Activate Consulting Releases Annual Insights for Technology & Media with the 2023 Activate Outlook

Today we published the 2023 Activate Outlook for? Technology & Media. Founder and CEO Michael J. Wolf delivered the annual forecast for industry trends at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live Conference.

?As technologies continue to rapidly evolve and drive changing consumer habits, Activate Consulting’s proprietary analysis and large-scale consumer research serve as an invaluable guide to an industry often surrounded by hype. The report is a data-driven deep dive into the trends that are shaping the future of the most important spaces in technology and media, including the metaverse, video games, cryptocurrency, e-commerce, sports tech and digital fitness.

?As always, our insights are rooted in consumer behavior. Activate Consulting’s “Attention Clock” maps the time people spend during an actual day on all of their consumer technology and media activities.? This unlocks a wealth of data about consumers’ preferences, habits, and spending, and led us to one of the key insights from a past report: identifying “Super Users.” This consumer group, which makes up a little over one quarter of users, accounts for the majority of all time and money spent on digital media. Super Users continue to play a pivotal role in driving trends in 2023.

?Previous Activate Outlook reports also identified video games as the most likely path to the metaverse. Back in Oct 2020,we predicted that gaming would become the next tech paradigm for all digital entertainment and online activities, and by the following year, 60% of gamers had participated in non-game activities such as concerts and shopping. We also forecast that big tech would drive gaming M&A transactions. Soon afterwards, Microsoft acquired Activision and Take Two acquired Zynga, among many others. These trends will continue to form the foundation of the emerging metaverse, a space which will become increasingly essential to any media strategy.

?Here are some other key takeaways from the report:

• Global internet and media businesses will enjoy more than $400B growth dollars – from $2.3T to $2.7T between 2022 and 2026. Half of that growth will come from global advertising spend.
• Digital video consumption will be flat through 2026. However, individual daily social video consumption will grow from 47 minutes in 2022 to nearly an hour in 2026.
• The global video game market is expected to grow to nearly $220B by 2026, with over $50B generated in the U.S.
• Music: Significant growth in the global music industry will reach $94B in revenue by 2026, driven almost entirely by digital audio. That’s up from $78.7B in 2021.
• NFT hype is over, with less than a third of U.S. adults aware of what an NFT is. Sales peaked in August 2021 at $6.2B and were just $1.1B a year later. Post-hype, we expect a new set of more tangible use cases rooted in established technology and media behaviors (e.g. commerce, social).
• Sports betting continues to surge in the U.S., with total wagers nearly doubling year-over-year to reach $47B in the first half of 2022.

This Activate Outlook report not only focuses on the year ahead but also reflects on our previous predictions and how they shaped trends. Today's forecasts will significantly impact the technology and media industry as we approach 2023 and beyond.???

?Activate Consulting advises technology, sports, and media leaders how they can drive groundbreaking growth with analysis informed by complex data about their customers and competitors.

?We hope you find this report insightful and that it helps you harness the disruptive trends that drive growth in the dynamic media landscape.