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INSTAGRAM IS EMBRACING email by launching a roundup service which shows its users what it missed during their time away.
‘Highlights’ will work similarly to the ‘While You Were Away’ feature on Twitter where the most popular or relevant posts from those you follow are displayed.
The idea tries to solve the same problem many social sites experience. Displaying content in reverse chronological order ensures that users see the latest content first, but it means that older posts are unlikely to be seen.
The app already serves a number of notifications when someone likes or comments on your photos, and will send you reminders to check it by mentioning which friends posted photos recently.
The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it was the first time it had sent any type of promotional or re-engagement email.
So why would it resort to email? The answer ties back to interaction and getting people to spend more time using the app.
During Facebook’s earnings call in April, the latest figures said that Instagram has 300 million monthly active users and 200 million daily active users. That’s good in its own right, but it still needs to figure out ways to bring that number up, and increase the amount of time spent on it.
To increase that, it must come up with ways to entice people to check more often. The obvious answer is to make people feel they’re missing out on something.
That’s easier said than done but if you’re regularly receiving emails that tell you what you missed, it could encourage you to go into the app and interact with them. When a group of people like or comment on something, it does make you more willing to do the same.
At the same time, email is still one of the most popular methods of communication, despite it being around for decades now. Many media sites now offer email newsletter and digests now so it’s likely Instagram is hoping it will help increase interaction.
And that interaction is vital for Instagram as it tries to monetise the platform. The app has been very careful in introducing ads (they only appear in specific regions like the US) and figuring out a format that users will respond to has been a challenge. Alongside photo and video ads, it’s trying out carousel ads to see if they fare better.
The service is only four and a half years old, but the older it gets, the more it needs to rely on its own revenue. Email won’t solve this problem, but it doesn’t hurt to try it out.
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Spending more money we don’t have. Subsidise them, not completely free.
@Alan Byrne: Closer to 50 times more by the time all the admin etc is paid for
@Alan Byrne: much more accurate
They won’t be “free”. All taxpayers will ultimately pay for them multiple times over.
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: Exactly well said we the tax payer will as usual have to pay for everything as long as Fine waffle Finna failed and the cabbages are power
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: Exactly well said we the tax payer will as usual have to pay for everything as long as Fine waffle Finna failed are in power
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: oh least we for get the cabbages the money grabbing asholes
They should be provided for free to slim people also and not just the wider public…
@William Tallon: heeheehee, good one
@William Tallon: I hate myself that I laughed at that.
@William Tallon: If we all breathe in, I’m sure they’ll stretch a point.
Early in the pandemic, Portugal passed a law prohibiting price gouging on any measure relating to Covid and only a 15% mark up is allowed. Antigen tests cost less than €2 there and are widely available. Why would the Irish government subsidise private enterprise….why not force the providers to reduce their ridiculous prices instead.
@Paula Split: Because supporting cronies, big businesses, and their own get-rich-quick schemes is part of the long-standing culture in Leinster House. For example, the high percentage of landlords in the parties who’ve made housing shortages and excessive rents State policy.
@Fachtna Roe: nail on the head my friend. Amazing how the Irish people just keep voting in these same parties over and over despite this.
@Paula Split: your talking nonsense the test does not cost €2 Per shot in the eu.The tests are free in other EU Countries.Only in this country that the Tax payers have to once again must pay for a test it’s disgusting
@Official Irish CC: I never voted for FG nor the greens in my life and I never will.I did however was a finna failureSuppoter up until after the 1997 election when I opened my eyes thankfully I did I haven’t voted for FF since nor will I in the future
Make them free with the provision that once you take you you register it. If you go back for more you have to pay for them if not registered the results. All sorted and grand then like. People who waste them pay for them.
@This time its personable!: Need to allow for a margin of error. Certainly people seem to be clumsy about taking the first DIY test. In fairness if you’ve never tried the kits before, it’s probably easy to make a mistake at first. But they really aren’t affordable for anyone on a limited budget.
Nothing is free, not pcr tests, masks, hand gel, PUP or other Covid related things. We will all be paying for this for decades to come.
@Mary Conneely: exactly. Nothing is free. Someone has to get paid for, y’know, actually making stuff, despite what Mary and Alan say. There’s no magic money or magic product trees.
This is exactly like when there was no sanitizer no masks and one mask of cost you up to €2!. Now they are practically free. Once we cop on all antigen tests will be free and should be free. This will really encourage people to use them more often and if they find something not right they can go and take a PCR test , it’s a no-brainer!!!.
Antigen testing is free all over Germany. Why do we have to pay through the nose for everything in this country.
@John Fagan: I’m not sure if they have made them free again, but they started to charge for them
Yep free, and if they do hopefully the “procurement team” can negotiate a good rate for them as opposed to signing off on extortionate prices because its taxpayer money.
Yes they should be free, and to cover the costs the bill should be sent to the chinnese government.
@Allan Williams: I recommend researching ecovirology
In the UK they are free,7 in a box.NHS round of applause
@Gary Heslin: The NHS is not free, although there are no charges at the point of use. It’s paid for through taxes, so every taxpayer pays for the tests, whether they use them or not. It’s a more cost-effective way to provide healthcare than leaving patients subject to the avarices of private doctors and hospitals through insurance. We Irish should do the same.
If TDs and senators can get
Them free so should the public
@Pauline Cahill: Good point, the people who can easily afford the test kits are able to use them for free. And people watching every cent from week to week are not likely to be able to buy enough test packs.
@Pauline Cahill: you are right, and do you agree if they pay for them so do we? As this is the case, they do not get them for free!!
They need to be cheap and easily affordable. Otherwise their potential in the community will be squandered.
If we must pay then they must be affordable for absolutely everybody. If not then what’s the point?
Just make them more affordable by subsidising. What’s more important is inform the public how to use them and in what instances; to encourage their use; make sure the country has enough supply of them etc. Instead of saying you believe in antigen testing for the last year, having studies performed that back their use and then still do nothing about it but keep saying how you believe in them.
€6.50 – 8.50 per test. Outragious prices. Also affordable for many with the frequency they need to be done and the financial pressure people are now under.
@Sharon O’Doherty: Couldn’t agree more. If they’re helpful, provide them. People are already paying more for PPE and sanitiser etc. These are equally proactive and preventative. If they pick up more cases, and people are willing to take them, they’ll contain the spread better than nothing.
I don’t think there is a discussion here, it’s like most things in Ireland if payment is involved no one will use them…
@jp tobin: They will if they are affordable. Three tests are needed with the prices ranging from 6.50 to.9.euro in some places. They are too expensive for a lot of people. Not everyone has endless cash. 19.50 to 27 euro for tests or to put food on the table or put towards extortionate heating / fuel bills. I know what I would be choosing.
Why are we paying VAT on face masks and hand sanitizer in shops? Will the gov charge VAT on these tests too?
We aren’t. Those are all zero-rated for the duration, aren’t they? Shops can charge whatever but they aren’t getting VAT on sanitisers or masks.
My mistake, that link was for hospitals & nursing homes buying them in. IDK what the rate is to consumers, but I think it was 5% in 2020.
Denmark deaths per 1 million population 461
Ireland deaths per 1 million population 1073
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Denmark did 87 million tests for a population of about 6 million.
Ireland did about 6M tests.
Denmark has one of the lowest death rates from covid19.
€20 for five on German chains. €30 in one pharmacy and same brand €25 in another. We are being gouged again.
@Darren Priest: Buy them from Germany online, so..
Free to all in the Dáil- on their large safe salary’s. What about everyone else? Cost of everything flying up and people losing their jobs. Some other eu countries have provided them free of charge to all citizens. One box or 5 per week, per person.
To me this makes perfect sense.
It’s Robert Watt. What do you think his opinion will be?!
Just back from France and I bought 5 tests for €14.99 in a small pharmacy. What is going on with profiteering here?
We have loads of them. They rarely work
@kenny mcgrath: how can you tell?
Parotting a previous comment here but follow Portugals lead on a certain percentage mark up on Covid Related goods. €3 a pop would be acceptable to most I think.
Absolutely
Like we do on census night ,could we all sit down in the country and take an antigen test on the same night
What’s the difference between “free” and “for free”?
have your say