From the metaverse and NFTs to podcast adtech and third-party cookie ban solutions, 2021 ended on a high. But, its a new year and you know what that means - even more online trends, changes and upgrades. 

With everyone on the internet predicting what will happen over the next year, we decided to jump on the trend and also compile a few predictions we hope to see come true in 2022:

Prediction: YouTube will make some major changes to its recommendation algorithm this year. 

ThoughtLeader: VP Marketing, Shoshana Eilon

In 2022, we will see YouTube getting more bullish about showing TikTok who is boss. After reports came out in December showing that TikTok had overtaken Google in terms of web traffic, Google will have to get more serious about putting the new upstart back in its place, and reassert the dominance of their own video streaming platform.

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After all, although YouTube has been around for 17 years by now (feeling old yet?) and is still the world’s biggest online video depository, the platform’s algorithm is still shockingly bad. No, I don’t want to rewatch a home decor video I last saw 5 months ago. With over 500 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every minute, there must be something new and exciting for me to discover. I feel almost offended - YouTube, we hang out together all the time… don’t you know me by now? Is this the best you can do?

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By contrast, TikTok’s algorithm is like the new romantic partner who surprises you with a glass of wine before you’ve even told them you’ve had a rough day. And then they keep surprising you with new wines that you’d never even considered but are surprisingly consistent with your tastes. 

YouTube, it’s time to step it up. Get that algorithm into shape, or risk losing viewers to the younger bitesize video platform nipping at your heels. 

Prediction: Metaverse will keep on growing

ThoughtLeader: Director of Sales, Elsie Bernaiche

Facebook changing its name to Meta solidifies the shift of focus for tech companies on merging the boundaries of reality in 2022. COVID continues to be a factor in restricting access to traditional public spaces, events and experiences, and the promise of the metaverse may provide an alternative. 

Phil Ranta, CEO of Wormhole Labs, gave us a deep dive of the metaverse-sphere highlighting its pros and cons - would you go shopping in the metaverse? How about a virtual live concert? 

In 2022, we expect companies to make major steps forward towards making this a reality… or should we say, remaking our reality?

Prediction: Social platform mashups

ThoughtLeader: Head of Publisher Relations, Amit Altman

Just before ringing in the new year, Spotify debuted the ‘Netflix Hub’ - a partnership between the video streaming service and the audio streaming platform - which enables Netflix fans to find the official soundtracks, playlists and podcasts for top shows/movies on Netflix. 

…and there are a lot more from where that came from. We predict that there will be a handful of social platform mashups throughout this year - we’re looking at you, YouTube. For example, the video platform dipping its toes into podcasting? 

Prediction: Major brands will team up with creators 

ThoughtLeaders: CRO, Daniel Conn

Major brands will look at creators as amongst their biggest and most important campaigns - just take a look at the success brands had collaborating with MrBeast in 2021. 

As the founder of JMStrategy pointed out in TechCrunch: “the pandemic accelerated people watching even more content from influencers on various channels. These same people are becoming more responsive to ads from a personal voice and increasingly numb to typical brand ads”. 

Prediction: Online e-commerce will keep expanding 

ThoughtLeaders: Senior Customer Success Manager, Ohad Tenenboim

Online E-commerce will keep expanding rapidly both in revenue and types of commodities/services (with influencers responsible for "impulsive" shopping with videos, social posts, etc.)

Prediction: Privacy, privacy, and more privacy

ThoughtLeader: CEO, David Tintner

The push for digital privacy will become even more important this year, and major tech platforms will make major changes to please users about this. We may even see new platforms built and come into play this year that specifically focus on privacy and put it as first-priority. 

This will continue creating the path to a third-party cookies-less future

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Prediction: Emphasis on content based advertising

ThoughtLeader: VP R&D, Felix Vaisman

Creators will look for ways to optimize the content structure for sponsorship opportunities.

We are so excited to see how 2022 plays out - looking forward to all the online updates and upgrades and hopefully the end of COVID-19.