Since the advent of social media platforms in the late 1990s, last year arguably witnessed the most accelerated evolution of feature developments and enhancement of user experiences as global providers raced to outdo each other and exert dominance in the increasingly lucrative space.
So rapid have the changes been that a number of users have conceded to their inability to keep up with the pace, yet more seems to be in the pipeline.
The first major disruption came in April when Tesla billionaire founder and CEO Elon Musk announced a new verification policy on his social media giant, X, which was at the time known as Twitter.
The policy would see users compelled to pay monthly charges for authentication badges that were previously issued freely.
Musk had earlier, in October 2022, assumed ownership of the platform after he completed his $44 billion (about Sh6.9 trillion in current exchange rates) acquisition.
In the new policy, the Tesla boss sought to phase out the legacy blue badge and strip verified accounts of their authentication badges making the verification symbol available for purchase.
Kenyan companies and State agencies were effectively forced to pay a $1,000 (Sh156,500 in current exchange rates) monthly fee to keep the badge while individual subscribers were required to part with $11 (Sh1,721) monthly.
In July, Mr Musk moved to rename the platform to X, dropping the signature blue bird logo and replacing it with a white X on a black background, while announcing that the site would in coming days move into provision of payments, banking as well as commerce services.
At the time, the platform, which was estimated to be enjoying around 200 million active users daily, had already started taking a hit as advertisers held back on advertising, protesting the new charges for previously free services, in addition to repeated technical failures following Musk’s move to effect mass sackings in the firm.
Three months after taking over control, Musk reported that X had lost at least half of its advertising revenue.
Taking cue and moving to capitalise on the opportunity, Facebook billionaire founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took on Mr Musk by unveiling a rival platform dubbed Threads. It hit the ground running, amassing a record 100 million users just five days after launch.
Within weeks following the Threads unveil, reports indicated that the platform attracted one-fifth of the weekly active user base of X.
Content creators payment scheme
Musk responded by unveiling plans for a payment scheme for creators based on content impressions as happens on YouTube, commonly known as advertising revenue sharing.
At around the same time, TikTok joined the battle for audiences by introducing the capability to make text-only posts as happens on both Facebook and X, marking a shift from the traditional provision where users could only upload video posts.
During the very same week, Meta launched a subscription service for its Instagram and Facebook users to get verification badges for Sh1,320 a month, similar to the programme X had introduced in April.
Experts attributed the renewed aggression for dominance among the giant social media platforms to a thirst for marketing data which they intended to convert into expanded advertising revenue.
“There is a Big Data rush, just like the way we had the gold rush. Data is currently the most expensive item everywhere and will remain so in the foreseeable future. So the competition is about who can amass more data, more advertising revenue, more creator and subscriber sign-ups,” observed digital marketing strategist Nyandia Gachago.
Within months, the Threads App would prove a flop after analytics firms reported that the platform’s daily active users had dropped by more than 80 percent as at the beginning of August which was just a month after inception. Most of the users expressed their displeasure with the app on what they termed an exact replication of the features that X was offering.
Paid subscription services
Early in December, YouTube and TikTok announced the unveiling of paid subscription services for their Kenyan users, marking another major turnaround in the regular usage of social platforms, with many seeing the move as a revenue mobilisation drive as the tech firms sought to diversify their streams and break away from over-reliance on advertisements as a singular income source.
On its part, YouTube launched its first-rate products, which include YouTube Premium and YouTube Music, which it said would see users pay a monthly fee to enjoy ad-free viewing, play videos in the background, and download videos for offline viewing.
TikTok, on the other hand, said it would introduce a firewall where users would have to subscribe to access content.
Concerns over disruptions
The speed at which developments in social media usage have unfolded in recent months has caused jitters and unease among digital marketers, brand promoters and influencers who have decried the sustained disruption of their trade.
Social media commentator Egline Samoei has, for example, expressed fears that the subscription models could trigger a mass exodus to alternative free platforms, reducing the advertising audiences for marketers.
“The subscription models will impact the social media ecosystem in different ways. First, it could lead to an exodus of users from the paid platforms to alternative free options, and this will lead to the decline of users resulting in a reduction of followers for influencers and advertising audiences for marketers,” observed Ms Samoei.
The battle of egos among the platforms owners has, on the other hand, presented content creators with an opportunity to position themselves and reap from the systemic updates by enhancing their creativity and aligning themselves with the unfolding trends.
