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.

The re-evolution of email chains: Why social thrives on simplicity

Hanna Kahlert

11 Dec 2025

Cultural trends Social platforms

The year is 2003. Your Yahoo inbox jingles at you with a new message, subject “FW:FW:FW: Send this to 10 people or bad luck for 7 years”. A random classmate has CC’d you along with everyone else they have in their address book.

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(di)Vine is back: Is there space for another short-form video app?

Hanna Kahlert

19 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Video Creators

Long before we had TikTok, Reels, or Shorts, we had Vine. An app arguably well before its time, the original short-form platform for 6-second video clips was a huge moment for millennial culture. Compilations of archived content still rack up millions of views on YouTube, indicating its longevity, p...

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Accessing the internet: How AI will reshape digital discovery, consumption, and ad revenues

Hanna Kahlert

12 Nov 2025

Cultural trends Social Digital

In last week’s blog, I wrote about whether AI is the new “world wide web”. Having a www-dot address was once a path towards making millions. With the benefit of hindsight, this oversimplification seems absurd.

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Is AI the new “world wide web”?

Hanna Kahlert

5 Nov 2025

Cultural trends AI dot com

Back in the days of the dot-com era, anything online could become a hype-driven investment. The big losses when the bubble burst are almost comical with the benefit of hindsight. Pets.com burned through millions of investor capital and collapsed a year after its IPO.

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Brands and social TV: The next big entertainment power move

Ben Woods

5 Nov 2025

Business Strategy Audience Insight Video

One question is often asked when traditional entertainment companies start exploring a social-first strategy: how do we make it pay? It’s a valid line of inquiry that does not come with a neat answer.

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How social’s reach is undermining its culture

Hanna Kahlert

21 Oct 2025

Cultural trends Fandom Content

Despite all the promise of digital interconnectivity, the internet has become more isolated than ever. The major platforms are now so focused on entertainment-style content that the original concept of a ‘social’ network has become diluted – seeing a post from a friend has now become a rarity.

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Is the internet re-localising?

Hanna Kahlert

8 Oct 2025

Cultural trends Social media Social

It’s been a busy few weeks for the social media world. TikTok is on the verge of a US sale – which could also see the app returning to India. Meanwhile, Meta is now offering subscriptions in the UK and Europe.

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20:25 vision: Meta Connect looks to the post-smartphone future

Hanna Kahlert

23 Sep 2025

Product Strategy Social Meta

Meta Connect 2025 (September 17-18) went all out on glasses and AI, outlining an idealistic future –although brought down to earth throughout by bugs and “WIFI troubles” (per TechCrunch ). To align with the public announcements of upgrades, pricing, and new features, Meta has also been pushing...

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Social is the medium, but its messages are more than just content

Hanna Kahlert

17 Sep 2025

Cultural trends Social media Content

All things, it seems, must now revert to “social”. Netflix has announced a new “Clips” feature, where segments of episodes can be selected and shared on social media (per Engadget ). Spotify has added a social feature allowing users to directly message songs to each other.

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AI AI, Cap’n: Shifting headwinds to the promised land of tech innovation

Hanna Kahlert

11 Sep 2025

Product Strategy Content Social

In any industry, the simple bits tend to be the most stable. For every ice cream, there’s the company that makes the sticks; for every book publisher, there’s the company selling the paper. By the same logic, in the midst of the AI boom, Nvidia – which manufactures chips that make the technolo...

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Instagram Maps: Feature or future?

Hanna Kahlert

14 Aug 2025

Instagram Snapchat Social media

Meta’s Instagram has begun rolling out a new ‘Maps’ feature, similar to Snapchat’s (but with added privacy concerns). It has also rolled out a new ‘friends’ tab on the Reels page, allowing users to see videos already liked by others they follow, seemingly weighted by the friends they int...

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Why Drake’s ‘Which One’ single is not a TikTok-first track

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jul 2025

Music Content Social

Drake’s new single ‘Which One’, featuring Central Cee dropped on July 25, 2025 –not abnormal. Less normal: he launched it with no warning halfway through a 41-minute episode of Iceman , a YouTube series he is streaming in advance of his album of the same name.

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

Hanna Kahlert

24 Jun 2025

Cultural trends AI 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?

Hanna Kahlert

20 Jun 2025

Business Strategy WhatsApp advertising

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?

Hanna Kahlert

5 Jun 2025

Product Strategy Messaging apps Social

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

Mark Mulligan

15 May 2025

Business Strategy Entertainment Social

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?

Hanna Kahlert

29 Apr 2025

Cultural trends Disney Google

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?

Hanna Kahlert

24 Apr 2025

Business Strategy Social media Social

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?

Hanna Kahlert

2 Apr 2025

Cultural trends TikTok Instagram

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 music industry Social

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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