YouTube's Growing Pains; Baidu Bets On Deep Learning

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YouTube’s Horizons

For Susan Wojcicki, the 15-year Google veteran who helped build the search company into a $55 billion advertising business, recreating the ad magic at YouTube will present some hurdles. Wojcicki took the lead at YouTube in February, and has since been buried under a sea of public recommendations on how to move YouTube’s business model forward. One major headache for Wojcicki is the growing concern among creators over compensation – currently 45% of all ad revenue, according to a profile on Wojcicki by Fast Company. Read it.

Deep Learning’s Allure

Baidu, or “China’s Google,” is investing heavily in deep learning, says The Next Web. In May, the search giant poached Google’s AI researcher, Andrew Ng, a move that has deepened its data efforts, according to Baidu CEO Robin Li. During the company’s Q2 earnings call, Li told analysts that deep learning spend is “already yielding near-term enhancements in user experience and customer ROI and is expected to drive transformational change over the longer term.” Yu explained that image recognition based on deep learning will be a massive avenue for understanding users across devices. Read on via The Next Web.

Lord Speaks

Writing for Ad Age, AOL Platforms Global CEO Bob Lord offers a handful of observations on the current digital marketing ecosystem. “Having seen the waste inherent in our bloated publishing and advertising ecosystems first-hand, my take is that the industry’s No. 1 objective should be to unify and simplify the technologies that automate the planning, buying, execution, optimization and measurement of cross-screen and cross-format campaigns,” he writes. AOL strategy, no? Read more.

Brands Filter Into Instagram

Instagram is quickly catching up to Facebook’s level of brand activity, according to social media shop Shareablee in an Adweek article. This may be impressive, considering Facebook launched in 2004 and Instagram is less than 4 years old. But rising brand engagement is to be expected for younger platforms as they transition into the digital space and marketers take note. According to Shareablee’s figures, a post on Instagram achieves three times the engagement rate than one on Facebook. But, there are challenges to Instagram. Read on.

Social Media Roadmap

On Monday, Re/code’s Kurt Wagner looks into his crystal ball and prognosticates on the future of social channels. Messaging, video and atomization are key, according to Wagner. As sites like Facebook and Twitter grow to be massive communication hubs, the competition will heighten for mobile eyeballs. Private messaging, short-form videos and a great unbundling into standalone applications might all be in social’s future. Read more