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Catch up quick: YouTube shut down its permanent creator campuses, called YouTube Spaces, in 2021, pivoting to a hybrid model with virtual programming and pop-up events. The big picture: As the creator economy matures, the ecosystem that supports it must also adapt and grow.

But many more people, especially young men, likely tuned into the Rogan-Trump interview, which garnered 38 million views within three days on YouTube alone. August 2024 Voxtopica data also suggests that registered voters are prone to change their opinions about topics and people in the news because of a podcast. Super-influencers were super influential.

YouTube is a big player, too. YouTube offers free long-form content capabilities and is known to influence and inform B2B decision-makers. Podcasting is also integral to B2B, and YouTube is a major podcasting platform. The other top three are Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok. Instagram remains popular, especially for reaching younger B2B buyers.

Several leading streaming services have moved toward this hub-like format: Netflix is attempting to bring games to its service, YouTube offers NFL broadcasts via Sunday Ticket, and the recently shuttered Venu Sports represented an effort from WBD, Disney, and Fox to bolster streaming content.

But YouTube has skippable and nonskippable ads, several different lengths of ads, and interactive and static ads. And of course, the quality of content and types of content formats are all over the board. An advertiser may find themselves paying under-$10 CPMs for skippable ads shown on amateur content, or $20+ CPMs for longer ads appearing in network TV clips.

In Russia, it was just 29 minutes鈥攍ikely due to the suspension of services from key podcast streamers (e.g., Spotify and Amazon Music) and the Russian government鈥檚 YouTube streaming restrictions. Readership of print and online press in Central and Eastern Europe was well below time spent in other regions. Time spent with print press was just 25 minutes, 16 minutes below the global average.

鈥淚f you were to tell me that all of these tools would disappear tomorrow, it wouldn't be a problem," said Bogliari, who estimates that his work is split evenly between TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube influencer campaigns. 鈥淲e have our own database, tech sector, and network of people that we鈥檝e built through years of experience.鈥�.

These are all critical developmental years. 80% of children and teens have YouTube accounts, 59% use TikTok, and 90% have smartphones, nearly matching adult usage at 98%. Is this a problem? Most agree that kids鈥� screen usage and social addiction are a problem but disagree on its scope, or who should be responsible for addressing it.

In a post-TikTok world, US Gen Zers will continue to discover and share new products via social video (on YouTube and Instagram). They will still shop via mobile. And they will still be interested in sustainability and resale while engaging with fast fashion and microtrends. 2. Trends are moving too fast to track. New products and styles are popping up daily.

Disney, Comcast (NBCUniversal), Google (YouTube), Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and Paramount now control over half of industry spending. Our take: Netflix's "Twisted Love" acquisition represents a strategic bet on social media's growing influence in content discovery and adaptation.

Competitors like Prime Video and YouTube TV with costly sports rights deals will likely breathe a sigh of relief at the news as Venu鈥檚 competitive price point and slew of offerings posed a significant threat to their businesses.

YouTube has set its sights on streaming. YouTube has long been the home of long-form social video. The platform is using that legacy to better compete with TV and streaming giants. The number of YouTube connected TV (CTV) viewers has grown rapidly in recent years: We expect there to be 163.7 million YouTube CTV viewers in the US this year, or 67.7% of all YouTube viewers.

Google, Meta breach privacy rules with YouTube ads: The companies reportedly worked together to attract younger users, ignoring their own policies and risking future regulatory action. Read article. Advertisers accuse Meta鈥檚 AI of wasting their entire ad budgets: The Advantage+ Shopping Campaign isn鈥檛 living up to promises and points to a dubious future for AI agents. Read article.

We forecast YouTube will continue dominating influencer marketing spend in the US this year, with the video giant raking in just over $3 billion. Key stat: 99% of Americans reported recently using at least one common AI-enabled product (including personal virtual assistants, navigation apps, weather forecasting apps, etc.), according to a new study from Gallup and Telescope.

Moving off-site: Expedia is partnering with platforms including Netflix and YouTube as it endeavors to activate its first-party data in off-site environments. The partnership enables Expedia to grow its media business behind its owned and operated digital channels. Brace for a wave of second movers.

YouTube, Netflix, Sling TV, and LinkedIn added games this year in a bid to increase revenue per user and make their platforms more sticky. Developing and licensing games isn鈥檛 cheap, though, and some companies learned that big-budget titles are better left to devoted game publishers. Netflix closed its AAA gaming division in October, likely due to costs and long-term production timelines.

Snapchat has also struggled to emulate TikTok in the same way that Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have, though it recently expanded its creator monetization program to lure more creators to the platform. Smaller platforms will see spending boosts鈥攂ut their overall share of social ad spend will shrink. Smaller social platforms are having a moment.

Reddit was founded in 2005鈥攁round the same time as Meta (formerly Facebook) [2004] and YouTube [2005]鈥攂ut its user base has never come close to theirs in terms of size. It鈥檚 struggled to gain widespread appeal, and for many years, had a reputation as a toxic platform.

The tech giant started sending influencers a questionnaire to provide information about product testimonials they鈥檝e posted on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, per Bloomberg. The questionnaire probes influencers on their interactions with sellers and products.

(Our social commerce forecast excludes YouTube.). Instagram shoppers tend to spend the most. Over half of shoppers on each platform spent less than an average of $200 on purchases in the 12 months preceding our survey. But the share of Instagram shoppers who spent $200 or more was at least 7.6 percentage points higher than on any other platform.

Platforms like TikTok and YouTube have generally moved away from opaque creator funds: YouTube now uses a revenue-sharing model for Shorts, and TikTok has a creator rewards program for content over 60 seconds.

In Asia-Pacific, TikTok trails YouTube and Instagram in user numbers. TikTok will continue to trail its most direct rivals鈥擨nstagram Reels and YouTube Shorts鈥攊n terms of users by a wide margin in Asia-Pacific. This is, again, in part due to its absence in India, which will have 462.8 million YouTube users and 317.1 million Instagram users in 2024.

Google, YouTube, and Pinterest鈥檚 shares of US paid media traffic increased between Q4 2024 and January 20, 2025, while TikTok鈥檚 and Meta鈥檚 shares declined, according to analytics provider MikMak, which analyzed real-time commerce data from 2,000 brand customers and adjusted it for seasonality. (MikMak is an 蘑菇AV KPI data partner.).