How should businesses view these global trends and events? How are behaviors and spending changing? In this report, Insider Intelligence analysts weigh in on the questions they’re being asked by both clients and the media about the shifting landscape in key areas like digital advertising, retail and ecommerce, and financial services.

While Instagram giveth, Facebook taketh away. The Meta-owned platforms face diverging futures. Instagram's US user base will increase by 4.0% this year to 128.3 million, while Facebook's will decline by 0.8% to 178.3 million.

US TikTok users will spend more time with the social media platform this year than YouTube users will spend on YouTube. This difference will be just about a fraction of a minute but will expand in years to come.

This year, TikTok users in the UK will grow by 12.6% for a total of 17.5 million. TikTok, which overtook Twitter users last year, will surpass Snapchat users by year-end and continue its upward climb.

Meta earnings didn’t quite disappoint: After a particularly challenging prior quarter, Meta didn’t quite right the ship, but it did staunch the bleeding.

Junior Scott Pence, CMO of Peace Out Skincare, talked with Insider Intelligence about the marketing opportunities within TikTok.

Once the domain of gamers and young social media users, AR and VR are entering the mainstream. This year, more than a quarter of the US population will use AR and nearly a fifth will use VR. As device-makers improve VR headsets and AR spreads to new use cases, the number of AR and VR users will continue to grow over the next four years, with AR outpacing VR.

Our analyst Andrew Lipsman is joined by Sara Livingston, head of customer solutions at Rockerbox, to discuss where direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands' Facebook ad budgets are flowing since iOS tracking changes disrupted ad targeting and measurement last year. Find out why Google, TikTok, and connected TV are capturing more spend and how D2C budgets are likely to migrate in the coming years.

Ad revenues for short-video-sharing app TikTok and Chinese sister app Douyin will hit $31.66 billion this year to account for 5.3% of the global digital ad market.

TikTok’s hold on the social media industry is impossible to ignore: The video app and other visually oriented platforms thrive with key demographics.

TikTok will grow its net ad revenues in the US by an astounding 184.4% this year to hit $5.96 billion. The app’s ad revenues will settle into a double-digit growth trajectory starting next year and top $11 billion in 2024.

Retailers have long had an eye on augmented reality (AR), but it still has unrealized potential for shopping purposes.

Watch the on-demand replay of our webinar, TikTok Commerce: Strategies for Success in 2022, as we discuss the growing social commerce opportunity on TikTok.

TikTok is the social commerce platform of the moment, as brands and marketers look to cash in on the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt phenomenon. While TikTok may not have as large a shopper base as Facebook or Instagram, its shoppers are highly active and engaged.

During a recent Insider Intelligence webinar about strategies for commerce success on TikTok, three questions rose to the top. Here, principal analysts Jasmine Enberg and Debbie Williamson weigh in on them.

Meta’s campaign against TikTok will do little to hide its own issues: Negative stories about rivals won’t fix its longstanding advertising and content issues.

Around the world, Facebook is the most popular social app for livestream purchases. Among internet users who had bought a product via a social media livestream, 57.8% did so on the blue app. Meanwhile, 45.8% have made a livestream purchase on Instagram, and just 15.8% have on TikTok.

Communities, creators, and connection are the keys to success for brands looking to generate sales on TikTok in 2022.

Younger consumers turn to social media to inform their purchases: 45% of Gen Z shoppers use Instagram for product research, 1.5x more than look to Facebook and TikTok.

Even TikTok is struggling to stop harmful content: A new lawsuit and complaints from creators could stand in the way of its social commerce goals.