UK-based neobank Revolut has achieved two new steps in its global growth plan: acquiring a Cyprus crypto license, which allows it to offer crypto services across Europe, and getting approval for its Mexican banking license. It ultimately intends to acquire a licensed bank in the US. Neobank “super apps” offer huge suites of financial products and services, including global transfers. If they reach the right segments, they could pull more customers away from smaller FIs—particularly Gen Zers (Revolut’s focus) and Latin American consumers (Nubank’s core market).

TikTok’s 2024 revenues in the UK, Europe, and Latin America surged 38% to $6.3 billion, more than doubling 2022 levels, per filings cited by Forbes. The growth underscores TikTok’s strength outside the US, where a divest-or-ban standoff continues. Yet regulatory scrutiny in Europe looms large, with over $1 billion reserved for fines, ongoing probes across multiple countries, and potential penalties under the EU’s Digital Services Act. TikTok’s UK penetration tops 32%, with ad revenues projected to triple by 2027. Still, layoffs in trust and safety roles and a pivot to AI moderation could test regulators and user trust.

The news: Western Union will acquire International Money Express (Intermex) in a deal with a total equity and enterprise value of $500 million, per a press release. Our take: Increasing its retail footprint in the US positions can help Western Union capture more remittance outflow from the US, which we forecast to hit $92.58 billion this year.

Many retailers in Latin America like Mercado Libre, Rappi, and even Walmart function not only as commerce players, but as financial institutions as well. As a result, commerce media in Latin America is charting a different course than it has in the US, one that could result in unique opportunities for companies with access not only to shopper habits, but to financial data as well.

Multi-industry players have the power to redefine the future of commerce media advertising. Unlike in the US, where retailers and FIs typically operate independently, many Latin American retailers act as financial services providers—offering credit lines, digital wallets, and other banking products to unbanked and underbanked consumers.

Over a third of adults in the region don’t have a bank account. Only the Middle East and Africa has a larger proportion of unbanked consumers, per 2021 World Bank data analyzed by BCG. And the unbanked population is unevenly distributed: Just 59% of low-income consumers and 40% of rural inhabitants in Latin America have access to a banking account, per a January 2023 Mastercard and Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) survey.

A series of major milestones are on tap for total media and digital media ad spending around the world in 2025, although growth will be uneven across countries and regions.

OTT video is popular whether it’s free or paid. Every global region and country we track is engaged with these platforms, some very deeply. But new viewers will be hard to find.

Mercado Libre is beating Amazon at its own game in Latin America: The former is expected to represent more than half of all retail media ad spending in the region, while the latter continues to lose share to local players in Brazil and Mexico.

In today’s episode, host Bill Fisher is joined by analysts Paul Briggs, Matteo Ceurvels, and Jasmine Enberg to discuss the pervasive nature of digital in political campaigning. How big is the disinformation problem? And are we in line for an existential AI crisis when it comes to political messaging?

Some are disproving the commonly held belief that they can’t reach profitability.

Advertisers and marketers can’t afford to waste budget, so we foresee a partial shift away from display ads and renewed emphasis on search—with one big exception, retail media.

There’s often a perception that markets in Asia developed digital offerings far faster than the US and Europe—that’s only partially true in retail.

Just five countries will produce double-digit growth rates for total media ad spending in 2023, and of these India will be the only large market to do so.

Despite significant headwinds, big names continue to join the crypto bandwagon, including most recently Mercado Libre in Latin America. Join our analyst Bill Fisher as he hosts researcher Paola Flores-Marquez and analyst Grace Broadbent to discuss the lay of the crypto land in global markets.

The last three months of the year used to be a make-or-break period for retailers, but consumers in Latin America are now spreading out their digital purchases over the entire year.

Retail media advertising poised to grow in Latin America: The region’s marketers and retailers are awakening to opportunities to help drive consumer purchases with media networks.

In Latin America, ad buys on ecommerce channels consist of lower-funnel actions like sponsored product ads. Although brands are shifting spending to more upper-funnel formats, such as sponsored display and video, these performance-driven formats will remain the cornerstone of marketers’ retail media strategies in the near term.

Increasing digitization among the 32 million US small businesses is changing the competitive landscape and forcing banks, acquirers, and fintechs to invest in next-generation features. These features range from payments and value-added services to outreach.