The explosion in vertical video is creating both opportunities and challenges for the Story format. Stories are evolving quickly on Instagram and remain a top venue for influencer activations. But Twitter’s decision to kill off Fleets shows they aren’t popular on all platforms.

In its current limited scope, creators will be rewarded solely based on building worlds that attract the most time spent, which gives an insight into Meta’s current metaverse priorities. Creator goals are all but certain to evolve as the platform does. The bonus program, currently only available in the US, expands on the $10 million Horizon Creators Fund introduced last October.

This enhancement will allow businesses to set up online stores that customers can access on both Facebook and Instagram. The company also introduced a similar ecommerce push on Instagram. Instagram Shops is currently available in 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Trends for Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. In tandem with the revisions to the overall social network time spent forecast, we have increased our forecasts for Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, the three social properties for which we provide breakouts.

Here’s how marketers can navigate Q3 2021’s product, commerce, and monetization changes on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Twitter.

Consumers’ increased time spent on key social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, coupled with their use of social media to seek out new products and brands, has continued to attract advertisers’ attention and ad dollars. In 2021, Latin America will lead the world with the highest percentage of internet users who use social networks regularly at 87.6%.

The study also found that average time spent on TikTok among UK adults who used the app climbed to 22 minutes per day in August, the same time spent on both Facebook and Messenger that month by respondents who used those apps. In September, time spent on TikTok fell back to 20 minutes, versus 21 minutes for Facebook and Messenger.

Time spent on Instagram and Snapchat will rise to 26.7 minutes and 26.6 minutes in 2020, respectively. (Note: We don’t forecast daily time spent on Twitter.). Navigating Social Media During the 2020 Election Cycle. Even though political content and advertising are creating a highly charged environment in social media, most marketers are expecting to stay active there this year.

And it’s not just Facebook and Instagram that are feeling the heat: An August report from App Annie shows that time spent with TikTok on Android devices in the US was higher than time spent on YouTube during every month from August 2020 to June 2021.

Time spent each day with desktops, laptops, and tablets remained considerably higher than time spent with mobile devices, averaging 3:25 and 2:19, respectively. Daily PC time grew more than mobile time year over year; the opposite was true in 2020.

Still, with Facebook’s immense reach—we estimate that 63.4% of US adults will be users this year—it racks up more time spent across the adult population than Instagram and Snapchat combined. The latter two have been growing, but from a smaller base.

Increases in time spent on prominent platforms and a growing appetite for social commerce will only encourage companies to ramp up social media investments.

TikTok's success has renewed social platforms' interest in algorithms: Instagram, Snap, YouTube, and Twitter have all begun implementing algorithmically-recommended content over the past year.

Time Spent. In April, we released our updated forecast for US time spent with social networks. Thanks to increased engagement through features like Instagram Live and Stories, Instagram will receive a substantial boost in time spent this year. We estimate US adult users will spend an average of 30 minutes per day on the network in 2020, up from 26 minutes in our previous forecast.

By comparison, US visitors to Instagram spent an average of 319.5 minutes (roughly 5 hours) on the app and websites combined in March. What’s driving TikTok’s recent increases in visitors and time spent? There are three factors:. Teens and young adults spending more time at home.

Instagram Grows Its Share of Facebook Ad Revenues. Instagram continues to grow faster than core Facebook. This year, Instagram will account for over half—52.6%—of Facebook’s total US net ad revenues. Its share will increase to 60.9% by 2023. Worldwide, core Facebook still accounts for most of Facebook’s total revenues, though it’s still losing share to Instagram.

Meta, for example, has pivoted sharply to make Reels the centerpiece of Facebook and Instagram. It’s made quite a few strategic moves to that end:. In late February, Meta rolled out Reels globally. Instagram also announced it would no longer support in-stream video ads, instead encouraging creators to monetize using Reels.

The time spent viewing Stories is one factor behind the steady rise in time spent on Instagram overall. US users will spend 29.9 minutes per day on the app this year, up from 22.3 minutes in 2016, according to our April 2020 forecast. Instagram launched Stories in August 2016.

That’s a big part of our recent message—inspire people to give the gift of exploration or spend time outdoors. A lot of our athletes are actually sharing pledges and we have some fun activation on social, including Instagram and TikTok. We’re also spending a lot of time making sure that we can be as appropriate and geo-specific with consumers so we can offer the right solution at the right time.

We expect time spent with mobile apps to stay above pre-pandemic levels in 2021 as people continue to spend more time on mobile devices and within apps. Read More:. Apple and Google are embroiled in legal battles as app store spending smashes previous records. Facebook is beginning the integration of Instagram direct messaging and Messenger.

Our inaugural forecast for time spent with TikTok shows that among the five platforms we track, it is one of two for which daily time spent by US adults will grow in 2021. And while its usage among total US adults is still lower than that of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, TikTok is already ahead of Twitter by this metric.

Instagram: In June, Instagram announced that messaging would be one of its four focus areas for 2021. (Instagram has had its Instagram Direct feature since 2013, through which users can chat, react to Stories, and send photos or videos privately.). Facebook: In September 2020, Facebook connected Instagram Direct with Messenger.