Every week on eMarketer’s “Behind the Numbers” podcast, we take a few minutes to discuss some of the most intriguing headlines of the past seven days. This week, we're chatting about misinformation and how digital platforms are seeking to slow it, Pinterest's plan to go public, and landmark shift in ad spending.

In the past few years, some key ecommerce players—including Amazon, China’s Alibaba, and eBay—have rolled out visual search tools that allow users to submit images as queries instead of text.

While the number of US marketers that use Pinterest continues to steadily rise, the platform is trying to increase advertisers’ interest by expanding its search products and diversifying its audience by adding more male users.

Social commerce has reinvented itself many times over but has yet to prove itself as a solid sales tactic. Next year, the version that has been evolving during 2018 could finally take hold.

Popular social networking app Weibo (Sina Weibo) will continue its double-digit growth this year in China, according to eMarketer’s first forecast on Weibo usage. This year, Weibo usage will grow more than 17% to 340.1 million people in China. By the end of 2018, 24.6% of China’s population will be a Weibo user.

This year, 77.4 million people in the US—or nearly a quarter of the population—will use Pinterest, a 7.0% increase from 2017, according to eMarketer estimates.

Based on consumer surveys, the holiday season is shaping up to be more mobile-driven and social media-influenced than in years past. According to PwC, the 2018 holiday shopping period is on track to be one of the strongest since 2005.

eMarketer expects the social network to generate more than $500 million in US ad revenues this year, a 43.8% change from last year.

Recent improvements in computer-vision technology have finally made this dream a reality, and the biggest technology companies, including Pinterest, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and eBay, now have visual search tools.

Visual search is evolving rapidly from a niche tool to a more broadly offered and used tool for finding information. This report looks at how consumers use visual search and how marketers should utilize it.

In the latest episode of "Behind the Numbers," eMarketer analysts Andrew Lipsman and Yory Wurmser chat with Pinterest's retail vertical lead, Amy Vener, about how retail partners are measuring attribution on the social platform and about its new visual search and discovery tools.

Pinterest launched visual search three years ago, and it now sees 600 million visual searches per month. eMarketer's Yory Wurmser spoke with Omar Seyal, head of discovery product at Pinterest, about what the platform has learned about consumer visual search behavior.

In the latest episode of "Behind the Numbers," we put Facebook to one side for a second and discuss the other social platforms. How has a dip in user growth affected Snap’s ad revenue potential? What’s behind Twitter’s rebound? And how much money does Pinterest make from digital advertising?

As mobile devices become dominant tools for media consumption and advertiser strategy, brands in Canada are assessing which mobile apps deliver the best paid opportunities.

Mobile retail apps are critical to succeed in today’s omnichannel commerce landscape, but many retailers are still behind the curve. This report provides an overview of the retail app market, successful tactics of the market leaders, and what retailers should do to get their mobile app strategies right.

Amy Vener, retail vertical strategy lead at Pinterest, explains how the company's visual search and discovery tools are changing the way consumers shop and buy.

All the social stats you need to know for 2018 and beyond. Bookmark this StatPack page to keep these key estimates handy throughout the year.