Tinius Digest December

The metaverse might be a utopic vision for the future of the internet or the inevitable fate of our digital lives. Either way, the metaverse will open vast possibilities—and challenges—for technology and more traditional companies. The essential precursor is to be ready to change.

The Chinese Communist Party’s immense tech ambitions are reaping rewards thanks to intellectual property theft, innovation, a clear strategy and a political iron grip on the country’s technology industry. European nations find themselves between China and the US—who both are willing to play dirty to win this race—and must decide what role they want to play in this cold war over tech supremacy.

Artificial Intelligence is beginning to live up to its hype. The media industry is already benefiting, and the future holds incredible possibilities. But there are many downsides to the development. Technologies are not neutral, and some AI systems are explicitly designed to harm us—for instance, through surveillance and auto-generated disinformations targeted at individuals. A part of the solution is clear and forward-looking regulations and critical journalism.

Around half (49 percent) of top news publishers are now regularly publishing content on TikTok—shows a study of 44 markets. A large proportion of these have joined TikTok in the last year.

The vast majority of Indonesian (90 percent), Australian (89 percent), Spanish (86 percent), French (86 percent), and UK (81 percent) publishers operate active accounts on TikTok. News organisations in Denmark (27 percent) have been slower to move onto the platform.

The fast-growing audience and younger demographic attract news organisations, but they are also motivated to provide reliable news amid fears about widespread misinformation on the platform.

Some publishers are staying away or engaging cautiously. Some worry about the Chinese ownership of the platform and the potential implications for free speech; others fear that the ‘TikTok-ification of news’ risks trivialising essential stories and undermining business models that depend on referral traffic from social media networks.

Several publishers use a strategy based on young creators native to the platform and its unique language. Others prefer to showcase the talents of the entire newsroom, making minimal changes to the existing tone or content.

533 journalists are currently detained worldwide in connection with their work. This is 13.4 percent higher than last year’s figure. The number of female journalists in detention is growing fast—now accounting for nearly 15 percent of detained journalists, compared to fewer than seven percent five years ago.

The world’s biggest jailer of journalists is China (110), Myanmar (62) and Iran (47). Nearly 45 percent of the world’s imprisoned journalists are located in Asia—and more than 30 percent in the Maghreb and the Middle East.

57 journalists were killed in 2022—an 18.8 percent increase compared to 2021. The war that broke out in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 is one of the reasons for this rise. Eight journalists were killed in the first six months of the war.

More than 60 percent of journalists killed lost their lives in countries considered to be at peace in 2022. Eleven were murdered in Mexico alone—nearly 20 percent of the total journalists killed worldwide. Mexico (11 killed), Haiti (6), and Brazil (3) helped turn the Americas into the world’s most dangerous region for the media, with 47.4 percent of the total number of journalists killed worldwide in 2022.

The number of households that own a smart speaker in the UK has increased from 22 percent in 2020 to 39 percent in 2022.

Smart speakers influence the way people consume news content. 56 percent use their smart speaker—among other functions—for news consumption. Over a third said they consumed more news than before getting a smart speaker. 70 percent listen to live radio, and 37 percent listen to podcasts.

People are generally confident that they can trust the news they receive through their smart speakers. Only five percent are not trusting news via smart speakers. Meanwhile, 67 percent are concerned about privacy aspects.

There is consensus among the participants across the research that smart speakers could positively impact people’s lives. Many identified ways in which they thought wider take-up of smart speakers could help certain disadvantaged groups in society – for example, older people or people with disabilities. 

Consumer podcast payments increased by 50 percent in the third quarter of 2022 compared to last year’s period. The paid podcast market did exceed about SEK 150 million (NOK 143 million/Euro 13.5 million) in 2022.

The advertising market is also growing somewhat more slowly than previously estimated. The podcast advertising market grew 28 percent to just over SEK 360 million (NOK 343.5 million/Euro 32,3 million. Advertising revenue is thus significantly greater than revenue directly from consumers, even if these are growing faster.

Consumer revenues are central to many media as these are less sensitive to economic conditions than advertising revenues. If 2023 becomes a more challenging year in the advertising market, paid revenue may become even more critical for podcast players.

While AI adoption globally is 2.5x higher today than in 2017, it has leveled off over the past few years. Today 50 percent of businesses have adopted AI in at least one business area. In 2019 the number was 58 percent.

The average number of AI capabilities organisations use, such as natural-language generation and computer vision, has also doubled—from 1.9 in 2018 to 3.8 in 2022. Robotic process automation (39 percent), computer vision (34 percent) and natural-language text understanding (33 percent) are the most commonly deployed capabilities.

In 2018 40 percent of businesses reported that more than five percent of their digital budgets went to AI. In 2022 this number had grown to 52 percent. 63 percent say they expect their organisations’ investment to increase over the next three years.