If excited chatter of social media app TikTok hasn’t yet reached you, it soon will.
Since launching in 2017, the social video app has racked up more than one billion downloads worldwide (full disclosure: two of those came from me and my 11 year old son). Last year, it beat the likes of Instagram and Snapchat to be the world’s fourth most downloaded app.
Picture your local high street. Okay, now picture it ten years ago.
It’s changed a lot, right?
Believe it or not, virtual influencers are here and causing a stir. The likes of @LilMiquela, Shudhu and even KFC's Colonel Sanders are just some of the examples of CGI influencers gaining millions of followers and generating very real revenue and awareness for brands.
To say that the internet, and the eCommerce industry is spawned, has had a huge impact on the retail high street, is a bit like saying that iTunes (and then Spotify) had a rather large effect on CD and vinyl album sales. Or that the likes of Netflix proved to be a tad disruptive to the DVD rental market.
Global spending on subscription-based services and products is booming, powered by an ever-growing range of brands offering everything from media content, to specialist food and drink, apparel, and cosmetics.
