Social media entered 2022 with 4.62 billion users globally, equaling more than 58% of the world’s population, with 424 million new users added since Jan. 1, 2021, said a Digital 2022 report released Wednesday by social media management platform Hootsuite and creative agency We Are Social. Facebook remains the world’s most used social platform, followed by YouTube and WhatsApp. Other findings: (1) Instagram’s ad reach jumped by 21% in the past year to nearly 1.5 billion monthly users; (2) People who own cryptocurrency jumped nearly 38%; (3) The COVID-19 pandemic-induced surge in e-commerce adoption rates shows no signs of abating, with nearly six in 10 “working-age internet users” now buying something online weekly.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets jumped in January from December, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Toluna canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes for the board through Jan. 19, finding 10.7% plan to buy a new TV set in the next six months, up from 9.9% in December, unchanged from 10.7% in November but down from 11.4% in January 2021. Consumer confidence fell 1.4 points in January after three straight months of gains, as consumers’ “short-term expectations” weakened, said the board. “Concerns about inflation declined for the second straight month, but remain elevated after hitting a 13-year high in November,” it said.

U.S. consumer spending on general merchandise ended 2021 up 15% from 2020, with a 6% increase in unit sales, reported NPD Monday. Though the holiday period contributed 9% revenue growth and 1% unit growth over the prior year, the early part of 2021 “delivered more significant year-over-year gains,” it said. “Consumers’ grab-it-when-you-see-it mentality, especially related to pandemic-driven needs has not gone away,” but has been “bolstered by the impact of the [COVID-19] omicron variant,” said Marshal Cohen, NPD chief retail industry adviser. Spending on the “here and now” that lifted retail sales throughout 2021, “offsetting challenges related to inventories, and higher average selling prices during the holiday shopping season,” he said. “Beyond comparisons to the most challenged retail months in 2020, gains in the early part of 2021 were further boosted by the government stimulus payments and students returning to the classroom,” said NPD. Each of the first two quarters of the year grew by double digits, “and combined they represented almost two-thirds of the growth for the year,” it said. Nearly 40% of 2021's revenue growth was in March and April, while Q4 accounted for just 20% of the year’s gains, compared with a 30% contribution in 2020, it said.

Juniper Research picked Shanghai as the world’s top smart city for 2022 for its “citizen cloud” data platform “as a one-stop point for over 1,000 different services for city residents,” said the firm Monday. Rounding out the top five were Seoul, Barcelona, Beijing and New York, based on their “transportation and infrastructure, energy and lighting, city management and technology, and urban connectivity,” it said.

Hisense revenue hit a record high in 2021, rising 33% to $27.2 billion, including a 43% bump in overseas sales to $11.3 billion, the company reported Friday. COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home trends spurred demand for the company’s premium ULED and laser TVs, it said. The company operated in 160 countries last year.

“The future looks bright” for hardware and accessories in the virtual- and augmented-reality consumer product category, based on “a very successful 2021 holiday period,” reported NPD Thursday. Sales of VR/AR hardware and accessories in the five weeks ended Christmas grew 180% in unit and 153% in dollar sales, compared with the same 2020 period, it said. NPD’s retail tracking service found growth for full-year 2021 was slightly lower than for the holiday, rising 163% in unit sales and 137% in revenue compared with 2020. “Consumers continue to look for unique entertainment experiences,” said Ben Arnold, NPD executive director-tech industry analyst. He speculated the VR/AR space “also likely benefited from challenges consumers faced in securing popular gaming consoles.” As new VR/AR devices become available, and the consumer base has an opportunity to grow, said Arnold, “we expect positive momentum in the year ahead -- starting with 32% revenue growth in the first half.”

Global information technology spending will rise 5.1% in 2022, topping $4.45 trillion, with communications services the largest segment, increasing 1.3% from 2021 to $1.46 trillion, reported Gartner Tuesday. Despite uncertain impacts from COVID-19's omicron variant, “economic recovery with high expectations for digital market prosperity will continue to boost technology investments,” it said.

Canalys and IDC published similar takes Wednesday on global PC industry performance for 2021. Canalys pegged 2021 unit shipments at 341 million, 15% higher than in 2020 and the highest volume since 2012. IDC, logging 14.8% market growth for the year to 349 million units, referenced a "return to form" for the category in 2021. Q4 shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations advanced by a point to 92 million units said Canalys, and revenue rose 11% in the quarter to $70 billion. It cited a "seismic transformation” in the industry, with a 13% two-year compound annual growth rate from 2019 underscoring the “importance of PCs” since the onset of the pandemic. Mobile PCs grew 16% in 2021 to 275 million units; desktops advanced 7% to 66 million, despite supply constraints. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a larger than normal proportion of PCs shipped have been new additions rather than replacement devices, led by education and remote work, said Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt. “While 2021 was the year of digital transformation, 2022 will be the year of digital acceleration,” said analyst Rushabh Doshi. “Demand for technology has boomed in the past two years, the effects of which continue to disrupt the supply chain, affecting not just availability of PCs, but also smartphones, automobiles and servers,” he noted. Though having a 6.5% year-on-year unit decline, Lenovo led the market in Q4 with total PC shipments of 21.7 million, while second-place HP sales slipped 3% year on year to 18.7 million. Dell unit sales rose 8.9% in the quarter to 59.3 million, followed by Apple at 7.8 million, up 9%, and Acer, which had a 6.7% increase to 6.6 million shipments. IDC, meanwhile, reported similar results for the top five, except for Acer (minus 7.7%), which it put in a statistical tie with Asus (plus 12.5% to 6.1 million) for fifth worldwide. IDC analyst Tom Mainelli said the PC market could have been larger if challenging logistics and ongoing supply-side shortages hadn't been factors. "We closed the year with many buyers still waiting for their PC orders to ship," Mainelli said, forecasting supply will remain constrained through the first half, especially in the commercial segment.

Physical goods will be 45% of subscription market value by 2022, Juniper reported Tuesday, citing consumers’ needs for reliable sources of medicines and daily essentials during the pandemic. The global value of the subscription economy is seen reaching $275 billion this year, up from $224 billion in 2021. Physical goods, digital video and digital music will be 75% of the global subscription market revenue this year, Juniper said, with music, video, spoken word and videogame streaming services making up 39%. The research firm said support for alternative payment methods is key to growing future subscription-based services. Subscription economy vendors should support multiple payment methods to boost end-user convenience, it said.

The global market value of the “subscription economy” will grow to $275 billion in 2022, rising 23% from the $224 billion in 2021, reported Juniper Research Tuesday. Physical goods will be "the largest subscription revenue opportunity and are expected to represent 45% of the global revenue” by the end of 2022, said Juniper: “Physical goods subscriptions have seen increased user demand, with users keen to secure reliable sources of medicines and daily essentials in the face of the pandemic.” Subscriptions to digital services, including music, video streaming, spoken word and videogames, “will be a major revenue stream," with 39% of global subscription market value in 2022, it said: “Increasing adoption of emerging new device types, such as smart speakers, and the increased availability of streaming content will drive further adoption.”