After settling a royalty dispute with Universal Music Group, TikTok will restore millions of songs to its platform.

However, the schism appears to have been bridged, with the companies declaring “improved remuneration” for artists, albeit no specific amount of money has been disclosed.

In an email to staff obtained by the BBC, Universal’s CEO, Sir Lucian Grainge, stated that TikTok had agreed to “key changes.”

He wrote, “Under the new agreement, artist and songwriter compensation will be greater than under our prior TikTok deal.”

In 2023, social video accounted for 52.5% of total US social ad spending.

By 2025, social video will earn more ad revenue than conventional television, according to EMarketer.

Social video is forecast to account for 56.4% of total US social ad spending in 2024, 58.5% in 2025, and 60% by 2026.

TikTok owner ByteDance would rather close its loss-making app than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options in fighting legislation to remove the site from app stores in the United States, four sources told Reuters.

TikTok’s algorithms are considered crucial to ByteDance’s entire operations, making selling the app with algorithms complicated, according to people close to the business.

According to the sources, a shutdown would have little impact on ByteDance’s revenue and would not require the company to give up its fundamental algorithm.

Biden’s signing establishes a Jan. 19 deadline for a sale, one day before his tenure expires, but the report noted that he might extend it by three months if he believes privately owned ByteDance is making progress.

Only 8.3% of users who saw shopping-related content changes reported a drop in TikTok usage, according to an EMarketer April 2024 “US Social Commerce” survey.

According to Earnest Analytics, more than 11% of US households have purchased products from TikTok Shop since its inception in September 2023.

Concurrent with its aggressive push into e-commerce, which includes the November 2022 US launch of TikTok Shop, the platform’s user growth has slowed, noted EMarketer.

A possible TikTok ban would alter things. According to an MGH report from March 2024, almost 60% of TikTok users stated that if the app was prohibited, they would regularly utilize Instagram Reels.

US Marketers will spend $8.14 million in social media-sponsored content, up 16.0% year over year, according to a March 2023 forecast by EMarketer.

Although spending will increase to $9.29 billion next year, growth is moderating as marketers focus more carefully on well-known creators with whom they can form long-term relationships.

“Brands are increasingly opting for recurring, ‘always-on’ partnerships with trusted creators rather than one-off campaigns,” stated EMarketer.

However, the relationships created are generally more significant, and the goal is to expand beyond social media to other mediums such as television.

The US Senate voted overwhelmingly late Tuesday in favor of legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States if its owner, Chinese tech firm ByteDance, fails to divest the popular short video app within the next nine months to a year.

Driven by widespread concerns among US politicians that China could use the app to access Americans’ data or spy on them, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday, and President Joe Biden has stated that he will sign it into law on Wednesday, reported Reuters.

TikTok plans to contest the bill on First Amendment grounds, and TikTok users are also anticipated to take legal action.

The bill would also give the White House new authority to prohibit or force the sale of other foreign-owned apps that it considers to be a security threat.

A quarter of US consumers are influenced to make purchases by advertisements on retailer websites, according to new Intellias research cited by Search Engine Land.

According to Intellias, more than half of consumers (54%) indicated they would be more likely to purchase items advertised by a trusted store.

Approximately as many (55%) would be more willing to try a new brand they had never purchased before if a retailer they frequent recommended it to them.

“Brands c”n leverage the strong relationships between retailer and consumer to break through the noise and reach consumers where they’re mthey’reely to pay attention. This can help improve campaign effectiveness and boost sales,” according to EMarketer.

This research emphasizes the significance of the consumer-retailer interaction and demonstrates that merchantsmerchants’annels remain an important component of the retail media mix.

According to a forecast by EMarketer, US retail media ad expenditure could increase by 26.0% to $54.85 billion in 2024.

The House passed a bill on Saturday that would force the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to sell or ban the app.

This brings a law that could prohibit the popular app and make the internet split between China and the US even closer to reality.

The legislation, which passed 360-58 and was linked to a massive aid package for Israel and Ukraine, would give ByteDance up to a year to market the app rather than the six-month term outlined in a previous bill.

The Senate may vote on the bill in the coming days. President Biden has previously stated that he will sign such a bill into law.

LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, has had revenue growth in the single digits since 2022 and is looking for a boost.

The company is looking to its membership, which surpassed one billion in November, to help fuel growth, reported CNBC.

According to EMarketer, Instagram parent Meta and TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance will receive nearly two-thirds of social media marketing dollars in the United States this year. By 2026, Instagram and TikTok are expected to increase their share by two percentage points.

“By opening up Thought Leader ads, LinkedIn is letting anyone boost a post as long as the author grants permission,” CNBC noted.

In the face of discontent with Google’s results, Generation Z is turning to social media as a search engine, looking for rapid, relatable solutions.

According to statistics published by Axios, younger people are breaking from millennials who grew up with Google.

“46% of those ages 18-24 start their information quests by searching on Google, per data shared exclusively with Axios from YPulse, a youth research firm,” stated the report. Of those 25-39, 58% start their searches with Google.

21% of people aged 18 to 24 start with TikTok, and 5% start with YouTube.

“Google is still top overall for initial searches, followed by TikTok and YouTube,” noted the report.