"Streaming video may have disrupted an entire industry, but social media has disrupted the whole world."
In a 2023 report, professional services company Deloitte tried to gauge the future of disruptive online phenomena such as gaming, streaming, and especially social media.
The report looked at the increasing problems of profitability - streaming is much less profitable than cable TV, for instance, and content creators struggle to break through to virality and stable advertising deals.
The core takeaway is that users, content creators, and advertisers, coping with often inscrutable algorithms and rapidly shifting standards for virality, may seek to instead focus on growing, maintaining, and engaging smaller, more cohesive communities of fans and subscribers instead of trying to win over everyone online.
