Instagram is revamping Reels with a follower activity feed while Threads rolls out analytics and tests ads. The moves aim to deepen user engagement and maximize brand exposure.

Instagram is looking more and more like TikTok: The company is launching a video editing app, Edits, which is strikingly similar to TikTok’s CapCut.

The loss of TikTok in the US would cause a ripple effect across the media, marketing, and commerce landscape. Meta and YouTube stand to gain the most, but there is a long list of other winners—and losers.

A US TikTok ban may happen in the near future, but brands that sell on TikTok Shop shouldn’t abandon it until they have to.

TikTok’s ban is officially happening, but there are caveats: A few potential escape hatches exist, but the January 19 deadline remains.

Aimed at teens and active users, this move could enhance personalization, increase engagement, and boost Meta’s ad appeal.

Instagram integrates with Spotify: Users can now save songs from Reels directly to their Spotify library.

A third (33%) of US influencers believe that if TikTok is sold or banned in the US next year, Facebook Reels will become the next major player in short-form video, per August 2024 data by First Insight. Instagram Reels is close, at 32%.

Total media time is on a steady slide in the UK. By 2026, it will drop to below 10 hours per day, the lowest level in a decade. Digital media—particularly digital and social video—is picking up some of the slack, but it won’t halt the decline.

Canada ranks near the top of the list of countries for average daily time spent with media, with digital formats driving consumption to new levels.

Our user forecasts for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, and Pinterest in Canada highlight an expanding platform mix increasingly divided by age demographics.

Financial institutions that have relied on the platform to reach young consumers must come up with a Plan B—or face losing brand awareness.

Meta’s latest AI advertising rollout reveals a significant shift: Free, broad access to AI creative will help win favor with brands, but ethical quandaries are unresolved.

New AI advertising tools introduced by Meta: Updates are designed to boost Reels campaign performance with advanced creator filtering and dynamic product ads.

Social video is getting an additional boost in daily time spent this year. It’s mostly coming from a less expected place—Meta—even as TikTok continues to dominate in total time spent.

“What will happen next?” That’s the big question marketers have following the signing of a potential TikTok ban into law, according to Liz Cole, chief social officer at VML. While marketers don’t know if parent company ByteDance will sell TikTok, shut the platform down in the US, or find a way to fend off the legislation in court, they can prepare now for what’s to come.

US social media ad spending will ride the momentum platforms built in H2 2023 thanks to AI, social video advertising growth, and a fixation on bottom-funnel outcomes.

Instagram could be the biggest beneficiary of a TikTok ban: Our Industry KPI data found that Instagram has a comparable reach to TikTok among the largest accounts.

Here’s what a TikTok-less America would look like for marketers, users, and creators, based on our latest forecasts.

While TikTok’s fate is in limbo, the sharks circle round: Surveys show strong support for Reels if the app is banned, while China says it doesn’t support a forced sale.