Trends Identified
Rebuilding trust
2018 represented a crisis year for trust on social media. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal1 and a Congressional hearing,2 Facebook faced unprecedented pressure from users and regulators to improve security, transparency, and accuracy. Twitter, meanwhile, wrestled with controversies over the unfettered proliferation of bots on its platform, purging millions of fake accounts.3
2019
Social media trends 2019
Hootsuit
Storifying social
Will the news feed one day be an endangered species? According to consulting firm Block Party, Stories—the vertical, ephemeral slideshows pioneered by Snapchat—are now growing 15 times faster than feed-based sharing.
2019
Social media trends 2019
Hootsuit
Closing the ads gap
By now, everyone knows we’re in the pay-to-play era on social. Accordingly, marketers are increasing social ad budgets (up 32 percent in 2018 alone) and producing more ads than ever before.29One of every four Facebook Pages now use paid media,30 and Facebook already accounts for 23 percent of total U.S. digital ad spending.
2019
Social media trends 2019
Hootsuit
Cracking the commerce code
In Asia, social commerce adoption has been swift,41 with 70 percent of China’s Gen Zers now opting to buy direct from social.42 In North America, however, social commerce hasn’t kept pace. Despite the longhyped promise of buy buttons, people aren’t yet buying on social in huge numbers.4
2019
Social media trends 2019
Hootsuit
Messaging eats the world
Top messaging apps—WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, QQ, and Skype—now collectively count nearly five billion monthly active users, according to We Are Social and Hootsuite’s 2018 Q3 Global Digital Statshot.
2019
Social media trends 2019
Hootsuit
The redistribution of geostrategic power.
The predominance of NATO and the West is likely to be increasingly challenged by emerging and resurgent powers.
2017
Strategic foresight analysis
NATO
Use of power politics.
The importance of NATO has increased for collective defence of the Euro-Atlantic region as it is the main framework that maintains a robust and an appropriate mix of nuclear and conventional capabilities.
2017
Strategic foresight analysis
NATO
Non-state actor influence in domestic and international affairs.
Non-state actors are expected to exert greater influence over national governments and international institutions and their role is likely to expand.
2017
Strategic foresight analysis
NATO
Challenges to governance
Emerging powers are increasingly challenging establishedglobalgovernanceinstitutionsandrequestinggreaterroles.Existing governance structures, particularly in weak and failing states, are not sufficiently addressing the requirements of the broader population.
2017
Strategic foresight analysis
NATO
Public discontent/disaffection and polarization
In western countries, risks such as undermined legitimacy of the government mandate, political impasse and the difficulty of implementing reforms and social polarization are likely to be increased.
2017
Strategic foresight analysis
NATO