The Brief – Wednesday 29 April: WPP and Spotify earnings, OpenAI ‘misses targets’, Under-16 social media restrictions and more

📱 Under-16s in the UK will face “some form of age or functionality restrictions” on social media, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said. The House of Lords has proposed a complete social media ban for children, but MPs have sought to first conclude the Government’s consultation with families and campaigners. (BBC)

📉 WPP reported Q1 revenue declined 6.6% year on year to £3.0bn, with like-for-like revenue declining 4.0%. The holding group called the performance “consistent with expectations and guidance” and cite ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East as a headwind. CEO Cindy Rose declined to join the company’s earnings call, opting to only lead the call after H1 and full year results. (WPP)

🤖 OpenAI has missed its own targets on revenue and user growth ahead of an anticipated IPO, raising concerns over how the tech giant will be able to support its massive investments in data centre infrastructure. CFO Sarah Friar has privately warned she is worried OpenAI might not be able to pay for future computing contracts if revenue doesn’t grow faster. (Wall Street Journal)

🎧 Spotify reported 14% year-on-year revenue growth to €4.5bn in Q1. Total monthly active users also increased 12% year on year to 761m. However, shares of Spotify fell over 14% after weaker-than-expected guidance. (Spotify)

🏢 Media entrepreneur Chris Kenna, who founded the Manchester-based startup Media Stream AI last year, has reportedly failed to pay employees and contractors and may have misled investors on the number of GPUs it purchased from Lenovo. Kenna’s stories about his military career have also been called into question. (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

👻 Snapchat users will be able to converse directly with AI agents representing branded Snaps that appear in their messages. (Adweek)

🎤 US President and First Lady Donald and Melania Trump have once again called for Disney to cancel Jimmy Kimmel’s late night talk show over jokes Kimmel made at their expense. Days before the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting, Kimmel had joked that Mrs Trump had a “glow like an expectant widow”, which he later clarified was a reference to the couple’s age difference and “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.” (Sky News)