TikTok will beat Facebook in time spent in 2025, with US adults spending over 5.19 billion total minutes per day on the platform, while they will spend a total of 5.02 billion total minutes per day on Facebook, according to our forecast.

Key stat: About 98% of creators use Instagram feed posts, Instagram Stories, and Instagram Reels, putting the platform above TikTok, Facebook, and other popular social networks for creator use, according to Mavrck.

TikTok’s addictive videos add up to a huge amount of time spent on the platform. It’s already the No. 2 social app in daily minutes and will top the list by 2025.

Holiday retail sales will grow 4.5% to reach $1.317 trillion this year, according to our forecast. Retailers who want to carve out a share of that spend will need strong promotional strategies and a seamless digital-physical experience. It’s also not a bad idea to have a plan ready for when the returns start rolling in.

Daily social network time is reaching a plateau, as the explosive growth in social video is approaching a saturation point. Even growth in time spent with TikTok is slowing, a sign that there’s a limit to how much social video people want to consume daily.

By 2027, there will be a combined 135.5 million Gen Z and millennial social network users in the US, over half of total US social network users, according to our forecast.

Our first-ever marketing and retail media survey explores the latest trends unfolding in Latin America, how the regional landscape will evolve, and the broader implications for ad buyers’ and retailers’ go-to-market strategies.

Gen Z’s entry into adulthood will be the main source of growth in US social media users over the next five years. While there are some parallels with millennials, this is a generation that has long been immersed in social media and has come up with its own rules to navigate it. They are self-aware, quick to adapt, and ready to push back on the standards set by their predecessors.

OOH keeps gaining ad spending dollars, but its share of media budgets remains below pre-pandemic levels.

What were the three biggest ad-related takeaways from Meta’s stellar Q2 2023 earnings report? Reels’ revenues, AI ad products, and a return to ad growth in Europe.

Meta accounts for 19.5% of US digital ad spend, despite US adults spending only 7.6% of their time with digital media on the platform, according to our forecasts.

Meta is one of the two most successful ad publishers in history (along with its duopoly rival, Google), but its ad dominance does not come in tandem with an equally dominant hold over consumers’ time. In fact, Meta’s share of ad revenues is surprisingly out of step with how much time people actually spend on its platforms, particularly when compared with competitors like YouTube and TikTok

What’s happening? Apple announced in June that iOS 17 would provide “even greater protections against trackers,” in a move that will affect links shared from Mail, Messages, and in Safari’s private browsing mode.

The greatest amount of growth will come from Gen Zers as they enter adulthood, but millennials are still a force to be reckoned with due to the sheer size of their user base.

Most consumers use online marketplaces to find products, but the number who are browsing in-store or on social media is growing. Retailer websites are where customers go for product research. And when it comes to purchasing, price and delivery options are the most important factors.

With 13.4% YoY user growth in 2023, Snapchat will briefly overtake TikTok (12.7%) as the fastest-growing social media platform worldwide, according to our forecast. TikTok will regain the title come 2024.

Social media is the most effective B2B channel for driving revenues in 2023, according to 60% of US B2B marketers, per Wpromote and Ascend2.

Threads has staying power, but Meta must ensure that the novelty and intrigue don’t wear off before the network effects take hold. It’s already a formidable rival to Twitter, but it’s not a replacement, and Threads must find its identity outside of Instagram to become a viable platform for users and advertisers.

This first-of-its-kind report compares and contrasts our US ad spending forecast with our US time spent with media forecast. It identifies unexpected incongruities between how marketers are spending ad dollars and where consumers are spending their time.

Threads turns one week old today, and the platform already has 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing platform ever. Instagram’s new venture looks just like Twitter but feels kind of like Facebook, and its first few days have been a wild west for marketers. Here’s what marketers should consider in their Threads strategy.