Post by Simon Kemp

Surprise! Our huge new Digital 2026 Global Overview Report is out now, packed with 700 pages of essential data, trends, and insights. Top stories in our flagship #Digital2026 report include: 1️⃣ 6 billion people now use the internet 2️⃣ 2 in 3 people use social media 3️⃣ Over 1 billion people use AI each month 4️⃣ What people actually use AI for 5️⃣ A surge in connectivity in India and China 6️⃣ The world’s top social media platforms 7️⃣ Changes in global ad spend 8️⃣ Comparing AI and search engines 9️⃣ Changing TV behaviours 🔟 Evolving social media expectations As you’ve probably guessed though, there’s *loads* more to unpack in the complete report, including some staggering figures for TikTok viewing, some excellent data exploring marketing effectiveness, loads of great data for media frequency and time spent… and pretty much every other data point you might need for your 2026 plans. And that’s why we’re publishing these reports “early”. We know many of you have already started work on next year’s plans – or you’ll be starting soon – so we thought we’d help out, by bringing you all of the freshest digital stats and trends today. Our main 2026 Global Overview Report is out today, and we’ll follow up with individual country reports in early November. Keep an eye on DataReportal for those – we’ll publish them there as soon as they’re ready. As always, please join me in thanking Meltwater and We Are Social for making these #GlobalDigitalReports possible, and for enabling us to share this content with you and the rest of the world for free. And similarly, please join me in thanking our wonderful research partners, whose hard work and generosity enable us to bring you this best-in-class data: ◽ GWI ◽ Statista ◽ Similarweb ◽ GSMA Intelligence ◽ Semrush ◽ Ookla ◽ Skai ◽ Socialinsider Some special thanks from me: ◽ Sarah Moey for all her hard work and support ◽ Nathan Menton at the ITU for his guidance and support ◽ Chase Buckle for his thoughts, ideas, and provocations Just before you get stuck in to the data, here’s a tip: at 12,000 words of analysis and 700 pages of data, this is *not* a quick read. And that’s intentional; there’s a *lot* to unpack and explore in this year’s report. Sure, you could get AI to summarise it all, but then you’ll get the same results as everyone else, and you’ll miss the insight that comes from critical reading and thinking. And you’ll probably see plenty of emoji-filled AI summaries on LinkedIn over the next few days anyway. So, don’t follow the herd. Set aside an hour to read the analysis in detail, and then let me know in the comments if you’d like to discuss any of the findings or your reactions in more detail. OK, here’s the link – enjoy! https://lnkd.in/gT9niPYR