We couldn’t have been more correct in late 2018 when we predicted that privacy concerns would snowball in 2019, creating greater challenges for digital marketers with regard to audience identification, targeting and tracking.

While our 2019 prediction of digital’s influence on the reinvention of brick-and-mortar has materialized, it may have also undersold Amazon’s omnipresence in the space. The 800-pound gorilla of retail will continue to cast a wide shadow.

For brands and retailers in some categories, Amazon is a significant channel for ecommerce sales. And that often means paying for prime placement on Amazon properties, including in search results. We estimate Amazon will have earned 72% of its $9.85 billion in net US digital ad revenues from search ads in 2019.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and vice president of content studio Paul Verna talk about YouTube's harassment policy change, Uber's new security report, TV shows with the most longevity, what people are watching on Disney+, where the bar code came from, and more.

For this update, we look at Instagram's test to remove likes, the launch of Facebook Pay, Twitter's new feature that allows users to hide replies and Snapchat's new longer video ad format, as well as an update on political advertising. It also includes a preview of our latest social network user forecast, which will be discussed in detail in our upcoming social network users report collection, publishing on December 12.

Americans are poised to spend $590.67 billion in retail ecommerce in 2019, with a year-over-year growth rate of 12.8%. "To keep growing at double-digit rates, future channel growth will increasingly rely on continued strong gains in the spending rate per buyer," said Andrew Lipsman, eMarketer principal analyst. eMarketer has curated this Roundup of articles, insights and interviews to help you understand the latest trends in the retail industry.

eMarketer junior forecasting analyst Nazmul Islam compares our mobile messaging app usage numbers with our mobile social networking usage figures and the factors behind the increasing gap.

eMarketer principal analyst Yory Wurmser joins host Nicole Perrin to discuss eMarketer’s latest estimates of spending on mobile ads in the US. They break down our forecast to explain where the nearly $100 billion in US mobile ad outlays this year actually goes.

Facebook users in France and Germany are leaving the platform even faster than expected. For the second forecast in a row, we have downgraded Facebook user growth in both countries, as younger users shift to other platforms. In France this year, Facebook will experience a decline in users for the first time, whereas Germany experienced its first drop in users in 2018.

eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin and vice president of content studio Paul Verna face off on the topic of social media and how much it is to blame for our increasingly divided society. Then junior analyst Blake Droesch discusses social video content, how to reach young people in the morning and a new partnership between Verizon and Snapchat.

Netflix and YouTube may be the video platforms US adults are watching most, but their days at the top may be numbered. New services such as Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+ will fragment digital video viewing time even further. According to our first forecast on time spent watching Netflix and YouTube, both platforms will see their share of daily video time drop in the coming years.

Social networks like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok have ramped up their social commerce efforts in the past year, shifting toward an ecosystem where users can discover, shop and purchase products one place. Initially, these social commerce features were only offered to brands, but now social networks are experimenting by bringing the same tools to influencers.

eMarketer forecasting director Shelleen Shum shares our recently revised subscription OTT forecast for Western Europe this year and into 2023.

Asia-Pacific is home to some of the world's fastest-growing and most dynamic economies, but the current US-China trade war and other geopolitical factors are threatening the regions' economic vitality and are impacting digital ad spend.