Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Facebook is appealing to its Asian users with messaging, emoticons, and stickers

By
facebook-stickers
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Facebook Home may not be available for iOS devices anytime soon (like we first thought it would), but iPhone and iPad users will get a taste of its most interesting parts, at least. The official announcement included a peak into the huge emoji stickers that will also be made available for the social network’s iOS app. If that feature doesn’t quite appeal to you, that’s OK – they will surely excite Facebook’s Asian users – all 153 million of them who use the social networking site on a daily basis.

Messaging applications like Line and Path have utilized the sticker feature from the get-go, while Facebook is tapping into its popularity only now. Line in particular was even named the highest-grossing social networking app in the world by AppAnnie, and it could very well be thanks to stickers they offer for sale. These apps have experienced incredible popularity in Asia, where market-bigtimers (like WhatsApp) got their start as well. Clearly, social apps are being built differently and experiencing insane growth in this sector, and Facebook is taking notice. 

Recommended Videos

The fact that a large number of users are more than willing to pay for using the feature in other chat applications looks like something Facebook ought to consider to increase their profits, if not for their Asian market specifically. The stickers included in the Facebook iOS app update are currently available for free, but their announcement of the feature alludes to a “sticker store” that could potentially get a monetization stream going for them. 

Related

Facebook is steadily coming up with mobile apps and updates, and some of them have failed miserably. The company’s attempt to join the sticker fad may very well fade in the wind, as it is a market that already has more successful players (and we really don’t know for sure if it’s a trend that can catch on in the U.S. market). Hopefully its inclusion alongside the chat heads function for the Facebook iOS app will enable it to remain in the foreground; this guy can help come up with potential iOS app upgrades that will stick (pun intended) as well. 

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jam Kotenko
Jam Kotenko
Former Digital Trends Contributor
When she's not busy watching movies and TV shows or traveling to new places, Jam is probably on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or…
Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day
Bluesky social media app logo.

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.

In a post on its main rival -- X (formerly Twitter) -- Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.

Read more
How to make a GIF from a YouTube video
woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Read more
I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened
An Instagram profile on an iPhone.

In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.

Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.

Read more