The coronavirus pandemic boosted social media usage around the world, as many people stayed home for weeks or months. In 2020, there will be nearly 150 million more social network users worldwide than we expected before the pandemic—more than the entire population of Russia. That will lift the total to 3.23 billion, well ahead of our predictions in November 2019 and June 2020. As a result, nearly 81% of internet users worldwide will be social network users.
Unilever will advertise on Facebook and Twitter again after they agreed to improve their content policies—and we may see more of this strong-arming by advertisers in the future.
Snap is partnering with popular game engine Unity, creating new ways for mobile gamers to engage with the app and new opportunities for advertisers to reach the growing gaming audience.
With a hard Brexit looming, 2020 will be the peak of cross-border ecommerce penetration in the UK, according to the latest forecast from eMarketer, an Insider Intelligence company. This year, 22.8 million people in the UK will have made a cross-border ecommerce purchase, representing 46.0% of internet users and 50.2% of digital buyers.
Roku will surpass 100 million US users this year, as an aggressive licensing strategy helps the company maximize household penetration.
Comcast-owned FreeWheel will acquire Beeswax, whose unique buying model may appeal to advertisers paying higher costs per thousand (CPMs) for CTV inventory.
Latin American ecommerce giant Mercado Libre has benefitted immensely from the pandemic, as stay-at-home orders forced consumers to buy online. According to our inaugural forecast on Mercado Libre, the online marketplace’s sales will surge 46.5% in Latin America by the end of 2020, to $20.51 billion. And it still has room to grow in several key markets—even where it already dominates.
eMarketer principal analysts Mark Dolliver, Sara M. Watson, and Debra Aho Williamson, junior analyst Blake Droesch, and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss whether the FTC will break up Facebook, a new Discovery+ streaming service, whether Facebook ads are reaching saturation, how customer service changed in 2020, the FTC wanting Big Tech to explain what they do with data, what most people dream about, and more.