Brands should react by optimizing content and user experience for a voice-first journey. NLP will continue to improve. As improvements are made to AI language models—like Google’s BERT or OpenAI’s GPT-3—voice assistants will feel more human, and users will be able to have more complex interactions with them.

Russia’s landing law, which took effect January 1, requires foreign websites, apps, or services with over 500,000 daily users to register with the government and open local offices, making them vulnerable to intimidation or coercion. Apple has reportedly complied with the law by opening an office in Moscow this month, per RepublicWorld.

That’s true among mobile internet users, too. In Western Europe, nearly 39% of mobile internet users will use Snapchat regularly in 2022; in Central and Eastern Europe, just 16.8% will do so. Snapchat is a particularly good choice for marketers in most of the Nordics, as penetration is higher there than anywhere else in Europe.

But ... an After Agents survey commissioned by Snapchat and Publicis Media among 4,000 consumers ages 13 to 49 in the US, UK, France, and Saudi Arabia found that 57% of respondents will increase AR usage post-pandemic.

We expect behaviors like click-and-collect usage will continue to grow, reaching $140.96 billion in sales by 2024. Retailers will continue to connect with consumers across the shopping journey: Social commerce sales will be up 35.8% to $36.62 billion this year, and about one in four digital buyers will use a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service.

The number of mobile messaging app users worldwide will rise by 6.1% in 2021, and new business features facilitate brand-consumer interactions.