TikTok's new phase: The platform now supports text posts, further broadening its creative canvas beyond short-form videos.

On today's episode, we discuss whether Threads can keep up its momentum, if TikTok Music can compete in the music streaming world, how engagement with the Women's World Cup will look, what to make of the Burger King rebrand, whether US consumers actually shop on social media platforms, who invented the first-ever hybrid car, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Ross Benes, Blake Droesch, and Max Willens.

In just five days, 100 million users signed up for Threads, compared with Twitter’s 364 million, according to our forecast.

With 13.4% YoY user growth in 2023, Snapchat will briefly overtake TikTok (12.7%) as the fastest-growing social media platform worldwide, according to our forecast. TikTok will regain the title come 2024.

Threads already poses a real threat to Twitter, but it still has a lot to prove once the hype dies down

The US ad market grew for the first time in 11 months this May, according to Standard Media’s US Ad Market Tracker. Now the question is if expansion can continue. June and the start of July brought a host of ad updates that could help continued growth, including ad tools enhancements from Google and Microsoft, retail media opportunities from Roku and Uber, and more. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new.

On today's episode, we discuss the impact Threads will have on Twitter usage, how much of a revenue boost this could be for Meta, and what advertisers should be thinking about with the arrival of this new app. "In Other News," we talk about Snap's efforts to tempt creators and whether it's possible to actually prove that social media is bad for teens. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Jasmine Enberg and Debra Aho Williamson.

Threads has staying power, but Meta must ensure that the novelty and intrigue don’t wear off before the network effects take hold. It’s already a formidable rival to Twitter, but it’s not a replacement, and Threads must find its identity outside of Instagram to become a viable platform for users and advertisers.

Threads engagement unspools: Despite a promising start, Meta's new app faces a dip, potentially dimming ad potential.

In Threads’ first week, 33.5% of app downloads came from India, followed by Brazil (22.5%) and the US (16.1%), according to data.ai.

On today's episode, we discuss what to make of Meta's new Threads app, whether the internet is becoming more like TikTok, the argument against "click to cancel," ad-supported versus ad-free video streaming, how shipping works, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our forecasting writer Ethan Cramer-Flood and analysts Zach Goldner, and Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf.

Threads plans first updates: User interface complaints lead to changes that may make the new app appeal to Twitter power users.

Will Threads run into the same problems as Twitter? Even before Musk, Twitter was struggling. But Meta has advantages that make Threads more stable.