annual Spark conference, which featured a range of speakers on key topics designed to help LinkedIn members maximize their success.

If you missed the event, you can still catch up on all the key learnings, with the full, hour-long Spark event available to stream for free here (via registration sign-up), while LinkedIn has also shared some more specific insights into key tips and notes from the event to provide more perspective on the focus elements.

First off, LinkedIn has shared this one-page overview of key takeaways, including a range of insights from Spark speakers.

Those are some handy notes for your LinkedIn marketing approach, and how to utilize the platform to maximize opportunity.

LinkedIns also gathered a collection of key quotes from speakers, including actor Ryan Reynolds, which also provides some more perspective on how to plan and achieve success via LinkedIns networking and advertising tools.

Again, these are some valuable notes, and if you have the time, there is some good insight in the full Spark video. But if you dont, the above summaries are a good recap of the key lessons and tips, which could help in your strategic thinking.

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LinkedIn Shares and Overview of Key Insights and Advice Shared at its 'Spark' 2022 Conference - Social Media Today

Revenue Doubled to RMB 2,359.8 million with Value-added Services Contributing 87.4%

Adjusted Net Profit Grew by 99.5% YoY to Reach RMB 309.0 million

MAU of Social Business Exceeded 20 million, Striving for Higher Profitability in 2022

HONG KONG, March 31,2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Newborn Town Inc. (9911.HK), the flagship Chinese social networking company going global, is pleased to announce its audited consolidated results of the Company and its subsidiaries (collectively the ''Group'') for the year ended 31 December 2021 (the ''Year'').

RMB Million

For the year ended 31 December

2021

2020

Change

Revenue

2,359.8

1,181.6

+99.7%

Revenue from value-added services

2,062.4

657.5

+213.7%

Adjusted net profit

309.0

154.9

+99.5%

Percentage of R&D staff

61%

43%

+18 p.p.

Selling and marketing expenses

21%

41%

-20 p.p.

2021 was a fruitful year for Newborn Town. The Group continued its focus on the globalized social networking business and actively enhanced its product matrix. By launching its "Touched in 10 Seconds" product, Yumy, and extending the reach of the popular applications in MICO and YoHo, the Group expanded beyond the MENA and South Asian market, where it has long laid solid business foundations. Through the expansion into the mature markets of Europe and North America, the Group captured greater user value, which resulted in the exponential growth of revenue from value-added services. By the end of 2021, the Group's social products received over 344 million downloads. The number of monthly active users (MAUs) hit a record-breaking 21.79 million in December, representing a growth of nearly 100% over the average MAU of 2020, which helped push the Group to the next level.

During the Year, total revenue grew by 99.7% YoY to reach RMB2,359.8 million (2020: RMB1,181.6 million). Revenue from value-added services grew by 213.7% YoY, reaching RMB2,062.4 million (2020: RMB657.5 million), and continued to be the largest revenue contributor (87.4%). Leveraging on its growing business scale, the Group developed a mature and replicable operating system which significantly reduced the sales and marketing expenses to 21.4% of total revenue (2020: 40.9%), thus achieved an improved operating margin. The adjusted net profit of the Year was RMB309.0 million, representing a YoY increase of 99.5%.

The Group puts R&D, innovation, and operating efficiency as its top priorities. By forging a replicable business model and expanding localized operating teams across the globe, the Group possessed the ability to accurately capture the needs of users and boost their spendings on social products through its matrix of popular social applications. During the Year, the Group achieved the following:

Hero social networking products shined as the number of MAU hit 21.79 million

During the Year, Newborn Town strived to further tap into the field of open social networking. In addition to promoting its hero product to more markets, the Group also launched new products to expand its product matrix, and the products had made it to top of the charts in multiple countries.

Strengthened R&D capabilities to create replicable success

The R&D team has continued to consolidate the key aspects such as operation, algorithm and big data to significantly raise the accuracy of user analytics. During the Year, R&D expenses amounted to RMB131 million, representing a YoY increase of 123.6%. The number of R&D staff increased from 181 to 2020 to 337 in 2021, and now account for 61% of the Group (2020: 43%).

The results of R&D were remarkable. For instance, Yumy released 37 updates since its launch, during which the product has been tirelessly improved based on the paying ability of users, as well as the findings of life-cycle analyses of the product. Such efforts led to successful promotion over the potential markets with high-return, and were the keys for hitting over 50 million downloads in a short period of time.

To improve user retention rate, conversion ratio and average revenue per user (ARPU), the R&D team has also been introducing new functions to the social applications. YoHo's "customized gifts" perk is a great example. By allowing users to create unique effects of the gifts they send to friends or their favorite content creators, the entire chat room could share the users' joy and love for others.

Further invested in refinedgames and metaverse for diversified development

The Group will carry on with the strategy of refined games. By developing medium and hard-core games and extending the life cycle of the products, the Group seeks greater synergies between social networking and gaming products. Currently, Solar Creator, the Group's self-proprietary intelligent game development framework, can cater to the development needs of the gaming business. By combining its technical strengths in the field of AI, the Group seeks to lower the development costs and improve R&D efficiency.

With the rise of metaverse, the Group has been actively introducing metaverse-related content to its social networking products. In November 2021, the Group included the metaverse feature known as Meta Town in Yumy, and will introduce multiple virtual scenarios and other elements of the metaverse. Yumy could become the world's first to feature metaverse scenarios. Recently, the Group launched the world's first video social networking digital collectibles.

Mr. LIU Chunhe, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Newborn Town Inc.commented, "Moving forward, we will continue our focus on going global. In 2021, our overall strategy was to prioritize scale and growth. For 2022, we will emphasize on profitability as we grow further. We will improve the business model of our social networking products and put more efforts on product development and localized operations. Through improved promotion and marketing efforts, our refined games and other innovative businesses will also embrace growth."

SOURCE Newborn Town Inc.

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NewBorn Town Inc. Announced 2021 Annual Results - PR Newswire

The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Elton John, and many more stars will take part in a social media rally dubbed Stand Up For Ukraine next month.

Taking place on April 9, the online movement will call on governments and corporate leaders to provide tangible support for Ukraine amid the humanitarian crisis in the country, caused by the Russian invasion.

Alongside The Weeknd, Eilish, and John, the likes of Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, Tame Impala, FINNEAS, Jon Batiste, Kacey Musgraves, Madonna, The Jonas Brothers, and many more will also take part. The social media rally intends to put pressure on world leaders to provide additional emergency funding needed to help the millions of people who have been displaced by the war in Ukraine, as well as other conflicts including in Yemen, South Sudan, and Afghanistan.

According to UNHCR, around 12 million people currently need assistance as a result of Russias invasion of Ukraine, while 6.5 million have been displaced in the country.

Stand Up For Ukraine is being driven by Global Citizen and was announced on Saturday (March 26) by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It is hoped that the day of social media pledges and action will raise billions of dollars for those in need and that, on the day, social networking sites will be flooded with messages calling for more support in the crisis.

Millions of people are fleeing the bombs falling on Ukrainian cities, von der Leyen said, per Billboard. The world must stand up for them. The European Union is catering for the needs of the millions of refugees it hosts. And we will further step up. But so much is needed and the brave people of Ukraine deserve solidarity from citizens and states around the globe. Together, we can give them a safe home and bring some light in their lives at this dark hour.

Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans added: History has shown us that conflict and poverty are closely interconnected, resulting in the weakening of the rule of law, a collapse in economic development, and often catastrophic humanitarian situations.

There is no doubt that the conflict in Ukraine has led to a humanitarian crisis members of Global Citizen saw this ourselves at the Ukrainian-Polish border. More than three million refugees have fled their homes, with millions more likely on their way.

Stand Up For Ukraine will follow another fundraising effort from global music stars tomorrow (March 29). Snow Patrol, Emeli Sand, Gregory Porter, Nile Rodgers & Chic, and more will perform at the Concert For Ukraine event in Birmingham, UK, with the hopes of raising over 3 million.

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The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Elton John, And More Join Stand Up For Ukraine Social Media Rally - uDiscover Music