TikTok is now the third-largest worldwide social network, according to our inaugural forecast. It will have 60% more users than Snapchat and twice as many as Twitter this year.

Twitter had just 229 million monetizable daily active users worldwide in Q1 2022, the company reported. It’ll have 368.1 million monthly users worldwide in 2022, and just over 20 million more in 2026, per our forecast. In the US, Twitter’s largest market, we expect monthly users to decline this year. Musk also has super app ambitions.

At the time of this writing, videos with the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt have garnered 10.2 billion global views and counting. For context, we expect 755.0 million people worldwide to use TikTok in 2022, so that’s as if every user viewed the hashtag about 13 times.

His chief lieutenants, including Bosworth, Olivan, and recently elevated president for global affairs, Nick Clegg, have their work cut out for them.

Watch the on-demand replay of our webinar, The Era of Uncertainty, as our analysts address key questions about the rapidly shifting landscape for social media, retail and ecommerce, and financial services.

While Twitter glides downward in US, user numbers worldwide are still rising and will grow 1.5% to 368.1 million users worldwide this year. The fastest growth in Twitter users is concentrated in Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

Elon Musk isn’t trying to calm Twitter advertisers: The billionaire may be taking over as interim CEO once the deal closes, which is raising buyers’ anxiety.

Meta’s global headcount was 77,805 at the end of Q1, up 28% from a year earlier. Roughly 17,000 employees belong to the Reality Labs unit. That means about 22% of the company is responsible for about 2.5% of its revenue—an untenable ratio. Meta needs to focus on righting the ship in its core operations before further extending itself in business lines that may take years to provide substantial returns.

On Monday, Twitter accepted a bid from Elon Musk to buy the platform for about $44 billion, putting the world's richest man in the driver's seat of one of the world's biggest social media apps.

The battle with established mobile app stores is brewing on a global level, as Japan, South Korea, and the EU crack down on monopolistic app store controls. Read more. 3. Meta has brick-and-mortar stores in store.

How should businesses view these global trends and events? How are behaviors and spending changing? In this report, Insider Intelligence analysts weigh in on the questions they’re being asked by both clients and the media about the shifting landscape in key areas like digital advertising, retail and ecommerce, and financial services.