Time spent with social media is plateauing, but Gen Z and Gen Alpha are still platform-hopping. As Gen Zers steadily overtake millennials in terms of share, brands must understand the nuances of how each generation uses its platforms of choice.

The gap between retail’s most and least digitized categories will grow even wider.

The news: Instagram added new limitations to its livestream feature, now requiring creators to have a public account with over 1,000 followers to go live, per TechCrunch. Our take: While it could benefit Meta’s competitive position in the livestream space, Instagram’s latest restrictions will harm creators looking to break into the influencer space—necessitating rapid adaptation. Smaller creators could shift attention to other platforms with less restrictive livestream requirements—think YouTube, which only requires 50 subscribers to go live, and Twitch, which has no livestream minimum.

After advertisers spent Q1 2025 reacting to the threat of tariffs, they shifted their focus back to the business of figuring out how social platforms’ automated offerings complement more established methods of investment.

This is the first installment of our annual “Brazil Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our “Brazil Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our “Brazil Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

Consumer spending will be restrained during the 2025 holiday season as shoppers remain cautious amid ongoing economic uncertainty. That means retail and ecommerce will see the slowest growth since we started tracking the metrics.

The triopoly looks stronger, but it's digital that's getting bigger. Amazon, Google, and Meta now command 58.8% of total US ad dollars, up from 47.1% in 2020. But that's not an indication that the triopoly's control of the digital ad market is growing.

The news: A US TikTok ban will take effect if a sale isn’t completed by the September 17 deadline, per comments from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick said on CNBC that TikTok will “go dark” if China does not agree to sell to a US owner. He also noted that any deal would require the US gaining control over both the app and its algorithms. Our take: Whether or not a full TikTok ban comes to pass, Lutnick’s comments reinforce a troubling trend: Advertisers are increasingly wary of the platform’s stability, accelerating the shift toward cross-platform strategies.

Social network ad spending is still high relative to time spent on them, a disconnect primarily driven by Meta. As time spent with social networks plateaus, platforms are trying to break into CTV to capture the time spent (and ad dollars) in streaming.

Digital’s rapid adoption in recent years has made it the dominant medium with which people spend time in China, Japan, and South Korea, with consumption booming in India.

The news: TikTok renewed its Lionel Messi-focused live broadcast deal with Major League Soccer (MLS) after a successful 2024 livestream, per a blog post. TikTok will partner with Apple TV to broadcast four select matches in the current MLS season, with a dedicated camera angle focused on Messi during each match. Our take: TikTok and Apple TV’s newest move is another bid to capitalize on a well-known athlete in a profitable genre, where advertising opportunities are plentiful and success is essentially guaranteed. Sports are one of the most reliable ad environments, offering scale, loyalty, and global reach.

The news: In the wake of Google’s impressive earnings report, YouTube is getting more creative AI tools on YouTube Shorts for both creators and advertisers. YouTube added an image-to-video generative AI (genAI) tool to Shorts, which can turn a photo into a 6-second video, powered by Google’s Veo 2. It also introduced AI-powered tools that resize ads to fit Shorts’ format. Our take: These new tools could help YouTube outpace rivals by combining TikTok-style virality with Google’s deep AI infrastructure. Instead of recycling or repurposing long-form assets, marketers should push more budget to testing Shorts-first content. A/B testing with Shorts’ new AI resizing tool and audience-specific, unique content for mobile and CTV can help determine which content can be converted with AI for both platforms and which needs to be remade and retargeted.

B2B social media has evolved from an awareness tool into a central part of how brands build trust, influence buying decisions, and drive business growth. AI, video, and influencer marketing are reshaping strategies and raising expectations for measurable impact.

YouTube is the No. 1 US media platform when it comes to time spent by US adult users, reaching 11.4 billion minutes per day in 2025.

In today’s podcast episode, we explore the blurring of social media and streaming, focusing on how content from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram is increasingly being consumed in the living room. We also discuss the significance of YouTube and whether streamers should be concerned about the rise of social media platforms. Join the conversation with Director of Reports Editing and host, Rahul Chadha, Vice President of Content, Paul Verna, and Senior Analyst, Minda Smiley. Listen everywhere you find podcasts and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

The news: Reddit’s ad business is on a path of steady growth, with ad revenues expected to reach $1.8 billion this year and grow 29% to reach $2.5 billion in 2026, per a new WARC forecast. Brand participation on Reddit shows promising results: One organic brand post per week increases positive mentions by 3.5%. Our take: Though Reddit’s massive growth is partially attributed to its smaller reach, its ability to reach users that aren’t frequenting more popular platforms warrants investment, and a diversified approach combining Reddit’s unique community-driven base with larger platforms’ massive reach is key.

The news: YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and TikTok each offer unique advantages and drawbacks for gamer ad reach, per HypeAuditor’s 2025 State of Gaming report. Choosing the right platform depends on what kind of impact marketers want to make. Our take: Marketers should boost campaign performance with influencer partnerships on these platforms since creators often understand their audience better than companies do. Track success platform by platform to help tailor ad strategies, capitalize on UGC, and maximize return on investment.

The news: Substack is exploring a larger shift from a newsletter-first platform to a more expansive media ecosystem—one that could include ads and a social media identity. The company is doubling down on the Substack app and aiming to show that social media “can be fun and rewarding without melting your brain,” the company stated in a blog post. Our take: As AI search engines downgrade publisher content, Substack could become an important channel for brands to reach loyal and engaged young audiences. Marketers should research creators to find authentic voices that align with brand messaging, craft company newsletters to get onto user feeds, and be prepared with market analysis if and when Substack launches ad placements.