We expect US social commerce sales to rise by 35.8% in 2021 to $36.62 billion. That’s only a slight deceleration in growth from 2020, when sales surged by 38.9% thanks to the pandemic-driven boom in ecommerce, increased social media consumption, and brands continuing to leverage these platforms to sell directly to consumers.

Internet memes are not a new phenomenon, but the events of 2020 have spurred their consumption. Despite their popularity among social media users, marketing with memes can still be a risky business for brands.

Over 80% said firms and brands should donate money or products to public organizations and institutions, produce ad campaigns and messages that are positive, and increase those that help consumption recover.

The social and ecommerce landscapes in the US are far more fragmented than those in China, and consumer behavior and attitudes toward digital shopping, social media consumption, online privacy, and payments are different as well.”.

That’s only a slight deceleration in growth from social commerce’s blowout 2020, when sales surged by 38.9%, thanks mainly to the pandemic-driven boom in ecommerce and increased social media consumption. In 2022, the growth rate will dip back down to pre-pandemic levels, but sales are still rising from an elevated base.

That’s only a slight deceleration in growth from 2020, when sales surged by 38.9% thanks to the pandemic-driven boom in ecommerce, increased social media consumption, and brands continuing to leverage these platforms to sell directly to consumers. In 2022, the growth rate will dip back down to pre-pandemic levels and slowly decelerate through 2025.

Social Media. Consumers are wary of ads they see on social media platforms. Some of that distrust may be driven by concerns about harmful content on social platforms or the ways that consumers know or worry that these services collect and use their personal information to target them with ads.

Social media time spiked 15.1% among US users in 2020, but it won’t hold onto all those gains. Among social network users, time spent with social media will decline by 2.0% this year. Growth will stay mostly flat through 2023 as people gradually resume in-person socializing. Read Next.

Europe's video game market grew 22% YoY in 2020: The rise of social and mobile games is presenting opportunities for marketers to reach gaming audiences.

But for now, broadly speaking, the interest in using social media still seems high in 2021. In January-February 2021 research by The Harris Poll on behalf of Sprout Social, a provider of social media management software, 54% of US adults who used at least one social media platform said they had increased their social media usage compared with a year ago.

Social media time in browsers also increased to 14.3 minutes in 2020. We initially thought these gains would be temporary, but in our latest estimate, we expect social media apps to continue to gain time in the next few years; for example, they’ll gain another 1.6 minutes, on average, among US adults in 2021. The vast majority of time spent on social media is in mobile apps.

Social media is ideal for digital multitaskers, who often use such platforms while consuming other forms of media. Social media time got a bump from the pandemic that will persist this year and beyond. Facebook and Instagram claim the most users and time spent in Canada, but emerging platforms indicate a shift may come in the years ahead. Social Media Minutes Continue to Inch Upward.

The only major deviation is the spike in digital video consumption. Adults in South Korea increased their time spent with digital video by 10.9% last year, and we project 9.3% growth this year and 9.1% growth next year. The amount of time that adults devote to watching digital videos each day will increase from 1:16 in 2019 to 1:41 in 2022.

Social media even became a serious competitor for TV time among internet users in France.

In 2020, digital video ad spending exceeded TV ad outlays for the first time in Canada. Digital video gained the most momentum of any format amid the pandemic last year, growing by 10.0% year over year (YoY). This includes both in-stream video formats (e.g., YouTube ads) and those outstream (ads appearing in social media feeds).

In North America, 35% of internet users ages 16 and older said they used social media mainly to find funny or entertaining content, according to Q3 2020 research by GlobalWebIndex. Among Gen Z respondents worldwide (ages 16 to 23 last year), 45% said they used social media for this purpose, making it the No. 1 reason this generation uses social media.

“As people were encouraged to stay at home, the growth of ad-supported video on CTV greatly accelerated, with YouTube consumption accounting for a major part of this,” said Ross Nicol, vice president of EMEA at video ad platform Zefr.

This report reviews our final 2020 numbers and new 2021 forecast for US time spent with media, highlighting pre- and post-pandemic estimates and expectations. Special attention is paid to TV, connected TV, OTT, digital audio, and social media.

Lack of trust also inhibited direct checkout—42.3% said they didn’t trust social media platforms with their payment information; 36.2% said they didn’t want to provide social media companies with more personal information like shopping history; and 34.4% said they don’t trust social media platforms as an intermediary should customer service support be needed.