In 2024, global ad spend surpassed $1T for the first time

Facebook dominated US social ad spend in the first half of 2024

This data visualization shows the social media platforms where advertisers spent the most money in the first six months of 2024, with Facebook leading the pack taking home 36.3% of US social ad spend.

In 2025, American tech companies will spend $300B to $400B on AI

That is, in nominal dollars, more than any group of companies has ever spent to do anything. Notably, these companies are not remotely close to earning $400B on artificial intelligence.

Advertising-related activity may have supported roughly one in five American jobs as of 2024

That’s according to a study commissioned by The Advertising Coalition, conducted by S&P Global Market Intelligence, which also found that the advertising industry powered more than 20% of total US economic output at the time.

Targeted ads accounted for 80% of Google's parent company's total revenue in 2020

Ads in Google Search, YouTube, and other products brought in $147B for Alphabet, with ad click costs ranging from $7 to several hundred dollars. YouTube's ad revenue alone jumped 49% year-over-year in one quarter.

As of 2025, Meta Platforms Inc. is the largest social media company in the world

Facebook alone has nearly three billion monthly active users, with advertising across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp generating 97% of Meta's revenue. Messenger adds more than 650,000 users a daily.

TikTok boasts nearly 1.8B monthly users

The app has surged in popularity recently, with usage surging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those users have generated high revenues, too, with over $23B in 2024.

Consumers will use digital payment processing for nearly $40T in spending by 2028

That's just one signal of the industry's massive growth. Investments in the global fintech industry have grown from $4B in 2010 to $92.3B in 2021, as both businesses and consumers seem to quickly adopt new fintech products, from digital payment apps to robo-advisers.

Walmart was the first traditional retailer to crack the $1T club

In early 2026, the company joined major tech companies Nvidia, Apple, and Meta (among others) as one of the rare firms with a market capitalization beyond $1T. See the latest top companies here.

The global creator economy is worth roughly $250B

That number is derived from multiple sources (such as brand deals and affiliate links), and the projections for how much the creator economy will be worth in the future are even more complicated.

As of 2025, Wikipedia is one of the top 10 most-visited sites in the world

Alphabet Inc.'s Google search engine and YouTube received nearly 150 billion combined visits in November, followed by Facebook, ChatGPT, and Instagram, which each received over 5 billion visits during the same span. With 4.42 billion visits for the month, Wikipedia ranked just behind Reddit's 4.85 billion.

Online Black Friday shoppers spent over 10% more in 2024 than they did in 2023

Online shoppers shelled out some $11.3M per minute between 10 am and 2 pm on Black Friday 2024, according to Adobe Analytics data. The $10.8B online shoppers spent on Black Friday 2024 was more than double the amount they spent online in 2017.

In 2024, attorneys spent an estimated $541M on outdoor ads

A $70M increase from 2023, this marketing tactic helps lawyers bring attention to their names in an oversaturated market. Read this article to find out why lawyers advertise on so many billboards.

The next technology epoch is here

From ChatGPT to DALL-E, 2022 saw the mainstream emergence of artificial intelligence for consumer use. Here's how these platforms will disrupt today's five biggest tech companies—Apple, Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft.

The world's 50 most valuable private companies

While public companies typically have the highest valuations, private companies get close. This list breaks down the top 50 as of 2025, with SpaceX at the top with a value of $350B, followed by ByteDance. Over three-fifths of the list are located in the US, with eight in China.

Advertising holding company WPP acquired Ogilvy & Mather in 1989 for $864M

It was the largest amount ever paid for an agency at the time. WPP, which acquired agency J. Walter Thompson for $566M just two years before the Ogilvy & Mather acquisition, still owns Ogilvy today.

Temu ran the same Super Bowl ad five times in 2024

During 2024’s campaign, Temu spent millions of dollars on its five identical “Shop Like a Billionaire” Super Bowl spots that showed animated characters feeling extremely joyful upon receiving cheap products.

Ranking the world’s economies: 1980 vs. 2025

The US remains the world’s largest economy, having increased its annual gross domestic product from $2.9T in 1980 to $30.6T in 2025. In 1980, China ranked seventh globally with a GDP of $304B. In 2025, China ranked second with a GDP of $19.4T.

Meta's acquisition strategy for Instagram and WhatsApp led to a 5-year-long antitrust lawsuit

In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission sued Meta as part of the agency's efforts to rein in big tech companies. The FTC alleged that Meta overpaid for Instagram and WhatsApp in a "buy or bury" strategy to gain access to those companies' talent and diminish competition. In 2025, a federal judge sided with Meta, citing intense change in the social media landscape.

Tencent is the world's largest video game publisher

Despite mainly being known for its 1.4 billion WeChat users, Tencent has quietly expanded its video game empire to include more than 600 investments. These include 100% ownership of Riot Games (maker of League of Legends) and 30% of Epic Games (Fortnite), two of the most popular online video games.

The world spent up to $600B to avert the Y2K computer glitch

Early computer programmers used a two-digit code to record years rather than four. With the switch in the year 2000 from '99 to '00, analysts feared databases might fail and prompt outages and financial catastrophe. To prepare, governments and businesses spent an estimated $300B to $600B to mitigate the glitch.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Global box office revenues hit $33.5B in 2025

The number was a marked improvement from 2024, up 12% from a particularly sluggish year. Disney films—including "Lilo & Stitch" and "Zootopia 2"—were some of the year's biggest earners.

China is making a deliberate push toward a cashless society

Riding widespread digital finance apps like Alipay and WeBank, physical cash circulating in China fell under 4% of total money in 2023. The trend reflects the country's drive to be a leader in the future of digital payments.

The value of a 400 oz gold bar hit $1M for the first time in 2024

On Aug. 16, 2024, the gold bar size often seen in movies hit $1M in value for the first time when the price of gold reached $2,500 per troy ounce. A data visualization shows what other gold bar sizes are worth and compares them to the size of an iPhone.

Hormone and peptide compounds imported from China soared in 2025

US customs data indicates that these imports doubled to $328M in the first three quarters of 2025, from $164M in the same period of 2024. The imports include GLPs, among other products. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The 2024 US presidential election was a breakthrough moment for prediction markets

Founded in 2018 by MIT graduates, Kalshi won a federal appeals court ruling in October 2024 that allowed it to offer election contracts in the US. When prediction markets predicted President Donald Trump's win (more accurately than most polls), prediction markets were thrust into the public eye.

The USPS spent $3.97B in 2024, accounting for .058% of the federal budget.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.