Snap's Rollback of Redesign May Signal an Identity Crisis
*By Britt Terrell*
Snap is doing something that is unprecedented in social media. The maker of Snapchat has answered angry users' protests and revamped its app to make it more similar to the original version.
"It's a sign of humility in a way for Snapchat," said Marty Swant, a staff writer at Adweek. "In a way, I wonder if they have a bit of an identity crisis."
Is Snap making a tool for publishers or is the app catering to its core users?
Snapchat's 2017 redesign was meant to bring more people to its publishing page. But loyal users revolted: A petition called for the app maker to revert to the old design, the platform saw its user growth [decline in the last quarter](http://deadline.com/2018/05/snap-inc-snapchat-slowest-growth-earnings-stock-plunges-1202380663/).
As Snap's stock continues to plummet ーit's down nearly 50 percent year-over-year ー the company must figure out ways to appeal to advertisers.
"I think the big picture that Snapchat has now is their ads are a lot more creative than the ads you're seeing on Instagram stories - Snapchat's main competitor," said Swant in an interview Monday with Cheddar. "They're just cooler looking, they're more engaging. I think that's a big play, but the question is, do users actually spend time with them?"
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/snap-redesigns-its-redesign).
Video conferencing service Zoom rolled out a flurry of announcements that included a new Zoom Phone, Zoom Events, and Zoom Contact Center in an effort to transition the company from a pandemic darling to a post-pandemic business — while keeping the product accessible. Kelly Steckelberg, CFO of Zoom, joined Cheddar News to talk about the transition while still remaining affordable. "We currently have no plans to raise our prices," she said. "We focus on bringing as much value as possible to our customers. We often add new features and functionality without any incremental prices across the board."
Alexandre Mongeon, the CEO and co-founder of Vision Marine Technologies, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss the latest innovations in the e-boating industry, and how fully electric motors and boats will play a role in the fight against the climate crisis.
Even as pandemic restrictions slowly began winding down through 2021, cable and internet provider Comcast's 2021 Network Report showed that average internet consumption increased. Activities like content streaming and online gaming grew between 10 and 20 percent, according to the study. Elad Nafshi, chief network officer for Comcast, joined Cheddar News to share what he thinks will happen with our new online habits in a post-pandemic world. "Beyond, the traditional game downloads, streaming gaming, which falling into the purposes is just like streaming 4K video for us, is starting to pick up and, and certainly we'll watch that consumer behavior continue," he said. Nafshi also discussed the company's investments in 10G technology, its future generation of network speed.
AMC has announced that it will be accepting Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, two meme cryptocurrencies, as online payment options, The theater chain will begin taking the memecoins in "a couple of weeks."
One of Europe's leading micromobility providers, TIER mobility, is expanding into North America after acquiring the micromobility operator, Spin. Ford Motor Company previously owned Spin but is now selling the company to TIER Mobility, which says the deal will make it the largest multimodal micromobility operator in the world in terms of the number of cities it operates in and the number of vehicles in its fleet. Lawrence Leuschner, CEO of TIER Mobility, and Ben Bear, CEO of Spin, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
