Social

WHAT'S NEXT?: In the years to come, social commerce will become more widespread and the level of personalization will improve with advanced AI solutions & chatbots. The number of worldwide social media users is projected to grow from 2.1 billion in 2016 to 2.5 billion by 2018.

• [New] A challenging economic climate may persist this year: according to the Global Risks Perception Survey, members of the multistakeholder community see economic confrontations and domestic political polarization as the top risks in 2020.
• [New] In 2020 the industry will move from a small group of early-movers who have commercialized initial 5G networks, to a global community in which multiple operators in every continent and in many countries will have commercial 5G networks.
• [New] Small island developing states such as Cuba and Tuvalu make up seven of the 10 countries that face the highest risk of internal displacement as a result of extreme weather events and are 150 times more likely to be displaced by extreme weather disasters than communities in Europe.
• Beyond 2012 if the growth rate were reduced to three percent yearly, carbon emissions in 2030 would be 28 MT, which is 70 percent of the UK's entire carbon emissions budget that year for all sectors of society.
• The expansion of power supply to rural communities remains a top priority for Government as it seeks to achieve its vision to make Zimbabwe a middle income economy by 2030.
• Marketers are forecast to spend $112bn (£85bn) on social media advertising in 2020 despite the fact that 31% of CMOs can not show the impact of social media on their business.
• Growth in Chile is projected to recover after interruptions from social unrest in late 2019, to 2.5 percent in 2020 and 3.0 percent in 2021.
• Online video (+16.6% average year-on-year growth) and social media (+13.8%) will remain the fastest-growing channels between 2019 and 2022, thanks mainly to continued increases in consumption on smartphones.
• The International Civil Aviation Organization is considering whether airlines will be able to use forest-based credits to offset their carbon emissions.
• Commonwealth Department of Employment projections show that health care and social assistance is the fastest growing industry in Australia, which are expected to add a quarter of a million jobs by 2023.
• In 2020, the Chinese government announced a social scoring system that will cover violations even by pedestrians - as well as misdemeanors in many other walks of life.
• Cargo traffic is expected to grow 2.0% in 2020 after a year of slowing economic growth, trade wars, geopolitical tensions, uncertainty over Brexit and social unrest contributed to a 3.3% contraction in airline freight business.
• The heads of two key environmental bodies have warned that 2020 is the last chance to bring the world together to tackle climate change to protect communities and nature.
• Slowing economic growth, trade wars, geopolitical tensions and social unrest, plus continuing uncertainty over Brexit all came together to create a tougher than anticipated business environment for airlines.
• Singapore will require social media platforms to carry warnings on posts deemed false by the government and remove comments that are incompatible with the public interest.
• An additional £1bn will be made available every year to 2024 in the UK, and cross-party talks will ensure that nobody needing social care will be forced to sell their home to pay for it.
• Consumers are much less likely to continue using businesses that have experienced a data breach: Trust erosion was greatest for new industries such as social media and ridesharing companies rather than for more traditional industries such as retail stores.
• Gartner expects major online marketplaces and social media platforms to start supporting cryptocurrency payments by the end of next year.
• The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences forecast that next year there will be 24 million more men than women of marriageable age.
• Plans are now being made by the global physics community to make further investigations using the newest-generation solar telescopes that will become available over the next few years.
• Oslo Airport City, which will take 30 years to build, will be powered entirely by renewable energy and will also function as a local source for clean power, selling all surplus energy to neighboring buildings and communities.
• A combination of increasing extreme weather events in the UK over the next five years and growing agitation for faster action could leave issues like devolution and social care struggling for attention.
• A new regional initiative coordinated by the Latin American Energy Organization and announced to the global community during the Chile Energy Day, sets a regional goal of reaching at least 70 per cent of renewable energy in electricity in by 2030.

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Last updated: 26 January 2020