According to a recent report from Edison Research and Triton Digital, moms in US spend more time on the internet rather than listening to music on radio or watching television. Research on 248 moms says that about 55% of them use primary smartphones to access internet, 36% of them use desktops and laptops for the same and 9% use a tablet. 38% moms are the subscribers of Amazon Prime which is an online shopping portal and Facebook, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn are some of the common social sites and apps which are commonly used by them. It is also found that 93% of moms access social networking sites daily and 62% of them access it on a multiple time basis daily. Read more at: https://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2017/32087/the-media-and-internet-habits-of-moms-in-2017

Messaging application WhatsApp has initiated discussions with Indian banks and other institutions to allow its users to make payments via United Payments Interface (UPI), which facilitates instant fund transfer between two bank accounts on the mobile platform. With UPI allowing instant settlement of funds between peers, all banks need to do is to integrate their systems with WhatsApp, which can identify the correct recipient. Read more at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/you-may-transfer-money-via-whatsapp-soon/good-news-for-you/slideshow/59281092.cms

The scope of Facebook is much wider than that of WhatsApp and Instagram. So it would be hard for the outsiders to exist as they would lack audience. But capitalizing on the audience that already exist might be a solution to that. Thus the future of social media will be two-tired. Social leaders include Facebook and Twitter on one side, and the other side include challengers proposing concepts. Hence being the first to launch a new concept will no longer suffice in this competitive world if the concept isn't an innovative one. Now, check-ins need to be incorporated into this social network platform. Read more on this article by Marie Dolle (Head of Content) at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/mariedolle/2015-05-28/social-media-era-consolidation-infographic 

According to a recent study in 2014-15, it was found that today's high school students are heavy internet users using social media channels to stay well-informed with current affairs and to be connected with family and friends. 52% of them are part of at least one community on Facebook and 65% of them have Google+ accounts; 6 out of 10 use Whats App. According to the study, it was also found that 75% of these students spend an hour online every day. Two-third who survey, shop online. 63% use Wikipedia, 51% use PDF and 44% use videos as learning resources. Read more about this article at:  http://www.dqindia.com/over-75-of-indian-school-students-spend-an-average-of-1-hour-on-social-media-every-day-tcs-study/

Businesses cannot ignore the impact of daily mobile use and mobile purchasing, especially given the fact that 85% of Americans surveyed said that mobile devices are important in their everyday lives. Mobile app is the perfect platform for reaching to a larger audience. The mobile-oriented services like Whats App, We Chat and Facebook Messenger are now achieving the top social media ranking spots. To know more, please read this article by OREN LEVY (CEO of Zooz) at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246430 

 Messaging apps are changing the social media landscape. They are more than SMS. They might replace email, voice calls. Messaging apps brings together a defined group of people to address a question, issue or topic. Messaging apps allows us to behave naturally. In 2015 it is predicted that there will be an increasing volume of discussions in these micro-communities as more people will use apps such as WhatsApp. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/why-messaging-apps-will-change-social-media-landscape-2015-0

Many instant messaging technology platforms are available today such as WhatsApp, WeChat, BBM, iMessage, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and Skype which are targeted for consumers. Microsoft Lync, Cisco Jabber, etc are generally for the enterprises and have a cost linked with them. The global market is forecasted to grow from USD 267 million in 2005 to USD 1.2 billion in 2014, for enterprise instant messengers. Instant messaging by nature encourages people to be brief and to the point, which saves time. Apart from saving time, another benefit is the positive impact it has on geographically separated offices. It helps in bridging locations, encouraging new global business structures. Replacing phone calls with instant messaging also reduces cost. Many felt that instant messaging was less intrusive than a phone call due to the ability to see if a co-worker was busy or not prior to sending a message. Instant messaging also enhances the ability to multitask. IM has started to change the dynamics of Indian enterprises and helped to increase the efficiency and productivity. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/perspective/297504/instant-messengers-changing-dynamics-indian-enterprises

WhatsApp and Snapchat being simple and ubiquitous are now the perfect crossroads of mobile and social media. A new study suggests that in spite of forcing the top five global digital platforms namely Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft to evolve. Apps like Line and WhatsApp have still not been able to reach a massive scale yet. Mobile and social strategies of majority marketers being immature are being unable to utilize the growing opportunities properly and bring a clear return. In reality these messaging apps at the cross road of mobile and social only complicate the challenge according to Thomas Husson. New developments are being made recently to have a frictionless mode of communication but the idea is still new and yet to be successful. Read more at: http://www.cio.com/article/2454370/social-media/are-messaging-apps-the-future-of-social-networking.html