An incoming tide of ad revenue swelled the social media platform’s $10B valuation and funding raise of $700M. Here’s how our Fintech and eMarketer analysts say meme stocks helped.

Retail social commerce is already a multibillion dollar industry in the US, having earned $26.97 billion in sales in 2020. That figure will more than double by 2023, when we predict retail social commerce earnings will hit $56.17 billion.

Facebook is rethinking privacy: A recent interview suggests that the company knows it needs to retool how it targets ads to reflect a growing privacy-conscious segment of its users.

On today's episode, we discuss how travel is changing, how the overall Olympic ratings shook out, why your inbox is now a shopping mall, how brands are already marketing to Generation Alpha, Facebook's Ray-Ban smart glasses, how the office came to be, the limitless power of hugs, and more. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analysts at Insider Intelligence Jillian Ryan, Nicole Perrin, and Paul Verna.

YouTube’s on top and on the go

US retail mcommerce sales grew 41.4% during the pandemic year of 2020 and are set to double from this elevated base by 2025. This report looks at what’s driving this growth and how sellers should respond.

US influencer marketing spending will rise by 33.6% in 2021 to $3.69 billion. Our inaugural forecast shows that US marketers will allocate nearly $1 billion more to influencer marketing this year than they did in 2020, representing the strongest spending growth in the industry since 2019.

Amazon fined under GDPR: The tech giant was fined €746 million for using consumer shopping data for ad targeting without consent—which doesn’t bode well for other Big Tech companies that are facing privacy-related scrutiny.

On today's episode, we discuss Facebook's Q2 performance, whether Apple's iOS update has affected ad revenues, and what Facebook means exactly when it talks about its (and everybody else's) “metaverse” future. We then talk about the impact of Facebook Pay expanding to online retailers, whether Instagram Reels could come to Facebook's homepage, and some new privacy features for kids on Instagram. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Jasmine Enberg.

LinkedIn had a very strong 2020, during which its total ad revenues grew 31.3%, driven by its Marketing Solutions as B2Bs focused on targeting audiences working from home.

Display ads like banners and graphics, which have historically been less of a priority than search ads for B2B marketers, took up a greater share of US ad spending than ever before in 2020.

Facebook earnings: The company's Q2 earnings could shed light on the effects of Apple’s iOS 14.5 update, but it’s still on track to clear $100 billion in revenues by the end of the year.

While Facebook’s digital currency remains MIA, Twitter and Amazon are making their own headway in cryptos—all in a bid to simplify payments on their global platforms.

This quarter, we are adding TikTok to our social media update series, which analyzes key developments for marketers from the major social platforms.

Facebook’s CEO believes its hefty investment in AR and VR could make it a powerful player in the next stage of the internet. The proclamation comes amid rampant regulatory scrutiny and slowing user growth among Facebook’s core products.

The explosion in vertical video is creating both opportunities and challenges for the Story format. Stories are evolving quickly on Instagram and remain a top venue for influencer activations. But Twitter’s decision to kill off Fleets shows they aren’t popular on all platforms.

Stories are hardly a new social media format—they are nearly 8 years old on Snapchat and almost 5 on Instagram. But they are still heavily used for social media marketing, even as short-video platforms like TikTok have taken off.

Influencer marketing spending in the US is set to grow more than 30% this year and surpass a key milestone. According to our inaugural forecast on US influencer marketing spending, the category will exceed $3 billion in 2021 and will surpass $4 billion next year.

At Facebook, the social network is now a shopping network