Pushing its second-quarter revenue below market expectations, the company’s stock was down about 23% before the opening bell after IBM released preliminary quarterly results that missed analysts’ forecasts.

The decline also weighed on the entire software sector, with Dow futures falling and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF losing more than 4%.

IBM now expects second-quarter revenue of $17.2 billion, below the $17.86 billion analysts surveyed by LSEG had projected. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to reach $2.93, missing estimates of $3.02.

Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna admitted the company had failed to respond quickly enough to changing customer spending priorities.

“This quarter we faltered.”

He added: “We did not adapt and move quickly enough, and numerous large deals failed to close on the timelines we expected, driving the majority of our shortfall.”

Krishna said IBM noticed a big shift in customer spending during the final weeks of June.

“In the last few weeks of June, we saw clients shift their quarterly capex spend toward servers, storage, and memory purchases to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of expected price increases.”

He also said the company had expected some disruption from supply chain challenges but underestimated the scale of the change.

“While we anticipated some supply-chain related impact in our expectations, we did not anticipate the magnitude of the capex reprioritisation.”

The transition shows surging demand for hardware used in artificial intelligence systems. A global shortage of memory chips has also added to the problem.

Since late 2025, hardware prices have increased after major memory manufacturers, including Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron, directed more production towards specialised chips for AI data centres.

Much of that capacity has already been committed under long-term contracts, tightening supply for conventional servers, personal computers and smartphones.

Micron has previously warned that supply limitations are likely to continue.

“tight conditions to persist beyond calendar 2027 as a result of AI-driven demand across all segments coupled with structural supply constraints.”

IBM said revenue in its infrastructure business fell 7% during the quarter, even though total company revenue increased by 1% from a year earlier.

The disappointing update also hit other software companies. Microsoft, ServiceNow, Salesforce and Intuit each fell between 3% and 5% in premarket trading.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group, said investors are now watching closely to see how long businesses continue directing more of their technology budgets towards hardware and cybersecurity instead of software.

IBM is scheduled to release its full second-quarter financial results on July 22.

The post IBM Shares Plunge After Revenue Miss as Customers Shift Spending to AI Hardware appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said the removal means Google Search now appears as the default option for users setting up new Android phones in the country. The regulator is examining whether the move could limit competition in the digital market.

Google removed the Choice Screen in Switzerland in 2026, although the feature is still available in countries across the European Economic Area (EEA).

The difference has prompted discussions over whether Swiss users have fewer options compared with users in neighbouring European markets.

Introduced in 2019 after European Union antitrust action, the Choice Screen was designed to give Android users better management over their default search engine. It allowed them to choose alternatives during the initial setup of a new device instead of automatically using Google Search.

COMCO said default settings can strongly influence user behaviour because many people keep the option already selected on their devices. The regulator warned that removing the choice screen could reduce the visibility of competing search providers.

“This new practice by Google could affect the ability of search engine providers and, more broadly, other digital service providers to compete,” COMCO said.

The regulator added that the change could also create unequal treatment between Swiss users and those in the European Economic Area.

Google confirmed it was aware of the investigation and said it would work with the authority. “We look forward to cooperating fully with the authority to address their questions,” a spokesperson said.

COMCO’s investigation will determine whether Google’s action breaches Switzerland’s Cartel Act, which governs anti-competitive practices.

Google is still the dominant search provider in Switzerland, controlling about 82% of the country’s search market, according to Statcounter. Regulators are concerned that default placements on mobile devices can make it harder for competitors, including other search engines, to reach users.

In the European Union, Google agreed to keep the Choice Screen after facing several antitrust penalties totalling more than €8 billion since 2017. The feature continues to appear on Android devices across the EEA, creating a different experience for users outside Switzerland.

The Swiss investigation will now examine whether Google’s decision affects competition and consumer choice in the country’s digital market.

The post Google Faces Swiss Probe Over Android Search Choice Screen Removal appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The update, aimed at making conversations feel more familiar, was announced on Monday by Nikita Bier, X’s head of Product, who said the platform found that content from “mutuals” was not appearing as often as it should in reply threads.

“We noticed this data was missing from the algo and it made your friends appear less in your replies. This resulted in the reply section feeling more like a battleground with people you don’t recognise.”

According to Bier, the change should also make it easier for users with similar interests to connect and build communities around shared conversations.

He added: “help clusters form around interests more easily, which many people have asked for.”

Although the algorithm adjustment is unlikely to transform the platform overnight, it means X is encouraging more effective and meaningful interactions instead of exposing users mainly to replies from strangers.

The company has introduced several product updates this year to attract and retain creators. Earlier in the year, X changed how it pays creators, rewarding original content over reposted or aggregated material.

More recently, it launched a built-in video editor, giving creators another tool to produce and edit content without leaving the platform.

The latest update also comes as competition with Meta’s Threads increases. Threads has been adding features that give users better management over what they see.

Last month, the platform introduced Your Algo, a private feature that allows users to customise how their feed is ranked. Threads has also reached 500 million monthly active users.

While prioritising posts from mutual followers could make discussions more personal, the update does not address some of the platform’s challenges, including spam, harassment, misinformation and content theft, which affects the user experience.

The post X Updates Algorithm to Prioritise Mutual Followers in Reply Threads appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Increasingly, it is shaped by how effectively an organisation communicates, especially in periods of uncertainty. For fintech companies operating in Nigeria and across Africa, communication has become as critical as innovation itself.

The world has become what strategists describe as a VUCA environment, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

Economic shocks, fluctuating exchange rates, changing regulations, cybersecurity threats, misinformation, and evolving customer expectations have made the financial services landscape more unpredictable than ever. In such an environment, silence creates suspicion, while poor communication erodes trust.

For fintech brands whose business model depends almost entirely on trust, getting communication right is no longer optional; it is existential.

Unlike traditional banks that have spent decades building institutional credibility, many fintech companies are relatively young.

They rely on digital interactions rather than physical branches. Customers often never meet anyone representing the company. Every notification, social media post, customer service response, email, and public statement, therefore, becomes an opportunity either to strengthen or weaken confidence.

The collapse of several global crypto platforms, periodic payment service disruptions, and increasing incidents of digital fraud have made consumers more cautious than ever. Users now ask difficult questions before trusting any financial technology platform.

Is my money safe? Is my data protected? Can I rely on this platform during periods of market uncertainty? The answers are communicated not only through actions but through consistent, transparent and timely messaging.

Communication during crises often separates resilient brands from those that struggle to recover. Too many organisations still believe that crisis communication begins when a system fails or when negative stories trend online. In reality, crisis communication starts long before a crisis emerges. It begins with building credibility over time.

When service interruptions occur, as they inevitably will in any technology-driven business, customers rarely expect perfection. What they expect is honesty.

They want prompt acknowledgement, clear explanations, regular updates, and realistic timelines for resolution. Delayed responses or corporate jargon often inflict more reputational damage than the technical failure itself.

The same principle applies to regulatory communication. Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem continues to evolve under the guidance of regulators seeking to balance innovation with consumer protection.

Policy adjustments, licensing requirements, compliance directives, and foreign exchange reforms frequently affect operations.

Fintech companies must resist the temptation to hide behind legal language. Instead, they should translate regulatory developments into simple, customer-friendly information that explains what is changing, why it matters, and what customers need to do.

Equally important is internal communication. Employees are often the first ambassadors of any organisation.

During uncertain economic conditions, staff members also seek reassurance about business direction, leadership decisions, and organisational stability. When employees receive little information, rumours fill the vacuum. Companies that communicate openly with their teams are more likely to maintain morale, improve customer experience, and protect their reputation.

Another defining feature of the VUCA economy is the speed at which misinformation spreads. A single misleading social media post can trigger panic withdrawals, damage investor confidence, or create unnecessary anxiety among customers.

Fintech brands therefore require active reputation management, digital listening, and rapid response mechanisms. Waiting for mainstream media to pick up a story before responding is increasingly a costly mistake.

Beyond crisis management, communication should also educate. Financial literacy remains relatively low across many parts of Africa.

Many customers still struggle to understand digital payments, cross-border transactions, digital assets, savings products, or cybersecurity risks.

Fintech brands that invest in continuous customer education position themselves not merely as service providers but as trusted financial partners. Educational communication creates confidence, drives adoption, and builds long-term loyalty.

Leadership visibility also matters. In uncertain times, people trust people more than logos. Founders, chief executives, and senior executives should communicate regularly, not merely during product launches or fundraising announcements. Thought leadership, media engagements, stakeholder dialogues, and community participation help humanise brands and reinforce credibility.

Perhaps the greatest communication challenge for fintech companies is balancing optimism with realism. Marketing campaigns naturally celebrate innovation and growth. Yet credibility demands acknowledging challenges while demonstrating preparedness. Customers are increasingly sophisticated; they recognise exaggerated promises and quickly lose confidence when expectations are not met.

As competition intensifies across Africa’s digital financial services industry, product differentiation alone will become increasingly difficult. Features can be copied.

Pricing can be matched. Technology can be replicated. Trust, however, remains a durable competitive advantage, and trust is built through consistent communication.

The fintech brands that will thrive in this VUCA economy will not necessarily be those with the most sophisticated applications or the largest funding rounds.

They will be those who communicate with clarity, consistency, empathy, and transparency. In an era where confidence is currency, effective communication is no longer a support function; it is a strategic asset that can determine whether a fintech brand merely survives uncertainty or leads through it.

*John Kokome is the Corporate Communications Manager at FlashChange, a fintech platform redefining secure digital asset exchange. With experience across fintech, cryptocurrency, telecoms, and development communications in Africa. He currently leads strategic storytelling, reputation management, and stakeholder engagement initiatives at the company, focusing on building trust, transparency, and financial literacy in the digital assets space. John’s work sits at the intersection of policy, technology, and public perception, with a strong emphasis on Africa-first narratives and responsible innovation. He has contributed opinion pieces and thought leadership articles on governance, youth empowerment, branding, and Nigeria’s evolving digital economy.

The post Fintech Brands: Communicating Right in a VUCA Economy appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The integrated campaign, which spans television, radio, print, social media, out-of-home (OOH) and digital out-of-home (DOOH) platforms, celebrates the resilience, determination and potential as key drivers of progress across Nigeria.

Through relatable stories and inspiring narratives, the campaign reinforces Stanbic IBTC’s role as a trusted financial partner that helps clients and stakeholders achieve growth in all its forms.

At the heart of the campaign is a simple but powerful belief: growth is not reserved for a select few.

Whether it is starting a business, expanding an enterprise, building wealth, securing a family’s future or pursuing personal aspirations, every individual and organisation has the potential to achieve more with the right support.

Speaking on the campaign, Chuma Nwokocha, chief executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, said:

“At Stanbic IBTC, we are clear on our purpose: to support growth, open up opportunities, and stand by our clients at every stage of their journey. ‘You’re Built for Growth’ reflects who we are as a Group – a trusted partner you can rely on; a forward-looking institution creating new possibilities; and a committed partner helping individuals and businesses achieve lasting success.”

More than a marketing campaign, ‘You’re Built for Growth’ is a reaffirmation of Stanbic IBTC’s enduring commitment to creating value, building trust and enabling sustainable growth for its clients, communities and the economy.

The campaign’s flagship television commercial brings this message to life through compelling representations of ambition, perseverance and achievement, while complementary radio, print, digital and outdoor executions extend the message to audiences across the country.

Stanbic IBTC intends to continue demonstrating the importance of support for achieving real growth as the Group continues to empower Nigerians to pursue their goals with confidence.

Bridget Oyefeso-Odusami, head, Brand and Marketing, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, also expressed the meaning of growth as embodied in the company’s new campaign.

She said

“Growth means different things to different people. For some, it is building a business. For others, it is growing their savings; protecting what matters most; investing for the future or creating opportunities for future generations. Whatever that journey looks like, Stanbic IBTC remains committed to helping our clients achieve growth.”

With a heritage of supporting progress and enabling opportunity, Stanbic IBTC continues to provide comprehensive financial solutions that help individuals, businesses and institutions navigate an evolving world and build sustainable futures.

*Stanbic IBTC Holdings is a leading end-to-end financial services group in Nigeria, providing banking, pensions, asset management, stockbroking, trusteeship, insurance and investment banking solutions to individuals, businesses and institutions. The Group remains committed to driving inclusive growth, creating opportunities and helping clients achieve their long-term aspirations through innovative financial solutions and market-leading expertise.

The post ’You’re Built for Growth’: The Stanbic IBTC New Thematic Brand Campaign appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The update brings a range of editing features, including multilingual captions that users can customise and green-screen tools that allow creators to use images from their camera roll or other posts on X as backgrounds.

The company also redesigned the editing interface to make recording and editing videos easier within the app.

According to X’s Head of Product, Nikita Bier, the company wants to give creators better tools while rewarding those who publish original work.

“One of our biggest priorities is to give creators the tools to create original content [and] reward those creators,” Bier wrote in a post. “We have plenty more updates coming to the video editor in the coming weeks.”

He added that the goal is to build a “functional” video editor so videos on X can “finally be original content that doesn’t exist on other platforms.”

The update comes as video grows on the platform. Bier said posts containing videos now account for nearly half of all impressions on X, making video one of its biggest sources of engagement.

Even so, X still faces competition from platforms such as TikTok, Meta and YouTube, which already offer more established creator programmes, stronger monetisation options and wider audiences.

Bier also acknowledged that recycled content is a problem on X. He said many popular accounts share videos taken from other creators, sometimes years after the original clips first went viral.

Beyond copied content, the platform faces issues of spam and automated accounts. In April, Bier said X was identifying and suspending “208 bots per minute and growing.” He also revealed at the time that half of the company’s product team had been working on features designed to reduce spam.

Unlike some competing platforms, X does not yet provide creators with built-in tools to report stolen videos or claim ownership when their content is reposted. Meta allows creators to block copied Reels or add attribution links that can help them earn revenue, while YouTube offers systems to detect and remove unauthorised re-uploads.

X is not alone in dealing with the high volume of spam and bot-generated content online. Reddit recently said it is introducing new tools to tackle the rise in spam and automated posts, while Digg shut down its app earlier this year, saying it lacked the resources to deal with the problem.

The redesigned video editor and recorder are available first on the iOS version of X. Bier said support for Android will follow after work on rebuilding the app is completed.

The post X Unveils New Video Editing Tools to Encourage Original Creator Content appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, announced the decision in a statement issued on Tuesday after a high-level meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC).

According to the minister, the rapid growth of Nigeria’s digital economy has created areas where the responsibilities of regulators now overlap.

He said that although each agency has a clearly defined legal mandate, issues involving telecommunications, digital platforms, artificial intelligence, online safety and data governance now require a coordinated government approach.

Tijani said better coordination would provide legal certainty, encourage investment, support innovation, strengthen consumer confidence and improve Nigeria’s competitiveness as Africa’s leading digital economy.

He directed that the current regulatory position should remain in place while the harmonisation exercise continues.

“The existing regulatory status quo shall be maintained with respect to matters relating to Internet platforms, online intermediaries and other cross-cutting digital economy issues currently undergoing inter-agency policy harmonisation under the Ministry’s coordination.

“Relevant agencies are to defer the implementation or enforcement of any recently issued regulation, code, guideline, framework, directive or administrative requirement relating to internet platforms, online intermediaries or other cross-cutting digital economy matters.”

The minister clarified that the directive does not remove the statutory powers of the agencies. He said all existing regulations and directives that fall within their legal mandates will remain in force, provided they are consistent with the ministry’s policy direction.

As part of the exercise, the ministry will establish a Joint Technical Coordination Committee made up of representatives from the NCC, NITDA and NDPC.

The committee, led by the Office of the Minister, will coordinate technical discussions, consult industry players, civil society groups, academic institutions and other stakeholders, and prepare recommendations for a harmonised national policy and governance framework.

Tijani said the exercise is not intended to reduce the responsibilities of any regulator but to ensure government adopts a consistent approach to cross-cutting digital economy issues.

He added that the proposed framework will clearly define the responsibilities of each institution, reduce regulatory overlap, remove compliance uncertainty, strengthen investor confidence and promote innovation.

According to him, the framework will also support Nigeria’s ambition to become Africa’s leading digital economy and a globally competitive destination for digital investment.

The announcement came less than 24 hours after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had authorised an investigation into global technology companies and generative artificial intelligence platforms operating in Nigeria over allegations of anti-competitive practices and the use of news content belonging to Nigerian media organisations.

The FCCPC said the investigation will cover companies including Meta, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, X, formerly Twitter, and other generative AI platforms operating in the country.

The post FG Suspends New Digital Regulations as It Works on Unified Policy appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Despite having to consistently manage costs and resource constraints, South African businesses are facing growing pressure to expand their customer base while still delivering high-quality, consistent service.

At the same time, customers now demand immediacy, relevance, and effortless movement across every digital touchpoint.

Yet many organisations remain hamstrung by disjointed systems and manual processes that make it difficult to serve more customers without proportionally increasing cost and headcount.

Essentially, South African businesses face three core barriers to modern customer engagement. First, too many still confine users to a single communication channel, even as consumers expect to move freely between email, SMS, WhatsApp, and other rich digital platforms.

Second, cost pressures force growth to remain linear, as every revenue gain requires equivalent increases in headcount and operational spend. Third, infrastructure and cross‑channel reliability remain uneven, creating friction where consistency is critical.

AI‑driven customer engagement gives South African businesses a way to break this pattern – scaling to many more simultaneous interactions without scaling cost in the same way.

Scaling customer engagement

Artificial Intelligence (AI) helps organisations scale customer engagement by absorbing the high‑volume, repetitive work that clogs contact centres.

It can instantly resolve routine FAQs, deliver natural, personalised responses across campaigns, and handle thousands of conversations simultaneously – something human teams cannot match.

By taking this load off human agents, AI frees them to focus on complex, sensitive cases where human judgment matters.

The result is a contact centre that operates with greater capacity, better quality, and far more efficiency, without requiring headcount to grow at the same linear pace as demand.

The value extends beyond simply clearing bottlenecks in customer engagement. By handling the flood of routine queries instantly on the channels people already use, AI improves overall customer satisfaction, reduces friction and can even drive word‑of‑mouth growth as customers share positive experiences.

Improving operational efficiency

Beyond improving customer experience, AI boosts operational efficiency by reducing strain on contact centres and cutting the volume of tickets that reach human agents, freeing skilled staff to handle fewer cases at a much higher standard. Customers also receive faster, more accurate answers, which leads to quicker resolution times.

AI improves the experience by offering smarter choices. It can interpret intent and guide customers toward the most relevant next step, whether that is a pricing calculator, store appointment, product recommendation or even a gamified offer. Rather than functioning as a linear tool, AI proactively shapes the customer journey based on behaviour and context.

AI‑driven messaging tools like send‑time optimisation, channel recommendations, and destination scoring tailor outreach to each user’s behaviour, boosting conversion through small but compounding gains.

Guided conversational journeys then reduce drop‑off by keeping customers engaged through multiple steps, increasing the likelihood of actions such as purchases or loyalty redemptions.

Powering conversational commerce

In South Africa’s mobile‑first market, AI powers conversational commerce by predicting preferences and triggering the right next step inside chat channels.

The result is smarter targeting, fewer abandoned sessions, and higher‑value engagement at scale. For South African businesses dealing with high inbound volumes on WhatsApp and other chat apps, this means they can serve many more customers in parallel without adding agents at the same rate.

Platforms like Infobip’s AgentOS bring AI capabilities, customer data, channels, and conversational intelligence together in a single operating layer. It maintains memory across interactions, ensuring customers never have to repeat themselves, and learns individual and cohort behaviours to tailor each journey.

Crucially, it orchestrates the full end‑to‑end experience, enabling AI agents to execute tasks, trigger next steps, adapt to campaigns or pricing updates, and respond consistently across every touchpoint.

In a market where journeys are often fragmented, AgentOS centralises conversational data and channel access in one place, allowing businesses to deliver seamless, continuous, context‑rich experiences across WhatsApp, email, web, voice and more, turning disconnected interactions into a unified customer journey.

Looking ahead: agentic AI becomes standard

Ultimately, agentic AI will become standard in customer journeys in the form of systems that not only answer questions but actively guide users through next steps and complete tasks on their behalf.

First‑party data will also play a much bigger role, with businesses shifting from retrospective analysis to real‑time listening and optimisation. Instead of launching a campaign and hoping for the best, South African companies will iterate live, adjusting journeys and messaging as behaviour unfolds.

AI will also move beyond support into revenue generation. With budgets tight, the next frontier is commercially driven agents that act as frontline salespeople, nudging purchases, increasing basket size and driving conversions directly inside conversational channels like WhatsApp. That is the biggest opportunity for South African businesses: AI that not only solves problems but actively grows the bottom line.

The post AI-driven Customer Engagement Can Help Local Organisations Scale and Serve More Customers Efficiently appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The protest follows a wage agreement secured by workers in Samsung’s chip division through another union. Under that deal, semiconductor employees stand to receive far larger bonuses than staff in the consumer electronics business.

According to Yonhap News Agency, workers in Samsung’s non-chip division will receive treasury shares worth 6 million won (about $3,900) for 2026. By contrast, employees in the semiconductor division could receive bonuses of up to 600 million won.

The planned demonstration will take place near Samsung’s headquarters in Suwon. Yonhap reported that between 2,000 and 3,000 workers are expected to join the rally.

The protest is being organised by the company’s largest union representing workers in its mobile and consumer electronics division. The union has about 28,000 members.

Union members argue that the company’s strong financial performance should benefit employees across the business rather than those in the semiconductor division alone.

Before Samsung workers announced the rally, the union tried to stop the bonus vote through the courts but was unsuccessful.

Samsung is expected to release its April-to-June earnings estimate on Tuesday. Analysts expect the company to report that its operating profit rose about 18-fold from the same period last year, largely driven by its semiconductor business.

The post Samsung Consumer Electronics Workers Plan July 16 Rally Over Bonus Gap appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

This explains why competition among advertising platforms isn’t limited to audience size anymore, but also to who can help brands produce campaigns that influence buying decisions.

That is the backdrop to LinkedIn’s launch of BrandWorks, a new in-house creative and marketing team built to help advertisers develop stronger campaigns.

At first, it looks like another agency-style service, but when you look closer, you see something much bigger.

For years, LinkedIn has competed by offering access to professionals and business decision-makers, but with BrandWorks, it is moving further up the value chain.

It is going beyond simply selling advertising space to now helping brands shape the ideas, messages and creative work that appear on its platform.

That naturally leads us to a question.

Can BrandWorks challenge Meta Creative Shop, one of the most established creative advisory teams in digital advertising?

The short answer is yes, but only within the B2B market. Beyond that, the two businesses are competing from very different positions.

Advertising has changed dramatically over the past few years.

Creating an advert is not the biggest challenge. Brands can produce images, videos and marketing materials much faster than before. The difficult part is making campaigns that capture attention, build trust and deliver measurable business results.

That has made creative strategy more valuable than creative production itself.

Both LinkedIn BrandWorks and Meta Creative Shop exist to solve that problem. They help advertisers create campaigns that perform better on their respective platforms.

The similarity ends there.

While Meta focuses on helping brands reach billions of consumers across multiple social platforms, LinkedIn is concentrating on businesses selling to other businesses.

Understanding that difference is essential before deciding which platform provides the stronger proposition.

What is LinkedIn BrandWorks?

BrandWorks is not a new advertising platform, nor is it another software product.

It is a specialist team of marketing strategists, creative experts and campaign advisers that works directly with advertisers to improve campaign performance.

LinkedIn launched the initiative internally in March 2026 before officially unveiling it in June. Since then, the team has expanded by about 60%, recruiting talent from companies including Meta, TikTok and X.

LinkedIn expects BrandWorks to reach an annualised revenue run rate of $100 million in its next financial year.

The service goes well beyond designing adverts, helping businesses develop campaign strategy, refine messaging, create content, work with professional creators, execute event marketing and improve advertising performance throughout a campaign.

Its client list already includes major enterprise companies such as SAP, IBM, ServiceNow and Webflow.

One of its biggest strengths is its connection to Top Voices 360, a programme that matches brands with respected LinkedIn creators for sponsored content. Between May 2025 and May 2026, the programme generated more than $20 million in revenue.

What is Meta Creative Shop?

Meta Creative Shop has operated for years as Meta’s strategic creative consultancy for advertisers using Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads.

Unlike a traditional advertising agency, it works with brands to improve campaign performance through platform-specific creative advice.

Its teams help advertisers build campaigns around consumer behaviour, optimise creative assets for Reels and short-form video, test different advertising formats and improve performance using Meta’s measurement tools.

The better an advert performs, the more likely advertisers are to continue investing in Meta’s platforms. That is the basis of its objective.

Creative Shop therefore sits at the centre of Meta’s advertising ecosystem rather than operating as a standalone business.

LinkedIn BrandWorks versus Meta Creative Shop

Although both services provide creative support, their priorities differ significantly.

LinkedIn focuses almost entirely on B2B marketing.

Its customers are enterprise software companies, financial institutions, consulting firms, technology vendors and organisations selling high-value products to businesses.

Meta serves almost every industry imaginable.

Retailers, entertainment companies, restaurants, travel brands, gaming companies, app developers and direct-to-consumer businesses all rely on Meta’s advertising ecosystem.

The difference becomes even more obvious when looking at audience data.

LinkedIn’s greatest advantage is professional identity.

Advertisers can target chief executives, procurement leaders, finance directors, human resources executives and technology decision-makers with remarkable precision.

Meta, on the other hand, understands consumer interests, browsing habits, purchase behaviour and entertainment preferences across an enormous global audience.

That makes each platform effective for different reasons.

LinkedIn helps brands reach people because of their professional role.

Meta helps brands reach people because of their personal interests and behaviours.

The strategy behind BrandWorks

This is where BrandWorks becomes more interesting. LinkedIn did not launch the service simply because Meta already had Creative Shop.

It launched BrandWorks because the platform itself is changing.

Video is becoming one of LinkedIn’s fastest-growing content formats, particularly among Millennials and Gen Z professionals. According to the company, video posts from chief executives have increased by 68% over the past two years.

That trend is changing how professionals consume business content.

Instead of relying solely on written thought leadership, executives are communicating more through video.

LinkedIn wants advertisers to participate in that shift.

Its BrandLink programme allows advertisers to place campaigns alongside premium video content, and the company expects BrandLink revenue to nearly triple during the current financial year.

BrandWorks fits naturally into that strategy.

Rather than leaving advertisers to develop campaigns on their own, LinkedIn wants to guide the creative process from planning through execution.

It is a move designed to increase campaign quality while encouraging brands to invest more heavily in LinkedIn’s growing video ecosystem.

Where each platform is chief 

LinkedIn BrandWorks has several strengths.

It has access to verified professional data, deep relationships with enterprise marketers and an audience made up of business decision-makers. That makes it particularly valuable for companies with long sales cycles and complex purchasing decisions.

Its weakness is scale.

LinkedIn is much smaller than Meta in advertising reach and overall advertiser volume.

Meta Creative Shop enjoys the opposite advantage.

Its platforms reach billions of users, giving advertisers unmatched consumer scale.

Meta also benefits from years of creative testing across countless industries, allowing advertisers to refine campaigns using enormous volumes of behavioural data.

Its challenge is relevance in highly specialised B2B marketing.

A viral consumer campaign does not necessarily persuade a chief information officer to purchase enterprise software.

That is where LinkedIn’s professional environment creates a competitive edge.

Can BrandWorks really challenge Meta?

It depends on how success is measured. If the benchmark is advertising scale, Meta is well ahead. Its ecosystem, advertiser base and consumer reach are vastly larger.

However, if the benchmark is premium B2B creative services, LinkedIn has a genuine opportunity. The company is not working to become another Meta.

Instead, it is building a specialised business around enterprise marketing, professional creators and business-focused storytelling.

That strategy makes sense because LinkedIn already owns something Meta cannot easily replicate, a network built around careers, industries and verified professional relationships.

BrandWorks strengthens that advantage by adding strategic creative expertise to an audience that many enterprise marketers already consider indispensable.

Verdict

LinkedIn BrandWorks should not be viewed as an attempt to copy Meta Creative Shop.

It is a calculated effort to strengthen LinkedIn’s position within B2B advertising.

Meta will almost certainly remain the preferred destination for brands seeking mass consumer reach.

LinkedIn, however, is looking to become the preferred partner for organisations targeting executives, business buyers and enterprise decision-makers.

The post Can LinkedIn BrandWorks Challenge Meta Creative Shop in B2B Advertising? appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.