Sheryl Sandberg announced that she will be resigning from her 14-year tenure as the chief operating officer of Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook. She will be replaced by Meta’s chief growth officer Javier Olivan and maintain a seat on the company’s board of directors. Sandberg will work with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to transition out of her role as COO and officially step down this fall. Recognized by Zuckerberg and others as the primary architect of Facebook’s advertising business, Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said Sandberg developed “one of the strongest business models in the digital economy.” Read more

Meta Platforms announced new features for Reels on Facebook and Instagram, including the ability to import audio, new templates to assist in video creation, a Suggested Reels feature, the ability to generate short-form Reels directly from Live content, upcoming editing and scheduling tools and more. These updates — in addition to a Sound Sync feature for Facebook Reels and Instagram Reels of up to 90-seconds — should help Meta keep up with ByteDance’s TikTok on the social media front, even as it has one foot planted in the metaverse. Read more

Amazon is combatting inventory shortages with a new invite-based ordering protocol for high-demand products, starting with U.S. fulfillment of the Sony PlayStation 5 game console, followed by Microsoft’s Xbox Series X. The idea is to prevent hoarding by “scalpers” who program bots to buy in quantity then resell the items at significant markup. Participation does not require Prime membership, merely a request for the invitation. Amazon plans to roll the program out to more countries as it strives to ensure a positive shopping experience for individual customers and households. Read more

Seattle’s City Council has unanimously passed the “Pay Up” bill, designed to improve working conditions and compensation for on-demand gig workers, increasing wages and mileage reimbursement for the region’s app-based labor pool. Beginning in 2023, apps including DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats will be required to pay delivery drivers per-minute and per-mile rates, with the clock ticking the minute the drivers accept an order. Pay Up is the first step in Seattle’s ongoing effort to protect app-based workers, which one councilmember called “one of the fastest growing sectors in our economy.” Read more

Nielsen’s Gracenote media data division is launching the Distribution Dynamics and Program Availability Archive to measure “bingeability.” The company says the new datasets will help content owners and buyers optimize program licensing and acquisition strategies by providing insights into programming characteristics that drive regular consumption. “The new thinking prioritizes understanding of why certain content resonates with viewers and what drives engagement,” Gracenote says, adding that “clarity on the characteristics of content that drive viewership and understanding the historical placement of content are key to generating the maximum value out of programming in the future.” Read more