For CMOs in the US, the biggest potential challenge to growth this year will be talent and labor issues, cited by 42.6% of those executives. The next biggest headwinds they anticipate are supply chain issues (29.6%) and inflation (24.5%). Two years into the pandemic, just 5.8% expect new coronavirus measures to hinder growth.

In 2021, social audio app Clubhouse registered a total of 6.7 million downloads in the US. About 42% of those downloads occurred during Q1 2021, when the app received extraordinary media buzz. But as established platforms created copycat features, Clubhouse’s downloads decreased.

Among executives worldwide, 72% believe the metaverse will have at least some positive impact on their organization. Some 13% expect this mixed-reality realm to redefine their industry, while 28% think it will enable new business practices and help them reach new customers. Another 28% anticipate the metaverse will have minimal or no positive effect on their company.

In March, just over half of email opens worldwide came from Apple devices using Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), a feature released in September 2021 that prevents email senders from receiving data on Mail app users’ device usage, among other information. About one-third of opens came from webmail, while the remaining slice was split fairly evenly between desktop and mobile.

Cash is on the decline everywhere, accounting for at most 44% of point-of-sale (POS) transaction value regionally and just 18% globally in 2021. Its share will drop to 10% worldwide by the end of 2025, with North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe leading the charge away from physical money.

Podcasts have Spotify seeing dollar signs. The company’s US podcast ad revenues will hit $191.9 million in 2022 and cross the $400 billion mark in 2024, with growth well into the double-digit percentages. The format will also make up an increasing share of Spotify’s overall ad revenues: 16.7% of its $1.15 billion in US ad revenues this year, before growing to 19.4% in 2024.

US spending on linear TV ads will peak this year at $68.35 billion, up from $65.66 billion in 2021. This figure will not surpass $68 billion again for the next four years, with TV ad spend dropping to $64.94 billion in 2026 as its share of total media ad spend decreases as well.

In 2022, US meal-kit subscription services will deliver $7.63 billion in digital sales to make up 22.8% of the country’s subscription ecommerce sales. The meal-kit subscription market has seen slowing growth since mushrooming by 85.0% in 2020, though its 17.0% increase this year is healthy nonetheless.

In 2021, more than three-quarters of the time that US adults spent listening to ad-supported audio went to AM/FM radio. Podcasts trailed way behind traditional radio, capturing just 11% of ad-supported listening, while Pandora, SiriusXM, and Spotify each accounted for less than 10%. AM/FM radio held a majority share across adult age groups and was the most listened-to ad-supported audio not only in the car (88%), but also in the home (72%) and workplace (68%).

TikTok will grow its net ad revenues in the US by an astounding 184.4% this year to hit $5.96 billion. The app’s ad revenues will settle into a double-digit growth trajectory starting next year and top $11 billion in 2024.

As of January 2022, 35% of people ages 12 and over in the US own a smart speaker, up just 2 percentage points from the year before. That’s following an increase of 6 percentage points year over year in 2021.

In 2022, 40.7% of China’s digital ad spending will go toward the ecommerce channel, for ads offered by retailers like Alibaba and JD.com. This eclipses the share in the US, where 14.5% of digital ad spending will flow to ecommerce channel ads sold by the likes of Amazon, Walmart, and eBay.

Dating apps Bumble and Hinge attracted more downloads worldwide in 2021 than the previous two years. Meanwhile, Tinder outpaced them both by at least 54 million downloads—albeit 8 million fewer downloads than its lead in 2020.

Nearly 2 in 5 augmented reality (AR) users in the US will shop with the technology this year, for a total of 35.0 million retail AR users. That base is up 18.8% from last year and will continue to grow at double-digit rates through 2024 as shoppers make use of virtual try-on and product visualization features.

Companies tempted to ride the blockchain wave may want to avoid dipping their toes into nonfungible tokens (NFTs) just yet. Among adults in Great Britain who’d heard of NFTs, 43% said they’d feel less favorable toward a company if it started offering them, and 32% said their opinion wouldn’t change either way. Only 3% would view a company more favorably if it offered the digital tokens.

Around the world, Facebook is the most popular social app for livestream purchases. Among internet users who had bought a product via a social media livestream, 57.8% did so on the blue app. Meanwhile, 45.8% have made a livestream purchase on Instagram, and just 15.8% have on TikTok.

Fragrances will see about $240 million in US ecommerce sales this year, following a massive 72.9% growth rate in 2021, when consumers returned to social activities but stuck with their pandemic-induced habit of shopping online.

The majority of US consumers are shouldering loan debt, with 61.1% holding one or more loan accounts with an outstanding balance. The most common types of accounts to have an outstanding balance are mortgages (33.3%) and auto loans (31.0%).

YouTube is the leading podcast platform among US adults who listen to 5 hours or more of these shows per week, with 55% tuning in there. Streaming audio platforms Spotify and Apple Podcasts take second and third place, respectively, while Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and Facebook round out the top five.

US food and beverage ecommerce sales will approach $80 billion in 2022, up 20.7% from nearly $65 billion last year. While the growth is impressive, it’s far slower than the 99.0% surge the category saw in 2020, when wary consumers pivoted to buying online at the onset of the pandemic.