YouTube Shorts streamlines the user experience: 2x playback, Clean Screen, and simpler feedback tools could fuel longer sessions and sharpen ad targeting.

Gen Alpha is entering its teen years just as scrutiny of social media intensifies. Their habits are taking shape amid new rules, safety concerns, and shifting expectations. And that’s creating fresh challenges for platforms, parents, and marketers.

YouTube Shorts earns MRC stamp: Shorts is the first short-form platform accredited, giving brands third-party backing on safety systems.

Meta turns Reels into series: A new feature tests episodic Reels, aiming to convert scroll-by views into repeat visits and deeper ad value.

YouTube’s long-form game: As videos more than 20 minutes long increase, algorithms and additional ad slots boost long-form appeal.

After years of uncertainty, TikTok is regaining momentum with efforts in commerce, creators, and entertainment. But rising competition, regulatory pressure, and changing user behavior threaten its next phase of growth.

Total media time is plateauing across Asia-Pacific. But mobile and video are driving digital’s continued gains as traditional media declines.

Instagram pushes into the living room: Long-form CTV plans could pit it head-on with YouTube’s cross-device dominance.

YouTube is the top platform for watching creators across every demographic of US children, according to a February report from Precisify.

Ten charts reveal where digital markets are headed as AI shapes ad trends, social and retail media take a bigger share of ad spend, and consumer adoption of AI-driven buying influences ecommerce growth.

YouTube is building an influencer engine through new discovery and paid tools that add Gemini search, bulk outreach, and channel takeovers.

YouTube tops global media with $62 billion in revenues and over $40 billion in ads, putting it ahead of Disney and legacy TV combined.

AWS' new AI tool reformats live broadcasts for TikTok and Reels in seconds, unlocking scalable ad inventory.

Canada’s digital economy is entering a faster, more competitive phase in 2026 as ad spending accelerates, short video surges, ecommerce climbs, and AI-driven search reshapes how audiences discover content.

Nine in 10 US consumers are open to watching TikTok-style vertical clips on publisher sites, according to a new survey from Media.net, pointing the way to how audiences consume content and where brands can meet them. Clips shorter than 60 seconds deliver roughly 2.5x higher engagement, per Media.net. By offering targeted vertical video on their websites and mobile apps, publishers can ramp up engagement and time spent. Brands integrating in-stream ads and links on these websites and apps could open up a new funnel for engagement.

YouTube’s established dominance faces new competition from TikTok, long-held digital habits are maturing, and digital video is universal. Our latest forecast data reveals where each age group overindexes, how their time spent is shifting across platforms, and what marketers should prioritize next to stay relevant.

A federal judge handed Meta one of its biggest legal wins in years, ruling that its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions do not violate US antitrust law. The decision leaned heavily on how TikTok and YouTube now compete for the same user attention Meta once dominated—proof, the court said, that the company cannot be considered a monopoly. The ruling arrives just as Reels accelerates across Instagram and platforms converge on short-form video and AI-driven discovery. For marketers, the outcome underscores a simple reality: user attention sits across the big three video platforms, and planning must follow that distribution.

Q3 was a record-breaking quarter for the three largest ad platforms, but heavy spending on AI is compressing margins and raising questions about how the technology will impact the future of digital advertising.