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The news: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the US House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, addressing concerns about data privacy, the platform's influence on young users, and ties to China. Chew emphasized TikTok's commitment to user safety, data protection, and independence from government manipulation.

TikTok steps up its PR in the US capital: It鈥檚 hard for a Chinese company to make friends on the Hill, but it won鈥檛 be for lack of trying.

2022 brings a dramatic change in fortunes for some social networks: Contracting ad spending growth prompts big downgrade in our forecast.

Our take: The tariff escalation is more than a headline鈥攊t鈥檚 a structural shock that could reshape global consumer demand and ad spending for the remainder of 2025 and for years to come. While there鈥檚 still room for negotiation, our forecasting team believes the psychological toll on consumer and business sentiment could be just as impactful as the tariffs themselves.

US consumers shop frequently with Temu and Shein, despite trust issues: Both Chinese retailers are winning more repeat customers than established players like eBay and Etsy.

The US鈥檚 lead over China is also because of social media鈥檚 high ad spend in the US. Total social network ad spend in China this year ($38.64 billion) will be less than the US ($48.89 billion), per our forecast. 2. Social video, CTV dominate video ad spend. Social video accounts for the largest amount of US digital video ad spend at $23.4 billion, followed by connected TV (CTV) at $22.7 billion.

Meta could benefit significantly if TikTok left the US: A House vote looms, impacting national security and social media dynamics.

With the ascent of Chinese ecommerce disruptors and the ongoing rivalry between Amazon and Walmart, the upcoming holiday season is expected to bring some big shifts. Some of those shifts include the lessening of Cyber Five鈥檚 importance and retailers losing focus on profitability, said our analysts Jeremy Goldman and Zak Stambor on a recent episode of the 鈥淏ehind the Numbers鈥� podcast.

Both companies have been major drivers of influencer marketing and social ad spending growth, and a pullback could throw the current trajectory off course. China-based advertisers accounted for 11% of Meta鈥檚 ad revenues, per the company鈥檚 recent earnings reports. Bank of America also estimates that Temu and Shein alone contribute as much as 2% to 4% of ad spend on Meta and Google.

Traditional media ad spending is on track to be a net positive over time. In megamarkets like the US and China, traditional media has nearly become an afterthought for many advertisers. But that鈥檚 not the case in most other markets. Traditional ad spending will increase by 2.2% worldwide this year, and its long-range trajectory is once again upward.

Insiders shouldn鈥檛 be surprised by this, since digital expenditures now account for the bulk of total ad spending. It will take until 2027 for digital to account for 73% of all ad spend, according to GroupM鈥檚 figures, despite increasing by 31.9% last year and accounting for 67% of all ad spending in 2022 and 60.5% two years prior.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss what's fueling the social ad spending upswing and what to watch from each of the major social platforms. "In Other News," we talk about advertisers' level of caution in returning to X (formerly Twitter) and why New York City is suing the social media giants. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Minda Smiley and Max Willens.

Worldwide ad spending has nearly doubled since 2016, and the outlook remains bright.