This report explores the latest developments in the social media landscape, including the Facebook ad boycott and new monetization opportunities from the platforms, as well as our latest forecast for social network ad revenues.

Well into the pandemic, consumers still say they are spending more time with social media. Activities like live streaming, video chatting and gaming are drawing some of them in.

TikTok’s social commerce features are not as robust as Instagram's or Pinterest's, but the popular short-form video app has been slowly adding shopping ads while integrating creators along the way.

More time spent at home during the pandemic means more time being spent on social media. But not all social platforms are benefitting in the same way. In our latest forecast on time spent with media in the US, we expect adult social network users to log an average of 1 hour, 22 minutes (1:22) per day in 2020, up nearly 7 minutes over last year.

In Japan, both TV and digital time spent will accelerate more than expected in 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting semi-lockdowns. However, the postponement of the Summer Olympics will limit the increase.

With in-person interactions ground to a halt, consumers in countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic are turning to live video to stay connected.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst Jasmine Enberg and forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom discuss Twitter and Snapchat's earnings and what to make of the mixed messages. They then talk about the best times to post on social, whether people think social content is getting better or worse and a new video ad format from Snapchat.

When US advertisers pulled back spending dramatically in March, one of the earliest noticeable effects on the display ad market was falling CPMs. At the same time as marketers were lowering their demand for ads—either to take spending cuts as savings or merely pause and rework their messaging—consumers were spending more time on social and traditional media properties, increasing the supply of impressions. A decline in prices was the natural outcome.

Social media stories are growing in importance for consumers and marketers. Here’s how businesses can make the most of stories for organic marketing, influencer marketing and paid advertising.

Social media advertising will remain vulnerable in Q2 and possibly longer. CPMs will stay low, spending cuts will persist, and ad creative will be tricky to get right.

Snap Inc. reported strong gains in both users and revenues in its Q1 2020 earnings on Tuesday, despite growing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus on worldwide ad budgets. Here are three takeaways for advertisers.

As with every other aspect of our lives, COVID-19 is impacting social media usage and advertising. Some of those changes, along with other important ad product launches, will continue to affect advertisers once the pandemic ends.

Mobile ad spending in the US was up 23.0% last year, we estimate, reaching $87.30 billion. That translated to just under two-thirds of all digital ad spending in the country.

The influx of political content and ad dollars for the upcoming US presidential election will inevitably impact commercial advertisers on social media. Understanding the political ad cycle and consumer attitudes toward political content can help brands better reach their audiences.

Twitter’s user growth has been plateauing for years, as social media users gravitate toward newer platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. But among the countries included in our forecast for Twitter user growth, seven of the top 10 are in Asia-Pacific—a regional trend also evident with Facebook and to some extent, Instagram.

Instagram has been working on several initiatives to enable commerce directly within the app. Last year, it made big moves that bring creators closer to that process.

The media’s obsession with Gen Z and TikTok is ever-present, but whether or not penetration levels are as high as the frenzy would indicate is debatable. Three charts paint a clearer picture of what usage and popularity currently looks like among Gen Zers.

Brands have sought after millennials since the segment was identified as a demographic phenomenon reminiscent of the boomers. There’s been heavy investment in the creation of products and services that fit within an evolving consumer culture, one increasingly defined by this influential cohort. Growing independence and earning make this group the most digitally connected of all.

eMarketer vice president of forecasting Monica Peart hosts senior analyst Jasmine Enberg and junior analyst Blake Droesch in a discussion of TikTok's user forecasts, business model and place in the social media spectrum.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and junior analyst Blake Droesch recount their experiences interviewing 16 social media creators about how they approach brand partnerships, which platforms are working for them and influencers' role in the purchase process.