Despite inflation continuing into the new year, we believe that influencer marketing will endure. Why? Trust may have a little something to do with it.

Q4 was another turbulent quarter for social media: Support for a US ban on TikTok grew; Elon Musk announced he would step down from Twitter once he finds a replacement; and Meta suffered its first-ever major round of layoffs. But there were still bright spots for marketers.

Social commerce sales will reach $107.17 billion by 2025: While Facebook and Instagram will still attract the most buyers, it’s TikTok that’s making the most aggressive moves.

In 2023, 58.5% of Meta’s $121.90 billion of ad revenues worldwide will come from Facebook, per our forecast. The remaining 41.5% will come from Instagram, whose ad revenues are growing faster than Facebook’s, which will decline in 2022. For the next two years, Instagram will continue to outpace Facebook by this measure.

Gen Zers aren’t watching appointment TV. They’re not even the biggest cohort of connected TV users. (That distinction goes to millennials.) Instead, Gen Z is watching short digital videos and looking for new ways to interact with friends. Here are five charts on what Gen Z’s media consumption looks like.

As the ad revenue shortfall deepens, social media’s legacy players face new competition for users, a complicated situation with creators, and a social commerce rewind.

US government intensifies stance against TikTok: A permanent ban from government devices could push the public sector to further remove TikTok from devices. But some fear the service is too big to fail.

Keeping tabs on shifting consumer habits is paramount for brands in Canada. In 2023, we expect more changes in how media is consumed and what advertisers can do to tap into these new channels.

“Attention must be earned in an instant.” That’s according to our analyst Paul Verna. “The dominant ad formats [on social media] are below 15 seconds and in some cases as low as 3 seconds.”

Social’s share of total digital ad spending will shrink every year through 2024 at an accelerated rate. We

Our outlook for social ad spending in 2022 has deteriorated significantly since March. This report breaks down what went wrong in the past nine months, and what’s ahead in the next two years.

Amazon is the latest company to copy TikTok: The retailer is adding a continuous, shoppable feed to its app to enhance product discovery and grow sales.

Last month, Atlantic writer Ian Bogost posed the incendiary question, “Is the age of social media ending?” No, according to our analysts. But it’s definitely changing, which presents an opportunity to reach younger consumers.

Meta succeeds against US regulators but takes a major blow in the EU: Meta insists that news isn’t part of its business model, but its pivot to Reels hits a major roadblock.

Musk loyalists put to the Twitter stress test: Bedrooms for Musk associates at Twitter’s headquarters, lawsuits, and failed content standards give competing social media platforms an opportunity to attract users.

We expect 2023 to usher in changes in ad spending, audience, and commerce that will create a new crop of digital leaders.

Next year, for the first time, more than half of US social network users will buy via social platforms.

Advertisers are ditching a tumultuous Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk’s erratic behavior, combined with an underwhelming (or downright concerning) earnings season for Big Tech.

On today's episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss the total market for US retail social commerce sales, whether Instagram is in trouble when it comes to social commerce, and what kind of a threat TikTok poses. Then for "Red-Hot Retail," our analysts give us four of their very specific—and potentially risky—predictions about the future of TikTok’s US retail strategy. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sky Canaves and Jasmine Enberg.