Insider Intelligence issued its revised forecast for global ad spend in 2022 Wednesday, adjusting its numbers downward for all six companies it analyzed—Amazon, Google, Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter—but predicting a particularly rough ride for the recently acquired Twitter.

The research firm pegged total 2022 digital ad spending worldwide at $567.49 billion, up 8.6% over 2021, versus its previous forecast of 15.6% growth to $602.25 billion.

Insider Intelligence also lowered its outlook for digital ad spending worldwide in 2024 to $695.96 billion from $756.47 billion.

While its projections were down across the board, Insider Intelligence said it sees each company’s market share remaining relatively unchanged from its previous forecast.

Senior forecasting analyst Oscar Bruce Jr. said in a statement, “Economic instability across the globe will lead to lower growth by the end of the year. China, the second-biggest digital ad market, will post its lowest digital ad growth on record as it deals with tougher regulations and economic headwinds. Europe will see declines in digital ad spend in U.S. dollars given the relative weakness of the local currencies and the economic impact of the war in Ukraine.”

Twitter

Principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said in a statement, “Before the takeover, Twitter’s ad business was already taking a beating from the economic uncertainty. Tack on Elon Musk’s erratic behavior, his lack of a clear plan for Twitter’s ad business, as well as fears about misinformation and a user exodus, and many advertisers are suspending their advertising on a platform that already isn’t essential to many companies’ media plans.”

Insider Intelligence slashed its outlook for Twitter’s ad business through 2024 by 39.1%, expecting global ad revenue to grow just 4.9% this year, to $4.67 billion, after projecting 25.1% growth to $5.58 billion in its first-quarter outlook.

The researcher originally pegged growth of 21.6% in 2023 and 16% in 2024, but it now sees the next two years as essentially flat.

Enberg added, ‘Musk’s attempts to keep advertisers happy have been futile. Advertisers are pulling their ads due to brand safety concerns, as well as potential conflicts of interest with Musk’s other businesses. Musk’s management style won’t help motivate employees or comfort advertisers. Many of the employees who could have soothed advertisers’ concerns are now gone.”

Meta

Insider Intelligence sees Meta’s worldwide ad business declining for the first time ever, pegging global digital ad revenue for 2022 at $112.68 billion, down 2% from last year and far below its original forecast of $129.16 billion.

The researcher lowered its ad spend forecast for Meta through 2024 by nearly 20%.

It sees Facebook reaching $69.41 billion in digital ad revenues worldwide, well below its first-quarter forecast of $75 billion and down 4.6% from 2021. Projecting out to 2024, Insider Intelligence sees $75.11 billion in global ad revenues for Facebook, down more than $10 billion from its original call.

As for Instagram, Insider Intelligence sees worldwide ad revenue growth slowing drastically from 50.2% in 2021 to just 2.6% this year, lowering its forecast to $43.28 billion from $54.16 billion. The researcher pegged Instagram for $59.61 billion in global digital ad revenues in 2024, slashing its original forecast by 27%.

Principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in a statement, “Meta is no longer an innovative groundbreaker. Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to center his company around a murky and ill-defined concept like the metaverse has jeopardized the near-term health of the company. His vision of the metaverse can’t be willed into reality. Importantly, Meta remains a digital advertising powerhouse. Its ad revenues worldwide will overshadow every other company’s except Google. But Meta has lost its edge. Even the metaverse is a copycat idea.”

Snapchat

Snapchat took a hard hit from Insider Intelligence, too, with its updated prediction of $3.97 billion in total ad revenues worldwide up 17.1% from the previous year but well below the researcher’s original estimate of $4.86 billion.

Insider Intelligence sees Snapchat’s global ad business reaching $5.81 billion in 2024, 33.6% below the $8.75 billion it projected in the first quarter.

Enberg said, “Snap Inc.’s focus on augmented reality isn’t the only reason for the slowdown in ad spending. AR is a niche ad format that’s easy for advertisers to justify cutting when budgets are tight. But AR ads only make up a small percentage of Snap’s ad revenues, indicating that advertisers are cutting other types of Snap ads, as well. The reality is that many advertisers still don’t fully understand Snapchat and stick it into their experimental buckets. Intense competition from TikTok for the attention of Snap’s core Generation Z user base and continued measurement challenges from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency changes are also causing advertisers to hold back spending on the platform.”

TikTok

While Insider Intelligence projected 155% year-over-year growth in global ad revenues for TikTok, totaling $9.89 billion, it still lowered its original call from $11.64 billion. Similarly, for 2024, the researcher’s projection of $18.49 billion in ad revenues worldwide was down 21.6% from the $23.58 billion it predicted in the first quarter.

Enberg said, “TikTok has transformed from an experimental play to a must-buy for many advertisers. But TikTok isn’t immune to the macroeconomic challenges causing advertisers to trim their overall digital ad budgets. Meanwhile, growing anti-TikTok sentiment among media executives and renewed calls by government officials to ban the platform are causing some advertisers to be more cautious about their spending there. For now, TikTok’s continued strong user and engagement growth, as well as advancements in its ad and measurement offerings, will keep many advertisers funneling money into the platform, including some of the lost ad dollars from other social applications.”

Google

Google took far less of a hit than the other platforms analyzed by Insider Intelligence, which lowered its 2022 net digital ad revenue total to $168.44 billion from $174.81 billion, while its projection for 2024 was down just 2.8%, to $201.05 billion.

Analyst Evelyn Mitchell said in a statement, “Google has an edge over its other ad-reliant competitors in an economic downturn, as advertisers facing budget cuts typically prioritize lower-funnel channels with higher return on investment, like search. Search has also retained full functionality in the wake of Apple’s privacy changes. Search ads are served in response to a user query and don’t usually leverage data about that user, so they’re less affected when iOS users opt out of being tracked. Meanwhile, social media advertising relies more heavily on consumer data.”

Amazon

Insider Intelligence’s projection of $37.99 billion in 2022 global ad revenues was down slightly from its first-quarter call of $41.75 billion, and the researcher predicts $55.99 billion in digital ad revenues worldwide in 2024, down from its original prediction of $63.48 billion.

Principal analyst Andrew Lipsman said in a statement, “Amazon’s ad business will take a haircut alongside the other ad platforms, but its fast-growing retail media network will be among the most resilient to macro headwinds. After a first half of the year with slowing growth that coincided with an overall slowdown in ecommerce, Amazon’s ad business regained momentum in the third quarter with the help of the July Prime Day—a success it hopes to replicate during the holiday quarter from the Prime Early Access Sales in October.”

TikTok is doing some shuffling in its upper ranks for North America, shifting general manager of North America, global business solutions Sandie Hawkins to head of ecommerce channel TikTok Shop in the U.S., with president of global business solutions Blake Chandlee handling Hawkins’ former duties on an interim basis.

TikTok Shop debuted in the U.K. last year, enabling people to purchase products featured in live broadcasts and on-demand videos on the application, and it is now available in Southeast Asia, as well, with plans to expand it to Brazil, Ireland, North America (including the U.S.) and Spain over the next few months.

Chandlee said in a note to TikTok employees Monday, “Sandie is a strong leader who has been instrumental in building out our U.S. operations, followed by the broader North America global business solutions organization over the past two-and-a-half years. Under her leadership, the team has become a significant player in the digital ads space, and we have built an amazing global business solutions organization that reflects our values. On a personal note, she has been a true partner to me and her regional peers, and she has always advocated for her team and clients, which has made us a better business.”

Patrick McGee and Cristina Criddle of Financial Times reported that shifting Hawkins is part of an ongoing, broader restructuring over the past few months that has made fewer than 100 roles redundant, including roughly 20 senior managers, such as former global head of ads business systems David Ortiz, who said on LinkedIn in July that his role was “eliminated in a much larger reorganization effort.”

A TikTok spokesperson said that while some teams have undergone restructuring, the company’s overall headcount has risen over the past three months.

TikTok said a number of internal and external candidates are being considered as the permanent replacement for Hawkins, and McGee and Criddle reported that head of global business solutions, Asia-Pacific Sameer Singh is the favorite, adding that Singh is based in India and may have to wait until January for a work visa.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri revealed two updates in a post Tuesday: scheduled posts and a redesigned website.

Mosseri called scheduled post a “finally feature” and “one of those things we really should have gotten to a long time ago.”

The feature can be accessed via advanced options in the creative flow, and posts can be scheduled up to 75 days in advance.

Scheduled posts can be managed by going to the more button in Instagrammers’ profiles.

Mosseri said the redesigned website is cleaner, faster, easier to use and designed to take advantage of large-screen monitors, adding, “We know a lot of people use the web to multitask, and we wanted to make sure it was as great an experience as possible online.”

By default, animated emojis will automatically animate as users browse the Mastodon social networking application. However, users have the option to disable animated emojis, if they’d like.

Our guide will show you how to turn off animated emojis in the Mastodon mobile app.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Mastodon app on iOS.

Step 1: On Mastodon’s home screen, tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

Step 2: Tap the gray toggle to the right of “Disable animated emojis” to turn off animated emojis in the Mastodon app. The toggle will turn green when animated emojis are disabled.

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey finally weighed in on the chaos enveloping his former company since it was taken over by Elon Musk late last month, but he did not mention the company’s new owner at all.

Dorsey said in a tweet Saturday, “Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that. I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment—or ever—and I understand.”

When Musk made his takeover offer April 25 of $54.20 per Twitter share in cash, or roughly $44 billion, Dorsey was enthusiastic, saying in a tweet at the time, “In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company, however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness. Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one.”

Of course, he also said of short-lived CEO Parag Agrawal, “This is also @paraga’s goal, and why I chose him,” and we saw how that worked out.

Twitter will reportedly hold off on its plan to offer verification checkmarks as part of its retooled, $7.99-per-month Twitter Blue subscription service until after the midterm elections in the U.S. Tuesday.

Ryan Mac, Kate Conger and Mike Isaac of The New York Times viewed an internal Twitter post discussing the plans, signaling a change to its original intention to begin offering the revamped Twitter Blue Saturday.

Twitter’s Apple App Store listing reflected the upcoming update over the weekend, reading in part, “Blue checkmark: Power to the people: Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.” That language did not appear Monday.

The company did not respond to a request for comment—which was no surprise, given this development as part of Twitter’s massive layoffs last week.

The delay was presumably implemented with the midterm elections in mind, as Mac, Conger and Isaac reported that some of the remaining Twitter employees questioned the timing of the change and its potential use to interfere with the elections.

One manager working on the project told Mac, Conger and Isaac, “We’ve made the decision to move the launch of this release to Nov. 9, after the election.”

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned of workforce cuts during the company’s third-quarter-2022 earnings call last month, and those cuts may be arriving as soon as Wednesday.

Jeff Horwitz and Salvador Rodriguez of The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the impending layoffs may impact many thousands of the company’s work force of more than 87,000, adding that Meta employees were ordered to cancel any nonessential travel beginning this week.

The moves would mark the first broad reduction in headcount in the company’s history and will likely top last week’s layoffs at Twitter in total number, but not in percentage, as reports indicate that one-half of the latter’s workforce was impacted.

Meta declined comment other than referring to Zuckerberg’s comments during last month’s earnings call, when he said in his opening remarks, “In 2023, we’re going to focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas. So, that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year. In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”

Those “high-priority growth areas” are the company’s ads and business messaging platforms, its artificial discovery engine powering Reels and other recommendation experiences and its future vision for the metaverse.

Chief strategy officer David Wehner added during his last earnings call as chief financial officer, “Our pace of hiring slowed in the third quarter, consistent with our previously-stated plans. We added 3,700 net new hires in the third quarter, down from our second-quarter net additions of 5,700, despite the third quarter typically being a seasonally stronger hiring period. We expect hiring to slow dramatically going forward and to hold headcount roughly flat next year relative to current levels.”

NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson met with new Twitter owner Elon Musk last Tuesday and apparently came away unimpressed.

By default, Mastodon will send users push notifications when certain actions take place in the social networking application. For instance, the app will notify users whenever someone mentions them in a post.

Users have the option to turn off the app’s notifications if they don’t want to receive these alerts.

Our guide will show you how to change your notifications settings in the Mastodon mobile app.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Mastodon app on iOS.

Step 1: On the Mastodon home screen, tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

Step 2: Scroll down to the “Notifications” section and tap the green toggle to the right of any notification type you don’t want to receive.

By default, Discord allows every server to have up to 50 custom emojis. The server’s owner, as well as anyone with the “Manage Emoji” permission, can upload custom emojis to the server.

It’s possible someone may upload a custom emoji to a server that other users don’t approve of. If this ever happens, users can remove the offending custom emoji from the server.

Our guide will show you how to remove custom emojis from a server from within the Discord mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Discord app on iOS.

Step 1: While viewing the server’s channel list, tap the server name at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Settings.”

Step 3: Tap “Emoji.”

Step 4: Swipe from right to left on the custom emoji you want to remove.

Step 5: Tap “Delete.” Note: There is no confirmation window. Once you tap “Delete,” the custom emoji will be removed from the server.