A bi-weekly summary of the most exciting recent news in marketing technology and trends. If you’re trying to keep up, consider this your one-stop shop.

• Spotify is going gangbusters on podcasting. The streaming platform developed by Swedish company Spotify AB has announced plans to purchase the narrative podcasting company Gimlet Media for US $230 million as well as Anchor, a platform for creating and distributing podcasts. Spotify’s expansion is fueled by a purchasing budget up to US $500 million year, according to reporting by Yahoo Finance.

• The South American dairy company Conaprole has announced it’s the first business in Uruguay to launch a marketing campaign on Snapchat. A campaign to promote Yoprole yogurt product Banatilla on Snapchat targeted youths between the ages of 13 and 20. Snapchat offers the dairy products company the opportunity to build brand recognition among younger consumers, according to Alejandra Miranda, director of the Snapchat initiative.

• Advertising technology giant Taptica has announced its intention to create a new, more powerful and independent video advertising company with the acquisition of RhythmOne. The programmatic video capabilities of RhythmOne, plus its expertise in connected-TV devices will be combined with Taptica’s subsidiary company Tremor Video DSP which specializes in TV retargeting.

• San Francisco-based mobile and marketing analytics leader AppsFlyer predicts that investment in mobile apps will grow 65% worldwide by 2020. Their growth forecast foresees a 34% annual increase in spending on mobile apps each year.

• A survey of 501 marketing and branding decision-makers by Bynder reveals marketers struggle most with deciding which technologies to invest in. Marketers also reported relying more on social media while they said they struggle with the threat of algorithm changes to online brand engagement.

• Who’s more likely to click on your paid internet ads? A lot depends on your ad viewers’ ages and the search engine they use, according to an analysis by Clutch. Baby boomers (38%) were found to be the most prone to click on branded paid search ads, while Google users (36%) were more likely to click on paid search ads related to their searches. Viewers of ads on YouTube and Amazon (33%) were more likely to click if the ad featured a familiar brand.

• Marketers are in love with influencer marketing, according to survey results performed by SocialPubli.com and published in the 2019 Influencer Marketing Report. More than 90 percent of marketers surveyed said they were using influencers to promote their brands, and 60 percent said they expect to increase spending on influencers this year.