Facebook Struggles And More On CHOM 97.7 FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away about what’s going on in the digital world. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed: 

• A brutal week for Facebook and the public markets. About $120 billion wiped from their public valuation with a drop of close to 20%. User growth has all but stalled in Canada and in the US, and investors seem scared by it’s “ok” growth (which is still a staggering number). Is this the beginning of stagnation or of a shrinking value in Facebook? 
• For everything bad that happened to Facebook on the public markets, Amazon was looking more invincible than ever. While looking at their numbers, it would be easy to dismiss the fascinating reality that Amazon now has an advertising business worth over $2 billion dollars… and it grew by over 130% in the first quarter of 2018. With that, advertising is going to become a much larger beast in the Amazon jungle, and – by the looks of it – consumers are going to be ok with it. 
• Do people pay for music? Who is the biggest when it comes to streaming music? Spotify hits 83 million paid subscribers. Total monthly users? 180 million. This is the classic example of dollars to digital dimes (in terms of artists – and record labels – making any substantive dollars in streaming), but it just goes to show you how far consumers have come in adopting streaming services. 
• App of the Week: Sharezie.