User trust in the major social platforms is down this year, according to our sixth annual benchmark survey, especially in the areas of privacy, safety, and ad relevance. Trust affects ad engagement, and in a year when ad revenue growth is slowing for many platforms, it’s imperative that they stem the declines.

We detail how YouTube, Search, and Fitbit are tackling health literacy and information as social determinants of health.

Reports that Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are abandoning some of their shopping features are not a reflection of the platforms’ overall commerce ambitions. But as social commerce buyer growth slows, brands should focus more on reengaging existing customers and less on direct buying capabilities like native checkout.

Last week, Twitter finally announced a “share” button for its Android app. The feature’s already standard in iOS, making Twitter really, really late to its own game. It’s just the latest example of a social media platform chasing revenues from competitors. Apps aren’t above copying off a classmate’s paper to get ahead.

On today's episode, we discuss Facebook's plan to be cool again, Amazon testing a TikTok-style feed, what to make of the price of Netflix with ads, WhatsApp's superpowers in India, TikTok and YouTube making TV their new home, an unpopular opinion about ad-free social media, the most livable cities in the world, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our director of reports editing Rahul Chadha and analysts Evelyn Mitchell and Max Willens.

TikTok and YouTube are taking short-form video to CTVs: Strong viewer growth is making TV screens the next battleground for digital video dominance.

The power of creators is alive and well—despite reports suggesting the opposite. Marketers are increasing, not cutting, their influencer spending, particularly on TikTok. But creator partnerships may not be right for every marketer, as challenges from brand safety to measurement persist.

Influencer marketing has a disclosure problem: The Crypto market in particular has seen top creators push what turned out to be scams, costing followers millions.

When it comes to online shopping, 61% of US consumers begin their product hunt on Amazon, close to half on a search engine like Google, and 32% on Walmart.com.

Among US companies investing in digital video advertising, the share that did so exclusively on YouTube increased from 47% in Q4 2021 to 60% in Q1 2022, for a total of roughly 9,300 companies in the US.

On today's episode, we discuss where young folks are searching instead of Google, what to make of the company's Q2 earnings, and the significance of YouTube's growth slamming on the brakes. "In Other News," we talk about the most interesting part of programmatic advertising and why Google is delaying the deprecation of third-party cookies again. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Evelyn Mitchell.

YouTube is the most trusted US platform for social commerce.

On today's episode, we discuss the most pressing questions related to Netflix: did its earnings present a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty picture, what to make of this new timeline for its ad-supported tier, and does the company have more Netflix-specific or industry-wide problems? "In Other News," we talk about Nielsen ONE's YouTube measurement capabilities and which streamers consumers are debating saying goodbye to next. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Ross Benes.

Google’s Q2 results are a mixed bag: Although expenses grew at a faster rate than revenue, its search advertising business could be stealing advertisers from social platforms like Meta.

Advertisers use a different strategy on YouTube than on other digital video platforms. In Q1 2022, more than 40% of US video ads on the Alphabet-owned platform were post-rolls, and almost 30% were mid-roll ads. On other video platforms, 97% played before video content.

On today's episode, we discuss Netflix choosing Microsoft to help with the streaming service's upcoming ad-supported tier, the need for a chief media officer, what to make of inflation still not slowing down, whether YouTube is the future of cable, whether customers will buy into in-car subscription services, an unpopular opinion about the term "influencer," what exactly a "black box" really is, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Dave Frankland, Evelyn Mitchell, and Max Willens.

The livestream shopping landscape has completely transformed in recent years. QVC, which saw 45% of the downloads among the top 10 US livestream shopping apps two years ago, accounted for just 10% in the first five months of this year. (Apps like YouTube and TikTok were excluded because ecommerce is a secondary feature of their platforms.)

Beyond just advertising, Alphabet’s tech touches nearly everything. This report looks at 23 of its most important business areas, examining their maturity, disruption of the market, leverage over partners, integration with other products, and five-year outlook.