Zynn is off Apple’s App Store now

Well, that was fast. Just a week after Google removed the Chinese short-form video sharing app from its Play Store following accusations of plagiarism from TikTok content creators, Zynn no longer seems to be available on Apple's App Store. Zynn, an undeniable clone of the wildly popular Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok, launched in May 2020, and shot to the top of the App Store charts. Both apps are owned by rival Chinese tech giants – TikTok by Bytedance, Zynn by Kuaishou – but while TikTok was dominating the market with over 2 billion global downloads announced in April, Zynn saw serious traction in the U.S., becoming the most downloaded iOS app at the end of May.

Is Instagram the next news source?

Photo-sharing app Instagram is set to overtake Twitter as a news source, research suggests. The 2020 Reuters Institute Digital News report found the use of Instagram for news had doubled since 2018. The trend is strongest among young people. It said nearly a quarter of UK, 18-24-year-olds used Instagram as a source of news about coronavirus. But social media platforms were also among the least-trusted sources. Just 26 per cent of people said they trusted social media as a source of information about the virus. A similar percentage said they trusted news that had been shared via chat apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. National governments and news organisations, by contrast, were both trusted by about 59 per cent of respondents. Instagram is now used by more than a third of all people who answered the survey, and two-thirds of under-25s. And 11 per cent use it for news, putting it just one point behind Twitter. "Instagram's become very popular with younger people", said Nic Newman, lead author of the report. "They really respond well to stories that are told simply and well with visual images". Stand-out visual stories in recent months have helped – climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the coronavirus have all seen massive engagement on the platform.

WhatsApp payment service launched

WhatsApp has launched its digital payments service in Brazil as the messaging app capitalises on its popularity in emerging markets. The move comes as parent company Facebook pushes ahead with plans to bring more e-commerce to its platforms. WhatsApp Pay allows users to send money to one another for free or make purchases from small businesses. In January, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg outlined plans to offer the service in India, Indonesia and Mexico. On its blog WhatsApp highlighted that the launch was part of a wider digital payment strategy across all of Facebook's platforms. "Because payments on WhatsApp are enabled by Facebook Pay, in the future we want to make it possible for people and businesses to use the same card information across Facebook’s family of apps." While person-to-person payments will be free small businesses will have to pay a “processing fee to receive customer payments,” the blog stated. WhatsApp has 120m users in Brazil, making the country its second-largest market after India.