Google’s Q2 results are a mixed bag: Although expenses grew at a faster rate than revenue, its search advertising business could be stealing advertisers from social platforms like Meta.

Big Tech pauses office expansion: The economic downturn has pushed beleaguered companies like Meta to rethink their strategies. Workers’ reluctance to return is another reason for companies to stall expansion plans.

On today's episode, we discuss why the new Wells Fargo credit card is significant and the short- and long-term challenges of credit card companies. "In Other News," we talk about what to make of the market value free fall of buy now, pay later giant Klarna and why Meta is ending the pilot for Novi, the company's digital wallet. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts David Morris and Jaime Toplin.

In Q2 2022, Meta’s Messenger attracted 52% of the top 10 US messaging apps’ daily active users, down 6 percentage points from the same quarter two years earlier. Discord increased its share by 7 percentage points over the same period, riding a pandemic surge that has not dropped off.

The layoff-hiring puzzle: In what seems like a paradox, scores of layoffs coincide with hiring growth. Tech moves away from broad expansion plans while still needing software innovation to stay afloat.

Our latest forecast shows that Facebook’s monthly user base in the US will plateau, rather than grow as previously expected. Following a peak of 179.7 million last year, the base will lose 2.1 million users by the end of 2024 and hold steady at 177.6 million through 2026.

It’s been eight months since Facebook rebranded to Meta, but as our analyst Jasmine Enberg notes, “there won’t be a magical moment when we all suddenly enter the metaverse.”

Shuttering Novi, the crypto wallet that was live for less than a year, could free up resources for a new digital wallet.

TikTok reconfigures its social commerce strategy: As western consumers fail to embrace livestream shopping en masse, the social media platform is forced to dial back expansion plans.

Meta’s going back to basics: The social giant is one of many major companies tasked with focusing on key priorities in the second half of the year.

On today's episode, we discuss how Twitter could reinvent itself to become a new social network model, what its current to-do list looks like, and whether it would make sense to can some of its more recent initiatives. "In Other News," we talk about what Sheryl Sandberg leaving Meta means for the company and the significance of a YouTube Shorts milestone. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

A new Frontier for startups: A handful of startups just got funding to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Using carbon as a raw material could help them reach market viability.

This year, US adults will spend 25.7% of their social media time on Facebook, down 9.6 percentage points from 2019. As Facebook’s share drops, TikTok’s will continue to grow. US adults will devote 16.7% of their social time to TikTok this year, up 12.2 percentage points from 2019.

In this report, we look at the most important updates among the leading social platforms in Q2 and how those changes will impact marketers.

This year, 4.0 million Gen Zers (born between 1997 and 2012) will become social network users, up 8.4% over 2021.

Big Tech post-Roe: As tech giants like Google respond to abortion rights loss, they face a quagmire of choices about strengthening digital privacy, censorship, and where to do business.

Cannes notebook: Social media platforms discussed new products, the metaverse, and creators at the June festival.

Ad industry’s spending winners: Google and Meta command a dominant share of the US digital ad market for now, but TikTok and Apple are among the companies that are muscling in.

Tech’s labor tug of war: Big Tech is raising pay and discouraging union efforts, but an increasing number of workers are banking on unions to give them a voice in negotiating working conditions and benefits.

Meta on the ropes: Meta shares have dropped, but metaverse adoption is expected to be a $13 trillion industry by 2030 as more players build competing immersive VR experiences.