Adobe Firefly Supercharges Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere & More

• 100+ Creative Cloud innovations and productivity upgrades equip creative professionals to work faster, with more control and precision over the finest details
• Firefly-powered innovations in Photoshop, Illustrator, Express and Premiere Pro bring creative professionals powerful, streamlined workflows to generate and edit graphics, extend video footage and animate images
• Creative pros can explore and ideate with the new Firefly app – including the new Firefly Boards for AI-first moodboarding – with Adobe’s commercially safe Firefly models and choice in partner models to explore concepts and create images, vectors, audio and video

Today, at its MAX London creativity conference, Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) unveiled over one hundred all-new innovations across its Creative Cloud apps which empower creative professionals to work faster, with greater precision and control. This release further advances the world's largest creative platform, with performance upgrades that work as much as 5x faster, and new innovations that span from creative exploration to execution. Creators can easily jumpstart their designs with Text to Pattern in Illustrator, instantly sift through terabytes of video footage with Media Intelligence in Premiere Pro, quickly edit with supercharged Remove Background in Photoshop and streamline font selection with more than 1,500 new popular fonts like Helvetica and Gotham. New Firefly-powered generative AI capabilities across Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Adobe Express, Illustrator and InDesign provide creators with superpowers for quickly generating images, videos, graphics and patterns, animating still images and turning long video footage into social-size clips.

Adobe also announced the new Firefly app, which brings creative professionals an all-in-one home for AI- assisted content ideation, creation and production. Firefly incorporates Adobe’s commercially safe creative AI models – including the new ultra-realistic Firefly Image Model 4 and new Firefly Video Model – and now gives creators the choice to explore in different aesthetic styles with models from partners including Google and OpenAI. New Firefly Boards, now in public beta in the Firefly app, offers an AI-first workspace for moodboarding, rapid concept exploration and collaborative ideation. Firefly’s latest innovations empower creators to move from concept to delivery faster, with greater flexibility and precision.

“Adobe is laser focused on empowering creative professionals with the best tools to do their best work, which means bringing them more speed, precision, control, flexibility and, of course, amazing creative superpowers,” said Deepa Subramaniam, Vice President, Product Marketing, Creative Cloud at Adobe. “Today, we’re bringing creative professionals major advancements in app performance, highly requested productivity features and all-new AI features powered by Firefly to give creators everything they need to bring their creativity to the world.”. 

Empowering Creative Professionals with New Tools and Productivity Upgrades in Creative Cloud

Creative professionals around the globe – from photographers to designers, illustrators, video editors and beyond – trust

Adobe’s flagship Creative Cloud tools to tell their stories and do their best and most important work. Adobe is announcing powerful new AI innovations across Creative Cloud apps to empower creative pros with tools that deliver unprecedented speed, control and precision:

• Photoshop upgrades deliver a combination of greater speed, smarter suggestions and tools for working with precise details. They include Firefly-powered AI features like Composition Reference in Text to Image, which unlocks powerful creative controls for ideating by generating assets with the same structure and visual arrangement as a reference image; Select Details, which make it faster and more intuitive to select things like hair, facial features and clothing; Adjust Colors, which simplifies the process of adjusting color hue, saturation and lightness in images for seamless, instant color adjustments; and a reimagined Actions panel (beta), which delivers smarter workflow suggestions.
• Express upgrades deliver advanced video, animation and on-brand tools that empower creators to do more with their designs, illustrations and footage. These include Clip Maker to instantly convert long video footage into social- length clips; Dynamic Animation to animate still images with a single click; Enhance Speech to remove distracting background noise for polished, pro-quality sound; Generate Video using text and image prompts to generate custom, commercially safe b-roll or background footage; and Generate Similar to instantly generate a multitude of variations of a reference image. The new features help creative professionals work quickly across new mediums to extend the reach and impact of their content and make it easy for small business owners, teachers, marketers and others to elevate the quality and impact of their social, digital and in-real-life assets.
• Illustrator upgrades deliver new AI generation tools along with speedier performance. Firefly-powered Generative Shape Fill and Text to Pattern help designers jumpstart their design process and customize concepts in their own individual style. Menu access is now more responsive, so designers can start their projects more quickly and complete tasks faster than ever. Across the board, Illustrator’s most popular effects are now up to five times faster.
• InDesign upgrades deliver new Firefly-powered image generation along with productivity boosts like easily converting PDFs to InDesign documents. Generative Fill (beta) transforms vector graphics into artwork from simple text prompts. Math Expressions empower creators to place complex mathematical notations directly in layouts.
• Lightroom upgrades deliver new tools for editing and sharing photos on both desktop and in the mobile app. All-new Select Landscape in Lightroom and Lightroom Classic helps photographers automatically detect and create masks for common landscape elements like water, plants, sky and more. Additionally, Lightroom Mobile and Web are introducing new sharing capabilities. Upgrades to Quick Actions make it simple to retouch group photos with precision and control.
• Premiere Pro upgrades deliver tools for generating, editing and searching footage at lightning speed. Firefly- powered Generative Extend is now generally available and production ready with support for 4K and vertical video; Media Intelligence helps editors find relevant clips by searching terabytes of footage in seconds; and Caption Translation instantly localizes captions in 27 languages.
• Adobe Fresco upgrades deliver a new “created without generative AI tag” which can be included in an image’s Content Credentials to protect the author’s rights and the capability to link exports directly to social media accounts.

In addition, Adobe added more than 1500 of the most popular fonts to Creative Cloud applications through the Adobe Fonts library, including Arial, Gotham, Helvetica and Times New Roman.

AI Agents in Creative Cloud

Adobe believes AI agents will be powerful and productive tools for creative professionals similar to how generative AI assists them today. The company recently shared its vision for agentic AI and is working to bring creative professionals tools that can use natural language to access more than 1,000 one-click actions in Photoshop, help them learn new features and handle repetitive tasks with the creator in control and in the driver’s seat.

Photoshop’s new reimagined Actions panel (beta) offers smart suggestions to creators that can inspire them to try out various creative directions and help them choose a series of multi-step edits to undertake. The Actions panel enables them to enact these edits with a single click. It is the foundation of what will become Photoshop’s first creative AI agent.

Adobe has also laid the foundation for agentic professional video workflows in Premiere Pro with Media Intelligence, which understands the content clips, automatically recognizing objects and the visual composition of shots in every frame. Adobe is also planning to bring agentic AI to Adobe Express, transforming it into a creative partner that helps users of all skill levels quickly and intuitively create standout visual content and bring ideas to life with ease.

Supporting the Creative Community

As it showcased its latest innovations, Adobe invited the creative community to participate in a new Creative Apprenticeship initiative, aimed at helping the next generation of creators establish themselves in their careers. Adobe has recruited hundreds of mentors and employers to the initiative, which provides participants with hands-on learning opportunities, mentorship and real-world experience.

Adobe also announced new protections for creators to help ensure they receive credit for their work and to protect it from misuse and misrepresentation. The launch of the Adobe Content Authenticity app, now in public beta, offers a free tool to let creators choose which information is attached to their work via Content Credentials. It includes verified identity (powered by Verified on LinkedIn and social media accounts. Creators can include a tag in their Content Credentials to state they don’t want generative AI models to train on their work.

Adobe takes the most creator-friendly approach to AI in the industry. It views AI as a tool for, not a replacement of, human creativity and believes that generative AI can be developed responsibly, starting with respect for creators’ rights. For information on our approach to generative AI, visit: https://www.adobe.com/ai/overview/firefly/gen-ai-approach.html

Modi Govt Issues Notice to Wikipedia Over Alleged Bias and Inaccuracies

The Narendra Modi-led central government of India has issued a notice to Wikipedia, raising concerns about alleged bias and inaccuracies in its content. The notice questions Wikipedia's editorial control and whether it should be classified as a publisher rather than an intermediary. This move follows complaints from Indian users and a Delhi High Court ruling that criticized Wikipedia's open editing feature as "dangerous".

The government highlighted that a small group of editors appears to have significant control over the content, which could lead to skewed narratives on sensitive topics. The notice is part of a broader effort to regulate online platforms in India and ensure the accuracy and neutrality of Information.

It's a significant development in the ongoing debate about the responsibilities of online platforms in managing user-generated content.

Wikipedia has not yet issued an official statement in response to the Indian government's notice. However, in previous instances, Wikipedia's legal representatives have assured that the platform has established policies to govern user contributions and ensure compliance with legal guidelines. They emphasized that users must adhere to these guidelines when creating or updating content.

In July 2024, news agency ANI filed a defamation lawsuit against Wikipedia in the Delhi High Court. ANI alleged that the Wikipedia page about it contained defamatory content, describing the news agency as a "propaganda tool for the incumbent central government" and accusing it of distributing materials from fake news websites and misreporting events.

The Delhi High Court has ordered Wikipedia to disclose information about the users who made the edits on ANI's page. This case has raised concerns about online free speech in India and the responsibilities of online platforms in managing user-generated content.

Notably, there is an existing research, including the analysis of Wikipedia’s co-founder Larry Sengar, which has detailed how Wikipedia is not neutral.

The research cites three prior researches to bolster its case. Research by the Manhattan Institute published in June 2024 by David Rozado concluded that Wikipedia heavily leans towards the Left.

Beside these development, a very recent dossier published by media outlet, OpIndia, on Wikipedia highlights several concerns regarding the platform's content and editorial practices.

OpIndia alleges that Wikipedia exhibits significant bias against India and Hindus, often blocking corrections perceived as biased against India.

The dossier claims that Wikipedia censors content that does not align with certain ideological perspectives, leading to skewed narratives. It points out that a small group of editors wields significant control over the content, which can lead to biased information.

Moreover, OpIndia raises concerns about the sources of funding for Wikipedia, suggesting potential conflicts of interest. OpIndia also argues that Wikipedia's open editing model lacks accountability, making it difficult to ensure the accuracy and neutrality of content.

These points have contributed to the Indian government's decision to issue a notice to Wikipedia, questioning its status as an intermediary and raising concerns about its editorial practices.

It's a complex situation that highlights the challenges of balancing free speech and accountability on the internet.

Founded on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, Wikipedia is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was established in 2003 to support Wikipedia and its sister projects, such as Wiktionary and Wikibooks. 

e-Curse: 5 Kids in Bihar Learning To Make Bomb By Watching YouTube Got Injured by Explosion

In an incident that is truly tragic and concerning for the society, some children in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, aged between 7 to 12 years were trying to make a bomb after watching a YouTube video when tragically the bomb accidentally exploded, injuring five children.

Unfortunately, the bomb explosion resulted in injuries to five children. The incident has sparked widespread concern and has gone viral on social media.

These children from BIHAR were making Bombs,learning via Youtube. while making it exploded but only caused minor injuries to them they are safe Now..@YouTube should not encourage such videos that harm people. pic.twitter.com/vNV9Dgeknb

— Ashwin.. (@EvilTweetX) August 8, 2024

Local authorities have emphasized the need for parents to monitor their children’s online activities more closely. They also highlighted the importance of educating children about the dangers of attempting to replicate hazardous activities seen online. This tragic event underscores the critical need for better digital literacy and safety measures to protect children from such risks.

This highly concerning incident highlights the critical need to monitor children's online activities. It is essential to ensure that children are safe and aware of what they are watching and learning on the internet.

To prevent such incidents, social media platforms can play a crucial role in preventing incidents like the one in Muzaffarpur by implementing several key measures such as Proactive Monitoring wherein the online video platforms use advanced algorithms and AI to detect and remove harmful content, such as videos showing how to make dangerous items like bombs.

These platforms must also encourage users to report inappropriate or dangerous content and ensure that reported content is reviewed and acted upon promptly.

Besides, parents should also keep an eye on what their children are watching online. Use parental control settings on devices and platforms like YouTube to restrict access to inappropriate content. Parents must teach children about the dangers of attempting to replicate dangerous activities seen online. Encourage open communication so they feel comfortable discussing what they watch.

Need for School and Community Programs:

Safety Workshops: Schools and community centers can organize workshops to educate children about online safety and the potential risks of imitating dangerous activities.

Digital Literacy: Incorporate digital literacy into the curriculum to help children understand how to use the internet safely and responsibly.

Flagging Dangerous Content

From April to June 2024, YouTube received over 23 million flags from human users. This indicates a high level of community engagement in reporting inappropriate content.

The most common reasons for flagging videos include spam or misleading content, hateful or abusive content, sexual content, violent or repulsive content, and harmful or dangerous acts.

A significant portion of flagged content is reviewed and acted upon. For instance, from October to December 2017, 75.9% of all automatically flagged videos were removed before they received any views.

Improvements in automated flagging systems have also helped detect and review content even before it is flagged by the community. More than 80% of auto-flagged videos were removed before receiving a single view in the second quarter of 2019.

Reportedly, YouTube employs trained human reviewers who evaluate flagged content 24/7 to ensure it violates the Community Guidelines before taking action. This helps maintain a balance between automated systems and human judgment.

By taking required steps, both by parents are and social media platforms, a safer online environment can be created which would help prevent such tragic incidents. 

NASA Invites Digital Content Creators Across the World

Digital content creators, across the world are invited to register to attend the launch of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft and create content based on the experience.

The Psyche mission is a NASA space mission to visit a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Psyche is scheduled to lift off at 10:38 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 5, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Launch Services Program is managing the launch.

The invite is open for all to apply. However, selected content creators are responsible for their own expenses for travel, accommodations, food, and other amenities. Some events and participants scheduled to appear at the event are subject to change without notice.

Moving forward with the Psyche mission, Scientists hypothesize that the Psyche asteroid could be part of the metal-rich interior of a planetesimal, a building block of a rocky planet. It could be that Psyche collided with other large bodies during its early formation and lost its outer shell. Since humans can’t bore a path to Earth’s metal core – or the cores of other rocky planets – visiting Psyche could provide a one-of-a-kind window into the origins of our solar system.

If your passion is to communicate and engage people online, then Seize the opportunity to see and share the #MissionToPsyche launch.

A maximum of 35 social media users will be selected to attend this two-day event (Oct. 4-5, 2023) and will be given access similar to news media.

NASA Social participants will have the opportunity to:

• View a launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
• Tour NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center
• Meet and interact with Psyche science and engineering experts.
• Meet fellow space enthusiasts who are active on social media

NASA Social registration for the Psyche launch opens on Tuesday, Aug. 22, and the deadline to apply is 12 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 28. All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Thomson Reuters Makes 2nd Tech Acquisition in A Week, Buys Imagen – A Digital Content Management Co.

In an ongoing Artifical Intelligence (AI) wave, Thomson Reuters has announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Imagen Ltd., a cloud-native media asset management company, for an undisclosed amount. This is second tech acquisition announced by Thomson Reuters since start of this week.

London based Imagen, which claims to have world’s smartest video management platform, operates digital content libraries for sports, media and business companies including Premier League soccer and Major League Baseball. Imagen uses AI-powered workflows to automatically improve searchability and utility of media assets. Its video management platform is integrated with AI Services from Google and Microsoft.

Imagen also owns Screenocean, a platform that provides production companies and others the ability to license video and photo content from around the world.

Post acquisition, Imagen will be operated as part of the Reuters News division of Thomson Reuters. Reuters is the leading global provider of business, financial and world news, reaching billions of people worldwide every day.

Established in 1996 by Anthony Blake and Paul McConkey, Imagen became available as a SaaS platform for the first time in 2013. Later in January 2019 Imagen completed a £6.5 million Series B funding round which was led by Downing Ventures. The round also included capital from Guinness Asset Management Ltd and existing investor. 

Imagen is the the second acquisition announced by Thomson Reuters in this week. Earlier on Monday, the company announced acquisition of AI powered legal-tech company, Casetext, in a $650 million all-cash deal. Casetext is a California-based AI company that helps legal professionals conduct research, analysis and prepare documents using generative AI.

Notably, Thomson Reuters has planned to spend $10 billion for acquisitions and about $100 million per year in AI investments, with its recently announced corporate venture capital fund — Thomson Reuters Ventures, through thid the firm aims to leverage its expertise and support the broader ecosystem by investing in early-stage companies operating in these sectors.nvestments in AI capabilities.

AI-powered Social Prediction Engine Hypothesis is Here to Organise the $100 Billion+ Creator Economy and Streamline Influencer Marketing

The tech platform has been funded by OML; bringing together creators, brands, and agencies under one umbrella to make planning, executing, and analysing influencer marketing campaigns seamless.

India’s creator ecosystem is thriving and the team behind Hypothesis, one of the first movers in building tech solutions for the creator economy, has had a front-row seat mapping the evolution, challenges, and opportunities in this space. Building on their decades of insights from bringing creators and brands together, Hypothesis is a data-driven platform that connects brands with their customers through the right influencer and manages the entire campaign pipeline. At the same time, it empowers creators to engage with their audience and build meaningful relationships with brands. This cutting-edge social prediction engine not just enables brands, agencies, and influencers to make proactive decisions, but also serves as a central platform of information, insights and tools for a robust influencer marketing stack.

Today, a growing number of brands consider working with creators an essential part of their brand and marketing strategy. But it remains a largely unorganised space - with discovery of the right talent to work with and measuring success depending on how each individual brand structures their efforts. That’s where ‘Hypothesis’ steps in - allowing agencies and brands to discover the right creator with detailed filters, conduct outreach, set up the campaign, and track performance on one platform. On the supply side of the ecosystem, ‘Hypothesis’ empowers creators and influencers to reach their full potential using social media intelligence to understand their content performance, audience affinity, and form connections with brands and agencies.

‘Hypothesis’ for brands and agencies

• It streamlines influencer marketing processes by bringing influencer discovery, outreach and analytics under one umbrella. This enables brands and agencies to take proactive and smarter decisions using data-rich social prediction engines that provide actionable insights into their campaign performance, audience and creator persona.
• The campaign performance forecast eliminates guesswork, allowing accurate estimation of metrics, recommending a budget range to plan campaigns with a clear understanding of expected results and optimisation based on campaign objectives.
• Hypothesis’ intelligent campaign designer utilises pattern recognition, giving them automated creator and content recommendations.
• Its interactive analysis module allows granular tracking of each content type and tagged format, allowing them to optimise their campaign ROI most efficiently.

‘Hypothesis’ for creators

• It streamlines the creator journey by auto-consolidating their content performance under one dashboard, eliminating the stress of monitoring across multiple social media platforms. This helps them focus on gaining valuable insights and creating impactful content for their audience.
• Hypothesis’ AI-powered insights on the market trends and branded collaborations help creators tap into the minds of their audiences to understand their interests, sentiments, brand and creator affinities.
• It helps save research time and efforts by auto-tracking the performance of their fellow creators and learning which platforms and creatives work best in the industry.
• The social media intelligence that auto-matches brands with creators based on their performances and previous brand collaborations enables creators to reach their full potential.
• The access management tool facilitates easy, hassle-free sharing of social media metrics without loss of data privacy.

Talking about ‘Hypothesis,’ Gunjan Arya, CEO & Board Member – OML Entertainment, said, “The ‘Hypothesis’ team comes from a unique cross-section of brands, agencies, and influencers, allowing them to gain first-hand experience and deep knowledge of this ecosystem. Leveraging this expertise, we funded the social prediction engine and have been using it for the last few years across diverse markets and platforms. In fact, it has been one of the critical reasons that our brand solutions vertical has been experiencing rapid growth. And now, by bringing the platform to the ecosystem at large, we aim to add value to their influencer marketing efforts and pave the way for global standards in this space.”

Himani Agrawal, Senior Vice President - Product & Analytics – Hypothesis, added, “Audiences are moving online and brands recognize that, hence influencer marketing has gained prominence in recent times as it allows brands to get closer to their audience at the moment they are the most engaged; while watching their favourite content. We have also noticed a seismic shift in consumer behaviour and buying patterns, with people becoming more picky about their choices, a conventional 30-second ad is not sufficient anymore to give them all the information they need to make purchase decisions. Influencer marketing fills this gap, by scaling your efforts, maintaining a benchmark for performance while creating quality content that talks to the brand’s philosophy. However, this space lacked a leading-edge tool that cuts through the unorganised nature of this industry to support brands, agencies, and creators to simplify their influencer marketing processes. Hypothesis’ raison d’etre is to fill this void and provide win-win solutions to all in the long run.”

The game-changing platform is a first - in a sense - to provide end-to-end solutions for various pain points in the influencer marketing realm and bring about a paradigm shift in branded content creation and the overall creator landscape.

About Hypothesis

Hypothesis is a one-stop AI-powered engine that enables influencers to be the best versions of themselves while serving as a central platform of information, insights, and tools for all stakeholders in influencer marketing campaigns.

It covers all aspects of branded content creation, from influencer discovery, influencer outreach, planning and executing a campaign, gathering landscape intelligence, and optimising your brand ROI to tracking a campaign in real-time, and sharing results seamlessly. The platform also aims to streamline the creator journey by using social media intelligence and enable brands to clearly attribute awareness, consideration and conversion to their influencer marketing efforts. Its proprietary content measurement system has already served 500+ creators in 20+ countries and is now rolled to everyone as a tech platform. - https://www.hyp.io/

About OML Entertainment

OML or Only Much Louder is a clutter-breaking, market leading media and entertainment organisation working across various media and experiential formats to impact pop culture. The organisation has been a pioneer in creating on-ground and online experiences that have resulted in lasting memories that shape how fans know their favourite artists and brands. Apart from continuing to be an artist management company in music and comedy, over the years OML has evolved to include a production house creating television and digital content along with a branded content division that has worked with over 500 brands across 20 countries.

https://oml.in/

Content Marketplace Pepper Content Launches Entrepreneurial Program 'Pepperpreneur'

Pepper Content, a full-stack content marketplace, has launched an entrepreneurial program – Pepperpreneur. The program is a partner-driven catalyst program that helps companies with holistic content solutions at scale by leveraging the network and contacts of interested persons, who would in return earn a commission from the collaboration.

Although networking as a skill is highly sought after by people such as mentors, coaches, industry insiders, sales professionals etc. but contacts on their own remain untapped as far as their monetary value is concerned. This is where Pepperpreneur comes in. It seeks to monetize the network of an individual thereby making him/her an entrepreneur.

How does it work?

Through this program, an individual can introduce Pepper Content to a compatible organization that could scale from Pepper's holistic content services. Depending on the skill and experience of the person, Pepperpreneurs would be provided with guidance and training with respect to business and partnerships. On every partnership, the Pepperpreneur would earn a percentage of the total contract. Along with this, the partner organisations would receive content services from Pepper Content.

The financial benefit to all stakeholders is the mainstay of the program. Be it a budding entrepreneur or an established professional, it will stimulate the trajectory of their personal growth by advancing their clientele network, sales skill, and being part of the exclusive Pepper community.

Commenting on this, Rishabh Shekhar, Co-Founder, Pepper Content said - “At Pepper, we are constantly innovating content delivery while playing in the evolving creator economy. This space is relatively fresh and as such has unlimited potential. Pepperpreneur is one such initiative through which we are trying to expand opportunities that our platform can provide”.

Why Content Entrepreneurship?

In a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) world, brands can be left in the lurch. Content as a strategy can help firms chart a definite course in choppy waters by doing away with ambiguity. Pepper’s main objective is to democratize access to quality content for each business out there and simultaneously create new opportunities in the creator economy.

Pepper is building impact and value for a $400 billion content marketing industry, globally. The company has grown 16x in terms of revenue in the last 14 months alone. The company recently raised funding of $14.3 million (Rs 110 crore) in a Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The leading and global full-stack content marketplace (SaaS) enables a perfect symphony between creators and brands. It is currently working with 100,000+ creators, and 2,500+ leading global customers such as Amazon, CB Insights, Unilever, Adobe, Adani Enterprises, HDFC Bank, P&G, and Google, and over 85% of all Unicorn startups in India.

About Pepper Content:

Pepper Content is a full-stack content marketplace (SaaS) that connects talented creators to organizations that require content. Founded by two young and passionate entrepreneurs Anirudh Singla and Rishabh Shekhar in 2017 at BITS Pilani campus, Pepper offers customized content solutions by mediating content from the best talent pool of creators across the nation through an AI-enabled platform.

Meme Community App MemeChat Enhances Content Monetisation, Launches Instant Withdrawal

Empowering the meme community worldwide, MemeChat (MC), the country’s only meme community social media app has introduced instant monetization for its creators. Being the first ever brand to introduce instant withdrawal, a meme creator can withdraw Rs 1000 unlimited times in a single day.

As per the report, India, with 700-750 million users, has the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing Internet user base. Indians, on average, spend 38 minutes per day watching short-form content. However, the withdrawal option provided by mobile applications via IMPS or NEFT is a gestation period of around 3-7 days.

The instant withdrawal feature by MC can be accessed through the updated reward section which will provide access to movie tickets, giveaways, scratch cards, and brand vouchers which a creator will achieve by completing various tasks.

Speaking on the development, Kyle Fernandes, CEO and Co-Founder MemeChat said, “Our aim is to help the creator ecosystem realise the economic value of their community. We are driven to build an ecosystem that is both economically sustainable and progressive. Such initiatives will help enable creation and experimentation; acknowledging and reward performance and connect creators with economic opportunities like branded content. This is how talent across India will become visible to audiences nationally.”

Over the last three years, MemeChat has successfully built one of the largest meme communities in the country. With over 12 million+ downloads and over 30 million memes generated on the application, MemeChat continuously innovates to stay true to the motto of - Make Memes Earn Money. In addition to the feature of instant withdrawal, MC also empowers the ever-growing meme creator community by monetizing memes on The Meme Club - An NFT Marketplace.

About MemeChat:

MemeChat is an application that was launched in 2019. MemeChat has emerged as one of the most popular homegrown social media networking apps for Generation Z and millennials. The app gathered a dedicated following in just a year with more than 1.2 million monthly active users (current user base of 12 million+ Downloads) and over 30 million memes.

MemeChat has officially worked with top Indian OTT platforms like Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Moj, Sharechat, EaseMyTrip, McDonald's, India Terrain, Slice, MediBuddy, PVR, NiyoX, MxPlayer, Paytm, Netflix, Zee5, and Codashop, creating their user-generated memes.

MemeChat recently secured more than USD 1 million in its second round of funding led by Beenext, a Singapore-based venture capital firm., became the only Indian startup to be included in the '500 Startups, one of the most active global venture capital firms’, a distinguished accelerator program for its 27th batch in 2020. The company recently launched India’s 1st exclusive NFT Marketplace for Memes called The Meme Club.

Scalenut - A Made-in-India AI and NLP-powered Platform To Assist Writers in Developing Content in Minutes

• Scalenut is among the first AI-powered content research and writing platforms in the world
• Made in India, Scalenut is addressing $400 billion global content creation industry 
• Empowers content creators, marketers, businesses, and anyone who wants to produce compelling content
• Chrome extension launched for greater productivity and easy accessibility 

Scalenut, an AI startup by IIT alumni, today announced the launch of an AI and NLP-powered platform that allows intelligent content research and compelling content writing in minutes. Developed in India, Scalenut is addressing the $400 billion global content development industry. Scalenut’s platform is already being used across 50+ countries by marketers, content creators, businesses and anyone who wants to produce compelling content. Scalenut’s AI writing technology now comes with Chrome extension to improve productivity and accessibility. Scalenut is aiming to become a market leader in the content creation space, be it for research based SEO content, social media content and marketing copies. Titan Capital, First Principles VC, AngelList, Abhishek Goyal and other angel investors have invested in Scalenut.

Among the top challenges to content creation for marketing and SEO is intelligent research and thereafter writing. Scalenut’s AI-powered platform addresses both these by automating research on topics and following it up with content writing – plagiarism-free and inherently compelling. From research to final draft, Scalenut’s AI-powered self-serve platform covers the entire content lifecycle within minutes.

Mayank Jain, CEO and Co-Founder, Scaleneut said, “Scalenut is for anyone who has ever faced writer’s block and I think it includes almost everyone who has ever tried to write. The idea behind Scalenut was born out of how difficult and frustrating writing content can be. This is especially true for marketers, content creators, and business owners, who write with purpose. The Chrome extension we recently launched makes Scalenut super easy to use while boosting the users’ productivity. We are proud to have created a tech platform in India, which is now being used by creators across the globe, including India.”

Scalenut has been founded by Mayank Jain, Co-Founder, CEO, Gaurav Goyal, Co-Founder, COO, and Saurabh Wadhawan, Co-Founder, CPO. Scalenut is serving the $400 billion global content creation industry. For self-serve customers, Scalenut has two key tools – AI-Powered SEO Assistant and AI Copywriter. The AI-Powered SEO Assistant researches and creates high-ranking long-format blog posts within minutes. AI Copywriter creates content and ideas within seconds. These could include social media posts, Facebook content, sales emails, product descriptions, introduction paragraphs, catchy email subject lines, customer review responder and much more.

About Scalenut 

Scalenut was founded in late 2020 by Mayank Jain, Gaurav Goyal and Saurabh Wadhawan. Scalenut is one of the first, and the best, AI powered content creation platforms for intelligent research, perceptive writing, and effective SEO. The company’s AI-powered technology assists content creators, marketers, businesses and anyone who wants to produce compelling content. 

Scalenut works the entire content cycle – from intelligent research to perceptive writing. Scalenut’s self-serve, easy-to-use SaaS content creation platform serves growing number of customers in India and increasingly beyond India. 

In September 2021, Scalenut raised $400,000 in seed funding led by Titan Capital, First Principles VC, AngelList, Abhishek Goyal, and other angel investors. It’s now looking to raise the next round of funding and is in advanced conversations with several US and India based investors. Learn more about Scalenut here: www.scalenut.com 

OKX Collaborates with South China Morning Post (SCMP) to Transform Legacy Content Into NFTs

• Collectable NFTs consisting of posts, video clips and historical archives collected across its 118 years of legacy
• OKX premium users to get priority access to the NFT collection
• OKX to explore collaboration with Indian media houses for legacy content monetization
• Partnership to create news media-centric metaverse projects

OKX, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by spot trading volume, today announced a partnership with South China Morning Post (SCMP), a Hong-Kong based English newspaper that is operational for the past 118 years. Through this partnership, OKX will enable SCMP to create collectible NFTs of their historical archives collected across 118 years which consists of video clips, stories, coverage of historical events which shaped the world.

Artifacts by SCMP are collectible NFTs from the South China Morning Post's 118 years of archives. OKX is unlocking opportunities, exclusively for its Premium members, a chance to own moments of history and be part of a community enthusiastically preserving history on the blockchain.

In line with its first drop in mid-march 2022, South China Morning Post is looking forward to commemorating the drop around 1997's impact on the consequential history of Asia. The newspaper is all set to highlight contemporary reports revolving around the Handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule, the Asian Financial Crisis, the deaths of Deng Xiaoping and Princess Diana, the Avian flu outbreak, and much more.

Commenting on the development Jay Hao, OKX CEO, said, "We are proud to onboard and serve our global family under the OKX Premium client program. There exists significant potential in the crypto and metaverse space and OKX is striving to create a more welcoming environment for all. Our collaboration with SCMP is just the beginning of this ambitious program.”

Commenting on the development Gary Liu, SCMP’s CEO, said, "Through our artifacts whitepaper, we look forward to inspiring other ‘guardians of history’ to share our vision of making history more discoverable, connected, and collectable. We are delighted to have OKX as our partner in our endeavor to create media-centric metaverse projects.”

OKX has embarked on an exciting journey to bring NFTs to the masses by creating highly engaging platforms for the users. The content driven NFTs will create new revenue streams for legacy media organizations and serve as a connecting link between current generation and rich historical events which shaped the modern world.

About OKX

OKX is an innovative cryptocurrency exchange with advanced financial services. OKX adopts blockchain to build the next-gen financial ecosystem. With OKX, you get access to the leading crypto exchanges by trading volume. Currently, OKX is serving millions of users in 100+ countries with a BTC futures trading volume of $1.5 billion daily. Apart from futures, OKX provides spot, margin, options, and perpetual swaps, DeFi, lending, and mining services.

Good Glamm Group Acquires MissMalini Entertainment

Darpan Sanghvi (Left) & Malini Agarwal (Right)

With this strategic acquisition, Good Glamm Group will further enhance its content-to-commerce strategy via MissMalini’s content reach and incorporate celebrity and influencer talent management into its offerings

Good Glamm Group - South Asia’s largest content-to-commerce conglomerate - has acquired MissMalini Entertainment- India’s largest celebrity media and influencer talent management network. A first of its kind acquisition of a personality-driven company by a content to commerce conglomerate, this strategic move will offer Good Glamm Group unprecedented access to a robust network of influencers, celebrities, and market know-how strongly enhancing its unique content-to-commerce play in the country.

Following this acquisition, Mumbai-based MissMalini Entertainment will continue to function independently while bringing its expertise to the Good Glamm Group. MissMalini Founder Malini Agarwal and Co-founders Nowshad Rizwanullah (also CEO) and Mike Melli (also CRO) will continue to lead the company. They will work closely with Good Glamm Group Founder & CEO, Darpan Sanghvi and co-founders Priyanka Gill and Naiyya Saggi.

The Good Glamm Group’s commerce and content stack coupled with MissMalini’s celebrity, influencer and content strengths will further turbocharge the group’s D2C capabilities. With this acquisition, the Good Glamm Group now boasts a bouquet of India’s largest digital media brands including POPxo, ScoopWhoop, BabyChakra and now MissMalini Entertainment. The Good Glamm Group’s media division now generates over 3.5 billion monthly impressions and has over 150 million unique users placing the Group’s digital reach amongst the largest for any e-commerce or digital media company in India.

The Good Glamm Group’s large user base and reach, proven digital and go-to-market omni- channel capabilities, combined with its capacity to derive data-driven customer forward insights, will help all of its group brands to successfully create, launch and market products in the beauty, skincare, personal care, male grooming and parenting categories.

Darpan Sanghvi, Group Founder & CEO, Good Glamm Group said, “We have admired MissMalini over the years. They were the first movers in the Influencer space, are the leading digital voice on Bollywood and the Girl Tribe is turning into a highly engaged and relevant community. We see all these elements and expertise as highly valuable pieces in the ambitious Content to Commerce disruption we are creating in India. Super excited to begin this journey with MissMalini and support their vision and growth.”

Malini Agarwal, Founder, MissMalini, commented, “This is an incredibly exciting new chapter for MissMalini Entertainment. Becoming part of Good Glamm Group will be hugely beneficial for both parties, whether in terms of our massive, combined industry footprint or opening new avenues for growth in this digital first world. Both the Good Glamm Group and MissMalini share strong brand synergies, common values and a joint vision to transform India’s burgeoning social commerce industry, leveraging first mover advantages to create exciting new opportunities across the country’s creator economy. While I will continue to spearhead MissMalini's creative operations, I am super excited to launch new initiatives in the future with G3 co-founders Darpan, Priyanka and Naiyya and all the other fabulous companies that are joining the group. These are incredibly talented entrepreneurs and I'm honoured to join such a fabulous crew!"

Priyanka Gill, Co-Founder, Good Glamm Group said, “Malini and I both started our own digital content ventures nearly a decade ago - and today as we welcome MissMalini to the Good Glamm Group - we have come full circle. We are passionate believers in the might of digital content and with MissMalini’s reach into the celebrity and influencer landscape will open up exciting avenues for the Good Glamm Group. I look forward to working with the MissMalini team to build out our collective vision.”

Naiyya Saggi, Co-Founder, Good Glamm Group said, “We are so excited to welcome Malini, Nowshad and the fantastic team at MissMalini to Good Glamm Group. Malini is synonymous with Bollywood, the Influencer economy and now with The Girl Tribe, highly engaged Communities for women. These are all critical pieces for us as a group with clear synergies across each of our brands. This also marks yet another milestone for us as a group of partnering with audacious, bold entrepreneurs who create categories. We look forward to growing from strength to strength with this special partnership.

Nowshad Rizwanullah, Co-Founder & CEO, MissMalini Entertainment, added, “Our relationship with Darpan stretches back several years, thanks to our shared passion for content and creator powered commerce. While our early discussions focused on our two companies, it became immediately clear that combining Good Glamm Group’s proven commerce expertise with our decade of experience in celebrity and influencer media would create exciting and unique new business opportunities not only for our own brands but also our valued B2B clients at large. MissMalini's B2B practice has been at the forefront of the influencer marketing surge over the last two years, and now our clients will have a distinct advantage in navigating the creator/influencer ecosystem at scale. This deal comes at a time when the market has been transformed from individual transactions to long-term IP creation and we are thrilled to set foot on this next journey with Good Glamm Group.”

With this acquisition, Good Glamm Group welcomes MissMalini’s 5 business divisions that include MissMalini Media (multi-format original content and marketing), Girl Tribe by MissMalini (women’s community platform), Ignite Edge (celebrity & talent management), Agent M Creative (Creative Agency) and MM Studios (video production house). These digital assets reach over 60M people a month. Offering a significant market advantage, brands under the Good Glamm Group umbrella will now be able to tactically leverage MissMalini’s capabilities across talent management, influencer marketing, community engagement, and content production to further their social commerce capabilities.