The past week has seen some interesting news emerge from the world of tech and social media, and some great milestones too. So which stories were the highlight of our week?

1.       Snapchat announces 1 day advertising price

One of the most “tweetable” definitely came from Snapchat. In our last blog post, we considered the implications of Snapchat’s high asking price for displaying ads in-app, and it’s certainly a noteworthy announcement to feature in this list too. The app had brands in a frenzy by stating that it would be charging $750,000 per day for ad placements- which disappear 24 hours later. The company justified the high price however, saying that they wanted to reach industry leaders, emphasizing quality over quantity. The price hasn’t deterred major brands yet though, with the likes of McDonalds, Samsung, and Macy’s already becoming the first sponsors. It will be interesting to see which other brands sign up, especially if in-feed placements prove popular with users.

2.       WhatsApp for desktop

WhatsApp has this week launched a new desktop service called WhatsApp Web, allowing users to message each other from their computers. Logging in only requires scanning a QR code on your phone, and the service will also display any conversations on your mobile device too. Currently though, iOS devices aren’t supported, meaning a large proportion of users automatically can’t access the service. WhatsApp called its new feature “an extension of your phone”, which we think will help connect even more users globally who don’t have access to mobile Internet.

3.       YouTube takes on the Super Bowl

YouTube announced that it is to live stream a specially created “alternative” show during the Super Bowl half time, featuring stunts and fake adverts. The move is a first for the site, who have teamed up with the stars of their 20 most popular channels, with the aim of creating some light-hearted competition between these figures and the Super Bowl’s half-time celebrity performers. Harley Morenstein, who is this year’s host and one of the most influential YouTubers with his channel EpicMealTime, has already promised an array of ad parodies, and stunts such as diving into a pool of cheese! We think YouTube might just draw in an impressive crowd, and it will definitely be interesting to compare viewer figures afterwards.

4.       Vine turns 2 years old

Vine is celebrating its second birthday tomorrow with a playlist of its favourite loops last year. The app has seen huge success in 2014, with over 1 billion loops played each day, and a reported 347,186,268,222 loops since April of last year! As an unrivalled and unique mobile platform with a fearlessly loyal following, we only imagine that Vine will continue to go from strength to strength.

5.       Global digital growth

We’ve seen some impressive figures this week in the release of Wearesocial’s Digital, Social and Mobile in 2015 report. The report shows that the Internet has seen over half a million first time users in the past year, now bringing the number of those active to over 3 billion. With mobile also factoring into the equation, the company estimates that 50% of the world’s population will be Internet users by mid-to late 2016. It’s certainly amazing to see so much growth!

What have been your top digital news stories this week? And which are you looking forward to following? We’d love to hear your picks, so please share them with us @PracticeDigital and on our Facebook page.