TV Time, the consumer app that helps bingers keep track of where they are with favorite shows and socialize with fellow viewers, is today expanding its business with the launch of an analytics platform called TVLytics. The new service will allow creators and distributors to tap into real-time data from across more than 60,000 TV shows. It will also offer other anonymized data collected from viewers, including things like on which platforms viewers watched, their favorite characters, bingeing behavior, viewers’ locations, anticipation from fans for new episodes, social engagement and more.

The data is pulled from the app’s community of around a million daily users from more than 200 countries who check in with the app some 45 million times per month. To date, TV Time has tracked more than 10 billion TV episodes, and has seen 210 million reactions.

TV Time began its life as a source for TV show GIFs known as WhipClip, but later pivoted to a social TV community after acquiring TVShow Time in December 2016. This proved to be a smart move on its part, as the company has grown to 12 million registered users (and growing).

The app’s core functionality is focused on offering TV viewers a place where they can follow shows and mark off the ones they’ve watched — something that’s especially helpful in the streaming era where people are often hopping from one binge-watching session to another, then back again, or are watching multiple series at once and need to remember where they left off.

In addition to being a utility for tracking shows, the app offers a community section for each episode where fans can post photos, videos, GIFs and memes, as well as like and comment on the content others share. Viewers can even leave video reactions about each episode, in a format similar to the “Stories” found on apps like Instagram or Snapchat.

TV Time also interjects questions of its own — asking about your reaction (good, funny, wow, sad, etc.), favorite character, device watched on and more. And it inserts its own polls in the middle of the fan discussion page, which ask about pivotal moments from the episode and what people thought.

With the launch of analytics, TV Time aims to make use of all this data by offering it to clients in the TV industry who are looking for more comprehensive viewership data for planning purposes.

Of course, TV Time’s data is not a Nielsen equivalent — it’s user-generated and self-reported. That means it’s not going to be able to tell content creators, networks, distributors and other clients how many people are watching a show exactly. Nor can it give a holistic overview of the show’s fan base. TV Time’s viewers skew younger — in the 18 to 34-year-old range — and only around 10 to 15 percent are based in the U.S., though that market is the fastest growing.

But TV Time can tap into the reactions and sentiments shared by a subset of a show’s most engaged fans.

Its paying clients today include a handful of TV networks, streaming services and talent agencies that have been testing the app in beta for around a month. They use TV Time’s analytics to help spot trends, develop and expand a show’s audience and make decisions about how to cast and market their shows. Some have also used it in advertising negotiations. Customers pay a flat annual subscription fee for access to this data, but TV Time won’t disclose exact pricing.

“We’ve been testing it to figure out which of the insights we’ve launched are most valuable. That’s how we landed on things like the completion rate, the binge rate, affinity reports, mobility scores and favorite characters,” explains TV Time head of Programming, Jeremy Reed.

The value offered by TVLytics data doesn’t just come from the data itself, but also how hard it is to collect. In today’s fragmented TV viewing ecosystem, consumers now watch across devices, and split their time between live TV, recorded TV, live TV delivered over the internet, subscription video services and internet video sites, like YouTube.

In addition, TV Time notes that, overall, the number of long-form shows on television has grown by 69 percent since 2012, with nearly 500 scripted original series airing in 2017, citing data from FX Research Networks. The majority of these scripted shows are coming from over-the-top platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and others. That’s a lot of TV content to keep up with, especially as consumers hop between devices — even in the midst of a single episode.

What TV Time does is keep all this viewing data together in a single destination, and can make connections about what viewers are watching across platforms — from TV to Netflix and beyond.

“With studios — they’re looking two years out in producing content. They start to see trends in types of characters, and certainly start to see the characters of this show resonate with the characters of this other show and start to see the overlap,” notes Reed. Plus, he adds, that overlap is “agnostic to platform.”

TV Time data is put to use for consumers as well, in terms of helping to recommend their next binge.

And now its community is demanding the ability to track movies, too — especially now that streaming services are backing their own feature films. Reed says this isn’t something TV Time has planned for the near-term, as there’s so much to do around episodic content — but that it’s absolutely “a never-say-never” kind of thing, he hints.

Santa Monica-based TV Time’s team of 35 is backed by $60+ million in funding, according to Crunchbase, from investors including Eminence Capital, WME, IVP, Raine Ventures and Greycroft, plus individual entertainment and media industry executives like Ari Emanuel, Peter Guber, Steve Bornstein, Scooter Braun, Gordon Crawford and Ron Zuckerman.

If you’ve been wondering why every major media platform has been doubling down on its video efforts in recent months, Nielsen’s new report has the answer. According to the firm’s research, U.S. adults are now spending almost 6 hours per day on video, on average. That includes time spent watching both live and time-shifted TV, watching videos in an app or mobile website on a smartphone or tablet, watching video over a TV-connected device like a DVD player, game console or internet device such as Roku, and watching videos on a computer.

That data on video viewing was collected during the first quarter of 2018 – and accounts for a sizable chunk of the 11 hours per day Americans spend listening to, watching, reading or otherwise interacting with media.

The nearly six hours of video (5:57) of video viewed daily represents an 11 minute increase in video consumption over the prior quarter, with 6 of those 11 minutes from from TV-connected devices.

Notably, traditional media platforms still account for a lot of this media consumption, with adults spending the most time on TV and radio. The former reaches 88 percent of U.S. adults on a weekly basis, and the latter reaches 92 percent.

Live and time-shifted TV, in particular, eats up the most time, with adults watching an average of 4 hours and 46 minutes per day on this type of media.

However, the research does indicate some growth in streaming TV, as evidenced by an increase in time spent on “TV-connected” devices, like game consoles, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and others. Time spent on these devices is up by 5 minutes per day to reach 40 minutes total, with 26 of those minutes devoted to internet-connected devices and 14 to game consoles.

Younger people, not surprisingly, are embracing digital platforms and internet-connected devices much more quickly than older demographics, Nielsen also notes.

Those aged 18-34 now spend 43 percent of their time consuming media on digital platforms (phones, tablets, computers), with around a third of that time taking place on smartphones. Their share of TV-connected usage (14%) is also double that of total adults (18+) and seven times as much as adults over the age of 65, the report says.

That means they’re watching a lot more TV through these devices at 1 hour, 15 minutes per day – or nearly half an hour more than the average adult.

Beyond video, Nielsen’s report also examines social media adoption. It found adults are spending an average of 45 minutes per day on social media, with the majority of that time on smartphones.

The social networks are clearly clued in to the draw of video, and have optimized for it. The new research also indicates that 64 percent of adult smartphone users who watch video on social networking sites and apps do so at least once per day. That figure is up to 72 percent for the youngest adults (18-34), Nielsen says.

The full report, available here, also delves deeper into demographics and other impacts on media consumption.

The Gillmor Gang — Esteban Kolsky, Frank Radice, Michael Markman, and Steve Gillmor . Recorded live Sunday July 29, 2018. Social markets, what is notification media, the 20 percent solution.

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

Liner Notes

Live chat stream

The Gillmor Gang on Facebook

Could user profiles and better personalization features be coming to Amazon’s Prime Video app at long last? The company’s new Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke just teased that a major upgrade to Amazon’s streaming video app is in the works – and she already has it running on a phone in her office, she said.

The exec was speaking at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in L.A., according to reports from AdWeek [paywall], TheWrap, and Deadline, when she mentioned the app’s big makeover.

And while Salke’s statements were light on key details – like when such an effort would reach end users, for example, or what changes, exactly, would be in store, there’s plenty of room to speculate on what Prime Video’s app today lacks.

For starters, unlike competitors such as Netflix and Hulu, Prime Video’s app doesn’t focus on making personalized recommendations about what to watch next.

Instead, the interface features a number of content groupings of shows or movies that are “included with Prime.” These are organized by category and type – like “Comedy Movies” or “Recently Added TV,” for example. It also showcases content that’s top rated, popular, or trending, along with some of its own editorial recommendations, like a section for Amazon’s “Original Movies” or its “Exclusive TV.”

A row may be dedicated to suggestions things to watch next based on viewing history, but it’s easily overlooked. Overall, the interface has always felt more focused on pushing Prime content in a variety of ways, rather than helping you discover new things you’ll actually like.

What makes this worse is that Amazon doesn’t offer user profiles, where household members could each have their own watchlist and set of recommendations – features that are standard on rival streaming apps today, including Hulu, Netflix, and even newcomers like YouTube TV.

And though Amazon does offer parental controls to lock down viewing, it doesn’t allow parents and kids to keep separate profiles where adult content is actually hidden from children.

These would all be obvious areas of improvement for a new Amazon Prime Video app, along with a better mechanism for discovering Prime Video’s optional add-on subscriptions, known as Prime Video Channels. Amazon today lets users build their own a la carte TV service by selecting premium channels like HBO, Showtime, Starz, CBS All Access, and more. But the Prime Video app itself doesn’t make channel suggestions in any sort of personal way – it simply offers an interface where you can browse through all of them.

But Amazon’s Prime Video Channels are rapidly becoming a driving force for over-the-top viewing, accounting for 55 percent of all direct-to-consumer video subscriptions. Amazon could easily revamp this feature to make it an even better selling point for Prime Video app users.

And of course, Amazon could still do a better job of highlighting its own originals – especially as it now has Emmy award winners and new nominees to promote – but in a way that feels more in tune with the viewer’s interests.

The company has at least publicly acknowledged that profiles are something it knows users want. In fact, it has even responded to incoming tweets with comments that explain how profiles aren’t available “at this time,” or “yet,” or say that’s a “good suggestion” when people offer feedback.

As for Salke’s statements, the most she offered is that the new Prime Video interface is “much more intuitive,” which hints towards improved navigation and how she finds it be “sort of seamless the way they’ve actually…” well, something – she cut herself off from that last reveal, by saying “I don’t know if I should give it away. It’s cool!”

Uh-huh. Good one.

She does say that the team wanted to develop the best UI (user interface) to line up with Amazon’s investment – meaning, apparently, the app should better highlight Amazon’s ~$4+ billion spent on original programming this year.

She also mentioned some of its upcoming high-profile series, like the sci-fi fan favorite “The Expanse,” which Amazon rescued from Syfy’s cancellation; the new “Lord of the Rings” project; and the Julia Roberts thriller “Homecoming,” directed by “Mr. Robot’s” Sam Esmail. Plus, she referenced three new series, including “The Expatriates,” from Nicole Kidman’s production company; Lena Waithe’s exec-produced horror series “Them;” and the sci-fi romantic comedy from “The Office’s” Greg Daniels, called “Upload.”

Letting data consumption go unchecked on mobile devices can cause serious problems. It can mean slower connections, decreased battery life, and expensive fees — things you want to avoid. Here are some tips to help you use less data on an Android phone.

Delete data-draining apps

Apps that keep your phone running at its capacity cause serious problems for Android users. These app result in accelerated hardware deterioration, inefficient battery use, and unnecessary data consumption. Facebook is a prime example of this and can be reigned in by accessing it via a web browser or a ‘Lite’ version of the app.

Consider deleting any app that sucks up too much data. To find out what’s consuming the most data on your Android, go to Settings, then Data usage. From there you can see which apps are consuming the most data and delete the worst offenders.

Restrict background data

One of the biggest culprits for unnecessary data consumption is ‘background data’. This pesky Android feature allows apps to keep downloading information when the app isn’t open or the phone is locked. To prevent this from happening, return to the Data usage menu and look for Restrict Background Data.

Beware of auto-updates

It’s usually better to wait for a WiFi connection before updating your apps unless there’s a security issue involved. You may not even realize updates are happening if you have the auto-update setting enabled. Turn it off by opening the Google Play Store, clicking the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner, tapping Settings, then Auto-Update Apps, and choosing Auto-update Apps over Wi-Fi Only.

Avoid streaming music

Sometimes you need YouTube or Spotify for business reasons, or just to stay sane, but most of the time streaming media can be cut down. In fact, some apps don’t put a cap on media resolution, so you could be wasting data on ultra high-quality audio that’s barely any better than a lower resolution version. Look for settings to restrict these downloads, or for ways to download media over WiFi for later offline use.

Take your apps offline

Some apps even include an option to access them offline and without consuming data. For example, Google Docs lets you choose which documents you’d like access to while disconnected from the Internet. Make it a habit to check for offline access options and enable them whenever possible.

These are some quick and easy tips for IT novices, but if you’re on the hunt for expert solutions and support for Android devices, get in touch with our team today.

If you don’t have an unlimited data plan for your Android device, unchecked download habits will result in a slower connection, poor battery life, and higher bills. Reducing your data consumption won’t affect your mobile experience if you stick with these important tips.

Delete data-draining apps

Apps that keep your phone running at its capacity cause serious problems for Android users. These app result in accelerated hardware deterioration, inefficient battery use, and unnecessary data consumption. Facebook is a prime example of this and can be reigned in by accessing it via a web browser or a ‘Lite’ version of the app.

Consider deleting any app that sucks up too much data. To find out what’s consuming the most data on your Android, go to Settings, then Data usage. From there you can see which apps are consuming the most data and delete the worst offenders.

Restrict background data

One of the biggest culprits for unnecessary data consumption is ‘background data’. This pesky Android feature allows apps to keep downloading information when the app isn’t open or the phone is locked. To prevent this from happening, return to the Data usage menu and look for Restrict Background Data.

Beware of auto-updates

It’s usually better to wait for a WiFi connection before updating your apps unless there’s a security issue involved. You may not even realize updates are happening if you have the auto-update setting enabled. Turn it off by opening the Google Play Store, clicking the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner, tapping Settings, then Auto-Update Apps, and choosing Auto-update Apps over Wi-Fi Only.

Avoid streaming music

Sometimes you need YouTube or Spotify for business reasons, or just to stay sane, but most of the time streaming media can be cut down. In fact, some apps don’t put a cap on media resolution, so you could be wasting data on ultra high-quality audio that’s barely any better than a lower resolution version. Look for settings to restrict these downloads, or for ways to download media over WiFi for later offline use.

Take your apps offline

Some apps even include an option to access them offline and without consuming data. For example, Google Docs lets you choose which documents you’d like access to while disconnected from the Internet. Make it a habit to check for offline access options and enable them whenever possible.

These are some quick and easy tips for IT novices, but if you’re on the hunt for expert solutions and support for Android devices, get in touch with our team today.

If you rely on an Android device and a data plan for email, news, and business, it’s important to optimize how and when that information is downloaded. WIthout careful consideration, you could end up with slower connection speeds and higher bills. Here are 5 ways to avoid those problems.

Delete data-draining apps

Apps that keep your phone running at its capacity cause serious problems for Android users. These app result in accelerated hardware deterioration, inefficient battery use, and unnecessary data consumption. Facebook is a prime example of this and can be reigned in by accessing it via a web browser or a ‘Lite’ version of the app.

Consider deleting any app that sucks up too much data. To find out what’s consuming the most data on your Android, go to Settings, then Data usage. From there you can see which apps are consuming the most data and delete the worst offenders.

Restrict background data

One of the biggest culprits for unnecessary data consumption is ‘background data’. This pesky Android feature allows apps to keep downloading information when the app isn’t open or the phone is locked. To prevent this from happening, return to the Data usage menu and look for Restrict Background Data.

Beware of auto-updates

It’s usually better to wait for a WiFi connection before updating your apps unless there’s a security issue involved. You may not even realize updates are happening if you have the auto-update setting enabled. Turn it off by opening the Google Play Store, clicking the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner, tapping Settings, then Auto-Update Apps, and choosing Auto-update Apps over Wi-Fi Only.

Avoid streaming music

Sometimes you need YouTube or Spotify for business reasons, or just to stay sane, but most of the time streaming media can be cut down. In fact, some apps don’t put a cap on media resolution, so you could be wasting data on ultra high-quality audio that’s barely any better than a lower resolution version. Look for settings to restrict these downloads, or for ways to download media over WiFi for later offline use.

Take your apps offline

Some apps even include an option to access them offline and without consuming data. For example, Google Docs lets you choose which documents you’d like access to while disconnected from the Internet. Make it a habit to check for offline access options and enable them whenever possible.

These are some quick and easy tips for IT novices, but if you’re on the hunt for expert solutions and support for Android devices, get in touch with our team today.

As part of Twitter’s attempted crackdown on abusive behavior across its network, the company announced on Friday afternoon a new policy facing those who repeatedly harass, threaten, or otherwise make abusive comments during a Periscope broadcaster’s live stream. According to Twitter, the company will begin to more aggressively enforce its Periscope Community Guidelines by reviewing and suspending accounts of habitual offenders.

The plans were announced via a Periscope blog post and tweet that said everyone should be able to feel safe watching live video.

Currently, Periscope’s comment moderation policy involves group moderation.

That is, when one viewer reports a comment as “abuse,” “spam,” or selects “other reason,” Periscope’s software will then randomly select a few other viewers to take a look and decide if the comment is abuse, spam, or if it looks okay. The randomness factor here prevents a person (or persons) from using the reporting feature to shut down conversations. Only if a majority of the randomly selected voters agree the comment is spam or abuse does the commenter get suspended.

However, this suspension would only disable their ability to chat during the broadcast itself – it didn’t prevent them from continuing to watch other live broadcasts and make further abusive remarks in the comments. Though they would risk the temporary ban by doing so, they could still disrupt the conversation, and make the video creator – and their community – feel threatened or otherwise harassed.

Twitter says that accounts who repeatedly get suspended for violating its guidelines will soon be reviewed and suspended. This enhanced enforcement begins on August 10, and is one of several other changes Twitter is making to its product across Periscope and Twitter focused on user safety.

To what extent those changes have been working is questionable. Twitter may have policies in place around online harassment and abuse, but its enforcement has been hit-or-miss. But ridding its platform of unwanted accounts – including spam, despite the impact to monthly active user numbers – is something the company must do for its long-term health. The fact that so much hate and abuse is seemingly tolerated or overlooked on Twitter has been an issue for some time, and the problem continues today. And it could be one of the factors in Twitter’s stagnant user growth. After all, who willingly signs up for harassment?

The company is at least attempting to address the problem, most recently by acquiring the anti-abuse technology provider Smyte. Its transition to Twitter didn’t go so well, but the technology it offers the company could help Twitter to address abuse at a greater scale in the future.

Viacom today confirmed it’s acquiring digital media company AwesomenessTV, whose network reaches 158 million subscribers and approximately 300 million monthly views. The news follows a report from earlier this week that said the two were in talks about an acquisition, which priced the deal at “well below $300 million,” according to Variety.

Viacom did not confirm the deal terms, but an under $300 million price point would be less than half of AwesomenessTV’s previous $650 million valuation, cited by Bloomberg.

Prior to this, AwesomenessTV was majority owned by Comcast/NBCUniversal which has a 51 percent stake in the company; Hearst and (TechCrunch parent company by way of Oath), Verizon, are minority shareholders with 24.5 percent stakes. When Verizon acquired its stake two years ago, it spent around $159 million, which valued the business then at the $650 million price point, or double its valuation at the time Hearst invested in 2014.

“Awesomeness has done an incredible job building their brand into a digital media powerhouse for today’s most sought-after and hard-to-reach youth audiences,” said Kelly Day, President of Viacom Digital Studios and former Chief Business Officer of AwesomenessTV, in a statement about the deal. “The team brings strong digital expertise, deep connections with top talent and influencers, a world-class television and film studio, and a robust branded content team and creative agency that will accelerate the growth and scale of Viacom Digital Studios.”

Viacom’s interest in the property has to do with its ability to reach young viewers – specifically “Gen Z” viewers who are growing up watching YouTube, not traditional TV. AwesomenessTV has reach into this market by way of its 158 million total subscribers and over 6 million YouTube subscribers.

Viacom sees its youth focus as a natural fit that falls in between its younger Nickelodeon and older MTV audiences.

AwesomenessTV’s studio has put out Emmy-winning content, and has developed a library of over 200 hours of long-form TV series and feature films, which it brings to Viacom. It also has connections with those in the digital-native talent and influencer space of value. And it has established relationships with advertisers catering to this youth market, including Hollister, Gatorade, Invisalign, and Kraft, which Viacom took into consideration when making this deal.

Following the deal’s close, AwesomenessTV will be integrated into Viacom’s Digital Studios division led by president Kelly Day, while its existing CEO Jordan Levin will depart. Levin will remain during a transition period only, we understand. But a CEO is no longer needed as AwesomenessTV will not operate as a standalone entity.

AwesomenessTV was co-founded by Brian Robbins, who currently serves as President of Paramount Players at Viacom, and Joe Davola. Robbins connection likely helped to spark the talks, sources had earlier told Variety.

Viacom seemed an ideal suitor for the business, given its interest in digital video/influencer space, which it has acted on before with its February acquisition of the video creator conference VidCon, and its acquisition of the influencer marketing firm Whosay.

The news of the deal also follows the high-profile closure of one of AwesomenessTV partners’ efforts in the streaming space: Verizon’s go90. Verizon had been working with AwesomenessTV to develop short-form original programming for its misguided streaming service go90, which failed to take off and is shutting down for good this month.

Jeffrey Katzenberg’s new mobile video startup NewTV, which snagged Meg Whitman as CEO in January, has now closed on $1 billion in funding, according to a report out today in CNN. Investors in the round include Disney, 21st Century Fox, Warner Bros, Entertainment One and other media companies, with a combined $200 million investment, while institutional investors from the U.S. and China made up the rest.

The news follows a May report from Bloomberg, which said NewTV had then raised around $800 million. It had also said 21st Century Fox and Warner Bros. were investors.

Last fall, an SEC filing revealed WndrCo was looking to raise as much as $2 billion. That could indicate that the round CNN is reporting is still in the process of raising.

NewTV declined to comment, when TechCrunch reached them for confirmation.

Details are still fairly sparse on NewTV, which is being incubated by Katzenberg’s WndrCo, a holding company that’s also invested in startups including Mixcloud, Axios, Node, Flowspace, Whistle Sports, and TYT Network.

So far, we know NewTV aims to bring high-quality Hollywood production values and storytelling to mobile, but in a different format. Instead of producing regular-length TV shows, it aims to release content in “bite-sized formats of 10 minutes or less.” This will also involve custom-designed technology built specifically for mobile, it claims.

But it’s unclear why – beyond having Katzenberg and now Whitman’s names attached – this makes the company worth a billion dollar investment. The market for this type of content hasn’t really been proven out. After all, today’s youngest video consumers are happy with YouTube – their TV alternative of sorts – which is filled with short-form video.

And while YouTubers’ grasp of production values and storytelling chops may fall short of “Hollywood” standards, streaming services like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and others are filling in the gaps in terms of quality, and are growing sizable subscriber bases.

If there is actually demand for “high-quality short-form” video, it seems content producers could just sell to existing distributors directly.

It’s also unclear for now if NewTV aims to own and distribute its content to others, act as its own standalone streaming service, or plans for a mixture of both.

In any event, as CNN points out, even a large round like this is a small bet for the bigger media companies involved. In addition, they don’t want to miss a shot at backing Katzenberg’s latest – especially given his prior successes at Paramount, Disney and DreamWorks.

SuperAwesome, the “kidtech” startup valued now at over $100 million, is today launching its own alternative to YouTube’s embedded video player. The technology is aimed at kids publishers – not consumers directly – and is part of the company’s larger platform of kid-safe technology. This includes tools for social engagement, parental controls, advertising, authentication, and more, all specifically designed for companies catering to kids.

The launch comes at a key time in the industry, as YouTube is now the subject of a class-action lawsuit over children’s privacy, and recently had an FTC complaint filed against it by 23 advocacy groups. The complaint says YouTube has been collecting data on children’s viewing patterns for years, in violation of federal law – meaning COPPA, aka the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

The new player provided by SuperAwesome gives kids brands another choice amid all these questions over YouTube and its respect for children’s privacy.

Explains the company, the player does not capture data on children, nor does it breach regulations like COPPA (U.S.) or GDPR-K (E.U.).

The opportunity for SuperAwesome is fairly sizable here. Already, the company counts among its customer base over 190 kids’ brands like Crayola, Topps, Spin Master, Warner Bros., Hasbro, Disney, Roald Dahl, Mattel, Dreamworks, Penguin, and others. These companies use SuperAwesome’s platform and its tools for socially engaging, advertising and connecting with their under-13 audience.

“The demand for [the video player] has come directly from our customers and the player has been in beta testing for a while,” SuperAwesome CEO Dylan Collins tells TechCrunch.

As with its other tools, the kids’ publishers will be able to embed the new player within their own websites and apps, and then manage all their social content – including video – from SuperAwesome’s “PopJam” dashboard.

“To give you a sense of scale, the PopJam Connect platform is enabling tens of millions of kid-safe social engagements every month,” Collins adds.

The platform itself offers a set of basic tools for free, but larger companies pay for premium upgrades on a SaaS (software-as-a-service) basis. Because it’s working with so many big brands, SuperAwesome is now turning a profit. It’s expecting to grow 100 percent this year to reach a revenue run rate of $50 million, it recently said.

And it also just added Tim Weller, chairman of Trustpilot and Taptica, as its Chairman a few months ago, and announced former Upworthy CRO, Ben Zagorski as its North American Chief Revenue Officer.

SuperAwesome’s platform today is addressing an underserved audience: kids brands that need to abide by federal and international regulations around children’s privacy, but have had limited options in terms of technology that helps them do so.

That was the case with video in particular – there hasn’t really been a viable alternative to YouTube’s player that suits kids publishers’ needs.

“There are over 170,000 children going online for the first time every day and the kidtech ecosystem is growing equally quickly to make the broader internet compatible with this new audience,” noted SuperAwesome CTO Joshua Wohle in a statement about the player’s launch. “Many people misinterpreted children’s appearance on the internet as a temporary blip, whereas in reality it is a structural shift that is changing the landscape,” he said.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki on Friday promised the company would do a better job with communicating to creators about its experiments and tests. Today, YouTube is making good on that commitment with an update about a new feature it’s testing out: an Explore tab, aimed at offering viewers a more diverse set of video recommendations.

The news was announced via the Creator Insider channel – the same channel Wojcicki highlighted in her recent update as the “unofficial” resource operated by YouTube employees. The channel today offers weekly updates, responses to creator feedback, and behind-the-scenes info on product launches.

According to the announcement, the new Explore feature is currently in testing with just 1 percent of iPhone YouTube app viewers, so there’s a good chance you won’t see the option in your own app.

However, if you do happen to be in the test group, then you’ll notice the bottom navigation bar of the app looks different. Instead of the tabs Home, Trending, Subscriptions, Inbox and Library, you’ll instead see Home, Explore, Subscriptions, Activity and Library.

The idea behind Explore is to offer YouTube viewers a wider variety of what-to-watch suggestions than what they have today. Currently, personalized video recommendations are very much influenced by past viewing activity and other behavior, which can then create a sort of homogenous selection of recommended content.

“Explore is designed to help you be exposed to different kinds of topics, videos or channels that you might not otherwise encounter, but they’re still personalized,” said Tom Leung, Director of Product Management, in a YouTube video.

That is, the videos are still based on viewing activity.

For example, he explains, a viewer who was watching videos about telescopes might be recommended videos about high-end cameras.

“It’s just going to give you a little more variety,” says Leung.

The tab will also feature a “Trending” section at the top of the screen, which directs users to the same sort of content that’s found in the Trending tab in the current version of the YouTube app.

The hope, however, with the new Explore tab is to offer creators the ability to reach more viewers, even if their content doesn’t “trend.”

Whether or not that theory proves true, remains to be seen. YouTube will review the data from the experiment before making a decision to roll out the Explore tab to more users.

Early feedback from YouTube creators in the comments section of the video seems cautiously optimistic, with many expressing hopes that the new tab would provide exposure to smaller creators rather than just the well-known names.

Calling the tab “Explore” makes sense in light of the increased threat from Instagram, whose own Explore section features personalized video suggestions, and has launched a YouTube rival with IGTV. YouTube has responded by offering its stars big, five to six-figure checks to post their best stuff on YouTube, according to Business Insider. (YouTube downplayed the report, saying it has “always invested” in creators’ success.)

But an experiment involving YouTube’s own Explore section makes it clear that the company is interested taking on Instagram head-on when it comes to offering a home for discovering new video content through algorithmic recommendations.

If successful, YouTube’s Explore tab would connect viewers to more creator channels they’ll like and subscribe to, as well as increase their time spent in app. That, in turn, could potentially decrease viewers’ time in apps like IGTV, Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere.