data.ai, the leading mobile data analytics provider, released its five mobile Predictions for 2024.

"2024 will see consumers demand authenticity, video-first content, and control of their social media experiences through the power of a dollar. Next year will unleash the next wave of innovation in AI and cement how we consume content." - Lexi Sydow, Head of Insights, data.ai

1. The Sun Sets on Microblogging - X (Twitter) peaked at 316 million Daily Active Users (DAU), but data.ai forecasts this will drop to 250 million in 2024, along with Meta's Threads, which could fall below 20 million DAU. Video is king as consumers flock to platforms such as TikTok for news.
   
   
2. TikTok To Become Highest Grossing App Ever, Approaching $15 Billion Milestone In 2024 - Next year, TikTok will hit $14.6 billion to sneak past Candy Crush Saga. In 2022, TikTok became the first non-game app in history to beat a game in quarterly consumer spend. This year, spend in TikTok grew 70% YoY — 3.7x faster than Candy Crush Saga.
   
   
3. Gaming (Back) On - Gaming is expected to do a turnaround in 2024 – up 4% to $111.4 billion. This is following a slight decline over the last two years. The growth will be fueled by RPG, Match, Party, and Casino genres, with Match and RPG contributing $1 in every $5. The US will be the largest driver of spending growth, accounting for 40% of aggregate YoY growth. 
   
   
4. GenAI To Unleash A Wave Of New App Functionality - Downloads of Generative AI apps grew 9x during 2023. In 2024, data.ai projects that 2.3 billion app downloads will include GenAI  functionality, fueling a surge of creativity in genres such as Video Editing and Selfie & Beauty Editor products.
   
   
5. In-App Purchases to Be the Next Battleground for Revenue in Social Media Apps - Historically, social apps monetized via ads. In 2024, more platforms will monetize directly from consumers. TikTok led the way by introducing In-App Purchases to "tip" content creators. YouTube and Instagram have followed suit. The switch will represent a 152% increase in consumer spend for social media apps in 2024.

Plans to develop industry-specific automation solutions to help speed up automation deployment success

Automation Anywhere also announced general availability of Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker integrations for generative AI-based enterprise automation deployments

Automation Anywhere, a leader in intelligent automation that puts artificial intelligence (AI) to work across every aspect of an organization, today announced that it has entered into a multi-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The SCA enhances Automation Anywhere's industry-leading expertise in generative AI and intelligent automation to boost enterprise productivity and power business growth, in addition to offering Automation Anywhere customers greater choice, flexibility and reliability for their generative AI deployments. The company also announced general availability of its integrations with Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service that makes foundation models (FMs) from leading AI companies accessible via an API to build and scale generative AI applications, and Amazon SageMaker, which helps companies build, train, and deploy machine learning (ML) models for any use case with fully managed infrastructure, tools, and workflows.

The collaboration will make it easier for customers to leverage the full breadth of Automation Anywhere's intelligent automation capabilities through their AWS investments and streamline go-to-market opportunities between the two companies. The SCA also enables Automation Anywhere and AWS to deliver more value to customers through a go-to-market and co-selling program, as well as the exploration and development of new industry-specific automation solutions that will power growth and innovation in vertical markets.

"Since we first put our cloud-native Automation Success Platform on AWS, we have long-shared a mutual vision with AWS to enable every company with the potential to transform their business through an open approach to the powerful combination of generative AI and intelligent automation," said Adi Kuruganti, Chief Product Officer, Automation Anywhere. "In the next phase of our collaboration, we're excited to work with AWS to leverage the full power of generative AI to develop targeted, industry-specific solutions and completely reshape and improve the way companies work across their organization."

"The SCA with Automation Anywhere reinforces our shared commitment to making it easy, practical, and cost-effective for customers to use generative AI capabilities across their business," said Chris Grusz, Managing Director of Technology Partnerships at AWS. "We're pleased to support Automation Anywhere in the development of generative AI-powered tools that enable customers to boost productivity and power innovation."

As a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN) since 2017, Automation Anywhere previously launched a preeminent cloud-native process automation solution available on AWS. Earlier this year, Automation Anywhere also joined the AWS Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program, a program for AWS Partners that provide software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS.

"We have long benefited from the cloud-native automation solutions offered by Automation Anywhere and powered by AWS, and we're pleased how they've helped transform our business over the years," said Dev Gulati, Head of Automation, Columbia Sportswear Company. "We're excited for the potential of this expanded collaboration and the opportunities it unlocks for us to utilize the power of generative AI and automation to grow our business."

In June 2023, Automation Anywhere announced participation in the Amazon SageMaker Jumpstart program, a developer portal that provides pre-trained, open-source models, algorithms, and solutions for a wide range of problem types to help companies get started with machine learning, to bring intelligent automation and generative AI innovations to market. Automation Anywhere continues to work with AWS to build and deploy generative AI powered solutions in customer experience, document processing and contact center intelligence using Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Bedrock and other AWS AI/ML services, further strengthening the go-to-market relationship.

Go-to-market veteran joins the contact center analytics leader to head up go-to-market strategy and further define SuccessKPI's position as a category leader.

SuccessKPI, Inc., a SaaS Contact Center Insight and Action Platform provider, has appointed Don Keane as Chief Marketing Officer. He will report directly to SuccessKPI Chief Executive Officer Dave Rennyson. He will work closely with marketing, sales, channel, customer success, and product teams to direct a unified go-to-market strategy that generates and meets market demand.

Prior to SuccessKPI, Keane served as chief marketing officer (CMO) of Instapage, a leading SaaS-based, adtech company based in San Francisco and before that was SVP Marketing & Partnerships at Smartlinx, a leading cloud WFM company, which recently sold to PE in 2023. Keane also served as CMO of Globalization Partners, a cloud services PEO company and as vice president of marketing for cloud services at Genesys following the acquisition of CCaaS pioneer Angel where he served as vice president of marketing and business development.

Keane has also formerly served as managing director with global brand responsibilities at EarthLink and held marketing leadership positions at Intuit, General Mills, MetTel, and Rust-Oleum.

"Don will contribute directly to our mission to improve business outcomes for our enterprise and government clients."   Said Dave Rennyson, CEO of SuccessKPI. "As an early advisory board member at SuccessKPI, Don established an integral place on our team and is uniquely positioned to compound our accelerating growth and increase our impact on this market." 

The ready-to-use, customizable templates enable efficient video creation processes while producing more engaging content

Storyblocks, an unlimited, subscription-based stock media platform with video creation and workflow functionality, has launched DaVinci Resolve templates in the Storyblocks library, allowing users to easily add motion graphics, visual effects and animated sequences to their videos in DaVinci Resolve, while taking advantage of Storyblocks' robust stock media content.

The launch of DaVinci Resolve templates within the Storyblocks library coincides with the rapid rise of DaVinci Resolve's popularity. Video editors and creators migrating their work to the platform cite powerful features at competitive price points, along with a compelling ecosystem. Meanwhile, creators and businesses alike are under increasing pressure to create high-quality videos faster than ever to keep up with increasing demand in the B2B, B2C and media verticals, where video outshines the marketing ROI of all other media formats. The DaVinci Resolve templates launch represents Storyblocks' latest innovation to meet the needs of creatives and simplify the video creation process every step of the way.

"Incorporating DaVinci Resolve templates into our library demonstrates our continued investment in our product offerings and highlights how we are evolving alongside our users," said TJ Leonard, CEO of Storyblocks. "As creators and businesses across every industry prioritize video, we're committed to providing the resources they need to make the highest-quality videos possible in a timely manner. This launch is just the next step in this journey."

Users who prefer DaVinci Resolve for their video editing can end up spending hours creating motion graphics and special effects from scratch. The extra work involved slows down creative processes, adds more costs to budgets and can diminish the quality and consistency of their videos.

The addition of 600+ DaVinci Resolve templates to the Storyblocks library delivers greater value to customers, enabling users to effortlessly craft professional-looking videos. Direct access to these ready-to-use, customizable templates allows anyone to quickly create titles, transitions, logos and other motion graphics for their videos and easily swap content that fits their brand and style. Templates represent just one of many workflow and platform benefits that Storyblocks enterprise clients cite, resulting in over 3.5 hours of time savings per user every week. This latest addition complements Storyblocks' collection of more than 27,000 Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Apple Motion templates.

"With this launch, users can work more efficiently, accessing the templates they need directly from Storyblocks without creating effects from scratch," said Leo Moriya, director of content operations at Storyblocks. "As a video editor myself, I know how much the right template can help craft more engaging and professional content. After seeing the high quality of what we're launching, I'm confident we're meeting our customers' and contributors' growing demand for DaVinci Resolve templates and supporting their creative work."

"I use a lot of different software to edit video, but DaVinci Resolve is where I do the majority of my work. It's been hard to find DaVinci Resolve templates, but as Storyblocks is already such a big part of my workflow, having these templates within the library will streamline my process considerably," said Casey Clark, senior manager of video at Luma Health. "With Storyblocks, I love having a platform where you can access anything, anytime and not have to worry. It leaves a lot of room for creativity and experimentation."

As CEO, Monti will lead the fast-growing digital experience platform company through its next phase of expansion, driving innovation and customer value.

Crownpeak, a leading digital experience platform (DXP), today announced the appointment of Samuel Monti as the company's Chief Executive Officer. Monti is an accomplished leader with nearly three decades of experience in finance, operations, and C-suite leadership in both public and private equity companies. At Crownpeak, Monti will further the company's successful growth, driving operational excellence and cultivating technological innovation to deliver even greater value for customers.

"In the past three years, Crownpeak has undergone a major global expansion that included three successful acquisitions and tripling the company's size," said Michael Lipps, Chairman of the Board. "Samuel Monti, with his deep background working in financial markets, experience leading operational scale and strong track record of successful private equity outcomes, is well-positioned to drive this next, exciting phase of Crownpeak's continued market expansion."

"This is an exciting time to be joining Crownpeak," said Samuel Monti, CEO of Crownpeak. "Enterprises around the globe are making critical investments in digital experience platforms, and Crownpeak has experienced unprecedented growth and transformation as a company. As CEO, my mission is to continue that exceptional growth trajectory by expanding our product portfolio, advancing customer-centric innovation, and establishing the kind of strong community among our customers, prospects and partners that will drive future growth and success." 

Monti received a BS in Accountancy from Miami University and an MBA in Finance from Case Western Reserve University. 

Responsibility Report highlights measurable progress towards building a sustainable future

Integral Ad Science, a leading global media measurement and optimization platform, today announced the release of its inaugural Responsibility Report outlining the tangible progress the company is making to strengthen its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

"We are excited to present our inaugural Responsibility Report demonstrating our intent to make a positive impact on our customers, shareholders, employees, and the broader global community," said Lisa Utzschneider, Chief Executive Officer, Integral Ad Science. "The results of this report exemplify our unwavering dedication to innovation and ethical practices, our continual obsession for exceptional service for our customers, and our strong commitment to creating a great place to work and develop."

IAS's comprehensive data collection captures 280 billion interactions daily from across the globe, ensuring customers' businesses have the actionable data they need to drive superior results and remain future-ready. IAS leverages its data platform to both power its commercial success and contribute to its mission to be the global benchmark for trust and transparency in digital media quality.

Highlights from the report include:

• Energy Usage: Concentrated energy usage within Scopes 2 and 3 for offices and data centers; moved London team to a building with 100% renewable energy.
• Decarbonization in Digital Advertising: Supported industry initiative Ad Net Zero whose mission is to decarbonize digital advertising; Partnered with Scope3 to enable marketers to leverage actionable data to improve their carbon footprint and inform optimizations for ad spend to reduce emissions; Partnered with Good-Loop to allow marketers to seamlessly track and view the end-to-end carbon footprint of their digital ad campaigns.
• Diversity: Maintained a majority-female Board of Directors with three Board members from underrepresented racial groups, two of which identify as African American.
• Corporate Giving: Participated in the "Share Lunch, Fight Hunger" fundraising drive for City Harvest, exceeding the company's donation goal through its corporate matching program to help feed 24,000 children for a full day this summer.
• Accreditations and Certifications: Obtained multiple accreditations and certifications from leading industry bodies. In May 2023, IAS received the industry's first accreditation for Connected TV video viewable impressions from the Media Rating Council. In August 2023, the Trustworthy Accountability Group recognized IAS as one of 10 inaugural companies to receive the Certified for Transparency seal, indicating high levels of transparency and accountability across its company's operations. Also TrustArc, a leader in data privacy compliance, finalized its assessment of IAS's data privacy practices and determined that it meets the requirements of the TRUSTe Enterprise Privacy Assessment Criteria.

"Our unwavering dedication to aligning ESG initiatives with our business practices is a fundamental principle at IAS," said Utzschneider. "We take pride in empowering our customers with actionable data that drives superior business results, while instilling confidence in our stakeholders that IAS remains persistent in our efforts to foster a safer and more sustainable global community."

J.Crew, L.L. Bean, and M·A·C Cosmetics are among many brands celebrating the givers in our communities – teachers, medical professionals, first responders, and more – with these amazing holiday deals

SheerID, the global leader in identity verification for commerce, used by hundreds of leading brands around the world, has partnered with more than 30 top brands that are making exclusive holiday offers available to millions of teachers, students, medical professionals, first responders, military members, and more, to thank the hard-working people who make our communities better places to live and work. SheerID is proud to partner with these organizations to reward these groups with special holiday offers.

“Brands that show they care about the people who work to make our communities better places to be - like teachers, medical professionals, first responders, military service members, and our future community leaders: students - by rewarding them with personalized offers, build strong connections with these valuable consumers who are proud of the work they do,” said Jake Weatherly, CEO of SheerID. “Recognizing the people who are the backbone of our communities builds trust, which helps companies gain and keep loyal customers.”

Military, Veterans, Teachers, First Responders, Healthcare Workers, Students, and More: Take Advantage of Exclusive Last-Minute Holiday Offers!

Teachers, students, medical professionals, first responders, military members, and more get access to unique deals from great brands and save money. The following brands have provided exclusive offers to reward and honor students and members of the helping professions in the areas of travel, lifestyle, apparel, news, and more, with the help of SheerID’s Verification Platform, ensuring that rewards are instantly and securely provided to these highly valued communities. For those who are eligible, no SheerID account or membership signup is required.

Last-Minute Holiday Shopping Offers:

• Adorama - Students can enjoy up to 15% off their purchases on select photo, video, computer gear, plus much more.
• Alterra Mountain Co - Licensed nurses, enrolled college students, plus active duty and retired military personnel in North America get exclusive discounts.
• Ashley - This holiday, active military and veterans, first responders, and medical professionals can enjoy 5% off their purchase on AshleyFurniture.com, with thanks for all they do.
• ASICS - First responders, military, and healthcare workers get 30% off qualifying full price items when they verify with SheerID. Teachers and students get 25% off qualifying full price items when they verify with SheerID.
• Aveda - First responders, military, veterans, teachers, healthcare workers, and students can take 20% off their next order of Aveda products.
• Bare Minerals - Through December 12, 2023, students and teachers get 25% off any order (calculated after any discounts and excluding gift card values, taxes, shipping and handling) on bareMinerals.com. Offer not eligible with Buy with Prime, holiday, or sale items.
• Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's - In addition to great holiday deals and savings, Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s is proud to offer a 10% everyday discount to military, law enforcement, firefighters and wildlife agents.
• Bonobos - Military members, medical professionals, teachers, students, and first responders can take 20% off their purchase at Bonobos.com.
• Codecademy - Veterans and active-duty military, healthcare workers, and first responders in the US, UK, and Canada get 50% off Pro and Plus annual plans. Learn new skills and build your tech career today.
• CorePower Yoga - CorePower Yoga is sparking joy this holiday season; Teachers, students, military, seniors, healthcare workers, and first responders get 20% off All Access Membership or Class Packs.
• FOX Nation - FOX Nation is launching a special holiday promotion for $2.50/month for its annual plan.
• GolfPass -
  • First Responders: GolfPass honors and recognizes the sacrifice first responders make to keep us safe. To show our gratitude, these community heroes save 20% on a full year of golf benefits, including tee time credits, waived booking fees, curated instruction videos, and more.
  • Military and Veterans: Military members and Veterans save 20% on a full year of golf benefits like tee time credits, booking fees, and more!
  • Students: Students can unwrap savings this holiday season with 40% off a GolfPass+ membership. A GolfPass+ membership includes tee time savings on GolfNow, unlimited instructional videos from the pros, hundreds of hours of live golf event coverage, a $40 TaylorMade credit, and much more!
• J.Crew - Teachers, first responders, students, veterans, and healthcare workers get an additional 15% off purchases when they verify with SheerID.
• J.Crew Factory - Students, teachers, first responders, military, veterans, and healthcare workers can enjoy 15% off at J.Crew Factory.
• Kipling - Kipling is offering an extra 15% off sitewide for all teachers, students, first responders, healthcare, and veterans.
• Leatherman - First responders, military, veterans, teachers, students, and healthcare workers can enjoy 30% off multi-tools and customization at Leatherman.com.
• L.L. Bean - Students, teachers, medical professionals, veterans, and active-duty military and their families can enjoy 10% off at L.L.Bean - including sale items. Make a lasting connection this winter with our legendary all-weather boots, warm outerwear, rugged outdoor gear, and so much more.
• Lovesac - At Lovesac, we're committed to supporting everyone who has dedicated their lives to helping others. As our way of saying thank you, we are giving military personnel, first responders, healthcare workers, teachers, and veterinary professionals an additional 5% off.
• M·A·C Cosmetics - For a limited time only: Students, teachers, medical, military, and first responders can receive 25% off their next U.S. online order at M·A·C Cosmetics.
• Maxi Cosi - Maxi Cosi is offering 20% off for teachers, first responders, veterans, and healthcare workers this holiday season.
• Morningstar - Unlock Morningstar’s trusted research, proven ratings, and easy-to-use portfolio tools built to help investors succeed with Morningstar Investor. Students save 90%, teachers save 60%, and active military and veterans enjoy 30% off a yearly subscription.
• National Basketball Association (NBA) - The NBA is offering students an exclusive 40% discount on NBA League Pass to stream live games and studio shows. This promotion is available to all students attending accredited universities and colleges in the U.S. and in select international markets. Once verified, they will receive a unique promotional code to redeem for 12 months of discounted League Pass access.
• Origins - Teachers and students can enjoy 15% off consciously formulated skincare and body care at Origins.com.
• Paramount+ - Students get 25% off a Paramount+ Essential plan. That’s just $4.50/month!
• Paramount+ - Veterans and active military can enjoy 25% off any Paramount+ plan for the life of the subscription.
• Rothy’s - Teachers, First Responders, Students, Veterans, and Healthcare Workers can enjoy 25% off one pair of shoes annually at Rothy’s. Get verified and take advantage of this special offer before the end of the year. Comfortable. Washable. Stylishly Sustainable.
• Safety 1st - Safety 1st is offering 20% off for teachers, first responders, veterans, and healthcare workers this holiday season.
• ThriftBooks - ThriftBooks 4 Teachers provides educators with everyday benefits, including every 5th book free plus top tier Literati ReadingRewards status.
• Timberland - Teachers, students, and military - Get 10% off at Timberland.
• Too Faced - Students, teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, and members of the military, get 20% off Too Faced products! And during Pink Week, Dec. 11th-15th shop at Toofaced.com to get 40% off daily deals!
• Unity - Sharpen your real-time 3D creation skills this holiday season with the Unity Student/Educator Plan, free for students and educators at eligible institutions. The plan includes the Unity editor, a 20% stackable discount in the asset store, and early access to Unity Cloud with DevOps and version control.
• VIVAIA - VIVAIA is proud to offer teachers, students, healthcare workers, first responders, and military an exclusive 20% off discount for this holiday season.
• Willow - Willow is offering 25% off Willow wearable breast pumps and up to 20% off accessories.

Pipedrive, the easy and effective sales CRM for small businesses, today announced its Marketplace yearly results and most popular apps of 2023. Data shows that small businesses using software integrations to automate tasks across the revenue cycle win about 1.5 times more deals than companies that have not adopted any third-party tools.

“Building the right tech stack arms the sales team with the right tools to double down on innovation and discover unexpected growth opportunities. On average, customer-facing professionals spend only a third of their time engaging with customers. Automating everyday tasks has a lot of benefits. The right technology helps increase productivity, reduce manual errors, find more qualitative leads faster or enhance team collaboration, making a huge difference in sales. Instead of spending time on repetitive tasks, salespeople can focus on the creation of personalized and value-based customer journeys,” said Sean Evers, VP of Sales & Partner at Pipedrive.

With more than 400 integrations, the Pipedrive Marketplace enables customers to sync their data across systems all in one place and automate and optimize processes. “Pipedrive’s ecosystem is all about echoing our customers’ needs and amplifying the value of the core CRM platform. Using third-party integrations allows companies to break data silos and unify information across multiple applications, saving time, increasing productivity and expanding the overall revenue opportunity. By integrating Pipedrive with third-party apps, we can offer a complete and customizable tech stack to automate tasks across the entire revenue lifecycle and boost business growth,” said Evers.

Within the first 11 months of 2023, more than 134,000 users installed at least one app from the Pipedrive Marketplace. The most popular app categories, listed below, were messaging bots and communication tools, phone and video calls, marketing automation and lead generation. Other key findings that emerged:

• Companies leveraging integrations generate roughly five times more deals
• On average, 41% of all deals are facilitated through integrations
• The average win ratio for businesses utilizing integrations stands at 47%
• The adoption of integrations not only reduces the time spent on deals but also accelerates the winning process by 12%

Pipedrive Marketplace’s top 3 apps help to move data automatically between the core platform and other apps or enhance customer communication experiences thanks to video calling and messaging solutions.

1. Zapier
2. Google Meet
3. Zoom Meetings

To nurture leads, Pipedrive customers prefer the following apps for assigning leads, automating communication to leads, tracking lead behavior and warming leads up:

• Microsoft Teams
• Dealbot for Slack
• Pipechat

For Pipedrive customers, the top 3 apps for communicating with leads and scheduling demos are:

1. Google Meets
2. Zoom Meetings
3. JustCall

The most popular integrations to qualify leads, enrich lead data and research leads are:

1. Dealfront
2. Outfunnel
3. Fireflies.ai

Earlier this year, Pipedrive API was recognized as one of the most popular APIs for developers by Postman, a world-leading public hub for developers to design, build and test their APIs. Additionally, in the summer of 2023, Pipedrive’s Developers’ Corner was shortlisted for three categories at The DevPortal Awards, an awards program showcasing innovative leaders and their developer portals in the API and interface space. Pipedrive was shortlisted for Best New DX Innovation, Best Onboarding and Best API Reference Documentation.