Social Media

Musk’s 100 days at Twitter sink in: Its workforce is greatly reduced, users and advertisers are fleeing in droves, and now third-party developers are gone. What’s next for the beleaguered social network?

TikTok’s future is anything but guaranteed: While the app remains king of video for now, Meta and Google are making strides to steal market share.

Meta’s vow of efficiency marks renewed optimism: Meta shares rally after analysts upgrade stock due to Meta’s new, leaner direction. Meanwhile, the company continues to spend billions on an unrealized metaverse pivot.

Gen Alpha is still a nascent generation, but technology is already a constant in their lives: 36.0 million US children are active internet users, exceeding teen internet users by 11.4 million, per our forecast. This is the data you need to understand the future Gen Alpha.

Spanish Twitch streams are seeing explosive growth: Usage is high, and the underdeveloped ad market supporting the platform has room to mature.

TikTok is competing with just about everyone, according to our analyst Jasmine Enberg. Its lower costs per thousand are helping it pull ad share away from platforms like Meta, while its appeal to Gen Z consumers is pulling search dollars away from Google and Amazon. But it can play nice too, a strategy the platform has had to adopt in Washington to avoid a total US ban.

After surviving Q4, Meta tries to refocus its business: An emphasis on efficiency all but ensures more cuts will come in 2023.

Snap continues its Q3 storyline into Q4: Users top estimates in fourth quarter, but dwindling cash is a hurdle to innovation and growth.

It’s applying for state regulatory licenses—but it still needs to deal with other hurdles standing in the way.

Discovery—not influencers—is what separates TikTok and Amazon’s ecommerce businesses: The retail giant is trying to replicate TikTok’s success via its “Inspire” video feed.

Meta pulls plug on contracts with gamers: Austerity measure could lead Facebook Gaming streamers to defect.

TikTok’s magic is no longer in its mystery. The illusion of TikTok content being personalized for users through an all-powerful algorithm is fading. Two weeks ago, Forbes reported TikTok’s use of a secret “heating” tool. But TikTok’s heating controversy doesn’t mean marketers should immediately retreat to Instagram Reels. Rather, they should think of TikTok and Reels as two different tools.

LinkedIn proves the newsletter isn’t dying: Any user can create a newsletter on LinkedIn now, but advertising features have yet to debut.

Nearly 80% of the world’s internet users are on social media. This landscape is still dominated by Meta in most markets, but use and ad spend is shifting away from Facebook and toward TikTok. Here are five charts capturing the worldwide state of social.

Nearly 50% of social network users in Thailand will be TikTok users, giving the country the highest TikTok penetration in the world, according to our forecast. The US will rank second, with 45.3% of its social users on TikTok. We expect penetration in the US will be as high as 49.1% by the end of 2026.

Network configuration error downs Microsoft’s services: A network update took out Microsoft’s services globally, once more exposing the vulnerability of relying on monolithic cloud services.

Facebook and YouTube will still be the top US social media platforms for buying ads or monetizing content this year, though their dominance is eroding, according to October 2022 polling by Integral Ad Science.

Could iffy payouts cause creators to leave TikTok? The platform’s much-hyped revenue-sharing program is giving shockingly low payouts, but strong viewer growth makes a migration unlikely.

Picture this—Instagram to refocus on photos: Platform says it will better number of images and videos shown in feeds.

TikTok bans in colleges go viral: The fallout from students and teachers could be indicative of wider pushback against banning the app.