#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt: Unlike Twitter, Meta has made social commerce a priority for its platforms going forward as privacy updates crimp its ad revenues. But it’s TikTok that’s really driving the social commerce trend forward—viral content that appears on the platform fuels consumption and influences product trends.

Consider how the leading social media platforms perform on the dimensions of ad relevance and ad experience. According to Business Insider Intelligence’s June 2020 “US Digital Trust Survey,” Instagram (4.72) and Pinterest (4.64) scored highest on a 1–5 scale on ad relevance. Pinterest also scored well on ad experience (4.70), just behind LinkedIn (4.80).

Meanwhile, shoppers are driving growth on Instagram and TikTok. TikTok: On its own, TikTok is driving growth numbers for social network use at large. Time spent reached 40 minutes per day in 2021. Video: With TikTok setting a standard for time spent with social networks, other platforms are leaning into videos as a main draw with the expectation that multimedia drives up engagement.

But solving those problems alone won’t make Twitter sticky enough to beat rivals like TikTok in its core business of advertising: The popular short video app will make more than Twitter and Snapchat combined in 2022. What’s next: At the same time, not everything that Musk considers ultimately comes to fruition, either due to his rapidly changing interests, delays, or other developments.

During a recent Insider Intelligence webinar about strategies for commerce success on TikTok, three questions rose to the top. Here, principal analysts Jasmine Enberg and Debbie Williamson weigh in on them.

TikTok could be the savior of the box office and travel counter: Pandemic-challenged industries have embraced the social media app in the hopes of fueling their recovery.

TikTok’s new marketing tools focus on customization and commerce: It’s taking steps to make advertisers feel comfortable on the platform and heavily push social commerce.

On today's episode, we discuss Twitter's major initiatives and figure out what the platform will look like after it reinvents itself. We then talk about Facebook's cost-per-thousand (CPM) recovery, TikTok's ecommerce efforts, and a recent study about COVID-19 news on Facebook. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Jasmine Enberg.

From the growth of TikTok and of social commerce to the challenges of brand safety and the cookieless future, 2021 will be another year of big stories for social media.

After a tumultuous year, the social platforms will close 2020 on a high note in terms of ad revenues and users—and with features that closely resemble each other.

On today's episode, we discuss what the most interesting areas of Amazon's business are, what longer videos mean for TikTok, why marketers should focus on Clubhouse and/or podcasts, why one company is bringing TV ads to console games, where Walmart beats Amazon, when we can expect to enjoy space tourism, and more. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer director of forecasting Cindy Liu, forecasting analyst Peter Vahle and analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

What this means: These moves come as Twitter needs to find ways to bring in more revenues, particularly as advertising is proving to be a challenge. According to our forecasts, Twitter will bring in $47.37 in ad revenues per US monthly active user in 2022; for Facebook, that figure will be 565% higher at $314.83.

How TikTok shopping would change the app: TikTok is testing a shopping tab, which would make ecommerce more prominent on the app, strengthen its performance marketing options, and maybe get marketers to stop seeing it as just an experimental platform.

We think TikTok will not end up being banned in the US. But even if we’re wrong, there are enough other venues for user-generated short videos that marketers now need to make this format a priority. Get comfortable with the ad opportunities. Ads on apps like TikTok are different from what marketers are used to on Facebook or Instagram.

TikTok has also made several advances in its ad business, including launching a self-serve ad portal and a marketing partner program with nearly 20 certified and approved TikTok partners.

TikTok Users. TikTok’s explosive popularity during the US lockdown period was well documented. Previously, we anticipated TikTok would have 45.4 million users in the US this year, but now we expect that figure to be 65.9 million, which amounts to 20.5 million unexpected new users.