Blog: Social

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Budweiser’s royalty loophole ad: How AI and social have changed the value of creators

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Hanna Kahlert

24 Jun 2025

Cultural trends

generative AI music

Advertising is a critical component of the entertainment industries. It supports free tiers of video streaming, forms the backbone of social platform revenues, and contributes significantly to the music industry through sync, licensing, and ad-supported streaming.

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Ads in WhatsApp Stories: is this the next ad frontier in social?

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Hanna Kahlert

20 Jun 2025

Business Strategy

Meta has announced that it will be rolling out ads in WhatsApp’s ‘updates’ tab. This marks a move to monetise what has, up until now, been a platform with not so impressive revenue to report. A major issue for WhatsApp is that, as a direct messaging platform, it has been very difficult to mone...

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Grok meets Telegram: Why is AI being shoehorned into messaging platforms?

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Hanna Kahlert

5 Jun 2025

Product Strategy

In an unusual twist, on May 28, 2025, xAI agreed to pay Telegram $300 million in cash to be integrated into the messaging platform (per Reuters ). It is not every day you see a feature paying its platform to be combined into its existing service, but, Elon Musk is not often one for the traditional p...

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The new soft power and its hidden rules

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Mark Mulligan

15 May 2025

Business Strategy

Throughout the 20th century, particularly the second half, many Western countries – such as the US, UK, and France – increased their global influence through the use of cultural soft power. This was done through tools like Voice of America and the BBC World Service, as well as via movies, TV, jo...

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There is no Pirates of the Caribbean 6: How long is the internet going to work?

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Hanna Kahlert

29 Apr 2025

Cultural trends

Generative AI is improving, and its use is increasing. AI tools have rapidly accelerated , and, as a result, AI is now widely used to generate lesson plans, find recipe measurements, and draft lists of potential client companies.

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What does it mean for OpenAI to go social?

Cover image for What does it mean for OpenAI to go social?

Hanna Kahlert

24 Apr 2025

Business Strategy

Key takeaways from this blog: Tech giants are doubling down on AI, with social seemingly the next frontier for innovation OpenAI may be flipping the script: not adding AI to a social platform, but building social around AI This could change how we create and share online – but potentially conflict...

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If the internet dies, where does all the attention go?

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Hanna Kahlert

2 Apr 2025

Cultural trends

Key takeaways from this blog: Social platforms dominate culture, but a vibe shift toward offline experiences is emerging as users crave more intentional, less addictive engagement (as explored in MIDiA's' Analogue revival ' report) TikTok’s recent disruption signals a loss of cultural centrality, ...

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Welcome to the brand new MIDiA

Mark Mulligan

2 Apr 2025

Business Strategy

Today we are proud to announce the next iteration of MIDiA Research. 2024 marked MIDiA’s tenth year, and in the preceding decade we broke brave new ground for entertainment business analysis. We introduced market shaping concepts such as fragmentation, scenes, peak attention, the tyranny of choice...

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Why ads in DMs are not the solution Instagram wants them to be

Cover image for Why ads in DMs are not the solution Instagram wants them to be

Hanna Kahlert

18 Mar 2025

Audience Insight

Key insights from this blog: Instagram's direct messaging features have become a core component of the platform; MIDiA data highlights that the majority of social media users log in to the platform to keep up to date with friends As Instagram's Feeds – and subsequently its Stories feature – have...

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Why social is a double-edged sword for streaming TV

Cover image for Why social is a double-edged sword for streaming TV

Ben Woods

7 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

TV shows, movies, and social creator content are lane hopping in search of engagement. It is common practice now for SVOD services to distribute one or several episodes for free on YouTube and TikTok in the hope of transforming social video viewers into SVOD subscribers.

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YouTube is winning emerging markets by being social – and format-flexible

Cover image for YouTube is winning emerging markets by being social – and format-flexible

Hanna Kahlert

5 Mar 2025

Audience Insight

Cultural trends

In English-speaking markets (and much of Europe), entertainment consumption is split across a large number of digital platforms, segmented largely by content format, rights access, and legacy uptake. It is also fragmented across devices: smart TVs, smartphones, laptops, and consoles all play big rol...

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Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Cover image for Social came for music streaming’s lunch – now is the time for streaming to bite back

Tatiana Cirisano

27 Feb 2025

Audience Insight

In the battle of music streaming versus social, the major (at least Western) music streaming services have never fully committed to implementing social features. Spotify has come the closest: an early version offered direct messaging, and the company even acquired a handful of social media-related s...

min read

Instagram Edits: the CapCut clone targeting TikTok’s turmoil

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Ben Woods

22 Jan 2025

Product Strategy

As TikTok grappled with its blackout on Sunday, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri took the opportunity to up the ante with one of his biggest rivals. Targeting TikTok’s 170 million US users, Mosseri revealed Edits: a new creator tools app is designed to support not only Instagram creators but those cre...

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Ban or no ban, what comes next for TikTok creators?

Cover image for Ban or no ban, what comes next for TikTok creators?

Hanna Kahlert

22 Jan 2025

Marketing Strategy

The TikTok ban saga continues. The official date of the ban saw the app go dark in the US and Canada, replaced by a notice that the law had come into effect. However, only a few hours later, the app came back online, with a new notice that thanks to the Trump administration’s willingness to work o...

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Meta pushes for “free speech” as TikTok falls short: a dramatic cultural shift for social

Cover image for Meta pushes for “free speech” as TikTok falls short: a dramatic cultural shift for social

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

The news cycle leaves no room to draw breath as strategic pivots and Supreme Court hearings come thick and fast. Changes are afoot – and they paint a very different picture of the digital landscape of the future.

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How a US TikTok ban could accelerate the rise of the Global South

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Tatiana Cirisano

9 Jan 2025

Amid a flurry of year-end lists released last month, TikTok published a ranking of the platform’s most popular songs. While US music executives have been busy considering how a potential TikTok ban could impact their artists in the new year, the number one track on TikTok in 2024 was not by an Ame...

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Musk calls UK government ‘tyrannical’ and TikTok could leave the US: is global culture going regional again?

Cover image for Musk calls UK government ‘tyrannical’ and TikTok could leave the US: is global culture going regional again?

Hanna Kahlert

7 Jan 2025

A swath of elections in 2024 have paved the way for regulatory changes in the social media sphere, with talk of bans and restrictions meeting the governmental meddling of CEOs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

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A regulation-heavy year for social looms in 2025

Cover image for A regulation-heavy year for social looms in 2025

Hanna Kahlert

17 Dec 2024

Product Strategy

The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has published guidelines around the Online Safety Act, warning that most social platforms are not adequately meeting standards. Sites that fail to comply can be faced with high fines and potential bans (per The Guardian ).

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Will the TikTok ban happen? What you need to know

Cover image for Will the TikTok ban happen? What you need to know

Hanna Kahlert

10 Dec 2024

It has been a rollercoaster of a news year for TikTok since April, when President Biden signed a law that would ban the platform unless it found new owners. The January 19th deadline is approaching quickly, and the heat is up as of December 6th, when the Federal Appeals court upheld the ban.

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Australia bans social media for under-16s: the first domino towards a new digital world?

Cover image for Australia bans social media for under-16s: the first domino towards a new digital world?

Hanna Kahlert

3 Dec 2024

age restriction

australia social media ban

Australia has just approved groundbreaking social media regulation that bans users under 16 from accessing platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and X. This under-16 social media ban is the first of its kind that does not allow exceptions for existing users or those with parental permission.

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