Recent Topics - Page 15

The global travel and tourism sector has undergone profound transformations over the last few decades, driven by the rise of the online travel market, the increasing role played by travel apps and mobile bookings, and the recent impact of artificial intelligence on travel. What has certainly not changed is people’s desire to plan their next trip, making the travel and tourism market one of the most competitive in the world. In 2024, travel and tourism's total contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) was approximately 11 trillion U.S. dollars, making up a 10 percent share of the total global GDP. What are the main global tourism destinations? When breaking down the total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP by country, the United States and China ranked as the leading travel markets worldwide. That said, France was the  destination with the highest number of inbound tourists worldwide, both before and after the pandemic. France's capital city, Paris, was also home to one of the most visited museums in the world, the Louvre, with nearly nine million visitors in 2024. What are the leading online travel companies? The global online travel market generated over 650 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2024, a figure that was forecast to grow steadily in the following years, exceeding the trillion-dollar mark by 2030. Some of the leading companies in the online travel market are Booking Holdings Inc. and Expedia Group, which use fare aggregators and metasearch engines to help their consumers find their preferred travel-related products and services. Meanwhile, Airbnb, one of the largest online marketplaces for short- and long-term homestays, has taken the accommodation world by storm since its founding over 15 years ago. How important is sustainable tourism? The United Nations report "Transport-Related CO₂ Emissions of the Tourism Sector" found that tourism was a significant contributor to climate change. Nowadays, a growing number of tourists have begun recognizing the negative impact their trips can have on affected regions. As a result, more and more global travelers believe in the importance of sustainable tourism and green choices. A 2025 survey revealed that over 80 percent of travelers worldwide believed that sustainable travel was important. However, this concern for the world's climate has not affected the growth of the tourism industry, which has rebounded since the pandemic and has seen annual growth in spending every year since.

Despite being widely regarded as a nation of homeowners, the United States has a well-developed rental market, with a growing rental housing stock. In 2025, roughly 46 million units in single-family or multifamily houses were occupied by renter households, roughly half as few as owner-occupied households in the U.S. The appeal of rental homes lies in their higher affordability and flexibility compared to homeownership. In the short term, renting is less expensive than buying a house, as it doesn't require a down payment. This makes it the go-to option among younger adults at the beginning of their careers or people with lower incomes. The high cost of finding an affordable apartment. Renting is most common in dense urban areas with competitive real estate markets. Finding an affordable apartment can be especially challenging in these places, where the average apartment rent is consistently higher than the national average. In Hawaii and California, median rents for a two-bedroom apartment exceeded other states by a wide margin in 2025, with both requiring an hourly wage of roughly 50 U.S. dollars to afford such a unit. Massachusetts and New York were other states with high rents. While these states offer rich opportunities and higher average wages, this can fall short of covering the rent needed for a two-bedroom apartment. In Hawaii, for example, renters would have to hold about two full-time jobs at mean wage to afford such an apartment, and no state allowed a minimum-wage worker to cover two-bedroom rent on a single full-time salary. Cooling rents, but not everywhere. While demand persists and investors' outlook is optimistic, rental growth has slowed from the levels observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of March 2026, the national average rent declined by about 1.65 percent year-over-year, yet more than half of U.S. states continued to see rental prices rise, with North Dakota registering the highest increase at over seven percent. Among major metros, San Francisco led rental growth, while Austin, TX, experienced the steepest decline as a wave of multifamily housing completions reached their highest level since 1987. The U.S. rental market is poised to grow as homebuying remains unattainable for the average American. As of 2025, only about one in eight renter households could afford to purchase a median-priced home, down from roughly one in six before the pandemic. While the days of double-digit annual increases in rental rates have ended for now, growth in metros with housing shortages is expected to continue.

Single-family homes account for the lion's share of the U.S. housing stock, and they're at the center of nearly every debate about affordability, construction, and the future of American neighborhoods. In the United States, the majority of housing units are single-family houses – about 86 million out of the total 135 million occupied units in 2024. Over the past decade, there were between roughly four and seven million sales of existing homes completed annually in the U.S. Newly built homes constitute a significantly smaller share of the market. Fewer single-family homes in the future? House prices have increased year-on-year since 2011, with the median price of an existing single-family home surpassing 400,000 U.S. dollars in 2025. That is widely attributed to construction struggling to meet the demand coming from the formation of new households and leading to a chronic shortage of newly built housing. Despite having grown steadily in recent years, the number of permits for the construction of new single-family homes has not recovered since plummeting in 2005. Like many other industries, the challenges facing the construction industry are many: inflation, surging construction costs, and mortgage rates. Where demand outpaces available land. Another major limitation is that single-family homes require space, and this space is often not available where it is needed. Zoning is often criticized for inhibiting construction by limiting housing density through minimum lot sizes, height limits, and the restriction on different building types. Oregon, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine are some of the states that have already taken action, by eliminating single-family zoning, changing parking requirements, or updating the state's land use law. On a local level, Minneapolis, Raleigh, and Spokane have also made progress with the reform. Bigger homes, tighter budgets. American homes have gotten larger over the years. In 1975, a new home had an average floor area of about 1,660 square feet. By 2024, this figure had grown to roughly 2,400 square feet, though recent years have seen a slight reversal as builders opt for smaller footprints. Owning a house that is big enough is especially important for families with children, but the price tag coming with a large property can be a discouraging factor. That is possibly the reason why the age group most likely to buy a home bigger than the average was 35 to 44-year-olds. In 2024, about 379,000 new houses came with a patio and porch, making it the leading outdoor feature combination in the United States. With sales volumes stagnating and prices climbing, the gap between what buyers want and what they can afford continues to widen.

The continued growth of the global e-commerce market is one of the main drivers for the projected near doubling of the last-mile delivery market in less than a decade. After the arrival of goods at high-capacity freight stations or ports, they need to be transported to their final destination. This last leg of the supply chain is often referred to as the “last-mile.” Last-mile logistics in supply chain management and transportation planning describe s this movement of goods from a transportation hub to their final delivery destination. Destinations for these goods include private homes as well as businesses. Delivery costs driving innovation. As of 2023, it was estimated that on average the last-mile delivery of goods accounted for over half of total shipping costs. This creates a strong incentive for logistics companies to invest in efficiency improvements for this segment of the delivery journey. In Europe, around three-quarters of last-mile-delivery costs are made up by labor and fuel costs, which is where some of the most visible innovations can be observed, with delivery service providers experimenting with smaller vehicles, shifting to electric propulsion, and testing autonomous solutions. In Germany, the use of cargo bikes for delivery has grown exponentially, while small autonomous delivery robots can increasingly be seen on streets from Los Angeles to Singapore. By 2028, the market for autonomous delivery is projected to have grown to over 51 billion U.S. dollars. Logistics companies will also be looking at the potential future cost savings of adopting autonomous technologies that are largely still at the testing stage: Delivery by autonomous electric trucks versus human-driven diesel trucks may more than halve delivery costs, while the cost of small parcel delivery by autonomous drone could lead to cost savings of around 95 percent compared to human delivery. Consumers continue to prefer traditional delivery methods. Nearly half of all parcels delivered to consumers are still delivered to the door, but parcel lockers are gaining traction as a delivery method. This method allows deliverers to pool delivery of a larger number of parcels to one location, where delivery is possible regardless of the customers’ availability, which improves efficiency and reduces costs. Globally, only a quarter of consumers are using parcel delivery stations, and even fewer are interested in using autonomous delivery options in the future. Only around 15 percent of consumers would prefer delivery by drone or robot, compared to over half of consumers still preferring traditional delivery methods, such as by a postal worker in a fossil-fuel-powered van. While younger generations are generally more open to newer delivery options, the majority still prefers delivery by a human. Delivery companies will have to convince their consumers to accept alternative delivery methods if they want to take advantage of the cost savings of these last-mile delivery solutions. 

Tobacco remains one of the world's most widely grown non-food crops, with global production exceeding six million metric tons. Despite tightening health regulations and shifting consumer preferences, the crop continues to play a critical economic role in dozens of countries, particularly across Asia, South America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. China alone accounts for roughly a third of worldwide output, followed by India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Where the tobacco leaf grows and who's buying. Although China is the largest producer of tobacco worldwide, Brazil leads global unmanufactured tobacco exports. India, Zimbabwe, and the United States also rank among the top exporters by volume, supplying multinational manufacturers that process leaf into cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless products. On the buying side, China and Germany are among the largest importers of unmanufactured tobacco. Tobacco farming in China is heavily concentrated in the southwestern provinces. In 2024, Yunnan province produced roughly 40 percent of China's total output. To put that in perspective, Yunnan alone produces more tobacco than any single country except India and Brazil. Steady output despite shrinking farmland. The footprint of tobacco farming has been contracting for more than two decades. The global harvested area fell from over four million hectares in 2000 to around 3.3 million hectares in 2024, driven by anti-tobacco policies, crop diversification programs, and urbanization. Productivity gains, however, have partly offset this decline: improved seed varieties, precision agriculture techniques, and better curing practices have helped farmers maintain competitive yields even on smaller plots. A declining habit, a resilient industry. Global cigarette consumption, which peaked in 2009, has continued its downward trend as health awareness and regulation expand. Yet tobacco companies have managed to keep revenues growing through pricing power and a pivot toward smoke-free products like heated tobacco units and nicotine pouches. This strategic shift signals that the tobacco industry's future increasingly hinges on alternatives to combustible cigarettes, even as the global market's sheer scale ensures its relevance for years to come. 

Brazil's thriving agricultural sector is a testament to its vast land area and abundant natural resources. This sector has contributed significantly to the country's economy. The country is a world leader in coffee production and export, sugar cane production, soybean production and export, and orange production just to name a few. In 2024, agriculture's value added to Brazil's GDP reached close to 99 billion U.S. dollars, reflecting the sector's long-term upward trajectory despite year-over-year fluctuations. A global force in crop production. Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world in terms of area, occupying more than 8.5 million square kilometers. With nearly eight percent of its area devoted to agriculture, the country has established itself as a major grain grower, particularly cereals, beans, and oilseeds. In 2024, the country's agricultural production value amounted to roughly 204 billion U.S. dollars. Soybean is the leading crop in Brazil, representing about a third of the national crop output value. This crop has experienced continuous growth, pushing Brazil to become the largest soybean producer in the world, surpassing the United States. Corn, sugar cane, and the biofuels connection. Corn and sugar cane are two other significant crops in Brazilian agriculture, together accounting for close to a quarter of the country's agricultural production value in 2024. While corn has shown clear growth in terms of production volume, sugar cane has fluctuated somewhat despite having a larger production volume. Apart from its importance in sugar production, the country also uses sugar cane as the main feedstock in ethanol fuel production. Given the sustained growth of the Brazilian biofuels industry since the 2000s, sugar cane has become a strategic crop among the various agricultural commodities that Brazil provides to the world. In crop year 2025/26, sugar cane production in Brazil was forecast to approach 666 million metric tons. An equally strong livestock segment. Brazil's livestock sector is just as formidable as its crop production. The country ranks as the world's largest producer of beef and veal, followed by the United States, while also leading the planet as the top exporter of both beef and broiler meat. Cattle, poultry, and swine operations span vast stretches of the interior, and total meat exports have climbed steadily since a brief dip in 2017 caused by quality concerns. That recovery underscores how central animal protein has become to Brazil's trade balance, with meat ranking as the country's second-largest agribusiness export category behind soy.

Europe's e-commerce market has continued to expand as digital adoption and shifting purchasing habits have reinforced online retail's role, with revenue projected to reach roughly 674 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. Within the EU alone,  B2C e-commerce revenue is expected to surpass 436 billion U.S. dollars the same year. Rising penetration reshaping the retail landscape. Online shopping has become a mainstream behavior across the region, with the EU's e-commerce penetration rate projected to reach over 66 percent in 2025. This widespread adoption is supported by a growing user base, with more than 266 million e-commerce users expected in the EU in 2025. On the business side, e-commerce now accounts for close to a fifth of total enterprise revenue across the bloc. Uneven growth across EU member states. Despite overall expansion, the European market has remained fragmented, with leading economies driving a significant share of total revenue. Germany has led with around 95 billion U.S. dollars in e-commerce revenue, followed by France and Italy, highlighting regional disparities. These differences have reflected varying levels of digital maturity, infrastructure, and consumer trust across countries. Digital wallets, home delivery, and weekly grocery runs. Consumers across Europe have increasingly prioritized convenience in their online shopping journeys. Digital wallets accounted for the largest share of e-commerce transaction value in Europe in 2025, ahead of credit and debit cards. When it comes to fulfillment, home delivery remains the preferred method for most European online shoppers, though about a third opt for out-of-home alternatives like parcel lockers. Fresh food and beverages top the list of most frequently purchased product categories, with nearly a third of digital buyers shopping for them at least once a week. Smartphones taking the lead. E-commerce in Europe has evolved into a mature yet still growing market. Smartphones have overtaken desktops as the leading e-commerce sales channel in the EU, capturing half of all online sales in 2024. As mobile commerce, flexible payment options, and cross-border logistics continue to improve, digital retail is becoming more deeply embedded in everyday consumer life across the continent.

From commercials featuring world-famous celebrities to a halftime show performed by music’s biggest stars, the NFL’s Super Bowl has become much more than just a game of football. One of the biggest events on the sporting calendar, millions of viewers in the United States tune in each year to watch the champions of the AFC and the NFC compete for the coveted Vince Lombardy Trophy. What are the Super Bowl's most successful franchises? The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots are the most successful teams when looking at Super Bowl wins, having each won the Super Bowl an NFL -best six times. Following their victory in 2026, the Seattle Seahawks claimed their second title in franchise history, moving level with six other franchises that have won the Super Bowl on two occasions. In 2026, the prize money for title-winning players amounted to 188,000 U.S. dollars, while players on the losing team received a consolation of 113,000 U.S. dollars for missing out on a Super Bowl ring. Super Bowl commercials. Given the massive exposure of the Super Bowl, it is unsurprising that the event generates millions of dollars in advertising revenue for the NFL. The advertising revenue from the 2025 Super Bowl, for example, stood at a record 800 million U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, the  cost of an average 30-second ad spot during the Super Bowl broadcast was an estimated eight million U.S. dollars in 2026. When it came to the most popular type of Super Bowl commercials, funny ads were the overwhelming choice among viewers in the United States in an October 2024 survey. Some of the most memorable Super Bowl ads in 2026 included commercials such as Pepsi reigniting the so-called “Cola Wars” with Coca-Cola and Chris Hemsworth fighting a bear and AI during the new Amazon Alexa+ ad.  How much do consumers spend during the Super Bowl? Super Bowl-related consumer spending in the U.S. stood at about 20.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2026, while average consumer spending on Super Bowl Sunday amounted to 94.77 U.S. dollars. This expenditure included food and drink, televisions, team apparel, decorations, and bets placed on the game. In total, the amount wagered on the Super Bowl in sports books in Nevada in 2025 exceeded 151 million U.S. dollars. The Seahawks put an end to the Patriots' hopes. Super Bowl LX took place in the Levi's Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers. This marked the 3rd time that Santa Clara had hosted the championship game, far away from Louisiana and Miami in terms of cities who have hosted the Super Bowl the most times. Lev's Stadium has an estimated capacity of just over 68,500, making it one of the lowest capacity stadiums in the NFL. In front of an official attendance of 70,823, the Seattle Seahawks claimed their second Super Bowl title, beating the New England Patriots, who were aiming to become the first franchise in history to win seven Super Bowl titles. Those fans in attendance may have paid significant money for the privilege, with ticket prices for the Super Bowl on the secondary market reaching into the thousands every year. While this contributes to the ever-growing revenue of the NFL, there is a danger that the average football fan will be priced out of the sport and the potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of seeing their team compete for the greatest prize in the NFL.

The duty-free and travel retail industry has staged a steady recovery since the pandemic, with global sale s estimated at 76.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, still trailing the pre-pandemic peak of 86.4 billion U.S. dollars recorded in 2019. Rising passenger volumes are the main driver of this recovery. In 2024, the global airline industry boarded approximately 4.8 billion passengers, surpassing the previous record of 4.5 billion set in 2019. Airport retail as a revenue engine. Major international hubs generate significant income from their retail operations. Heathrow Airport's retail revenue topped 790 million British pounds in 2025, with concession sales driving the bulk of that figure. Globally, airports with the heaviest international passenger traffic continue to benefit from captive foot traffic, making retail concessions a critical pillar of airport economics. Luxury and beauty dominate the shopping basket. Consumer spending patterns highlight a clear preference for high-value categories. In 2024, luxury items commanded the highest average spend per shopper globally at 326 U.S. dollars, followed by beauty at 121 U.S. dollars. Shoppers from the Asia-Pacific region outspent their global counterparts on luxury, averaging 364 U.S. dollars, while Middle Eastern travelers led beauty spending at 196 U.S. dollars. Conversion rates – the share of browsers who made a purchase – reached 67 percent for confectionery globally in 2024, with the Middle East posting the highest rate at 83 percent, suggesting that impulse-driven categories remain a reliable revenue driver. Personal use keeps driving duty-free demand. Understanding why travelers shop duty-free reveals a market still anchored in personal consumption. In 2025, 55 percent of international travelers cited own use as motivation, while 23 percent purchased products as gifts. At the same time, barriers to purchase have not disappeared: 17 percent of non-buyers said they were unwilling to carry more luggage, while 16 percent each cited higher prices compared to home and a lack of motivating discounts. Notably, general internet searches were the top channel for pre-shopping exposure in 2025, which suggests that digital touchpoints increasingly shape purchase decisions before travelers even reach the store.

The gambling market in Latin America reflects the diversity of the region, with each country possessing different legislation to regulate sports betting, lotteries, and casinos. Despite the challenges posed by such a fragmented legal framework, the gross gaming revenue (GGR) of the betting market in Latin America is predicted to increase by almost 2.5 billion U.S. dollars between 2026 and 2030. When looking at online GGR in Latin America, a December 2025 study forecast considerable growth between 2021 and 2027. This growth was mainly driven by just three countries: Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. That being said, this scenario was largely dependent on Brazil’s successful adoption of online gambling regulations that were implemented in the last decade.  Will Brazil keep leading the gambling market in Latin America? In 2018, a federal law was approved in Brazil that legalized online betting and set a four-year window to regulate the local market. This was a turning point for the biggest economy in Latin America, a country that banned gambling activities for long. By 2030, the  gross gaming revenue in sports betting in Brazil  is forecast to surpass five billion U.S. dollars, standing already at 4.12 billion. Meanwhile, according to Statista’s Digital Market Outlook, the South American giant reported the highest revenue from casino game apps among Latin American countries, generating nearly 32.46 million U.S. dollars via this segment in 2025. When looking at  Brazilians’ preferred online casino games in a February 2025 poll, slightly more than half of the respondents mentioned roulette. Additionally, soccer was by far the most popular sport among Brazilian bettors by revenue.   Latin American gamblers’ behavior and preferences. Considering that gambling laws and regulations differ significantly across the region, a February 2025 study focused on understanding the share of bettors in selected Latin American countries. While in Colombia, the first Latin American market to regulate online gambling, 66 percent of online bettors respondents claimed to have placed a bet at least once a week; only 54 percent in Chile had done so. In contrast, when asked about the main factors influencing the choice of a gambling service provider, consumers from different countries agreed on similar preferences, with approximately a third of respondents in Argentina, Chile, and Peru valuing free bets or special offers.

The global electricity market is undergoing a major transformation, driven by rising demand, clean energy expansion, and infrastructure challenges. As the demand of power for electric vehicles, data centers, and global industries fuels electricity use, countries like China, the U.S., and India lead global growth. Electricity consumption worldwide rose from around 7,300 terawatt-hours in 1980 to over 27,000 terawatt-hours in 2024. What drives the biggest consumers? The world's three largest electricity consumers, China, the United States, and India, are also the three most populous nations, and population size goes a long way in explaining aggregate demand. Beyond sheer scale, China's electricity-intensive manufacturing base, the high per-capita usage in the United States fueled by large homes and widespread air conditioning, and India's accelerating urbanization all shape national totals. On a per-capita basis, however, the picture shifts sharply: Iceland topped European per-capita rankings at nearly 52 megawatt-hours per person in 2024, a figure underpinned by low-cost renewable power, cold-climate heating needs, and energy-intensive aluminum smelting, with Norway following at around 25 megawatt-hours per person. Data centers emerge as a major demand driver. One of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand has been the data center sector, fueled by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing globally. Data centers consumed 415 terawatt-hours in 2024, representing 1.5 percent of total global electricity use, and that figure is forecast to more than double to 945 terawatt-hours by 2030, the equivalent of three percent of projected global consumption. The United States and China together account for the bulk of this growth. Clean power gains ground, but fossil fuels persist. To keep up with the growing demand, global electricity generation reached a high of over 30,000 terawatt-hours in 2024, almost triple the annual output in the early 1990s. As countries seek to reduce their carbon footprint, clean electricity generation has seen an increase in the past decade, accounting for almost 40 percent of the total generation in 2024. Renewable power production, particularly from solar and wind, now accounts for over 30 percent of the global power supply, marking a major shift away from fossil fuels. Use of renewables has been growing year-on-year, with an increase of over 10 percent between 2010 and 2024. However, fossil fuels are still the main source of electricity generation worldwide. Coal, the highest greenhouse gas emitter of the group, accounted for around 34 percent of the global power mix. That same year, the global installed electricity capacity from fossil fuels reached roughly 4.8 terawatts, still larger than the installed renewable capacity of 4.4 terawatts. As the world's top consuming regions continue to expand their grids and renewables capacity, managing the intersection of digital power demand and the clean energy transition will remain the defining challenge for the global electricity sector in the coming decade.

The cost of living in the United States has remained a persistent burden since a wave of price acceleration took hold in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which helped push annual inflation to a 40-year high of eight percent. While the rate moderated to 2.6 percent in 2025, monthly inflation re-accelerated to 3.3 percent in March 2026, driven in part by a sharp energy price increase that pushed gasoline prices sharply higher following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the  U.S.-Israel war with Iran, adding renewed pressure on household budgets. The cost of living gap across states. Where an American lives has a strong impact on everyday expenses. In 2025, Hawaii recorded the steepest state costs, with a composite index of 183.9, more than double that of the least expensive states. These gaps reflect a mix of factors including housing supply constraints, population density, geographic isolation, and local labor market conditions. Regional spending patterns from 2024 reinforce these differences: households in the western United States spent 92,625 U.S. dollars on average per year, compared to 70,376 U.S. dollars in the south. Housing and food squeeze budgets nationwide. Housing has become the defining cost burden for American households. In 2024, housing led consumer spending at 33.4 percent of total expenditure, averaging 26,266 U.S. dollars per consumer unit, and the consumer price index for rent of primary residence reached 435 index points in 2025. Approximately 42.3 percent of renters paid more than 35 percent of their gross income on rent that year. Average food spending per household rose to 10,169 U.S. dollars in 2024, nearly 39 percent higher than in 2020, compounding the strain on lower-income Americans. Can consumers feel relief ahead? Consumer morale has suffered as a result. Sentiment fell to 53.3 in March 2026, well below pre-2022 levels, and only 31 percent of U.S. adults approved of President Trump's handling of the cost of living issue as of November 2025. With annual inflation projected to ease toward 2.2 percent by 2027, a gradual improvement in purchasing power remains possible, but the cumulative price increases since 2022 have left a lasting mark on what Americans pay to live.

Social media is not just for connecting with friends; now brands meet customers there, and trends are born on these platforms. As social media advertising spending is projected to continue to grow during the second half of the decade, buying behavior is consistently impacted by likes, comments, and shares. In a 2025 survey, generative AI, connected TV, and TikTok/social video were the top three leading consumer trends according to marketers worldwide, making social channels unavoidable for most advertising strategies. Meta's dominance and the race for ad dollars. As of September 2025, Facebook and Instagram were the social media platforms with the highest return on investment (ROI), according to global marketers. This demonstrates how, despite the rise of new platforms like TikTok, Meta remains a dominant force within the industry.  Meta's annual advertising revenue surpassed 196 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, reflecting continued double-digit growth. As of January 2025, over four in five marketers surveyed worldwide said increased exposure was a leading benefit of social media marketing, making it essential for any media strategy. The relevance of these channels expands beyond the realms of retail and direct-to-consumer (DTC) business models, as LinkedIn was also mentioned as the most important social media platform for B2B marketers. Billions of users, countless touchpoints. A global survey conducted in the second quarter of 2025 revealed that half of internet users rely on social media for contacting with friends and family. Nearly two in five use it in their spare time, making it clear that social media is a key part of most internet users' routines. Facebook remained the most-used social media platform as of October 2025, with about 3.07 billion monthly active users (MAUs). Instagram and YouTube followed with roughly three billion and over 2.5 billion MAUs, respectively. All three platforms lean heavily on video content, demonstrating the popularity of the video format within the social media segment. Meanwhile, influencer and celebrity advertising continues to drive purchasing decisions across dozens of markets worldwide, and a significant share of internet users turn to social media for brand research before making purchases. What the numbers signal for marketers. With global social media users projected to approach 5.75 billion in 2026, the audience pool keeps expanding. The convergence of AI-powered ad tools, rising ad impressions, and platform competition suggests that social media's share of marketing budgets will only deepen in the years ahead.

Packaging is one of the main applications of plastic materials globally, accounting for roughly 35 percent of total global plastic consumption. Indeed, plastics have become essential to the global packaging industry thanks to their versatility, durability, low cost, and lightweight properties. In 2025, the global plastic packaging market was valued at over 432 billion U.S. dollars, underscoring the strong economic impact of this market. How plastic conquered the packaging aisle. The increased global demand for plastic in recent decades has seen it become one of the main materials used within the packaging industry, replacing more traditional options like paper, metal, and glass across many products. Global plastics production surpassed 430 million metric tons in 2024, feeding steady demand from sectors including pharmaceutical and medical packaging, which alone was worth over 62 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. Plastic packaging is produced from various polymer types, with each having characteristics for specific applications. For example, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is commonly used to make containers for cleaning supplies due to its chemical resistance, while polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is primarily used for beverage bottles. Polypropylene packaging films represent another fast-growing segment. The industry's biggest players are U.S.-headquartered: Amcor leads with annual revenue exceeding 15 billion U.S. dollars, followed closely by Berry Global. Sustainability pressures reshaping the market. Although many types of plastic are technically recyclable, only a small amount gets recycled globally due to various different barriers. As a result, there has been increased consumer skepticism of many plastic products due to the environmental impact plastic waste has on the planet, with packaging facing considerable scrutiny. Growing plastic pollution has become an urgent environmental crisis, with governments worldwide introducing bans and taxes on products to reduce waste. The global sustainable plastic packaging market was valued at roughly 124 billion U.S. dollars in 2025 and is forecast to surpass 327 billion U.S. dollars by 2035. Bioplastic production capacity for packaging is also expanding, and many consumer brands are targeting a reduction in virgin plastic use while increasing the share of post-consumer recycled content. With sustainable alternatives growing at more than double the rate of the overall plastic packaging market, the industry's long-term trajectory will likely depend on how quickly circular economy solutions can scale.

With packaging materials consumed in large quantities worldwide, using materials with more sustainable traits, such as being biodegradable, reusable, or recyclable, is increasingly important to mitigate mounting waste management issues. The sustainable packaging market, valued at over 310 billion dollars in 2025, has grown over recent years and is forecast to increase further, surpassing 590 billion U.S. dollars by 2035. Growth in the global sustainable packaging sector, driven by consumer preferences for reducing environmental impact, is fueling change in the broader packaging market, worth roughly 1.28 trillion U.S. dollars in 2025. From bioplastics to recycled glass: a widening materials mix. Materials used in the sustainable packaging subsector include bio-based plastics, paper and organic materials, glass, and metal, among many others. The global bioplastic production capacity for packaging stood at nearly 2.3 million metric tons in 2025, with further growth expected through 2030. Packaging accounts for roughly 35 percent of global plastic consumption, making it the largest single application and a key target for sustainability efforts. Beyond plastics, the recycled glass market was valued at over 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, while the  organic substrate packaging market reached nearly 16.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. The  sustainable plastic packaging segment alone topped 124 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. Big brands raising the bar on recyclability. Major companies in the packaging sector are already adapting to growing consumer preferences for sustainable packaging through the uptake of new materials in their manufacturing process. Nestlé, for example, reported that 61 percent of their plastic packaging based on weight was reusable, recyclable, or compostable in 2024, while Danone achieved 76 percent that same year. When it comes to consumer packaging priorities, food safety ranked highest globally, though over half of respondents also flagged shelf life as extremely or very important. Regional perceptions on what counts as "green". Consumer perceptions of sustainable packaging in Europe and the U.S. ranked glass bottles and jars the highest when asked to indicate the most environmentally sustainable packaging types. There were variations regionally, with glass bottle and jar options leading the way among 55 percent of U.S. respondents, whilst respondents from Europe showed a 60 percent agreement towards the view. As regulations tighten and material innovation accelerates, the gap between conventional and sustainable packaging is likely to keep narrowing, pushing the industry closer to a circular model.

The labor market is in a state of continuous adjustment. For instance, whereas agriculture was the sector that employed the  highest number of people up until the millennium, a majority of the world's employees now work in the service sector. These trends come as technological developments have changed the way we work, and the fourth industrial revolution is creating new opportunities and challenges for the labor market of the future. Which trends can be observed in the current global labor market, and what will global employment look like in the future? Hybrid work, temporary contracts, and change of employers. One notable trend of the modern labor market is people changing jobs more frequently than previously. For decades, it was common for many to stay in one job their whole lives. Today, however, more and more people are changing jobs several times during their career, both due to salaries, new career opportunities, flexibility, and benefits. This also comes as people tend to move more frequently than previously. Furthermore, the use of hybrid or remote work has become the main model within many industries, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, working from home remains impossible for many, such as people working in the agricultural and industrial sectors, as well as for health and social care workers. Additionally, the use of  temporary contracts and freelancers has become more frequent during the past decade. This offers increasing flexibility to both employers and employees in terms of changing jobs and recruitment, but on the downside, employees working short-term or freelance constantly need to look for new jobs and missions. Furthermore, social securities are usually weaker for freelancers than among employees with a fixed contract, and getting a loan can be difficult without a permanent contract. The global labor force: A tale of regional differences. Interestingly, whereas the total number of employees worldwide increased over the past decades, the employment-to-population ratio actually decreased. This is explained by a large young population in countries in the Global South, as well as more and more people in developed countries being past working age. Furthermore, there are considerable regional differences on several parameters; for instance, whereas the Arab countries have the highest unemployment rates, North America has the lowest. Among the countries with the highest unemployment rates, a high number is found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Another regional difference exists in terms of sectoral employment; almost half of the employees in East Asia were employed in the service sector, underlining the region's booming economic development and rapidly changing employment structure. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, on the other hand, a majority of the employed still work in agriculture, showing the regions’ lack of technological and industrial development. Labor market of the future: Will AI turn how we work upside down? Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged over the past years as a technology that creates both opportunities and challenges for employers and employees alike. On the one hand, it can automate processes and allow people to work more efficiently, thereby allowing companies to save costs. On the other hand, many fear that their jobs will be replaced by AI, thus becoming obsolete to the labor market. Especially the emergence of generative AI has raised concerns about its possible impact on employees. While it is still too early to know the exact impact of AI on the global labor market, employees will have to adapt to the ever-changing labor market also in the future.

Traditional media is no longer at the forefront of consumers’ minds in the United Kingdom. Ever since 2015, when digital entertainment retail sales have surpassed traditional formats, online media formats have been in the lead. Today, people commonly use the internet on any device for watching TV content, listening to music, and engaging with social media. What are consumers in the UK doing on the internet? More than 97 percent of households in the country have access to the internet; using it on mobile devices and laptops, as well as engaging in online gaming, streaming video, and streaming music, are the top media activities in the UK. Most of the online time spent is being devoted to entertainment, with a fraction of time spent on school and professional work. Additionally, among younger audiences in the UK, social media is also the top choice of digital activity. When it comes to online content streaming, the global key players come out on top. On-demand video streaming in the UK happens mostly via the larger platforms, such as Amazon Prime and Netflix; however, 2024 and 2025 show that national providers are also getting stronger in the game. Music streaming is also done via the usual suspects, including Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, and YouTube Music. In this regard, the streaming market in the UK follows global trends. Are all traditional media formats losing ground in the UK? Some forms of traditional media in the country are declining more than others when it comes to usage, which is especially visible in the case of TV. In recent years, the number of TV households in the UK has steadily grown; however, the time spent watching television has been constantly decreasing. Interestingly, radio listenership has followed this trend.  Digital radio format usage is growing, while the share of AM/FM radio listening time is falling. Print media and offline news are also dear to consumers in the United Kingdom. Among the former, books are the most commonly purchased in the country. And when it comes to information consumption, non-online news sources are considered more important among the population. In general, media users in the United Kingdom are not straying far from the global trend of migrating towards digital formats to substitute traditional media. However, the UK seems to continue to value various legacy mediums, and some could prove lucrative for advertisers. Radio, in particular, could be a sound investment for advertisers seeking new ways to reach the British public offline.

The Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, with the opening ceremony being held in the San Siro Stadium on February 6th, are set to be the first of their kind to be held in multiple cities between the regions of Lombardia, Veneto, and Trentino-Alto Adige. In comparison with the  Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, it also adds a new discipline: Ski Mountaineering, often referred to as skimo, after debuting in the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. With it, medals will be given across 16 different disciplines: Biathlon, Bobsleigh, Cross-Country Skiing, Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ice Hockey, Luge, Nordic Combined Speed Skating, Short Track Speed Skating, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Ski Mountaineering, and Snowboarding. Norway—still the undisputed champion. After Beijing 2022, Norway topped the list of all-time gold medals for the Winter Olympic Games (148), with a sizable lead over the United States (113) and Germany (112), in second and third place, respectively. The Nordic country has created a strong legacy in the Winter Games, being one of the only countries with more medals in the winter edition than in the summer. This legacy was mainly built with strong performances in cross-country skiing and speed skating, but it was not limited to both disciplines. During the last games, Norway reached 37 medals with 16 golds, of which six came from biathlon.   Taking advantage of the pre-existing infrastructure. The economic impact of major one-time sports events has been under scrutiny in the last couple of decades. There’s been major public outcry over some major constructions, for example, in the Brazil 2014 World Cup, over the so-called “white elephants” of Arena da Amazonia, Arena Pantanal, or Estadio Nacional de Brasília Mané Garrincha, or the record high investment of Qatar 2022, with over 200 billion U.S. dollars invested in infrastructure with little to no use after this major event. These problems have also been present in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, with Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014 being the winter games with the highest level of investment, with the latter being the highest investment among all Olympic competitions.     As already happened before the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, cities are more reluctant to bid themselves as host city candidates for the next Olympic Games, providing opportunities for  more sustainable models in cities with existing infrastructure. That is partly the case of Milano-Cortina, advancing towards utilizing already existing venues while investing only in a few new venues like the PalaItalia Santa Giulia (Milano Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena) or the Cortina Sliding Centre “Eugenio Monti”. Nonetheless, the games are not without criticism and concerns, mainly due to the hockey arena not being finished and delaying preparatory matches.  

Cement is the essential binding agent in concrete, the world's most widely used construction material.  Global cement production has grown substantially over the past three decades, reaching an estimated 3.8 billion metric tons in 2025. While overall output has trended downward slightly from a recent peak, regional demand growth forecasts diverge sharply through 2030: Sub-Saharan Africa and India are projected to record the strongest gains, while East Asia faces a considerable expected decline. China leads, but stagnation sets in. China has long been the largest cement producer by an enormous margin, producing an estimated 1.7 billion metric tons in 2025, nearly four times the output of second-ranked India at 470 million metric tons. However, China's cement output has been on a downward trajectory since its mid-2010s peak, and the decline accelerated sharply, with production looking to decline further in 2025. Vietnam surpassed the United States to rank as the world's third-largest producer in 2025, driven by strong output growth in Southeast Asia. Switzerland-headquartered Holcim led the field in global revenue rankings for 2024, illustrating the continued influence of Western multinationals alongside Asian players. Decarbonization moves from pledge to action. Due to the extreme heat required to produce clinker, the cement sector is one of the largest industrial emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2). Global CO2 emissions from cement reached approximately 1.47 billion metric tons in 2024, a figure that more than doubled since the turn of the century. Nevertheless, emissions have declined since their peak of about 1.7 billion metric tons in 2021. In Europe, regulatory pressure intensified as the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) entered a key phase: from January 2026, free carbon allocations for the EU cement industry began to be reduced as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) introduced full financial obligations for cement importers. On the technology side, 2025 marked a historic milestone when Heidelberg Materials commissioned its industrial-scale carbon capture facility at Brevik, Norway, the first of its kind in the cement sector, with a capacity to capture an estimated 400,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. These developments suggest the industry's transition from commitment to action is well underway, though the financial and logistical scale of the challenge remains considerable. 

The global gross domestic product (GDP) faced a major crisis in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic had a massive impact on the global economy, bringing trade to an immediate halt. However, the GDP quickly started increasing again in 2021. With the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran in February 2026 and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the world could be facing another period of economic downturn. What is understood under the concept of GDP, which trends have been observed over the past years, and what do the current forecasts say about the future development of the GDP around the world? What is GDP? The term GDP was first developed in the United States in the 1930s, when Simon Kuznets, an American Economist, statistician, and Nobel Prize laureate, came up with an idea to assess the size of the economy by combining the financial value of individuals, companies, and the government. After the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP was officially adopted by many financial institutions and regulators as a tool for measuring a country’s economy, and it has become the international standard since the 1990s. At present, GDP is defined as the monetary value of all goods and services produced in a given country or region within a specified time period. The emergence of China as the world's second largest economy. The most notable development regarding GDP during the last decades has been China’s rapid economic growth. Following economic reforms under President Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, China emerged from being one of the poorest countries in the world to becoming the second largest economy worldwide in 2010. Today, only the United States has a larger economy in terms of GDP than China. Another notable development is the economic stagnation of some of the world's developed economies. For instance, Japan, the world’s second-largest economy up until 2010, has been struggling with slow and at times even negative economic growth since the early 1990s. The three decades since have thus been dubbed the Lost Decades. Additionally, the largest economy of Europe, Germany, has been struggling with economic stagnation in 2023 and 2024 as the rapid increase in the gas price following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had a highly negative impact on its economy. Prior to the invasion, the German economy relied on imports of cheap natural gas from Russia. Moreover, industrial giants such as Volkswagen have been struggling recently amid high inflation rates, uncertain economic circumstances, and the emergence of new players in the automotive market. A shift of the global economic balance? Due to the slow economic growth of the developed economies and rapid growth of developing economies, the BRICS+ countries (Brazil, China, India, Russia, South Africa, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) have now overtaken the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) by share of the world’s total GDP. The development is set to continue for the foreseeable future as the GDP growth is forecast to be slow in all G7 countries except the U.S. for the next five years, and as the GDP of the BRICS countries, particularly India, is set to continue to grow during the same period. This ongoing development has meant a shift of economic power from traditional powerhouses to new economic centers such as India and China.

The streaming revolution continues to transform the global media and entertainment industry. Fueled by rapidly rising internet penetration rates and the ever-increasing demand for digital content, more people are using or subscribing to online streaming services than ever. One of the main benefits that streaming technology has over traditional media formats is flexibility. Audiences can decide for themselves when, where, and on which devices they want to watch films or listen to their favorite music on. Additionally, streaming platforms also offer a much vaster content selection than their offline counterparts. Considering that these services are sometimes more affordable or even more readily available in regions with infrastructural restraints, it is no surprise to see the consumption of  music streaming as well as video streaming soars each year. Audio streaming is on everyone’s lips. Music consumption is primarily taking place online. Thanks to rising smartphone adoption and the sprawl of streaming services in most parts of the world, music fans no longer have to purchase physical copies but always have the latest hits at their disposal. Data showed that the number of music streaming subscribers recently surpassed 800 million, while music streaming revenues skyrocketed from 2.7 billion to 22 billion U.S. dollars in the past decade. Not only that, but streaming has also become the number one revenue stream of the music industry, outperforming physical sales and digital downloads alike. So which platforms are topping the global streaming charts? As of 2024, Spotify was by far the  top music streaming service based on audience share, followed by Chinese music streaming service Tencent Music. Both providers also host an extensive selection of podcasts, an audio format that is gaining global momentum. According to the latest reports, the number of podcast listeners in the U.S., for example, is set to surpass 121 million by 2030, up from nearly 84 million in 2025. Online video streaming is the lead act. Long gone are the days when you had to follow fixed TV broadcasting or cinema screening schedules. Today, millions of people can catch up on their favorite television programs or watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster from the comfort of their homes and around the clock. Forecasts suggest that all OTT TV and video formats will experience an increase in user counts and revenue figures over the next few years, with subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) accounting for the largest revenue share. However, while it is true that the streaming industry will continue to grow in the years to come, forecasts also indicate that its revenue growth is slowing down over the years. Seeing price increases issued by services across the audio and video streaming industry, it comes as no surprise that high subscription fees and saving money are among the top reasons for canceling a streaming service. Overall, streaming has come to stay and will continue to play a major part in the daily lives of millions of consumers. Yet, in light of rising prices and an increasing number of platforms to choose from, the streaming services will see themselves more and more confronted with fierce competition when it comes to retaining their customer base.

Construction companies need to estimate the costs they are likely to incur in a given project to deliver it under budget. To calculate those costs, contractors need to take several factors into account: the price of construction materials, fixtures, and fittings, as well as its transportation to the building site, the salaries of construction workers, the cost of design, the price of the equipment and machinery used, fees, or the price of land in that specific U.S. city, among others. Location, building type, and the cost gap. Location can be the cause of important cost discrepancies in construction. For example, New York City’s construction costs for retail centers tend to be one of the highest in the country, due to various factors, such as limited space. The zoning, infrastructure, and even the geography of the land can also have a major effect on the construction costs. Other variables, such as the labor market or the standards and codes, can be different in each territory. Costs can also be very different depending on the type of building construction. Overall, the construction costs of non-residential buildings in the U.S. have been increasing in the past years. However, their producer prices may fluctuate, as each sector has very different needs. For instance, HVAC and commercial refrigeration equipment prices grew over three percent in 2025, a modest figure compared to the surge seen just a few years earlier.  Materials, labor, and equipment: where the money goes. The producer price of construction materials rose again in 2025, after building material prices fell in both 2023 and 2024. That rebound, though moderate, has renewed attention on input costs. Meanwhile, weekly earnings in U.S. construction have continued to climb, reaching nearly 1,500 U.S. dollars in 2025, reflecting persistent labor demand. On the equipment side, rental rates for construction machinery vary widely by type, with articulated wheel loaders commanding the highest weekly fees. Could higher tariffs affect construction costs? The United States imports a considerable part of the building materials that the construction industry needs for its activities. Although the U.S. also has a strong manufacturing capacity, with its output of veneer, plywood, and engineered wood products amounting to 26.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, higher tariffs on these and other products could increase construction costs. So far, the  forecast growth of construction costs in major cities worldwide suggests continued, albeit uneven, price increases in 2026. Emerging segments are adding new cost pressures too: data center construction costs have risen steadily across U.S. markets, with Silicon Valley remaining the most expensive location. As material prices stabilize and labor costs continue to rise, the balance between these inputs will likely shape budget decisions for years to come.

The global beer market is facing uncertain times as consumption has declined in some key regions and costs have risen. While industry revenue has rebounded from the lows of the pandemic, it remains to be seen how the market will fare in the years to come as consumers seem to be choosing beer less often than they used to. The market landscape. On-premise beer sales dropped by over 29 percent in 2020 due to the pandemic but have since rebounded, growing and surpassing off-premise as consumers have resumed life as normal. China is the leader in global beer consumption. While the United States still has high total consumption, beer has been steadily losing market share in the country, shrinking by over 12 percent in the last decade.  Leading countries in the beer market. In terms of beer production, China was the world leader here as well, producing over 359 million hectoliters of beer, 86 percent more than the amount produced by the United States. When it comes to trade, Mexico reaped the largest profit from beer exports, shipping over 5.8 billion U.S. dollars worth in 2023. The United States was by far the world's biggest buyer, importing beer valued at over seven billion dollars. Much of that beer comes from Mexico.  Key industry players. The leading companies in the global beer market are giants such as AB Inbev, Heineken Holding, Kirin Holdings, and Asahi Group Holdings. AB InBev topped the ranking with sales amounting to about 59.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. The company's iconic beer brand Budweiser had a global brand value amounting to about 13.8 billion U.S. dollars. Despite being the top selling beer producer, it was Corona from Grupo Modelo that had the largest brand value at over 19 billion dollars. As beer consumption continues to decline in key markets like the United States, and more consumers are concerned about the health effects of alcohol than ever before, beer producers may have to focus more on the non-alcoholic drinks market where beer is still king.

Although COVID-19 is still circulating around the world, the number of new coronavirus cases worldwide has decreased greatly since the start of 2023. Due to the the high number of people who have already been infected and high rates of vaccination in many countries, COVID-19 does not pose the same threat as it did from 2020 through 2022. Most countries have lifted all restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the disease and many are no longer keeping accurate counts of new cases. As of May 2, 2023, over 687 million cases had been recorded worldwide. The United States had the highest  number of COVID-19 cases, followed by India and France. Sadly, the number of coronavirus-related fatalities was almost 6.87 million, and the U.S. is the country with the most COVID-19 deaths worldwide. In addition to the pandemic’s direct damage, the impact of COVID-19 on mental health has been considerable due to social distancing and lockdown measures.  The status of COVID-19 vaccination rates. As of March 20, 2023, the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered worldwide had reached over 13 billion. The countries that had administered the most vaccinations were China, India, and the United States. However, when looking at COVID-19 vaccination rates worldwide, the leading countries include Cuba and Japan. Although the United States government has been criticized for its handling of the pandemic, its vaccination rollout has been successful. Elsewhere, the number of COVID-19 vaccination doses administered in Europe has increased substantially after a frustratingly slow start. The COVID-19 situation in the United States. As of April 26, 2023, the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. were around 104.5 million and 1.1 million, respectively, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York was initially hit hardest by the pandemic, but California, Texas, and Florida have reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases among the states. Furthermore, California, Texas, and Florida have also reported the highest number of deaths from the disease. However, when considering population size, Arizona and Oklahoma have the highest COVID-19 death rates. Like many other countries, the United States enacted lockdown measures and restrictions to curb the pandemic. At the end of March 2020, it was estimated that over 90 percent of the population was under a stay-at-home order. Many states canceled public events, encouraged social distancing, and closed schools, restaurants, and other entertainment venues. However, as case numbers fell, states began lifting lockdown restrictions and reopening the economy, which led to the number of new coronavirus cases in the United States rising sharply in late October / early November 2020. Positive infections declined again over the summer of 2021, but hit record highs towards the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022. The timeline of the coronavirus. Coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19 for short, is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is part of a large family of coronaviruses (CoV), which are transmitted from animals to people. Symptoms of COVID-19 resemble that of the common cold, with those infected often experiencing fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. However, in more severe cases, infection can lead to pneumonia, multi-organ failure, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and even death. The exact source of the virus remains unclear, but it is thought to have originated from a seafood market in the city of Wuhan in China. A report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) at the end of March 2021 was the first from the international public health agency to investigate the origins of the virus. The report states the virus probably started spreading no more than a month or two before it was noticed in December 2019. The report added that transmission from one animal to another and then to humans was the most likely scenario. However, the United States, along with other countries including the United Kingdom and South Korea, have criticized the report for being delayed and stating the WHO did not have access to complete or original data and samples from China. How the pandemic has changed the economy. The impact of COVID-19 on the global economy has been immense. Prior to the coronavirus, forecasts showed that growth rates in real gross domestic product (GDP) would increase by 2.9 percent in 2020. However, due to COVID-19, real output fell by 3.4 percent. Furthermore, as a result of job losses and rising unemployment, there have been significant changes in the income tiers of people due to the coronavirus – more than 130 million people worldwide have been added to the ‘poor’ tier. Many industries have felt the full force of the economic downturn, but COVID-19’s impact on the travel and tourism industry has been particularly hard. Airlines have witnessed an unprecedented drop in passengers, while countries and cities that rely on business from tourism have experienced substantial job and revenue losses.

Climate change has become an ubiquitous topic around the world in recent years due to the magnitude and scope of its impacts. Increases in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities have shifted weather patterns across the globe, causing extreme weather events such as hurricanes, drought, excessive rainfall, and irregular temperatures. Such events are growing in frequency and intensity, resulting in severe consequences. From human deaths and biodiversity loss to destroyed homes and infrastructure, no corner of the world is exempt from the effects of climate change. The era of global boiling has arrived. Global warming is one of the most widely known effects of climate change, with the two terms used interchangeably by the general population. However, climate change – which refers to changes in climate patterns over a long period of time – encompasses not only global warming but also the side effects of a warming climate. As of 2022, the global temperature had increased by 1.2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. Even in the most optimistic scenario, a warming of 1.8 degrees Celsius is expected by the end of the century. With warmer temperatures, more soil moisture is lost to the atmosphere, increasing drought conditions across the planet. For example, regions of the United States are abnormally dry, with 85 percent of the country’s continental area exposed to drought conditions in October 2022. The U.S. West is experiencing the worst megadrought on record. In turn, prolonged heat waves and droughts create perfect conditions for wildfire outbreaks. Even when these wildfires are sparked by human activities – such as clearing land for agriculture – dry and warm conditions often make them more extreme or cause them to get out of control. In 2021, the tree cover area loss due to wildfires worldwide surpassed seven million hectares. Higher temperatures and habitat degradation through wildfires also threaten global biodiversity. While on the one hand a warming climate increases the likelihood of droughts and wildfires, on the other hand, the increase in evaporation and ocean water temperatures intensifies the frequency and strength of devastating storms and tropical cyclones. With more water pouring down in shorter intervals, the risk of floods is also raised. In 2022, more than 170 flood disasters were recorded worldwide. Flood risk in coastal areas is also aggravated by rising sea levels, which is caused by melting glaciers and thermal expansion – water taking up more space as it warms. The costs of climate change. Economic losses from weather-, climate-, and water-related disasters exceeded 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars between 2010 and 2019, up from 942 billion U.S. dollars a decade earlier. Tropical cyclones and storms combined for 70 percent of losses in the past half-century. While economic losses have increased across the decades, better prevention, warning, and response systems have seen the number of deaths from climate disasters decline in the same period. Nevertheless, an estimated 185,000 lives were lost between 2010 and 2019, averaging 50 deaths per day. Millions of others have been affected. It is forecast that 78 to 170 million people worldwide may be internally displaced due to the effects of climate change by 2050, depending on the future development of emissions and mitigation practices.

The market value of the meat industry is expected to rise significantly. The global meat market revenue is estimated to grow by 500 billion U.S. dollars in the next five years, reaching over two trillion U.S. dollars by 2030. The U.S. was leading the processed meat industry worldwide, with 42 billion U.S. dollars in processed meat and sausage market revenue in 2024. Followed by Germany with a revenue of over 20.6 billion U.S. dollars. Russia, France, and Mexico are finishing the top five countries with the biggest revenue from processed meats. Leading producers. As the demand for meat rises worldwide, so must the production of meat. Between 2016 and 2024, the production volume of meat worldwide has increased from 317 million metric tons to about 350.75 million metric tons. Most of the world’s meat is produced in Asia, which generated about 163 million metric tons of meat. Pork and poultry are the most widely produced types of meat, with sheep being the least produced. Although many people abstain from pork for nutritional or religious reasons, pork is widely produced in China and Europe. Some of the largest meat production companies in the world include Hormel Foods, Tyson, and Pilgrim's Pride. In addition to producing the highest revenue from meat sales, the United States is also a major producer and exporter of meat, especially beef. The t rade value of the U.S. beef industry amounted to over seven billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Brazil is also a major exporter of meat, both in the form of broiler chickens and beef. Global meat consumption. The projected per capita meat consumption is expected to remain below 30 kilograms of meat per year until 2033. However, as the global population continues to climb, the overall consumption of meat has risen in the past several years. Additionally, red meat is expected to see a slight increase in consumption in the United States in the next decade.

As the global population reached eight billion people at the end of 2022, more and more people live in cities and suburbs. While big cities offer vast employment and social opportunities, megacities are struggling with several challenges; poverty, crime, pollution, transport, and waste management are just some of the issues faced by the largest cities in the world. The growth of megacities. Megacities are experiencing rapid growth, primarily due to migration from rural areas and an increase in the natural population. The number of people living in urban areas with 10 million inhabitants or more has rocketed from less than 70 million in 1975 to nearly 463 million in 2015. Whereas North America has the highest degree of urbanization, the 20 largest cities worldwide were all located in the so-called Global South. Furthermore, most areas with a population of 500,000 inhabitants or more are located in Asia, with China accounting for more than 25 percent of them. Population density also varies from country to country and from city to city. Unsurprisingly, some of the smaller states by area and the world's city-states have the highest population densities globally. When it comes to the cities, Mogadishu in Somalia led the ranking of cities with the highest population density in 2023, with 33,244 residents per square kilometer. Pros and cons of life in megacities. Megacities present various opportunities for their citizens, including access to education, a diversified job market, higher salaries, different means of transport, interconnectivity, and various social activities. Nevertheless, these opportunities come at a price. Some megacities face extreme costs of living, with Zurich, Lausanne, and Geneva being the most expensive cities to live in worldwide. Experts have even started to highlight that some cities are now only livable for the richest in the population. Finally, many increasingly concentrated urban areas often concentrate wealth and social inequalities, marked by slums and high crime rates. Slums, but also a lack of a proper transportation system, are particularly visible in developing countries where income inequalities tend to be high, and where public authorities struggle to keep up with the pace of the fast-growing cities. As the world's population is expected to continue to grow at a rapid pace over the coming decades, these challenges are likely to continue to increase.

The U.S. labor market has shifted dramatically since the pandemic. A mass exodus of  workers voluntarily separating from their employers defined the early 2020s, as people cited low pay, disrespect, and lack of advancement as their top reasons for seeking employment elsewhere. That era, widely known as the Great Resignation, is now over, replaced by what analysts call the Great Stay. From record quits to staying put. High quit rates usually reflect high confidence among the workforce in their ability to find a new and higher-paying job, indicating high economic stability and generally low unemployment. However, the quit rate has contracted by nearly one-third since its 2022 peak, hovering below pre-pandemic levels throughout 2025 and into early 2026. Workers now lack confidence in finding better opportunities, so they are staying put. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate edged up to around 4.3 percent as of early 2026, reflecting a broader cooling in hiring activity rather than mass layoffs, a dynamic often described as a low-hire, low-fire labor market. The importance of migrant workers. The United States also has a long history of welcoming immigrants and benefiting from the economic value they bring. In fact, foreign-born workers in the country have higher rates of labor force participation compared to native-born workers. Foreign-born workers are particularly important to industries such as construction and extraction, as well as building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations. Populous states such as California, Texas, Florida, and New York have the highest number of employed persons, while more rural states such as Wyoming, Vermont, and Alaska have the least. Across industries, the education and health services industry employs the most people across the country. Toward a more uncertain labor market. Looking to the future, participation rates are expected to decrease across all age brackets between 16 and 44, as many among the younger generations move into higher education, and increase for those over the age of 45, as older workers stay in the workforce for longer. Over the next decade, the highest salary increase is projected within services for elderly care and persons with diabetes, while elementary and secondary schools are expected to see the largest salary declines. Additionally, new technological developments, particularly the emergence of Generative AI, will make the labor market of the future radically different from today's, with different skills required.

After years of steep market expansion, electric vehicles are slowing down. Since 2022, many European countries have started to roll back the financial incentives provided to consumers purchasing EVs, which has the potential to create a negative demand shock in various domestic markets. However, while growth rates are lower than in previous years, the market is still developing. Between 2023 and 2024, Europe (comprised of the European Union and European Free Trade Association) was the only region to record a contraction in EV sales, while other markets kept expanding. Higher fuel prices drive EV purchase intentions. Various factors contributed to electric vehicles’ success. The global inflation rate remained above five percent in 2024, impacting consumers’ purchasing power and intentions. However, the high fuel prices were seen by over a third of global consumers as an incentive to buy an electric vehicle. The rising oil prices beat out environmental concerns as the leading factor motivating an EV purchase, suggesting that inflation has the potential to impact how consumers think about their own mobility. Among seven countries surveyed in December 2024, under half of consumers in China, South Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom would prefer a fossil fuel engine in their next vehicle. Environmental framework. Government agencies are increasingly beginning to introduce limits on nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emissions. Automakers are expected to be penalized if they fail to meet these limits. Despite the new regulations, standards, and goals in effect, opponents are right to criticize that the sources of electricity employed to power electric cars, as well as the materials (including cobalt, nickel, and lithium) used in car batteries, are generally not considered when it comes to calculating a vehicle’s carbon footprint. The challenge of charging accessibility. Electric vehicle accessibility is one of the challenges which could exacerbate consumers’ reliance on the regular power grid. Most car buyers surveyed expected to charge their vehicles at home. However, the cost of private charging installation was often perceived as prohibitive to consumers’ access to this type of charging. While range anxiety still ranked among consumers’ main concerns, answers to another survey suggest that the lack of charging stations in customers’ cities or routes was the leading factor discouraging EV purchases. This concern is not unfounded. Around 58 percent of the European population and 45 percent of the U.S. residents lived within one kilometer of an EV charger in 2024. This suggests there is room for improvement in some of the largest EV markets’ public charging infrastructure. Automakers worldwide will have to focus on clean fuel sources and sustainable supply chains. In 2015, Volkswagen experienced how disrespecting emerging environmental regulations may hurt its brand image. The company started delivering its electric ID.4 model in 2020 and consistently ranked among the best-selling EV brands. By 2024, the Volkswagen Group was the fifth leading battery-electric vehicle automaker worldwide.

The past few decades have brought with them countless technological innovations, none more impactful to people’s daily lives than the internet. By allowing users to communicate around the world in real time and facilitate the rapid exchange of information, the internet has redefined what is possible and is an integral feature found in many of the innovations that have come since. Web browsers serve as the software gateway through which users can access the internet and request/receive information. Billions of people around the world use web browsers in order to access the internet, with Google Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox being some of the most popular browser options. Different types of browsers. Although they often fall under the same name, the world’s most popular web browsers, such as Chrome and Safari, release numerous software versions that are tailored for optimal performance on specific types of devices. Google’s “Chrome” line of browsers is the leading product across essentially all devices and specifications, controlling nearly two-thirds of the global web browser market. Chrome for Android, a Google product optimized for Android mobile devices, ranks as the most popular browser in the world, while Chrome 91.0, one of Google’s desktop internet browser versions, ranks as the most popular browser for desktops. Less than a couple of years ago, the ranking of the different browser types was still reversed: mobile devices have overtaken PCs to become the most prevalent way of accessing the internet. The dominance of Chrome has led to the decline of browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox, programs that previously served as some of the market’s strongest brands. Apple’s Safari browser ranks as the clear second place in terms of global market share and is particularly competitive in the U.S. market thanks to the widespread use of iPhones. Security issues. In addition to serving as the gateway for users to access the internet, web browsers also serve as the portal for viruses and malicious software to access users’ devices. SQL injection, a security vulnerability that enables malicious actors to bypass application security measures and access database servers, represents the largest share of web application vulnerabilities around the world, and browsers serve as one of the most commonly exploited applications in the world. Given the massive amount of personal information passing back and forth on web browsers, security is of utmost importance. In order to retain their userbases, browsers like Chrome and Safari must continue to provide a product that consumers enjoy, while ensuring that their data is safe.

Costco Wholesale Corporation sets itself apart from many other mass merchants by requiring customers to pay a yearly membership fee in order to shop at its locations. This membership-based approach has been a key factor in Costco's success, fostering customer loyalty and driving repeat business which has allowed the company to become the third largest retailer in the world. Some of the different departments in which Costco operates include grocery, appliances, baked goods, electronics, apparel, and books, among many others, as well as offering a food court in many of its establishments. Many branches also offer optical services, gas stations, tire garages, or photo processing services. Costco’s financial performance and competitors. In 2024, the company generated global net sales of around 250 billion U.S. dollars, with the U.S. being its most profitable regional segment. Costco’s main competitor, Walmart, still dwarfs Costco in terms of sheer sales numbers. In 2023, Walmart generated almost three times as much retail sales as Costco. Other competitors, though not as large as Costco, are Target and BJ’s Wholesale Club. The former had net sales amounting to approximately 105.8 billion U.S. dollar, while the latter which, like Costco, also functions as a membership-only warehouse club, recorded net sales of around 19.6 billion U.S. dollars. Stores and memberships. Through its close to 900 warehouses, spread over 14 countries worldwide, Costco provided employment to more than 300,000 people. Most of the stores were located in the United States, with California leading the ranking of states. Although Costco had fewer stores compared to its main competitor, Walmart, it still achieved the highest average sales volume per store among the top three mass retailers in the United States. In 2024, the company boasted nearly 137 million club members worldwide. In the United States, membership fees begin at around 65 U.S. dollars per year and give members access to all Costco locations worldwide. As for Sam’s Club, membership fees start at 50 U.S. dollars annually, with the option to upgrade. Sam’s Club plus membership starts at 110 U.S. dollars per year, and unlike the club membership, customers can earn cash-back rewards. A similar concept is also applied to BJ’s Wholesale Club. In addition to the regular subscription, BJ’s Wholesale Club also operates a premium membership. This premium subscription is twice the price of the regular membership and, like its counterpart Sam’s Club, offers the opportunity to obtain cash-back rewards. While Costco lags behind its main competitor, Walmart, it continues to show growth and remains at the top of its category for membership-only warehouse clubs.

Rare earths include a list of 17 chemical elements that, over the past decades, have become increasingly sought-after due to their use in many advanced technologies. The end uses of rare earths include the production of magnets, batteries, catalysts, displays, and more. Many industries are highly dependent on rare earths as a result of their irreplaceable properties. Rare earth elements (REEs) are foundational to modern technology, and their global supply base remains highly concentrated. While the actual elements are not scarce in the Earth's crust, they are found in compounds. Their processing is therefore costly and energy-intensive. Global mine production has expanded significantly over the past decade, with output reaching record highs of about 390,000 metric tons in 2025. China accounts for the majority of that output, leading both in mining and refining. Other notable producers include Myanmar, Australia, and the United States, though their combined contribution remains modest.  China's domestic output has grown substantially over time, reinforcing the country's position as the dominant node in the global rare earth supply chain.  Supply chain risks sharpen amid new trade restrictions. China's role in the global rare earth industry extends well beyond mining into trade and processing. The country holds the second-largest share of global rare earth exports after Myanmar, and regions such as the European Union source the majority of their  rare earth imports from China. In late 2025, Beijing introduced new export controls requiring licenses for technologies used in rare earth mining, processing, and magnet manufacturing. This move heightened concerns about supply chain vulnerability across Western markets and underscored how China's near-monopoly on processing capacity translates into considerable geopolitical leverage. Lately, the  rare earth trade volume of Malaysia has also risen. The Southeast Asian country has the largest single rare earth processing plant, operated by the Australian company Lynas. Green energy drives long-term demand growth. Demand for rare earth elements has risen sharply, with the clean energy transition emerging as the primary growth engine.  REE demand by application shows permanent magnets as the leading use category. Magnets are central to EV batteries and wind turbine generators, for instance. The outlook for cleantech-related demand points to steep growth over the coming decades as the global energy system decarbonizes. Additionally, demand for key magnet rare earths such as neodymium and praseodymium is projected to outpace supply growth considerably in the years ahead. Non-Chinese producers race to fill the gap. Outside China, some companies are working to establish competitive supply chains. Market capitalization data for non-Chinese producers highlights the scale gap relative to Chinese state-backed enterprises, with Australia's Lynas Rare Earths holding the leading position among Western peers. Lynas' revenue trajectory reflects the challenges of capital-intensive expansion in a market prone to price volatility. Governments across the United States, Europe, and Australia have stepped up policy support for domestic rare earth processing, though building fully independent supply chains outside China is expected to remain a multi-year effort. 

Even though Wildberries was not among the first e-commerce shops in Russia, it has transformed the shopping landscape in the country, offering a high variety of goods and convenient delivery options. Wildberries is leading Russian marketplace for clothing, shoes, electronics, children’s goods, household goods, books, beauty products, and other products. Headquartered in Moscow, it operates in seven countries, including Kazakhstan and China. Given the global scope and reach of the business, its founder Tatyana Bakalchuk is the richest woman in Russia. In the second half of 2024, Wildberries was in the news due to a dispute between Bakalchuk and her husband, who tried to seize the business in an armed raid. Wildberries is one of the fastest-growing online stores in Russia, reporting to have increased its sales value on the internet by 73 percent in 2023. Consequently, Wildberries ranks first by revenue among marketplaces in the country. Furthermore, with a gross merchandise revenue (GMV) of nearly 24 billion U.S. dollars, it was among the 20 leading online marketplaces worldwide. Wildberries' business model. Wildberries works directly with manufacturers and official distributors that assort their products in the online store. The marketplace earns a commission from each transaction performed on its platform. As of December 2023, Wildberries counted around 300,000 active sellers, and overall in that year, it processed the largest number of orders among e-commerce websites in Russia, at roughly three million. In March 2023, Wildberries caught media attention in Russia after employees of pickup points allegedly went on a strike and filed lawsuits against the company. The marketplace started to charge pickup points for customer returns of defective items; however, the policy has been adjusted following the lawsuits. Wildberries in Kazakhstan. Wildberries ranks as the third-largest online store in Kazakhstan and a competitor to the domestic market leader, Kaspi.kz. In 2023, Wildberries generated a revenue of 613.7 million U.S. dollars in the country, up 198 percent from the previous year. The largest share of that revenue came from apparel and clothing. With a presence in most countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the platform is popular among sellers, with nearly 40,500 Kazakhstani entrepreneurs registered in the first half of 2023. In the two decades of its existence, Wildberries has achieved tremendous growth in Russia and several neighboring markets. With its continuous growth and a loyal customer base, it has become a substantial part of the Russian society.

Home to the second biggest online food delivery market behind China, the United States generated an estimated 432 billion U.S. dollars in online food delivery revenue in 2025, with over 100 billion dollars from the meal delivery segment. By 2030, the market is forecast to surpass the 600-billion-dollar mark, as both the online grocery and meal delivery segments continue their upward climb. DoorDash vs. UberEats: a lopsided rivalry. In the United States, two homegrown champions compete head-to-head to dominate the food delivery market: DoorDash and UberEats. On a global level, UberEats prevails as the leading food delivery operator worldwide. However, DoorDash held the largest share of online meal delivery sales in the U.S. as of mid-2025, while a consumer survey found that roughly three in four respondents had ordered through DoorDash in the past year. At nearly 19 million downloads, DoorDash was also the most downloaded food delivery app in the United States in 2024, with UberEats trailing behind at approximately 12 million downloads. Consumer loyalty remains elusive. With the return of on-premise consumption and the rise of quick commerce companies, the online food delivery industry has become even more competitive. The U.S. alone counted over 180 million meal delivery users in 2025, yet winning their loyalty isn't easy. The ability to download different delivery apps and compare offers makes customer promiscuity an additional challenge, with DoorDash attracting nearly 109 million  monthly web visits as of early 2026, well ahead of its competitors. From chronic losses to record profits. In addition to the highly competitive playing field, online food delivery operators in the United States have also struggled with challenging macroeconomic conditions. This constituted a further challenge to an industry long plagued by chronic unprofitability. However, DoorDash's turnaround has been striking: the company posted net income approaching one billion dollars in 2025, while the total dollar value of orders on its marketplaces surpassed 100 billion dollars. As both DoorDash and Uber Eats continue expanding at home and overseas, the shift from growth-at-all-costs to sustainable profitability signals a maturing industry.

Unlike many other traditional media formats, radio has managed to adapt to the massive changes brought about by the proliferation of mobile internet. While traditional radio may be in a state of relative decline from its heyday, people in the United States have shown that they still appreciate what it offers as source of news and entertainment. New, internet-based or online radio platforms now account for over 672 million dollars’ worth of streaming music revenue and the format continues to grow with each passing year. The decline of over-the-air radio is, in many ways, being offset by the growth of its online counterpart. One example of this is advertising; with digital radio station advertising revenue increasing year-over-year in the last decade, online radio helps the radio industry as a whole maintain its position on the media landscape. Online radio market leaders. iHeartRadio is the clear leader in the online radio market, while NPR has established itself as a distant runner-up. Competition within the industry is somewhat unique; online radio providers compete against each other as well as alternative audio streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music, for consumers’ time. These streaming services offer a wide range of different audio formats, such as music, podcasts or audiobooks. As these alternative platforms grow, consumers spend less of their time on online radio platforms like Pandora. Because of this, the current owner of Pandora Radio, Sirius XM, despite years of continuous subscriber growth, started seeing declines in this respect, losing over two million users since 2019. The online radio market. The market for online audio in the United States is massive, with an average of 70 percent of Americans listening to radio via internet on a weekly basis. The impressive reach and usage of these services creates high user engagement opportunities for the industry players and subsequently a more successful advertising space. The share of digital radio in the total radio advertising revenue has indeed been growing over the past decade. This upswing could support the radio industry overall in keeping up with other audio formats and ensure a stable revenue stream in the future. In an audio industry that keeps expanding its diverse offer for consumers, online radio providers will need to focus on retaining their audiences in order to stay relevant for advertisers.

Since the beginning of podcasting in the early 2000s, podcasts have always been associated with an auditory experience. Unsurprisingly so, as the idea of podcasting came into being from the desire to access radio broadcasts via iPods – hence the name. The evolution and innovation of technology being the sheer origin of podcasts reflects how suited and flexible the medium is to an ever-changing media landscape. Fast-forward 20 years, and the podcasting industry is in the middle of adapting again to meet customer preferences, by exploring a new format: video podcasts. Audio vs. video podcasts. Fueled by media consumptions habits that are increasingly revolving around consuming video content, both on video streaming and on social media platforms, the growing popularity of video podcasts in recent years was always likely. However, surveys on podcast consumers do not draw a clear picture of whether audio or video formats are more appreciated by the audience. Data gathered at the beginning of 2024 in the United States showed that around one in three podcast listeners did indeed prefer audio formats, whereas one in four respondents favored video podcasts. Data from the same period indicated that the preference for video formats grew across all generations in the United States from 2022 to 2024, with younger generations in particular expressing a preference for the new format. YouTube vs. Spotify. The continuously thriving consumption of video podcasts saw a new player emerge in the podcasting industry: video-streaming platform YouTube. Over the past few years, the U.S. streaming platform has gradually been establishing itself as the favorite platform to use for podcast consumption in the United States. So much so, that they dethroned Swedish streaming company Spotify. The latter, while keeping its competitors at bay in the music streaming business, saw itself under pressure to keep up in the (video) podcast business. However, this will certainly prove to be a challenge, as YouTube is not only ahead in terms of podcast discovery but also holds a commanding lead, when being associated with both watching and listening to podcasts. Based on their development in recent years and audience’s continuing affinity for video content, it is safe to say that video podcasts are here to stay, and YouTube could become the player that will both shape their development but also benefit the most from it. Yet, Spotify is investing heavily into video podcast content and if their efforts turn out to be fruitful, the market could witness competition rising between both streaming giants.

Streaming changed the game for media consumption over the past decades; now advertising is changing that game. The landscape of streaming services in the United States has experienced a transformative shift, with the rise of ad-supported models, particularly in the realms of over-the-top (OTT) advertising, podcasting, and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST), challenging traditional advertising strategies and reshaping consumer preferences. OTT advertising is emerging as a prominent and increasingly preferred solution for advertisers. In 2023, OTT TV and video revenue was forecast to reach 74 billion U.S. dollars in the U.S. On the audio side, music streaming revenue has increased greatly, growing from 1.9 billion dollars in 2014 to 14.4 billion in 2023. When streaming services first entered the market, a key attraction was the removal of the ad experience. This reshaped the media industry and provided consumers with an entirely new, on-demand experience. However, streaming companies are now integrating ads into their products in their quest to increase revenue. AVOD and FAST are making plenty of leaps. As of 2023, Hulu was the leading platform for upfront spending allocation among U.S. marketers. The swift growth of FAST has garnered heightened attention from marketers, progressively acknowledging the significance of these platforms. There has been a remarkable year-on-year surge in ad spending on FAST in the U.S., escalating nearly fourfold from 2020 to 2023. Projections indicate that FAST ad revenues are anticipated to double again between 2023 and 2025, surpassing the expenditures on cable, broadcast, and subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services by the latter part of 2025. Podcast advertising slows down after years of double-digit growth. In 2023, the expenditure on digital audio advertising in the U.S. reached seven billion dollars, marking an increase from 5.9 billion the previous year. After several years of robust double-digit growth, podcast ad revenue in the U.S. slowed down in 2023, increasing five percent from the previous year and reaching an estimated value of 1.93 billion dollars. The deceleration was due to a challenging ad market that also affected other sectors of media. Amid the slowdown, podcast heavy hitters such as Spotify and Audacy conducted layoffs and cut down programming. Growing pains notwithstanding, podcast ad revenue was expected to return to a double-digit expansion in 2024. Consumers keep veering towards ad-supported streaming services. With streaming companies increasingly resorting to advertising as revenue, consumers may find themselves in the same situation they initially sought to escape – dealing with commercial breaks they wanted to avoid. More and more consumers have been cutting down their entertainment expenses due to concerns about economic hardship. As a result, almost two-thirds of Americans said they preferred free ad-supported streaming content rather than paying not to see ads. Streaming ads were more effective than their cable or broadcast TV counterparts regarding retention among younger consumers, with almost half of Gen Z users saying they were receptive to them. When it came to podcast ads, the most popular ones were the ones voiced by the show’s host. Younger audiences’ receptiveness to streaming ads appears to be a good omen for the industry, and a sign for advertisers to keep focusing on personalization to reach as many people as possible.

If someone thinks tariffs affect geopolitics, they are right; if someone thinks tariffs and geopolitics impact advertising and marketing, they are righter. The issue quickly evolved into a hot topic: During a 2025 survey, nine in 10 responding Americans planned to adjust shopping behavior amidst the looming trade wars. The ad industry seems to have followed the money just as swiftly. The year-over-year (YoY) monthly growth rate in ad spending in the United States stood below three percent in early 2025, after two months of consecutive double-digit increases. What is behind the deceleration trend? Advertising in a post-tariff world. A 2025 study asked U.S. ad decision-makers which advertiser categories' expenditures would be the most affected by tariffs. Around 40 percent mentioned retail and e-commerce, indicating a seismic shift – Amazon has been the highest-spending advertiser in the U.S. for years. In 2023, its investments in advertising surpassed the second- (Comcast) and third-placed (P&G) brands combined. Consumer electronics ranked second in the 2025 poll, mentioned by one-third of the respondents. The same survey revealed the media most likely to undergo cuts in ad spend due to tariffs according to U.S. marketers. First on the list was all traditional media combined, excluding television. A close second was social media, currently a darling of the ad industry. What is next for the U.S. ad market. Due to political advertising during the election year, 2024 would already be a tough act to follow. Investments in local advertising in the U.S., for example, were forecast to decrease by little more than one percent in 2025. Adding the tariffs to that scenario raises the stakes higher because it can affect advertisers' trust in the economy and consumers' behavior. As the U.S. remains the world's largest advertising market, decisions made by brands and advertisers today will at least in part influence the global ad industry's response to both economic indicators and potential boycotts.

The world's largest digital advertising market continues to evolve and diversify. In 2023, internet ad spend in the U.S. amounted to an estimated 269 billion U.S. dollars, and according to the latest projections, this figure will exceed 450 billion by 2028. The largest share of ad revenue is generated via search, which has been the leading digital ad format in the U.S. for many years. In 2023, it accounted for around 40 percent of online ad revenue, but while it spearheads the industry, other formats are gaining importance. Search advertising leads the field. In 2023, digital search advertising spending in the U.S. amounted to approximately 118 billion dollars, marking a year-over-year increase of around 12 percent. Current projections indicate that spending growth across this and other ad formats will gradually plateau by the end of the decade. Google was the undisputed king of search advertising, with the company’s ad revenue reaching a record 238 billion dollars in 2023. Audio entertainment unlocks new advertising potential. Audio advertising has made significant leaps following the growing popularity of digital audio content. Previously considered an optional add-on, audio promotion via online radio, podcast, or music streaming services has become an essential part of many marketing portfolios. In 2023, digital audio advertising spending in the U.S. stood at an estimated seven billion dollars, up 19 percent from 2022. In the same period, U.S. podcast advertising revenue increased by 25 percent, signaling the bloom of a new era for audio entertainment and content marketing alike. Social media marketing keeps reaching new heights. Thanks to the rapid adoption of mobile devices, social media has become one of the most relevant digital advertising formats. As user numbers for social networks and photo-sharing platforms continue to rise, social media ad spend in the U.S. is soaring at a similar pace, reaching an estimated 72 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. The three largest players – Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok – accounted for over 90 percent of the value, with market leader Facebook attracting an impressive 36 billion dollars. Consumers swayed by social & search. Social channels are also consumers’ favorites. During a 2024 survey, two-thirds of U.S. adults said that Instagram and TikTok ads were the best way for brands to reach them, followed by YouTube and podcasts. In the same survey, the latter two were also named the media with the least annoying ads. Podcasts are also gaining in importance as a product discovery channel. While consumers are into social, video, and audio, advertisers keep investing in search, which generally does not enjoy much trust. Six in 10 U.S. consumers believed that online search engines increased the number of results sponsored by advertisers. Additionally, one in four found it difficult to differentiate between sponsored and non-sponsored search results. Despite that, over half of U.S. marketers were planning to increase search spending in 2024, and social media is not expected to even come close to the level of spending search ads attract in the coming years. They put high hopes in artificial intelligence, e.g., with over nine in 10 saying that they believed that AI-supported chat-based search would be an effective marketing tool. AI is being incorporated into virtually all areas of digital marketing, and brands will soon feel the impact of this development.

Streaming services of all kinds have been seeing increasing usage all over the world in the past decade and have become part of everyday life for many consumers. In the United States, the share of consumers subscribing to ad-supported video-on-demand services, for example, increased from 46 percent to nearly 70 percent between 2024 and 2026, and this growing demand has led to consistent annual revenue growth. From online music services like Spotify to video streaming market leader Netflix, accessing and enjoying content via streaming is now the norm for media lovers of all ages. Which are the most popular music streaming services? Spotify dominates the music streaming business and generally outranks other smaller services in terms of reach, subscriber share, and consumer preference. The streaming platform now has over 750 million monthly active users worldwide. Other major players include YouTube Music, Pandora, and Apple Music. Smaller services like Deezer, SoundCloud, and Tidal have yet to achieve any real influence over the market, with just a handful of consumers using each service. However, in a market that still remains substantially less crowded than the video streaming scene, there is still room for less established music companies to gain a larger following. The unstoppable podcast phenomenon. Another branch of the digital audio industry that is gaining popularity is podcasting. In the U.S., with 58 percent of respondents, the share of monthly podcast consumers reached a new peak in 2026. Thanks to the mobility provided by smartphones and streaming platforms, consumers are streaming more often and in more places than ever before and via various devices. This applies not just to audio and music content but also to video, which has taken the home video business by storm and changed viewing habits forever. Video streaming services disrupt the media market. Various video streaming platforms have experienced massive growth over the past few years. Services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video have accumulated millions of subscriptions and provide access to a variety of movies, TV shows, and documentaries at the click of a button. These services have become such a crucial part of the entertainment industry that they have even begun to influence pop culture itself. A notable example includes Netflix’s exclusive movie “KPop Demon Hunters,” which has recently become the  streaming giant’s most popular film and title of all time. Consumer spending on digital home entertainment in the U.S. is high and has given rise to an increase in binge-watching and on-the-go viewing. As with physical music, sales of traditional TV and video formats are on the decline, and it is clear now more than ever that streaming is and will continue to be the future of media consumption.

There are some repetitive marketing activities machines cannot do. For everything else, there is marketing automation. It consists in using technology, mainly software, to coordinate and establish a routine of cyclical tasks in multiple channels – especially (but not only) online – and make a campaign more effective. This segment has grown swiftly and is forecast to continue to expand as the decade unfolds. In 2024, global marketing automation industry revenue will rise an estimated 12.6 percent to over eight billion U.S. dollars. The market expects that annual figure to increase by over 160 percent by 2032, reaching 21.7 billion dollars. The marketing automation software market accounts for most of the sector's results, with a projected revenue of over 5.9 billion dollars in 2024. The annual value is projected to increase by 90 percent and exceed 11 billion dollars by the start of the 2030s. For comparison, Netflix alone spent around 2.66 billion dollars on marketing in 2023. Why marketers use automation. During a 2024 survey among marketing decision-makers worldwide, almost seven out of 10 said they intended to raise their spending on marketing automation in the coming year. Approximately one-fifth preferred to keep the same expenditure levels. Marketers use that type of solution for many purposes. A recurring usage entails managing leads – potential clients a brand can contact once it has some of their data. When a company automates that relationship well, it can offer those consumers more relevant offers and messages without their staff doing the process manually. In the same 2024 study, respondents stated that the marketing channels using automation the most are email, social media management, and, to a lesser extent, content organization and paid ads. The top benefits of marketing automation, according to global marketers surveyed in 2022, are five: Improving customer experience, enabling their staff to use time better, higher quality of data and decision-making, an improvement in lead generation and nurturing, and better use of budget. Top marketing automation providers. The attractiveness of this type of solution also brought multiple players to the automated game. Global 2024 data showed that HubSpot dominated the market, concentrating over 38 percent of the marketing automation user base. Adobe Experience Cloud (AEC) – run by the Silicon Valley veteran Adobe Inc. – followed with around eight percent of the market. Headquartered in Massachusetts, HubSpot, Inc. has a journey that illustrates the triumph of marketing automation. In 2023, the corporation's revenue amounted to 2.17 billion dollars. A decade earlier, the figure stood below 80 million dollars. Meanwhile, Adobe's Digital Experience division, which includes AEC, generated 4.89 billion dollars in revenue in 2023. Half a decade before, in 2018, the value barely surpassed two billion dollars. With ever-fiercer competition, automation giants must consistently prove what else their machines can do for marketers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer simply an added feature in marketing platforms, it stands at the center of marketing technology. The advanced technology has quickly become a core feature driving an interest in optimizing stacks and data-driven personalization. By the end of 2025, the global martech market’s value is estimated to reach over 800 billion U.S. dollars. Furthermore, the number of martech solutions around the world nearly doubled over the past five years, moving from eight thousand to over 15.4 thousand available solutions as of May 2025. With this sharp focus on AI, the industry seems poised to experience some groundbreaking and innovative transformations in the coming years. Ambitious planning in the face of challenges ahead. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) worldwide are also showcasing their interest in focusing on futuristic tech. A 2025 survey revealed that over half of CMOs are concentrating on AI marketing capabilities and marketing technology expertise, prioritizing these abilities for upskilling this year. In addition to this, stacks are set to expand significantly in the coming years, with over two-thirds of marketers planning to increase the number of applications and technologies in their stack by the end of 2025. The evolving martech landscape not only presents opportunities, but its own share of challenges. As the industry grows, CMOs face increasing pressure to stay ahead of the curve while managing complex technological systems. As suites continue to expand, two-thirds of leaders in this position have cited a struggle with finding time to evaluate new technologies, according to a separate 2025 report. Moreover, integration intricacies and internal resistance to change were among the list of leading challenges they were facing. AI and martech are two peas in a pod. The role that AI has played in the expansion of software suites is undeniable. In 2025, marketers indicated that the tech was being used across platforms, including in customer relationship management (CRM) software, as noted by over half of responding marketers. Just under half of those surveyed reported using AI in digital advertising platforms and data management platforms, among various others. Organizations are also taking various approaches to AI adoption strategies, with over a quarter offering training courses and workshops. Other strategies included collaborating with AI tech providers and hiring specific experts or consultants. In either case, the interest in AI in this field is continuing to unfold.

Germany has the largest parcel market in Europe, more than three times the size of the second-largest market, France. Over the last two decades, the courier, express, and parcel services (CEP) market in Germany experienced a period of substantial growth, growing more than doubling in revenue, and reaching 27.6 billion euros in 2024. Similarly, the number of parcels more than doubled during the same timespan, reaching over 4.6 billion in 2024. As revenue in the parcel market has has been growing, so has the revenue per shipment in the CEP market. Since 2020 there has been a steady rise from 5.81 euros to 6.44 euros in 2024. Consumer preferences for parcel delivery. 60 percent of these  shipments were business to consumer shipments, an increase of eight percentage points compared to 2013. This highlights the increasing importance of business to consumer shipping in the market, largely driven by the rise of e-commerce. German consumers have high expections for the speed and cost of deliveries. Free shipping and returns rank among the most important criteria for German e-commerce customers alongside shipment tracking and fast delivery. Over half of German consumers are willing to pay more for premium delivery, which is higher than other continental European countries but still lower than in the U.S., UK, or Australia. In addition, consumers prize convenience, the vast majority of German consumers make use of delivery to their home, while only a quarter use parcel pick-up stations, the next most commonly used option. Innovation in the German parcel market. The increasing number of parcels being sent and delivered in Germany require efficient processing systems. To improve delivery systems the German parcel indsutry invested heavily in innovation across its its parcel handling and tracking process in recent years, including the installation of automated parcel lockers, investment in electric vans  and e-cargo bicycles for delivery, as well as testing autonomous delivery. However, R&D investment in the CEP sector slowed in 2024 and 2025, standing at an expected 360 million euros in 2025. Yet, the overall share of companies expecting to invest in R&D in 2025, has significantly risen compared to previous years, to nearly a third of companies in the sector. 

While still an emerging market compared to global leaders in e-commerce, Kazakhstan has the most developed online shopping landscape in Central Asia. Just over two decades after the first online shops emerged in the country, online sales accounted for over 12 percent of the retail trade in 2023. The market size peaked at over five trillion Kazakhstani tenge in the same year. Domestic online retail brought the most revenue at over two trillion Kazakhstani tenge; to compare, digital services sales within the country stood at 1.6 trillion Kazakhstani tenge. Online marketplaces are the most popular sales channel, accounting for almost 90 percent of the retail e-commerce revenue. Leading e-commerce platforms in Kazakhstan. The digital ecosystem Kaspi, which offers various online services, had the most popular e-commerce platform by monthly traffic. On average, around 18 million users visited the Kaspi app or website in December 2024. Furthermore, Kaspi Shop (Kaspi Магазин) and Kaspi Travel were the leading online retailers in Kazakhstan in 2023, having generated approximately 3.3 billion U.S. dollars and 774 million U.S. dollars in revenue, respectively. Wildberries, a Russian e-retailer, followed in the third place, with earnings from e-commerce totaling about 614 million U.S. dollars in 2023. What do Kazakhstani customers buy online? Among physical goods, products for home are the most popular category, followed by apparel, footwear, and sporting goods. According to a survey from 2023, nine percent and seven percent of Kazakhstani retail customers admitted to having bought furniture and apparel online, respectively. Transportation ticketing and seat booking led the ranking of most-sold services. Obstacles to e-commerce development in Kazakhstan and the EAEU. Despite the increasing internet penetration rate in Kazakhstan and changing consumer preferences linked to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many consumers remain suspicious of ordering goods and services online. In a survey from 2023, over 80 percent of customers nationwide saw no need for online purchases, whereas 17 percent expressed loyalty to traditional brick-and-mortar stores. A third of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) residents, of which Kazakhstan is a part, expressed fears of receiving low-quality goods. Furthermore, six percent were afraid that the goods would not be delivered on time. The Kazakhstani e-commerce market is growing steadily, especially due to the rise of online marketplaces. In 2029, the revenue is forecast to reach 5.26 billion U.S. dollars. Furthermore, the penetration rate of e-commerce is expected to increase by 7.8 percentage points between 2024 and 2029.

The journalism industry has undergone many changes in the last decade which affect both journalists themselves as well as their readers. The popularity of digital media has greatly altered the ways in which consumers get their news, and increasingly polarized political climates have led to widespread distrust of many news sources. Moreover, journalists continue to face serious risks in connection with their work, and the number of journalists imprisoned more than doubled between 2010 and 2021.  Press freedom. The consequences of poor press freedom range from severe punitive measures against journalists in authoritarian states to media consolidation in democracies, and press freedom has been declining in major economies around the world over the last ten years. The press freedom index score in the United States has not surpassed 80 since 2013, and fell to a new low of just over 71 in 2022. The situation is significantly worse in many European and Latin American countries, and press freedom across the Asia Pacific region also remains extremely low, with Vietnam, China, Myanmar, and North Korea scoring under 30 in 2023. Not only does poor press freedom make journalists’ jobs significantly harder in terms of how and what they write, but reporting on certain topics, figures, or government policies can even place their lives in danger. Risks faced by journalists. The deadliest country for journalists is Mexico, with 11 journalists killed there in 2022. Looking at data on the share of journalists killed by gender, men are more likely to be killed in connection with their work, but at the same time, female journalists are at greater risk of sexual harassment. A global survey revealed that over 15 percent of women working in the sector had experienced sexual harassment five or more times, and the figure was similar among gender non-conforming employees. Journalists will continue to face threats in many countries across the globe as press freedom worsens. When it comes to the consumer perspective, global trust in journalists is poor. It perhaps then comes as no surprise that consumers support tech and internet companies working with the news industry to improve the quality of journalism, which presents fresh challenges. Whilst this measure could positively influence the quality of information in the press, there is also the risk is that it could lead to major companies increasing their hold over the news media, thus placing independent journalism and their associated news outlets under threat.

Throughout history, the United States has witnessed periods of political discord, yet the current level of polarization has reached unprecedented heights, leading more than half of Americans to consider the occurrence of a civil war in the U.S. a possibility within the next few years. At the root of this divide are deeply entrenched ideological differences which shape policy positions and public attitudes, thus contributing to the growing chasm between the two major political parties in the U.S. Contrary to the common perception of a totally polarized electorate, over the last decade, more Americans have identified as politically independent rather than affiliating with either of the two main political parties. However, when forced to choose between Democrats and Republicans, these independent voters have shown a greater deal of fluctuation in their support. Despite both parties containing a wide spectrum of support, Republicans are much less likely to consider themselves moderate than Democrats. This group of voters, not fully committed to either party, is not evenly distributed throughout the country, resulting in a consistent group of "swing states'' that can potentially vote for either party in presidential elections. As a result, these states become key battlegrounds for campaign strategists of both political parties. The two-party system has received broad criticism, which many feel has given rise to the binary political climate in the U.S. Ideological Differences and Dividing Issues. Party identification is closely related to specific political positions on critical issues. Republicans generally advocate for smaller government and limited intervention in the economy, while Democrats support a more active role for the federal government in addressing societal challenges. Additionally, Democrats are more likely to hold a favorable view of socialism, whereas Republicans are overwhelmingly likely to have a positive view of capitalism. Differences between parties also extend to social issues, with Republicans taking more conservative stances on social issues such as marriage equality, and drug policy, generally favoring stricter regulations. Democrats, in contrast, generally have more socially liberal views on social issues. A significant point of departure between parties surrounds gun ownership in the U.S., with more than two-thirds of Democrats in favor of stricter gun laws, compared to roughly one-third of Republicans. Another highly divisive political topic in the U.S. revolves around the legal status of abortion, with Republicans often opposing abortion rights, whereas Democrats often push for broader healthcare access in general which for many, includes safe and legal abortions. As of 2023, less than ten percent of Republicans believed that abortion should be legal under any circumstances, far fewer than Democrats. Another source of political contention has surrounded LGBTQ+ rights, with less than half of Republicans in the U.S. agreeing that same-sex marriage should be legally recognized in 2022, compared to 83 percent of Democrats. Party identification has been a strong force when forming opinions on key issues, to the extent that it can override a person's level of scientific knowledge when considering the question of whether climate change is caused by human actions. As of 2022, approximately 44 percent of Republicans supported the U.S. becoming carbon neutral by 2050, while 90 percent of Democratic leaning respondents supported such measures. Personalized Politics. Many Americans have developed a vested interest in debated political topics due to feeling particularly vulnerable to their outcomes, resulting in a rise of identity politics within the United States. The deeply personal nature of political issues has cultivated a more contentious environment, fusing political and relational division. As of 2022, 58 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Republicans in 2022 considered political ideology an important factor in regards to their personal relationships. Additionally, political division can also impact the mental health of Americans, prompting roughly 11 percent of Democrats and six percent of Republicans to seek out emotional therapy in 2022. Public Trust and Media Influence. Public trust in institutions and the media also suffered, with Republicans growing more distrusting of the government and its agencies. The events surrounding the 2020 election results further deepened these divisions, leading to contentious debates between parties about the implications on democracy. With Republicans in particular having grown distrusting of the government and its agencies, many refused to accept the 2020 election results, which led to Trump supporters storming the Capital building while Congress was certifying the election results on January 6th, 2021. It is still highly debated between parties whether or not the event constitutes a threat to democracy, reflecting just how deeply and fundamentally divided the parties have grown. The proliferation of partisan media outlets on both ends of the political spectrum has exacerbated the political division in the United States, with the rise of disinformation and fake news adding fuel to the fire. In 2021, only 11 percent of Republicans in the U.S. trusted the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly, compared to 68 percent of Democrats. Republicans and Democrats place their trust in different political news sources, likely making it increasingly difficult for people to bridge political division and find common ground.

American marketplaces dominate the e-commerce scene in the U.S.. Few e-commerce nations have such a strong emphasis on domestic enterprises as the United States. Amazon, Walmart, Target, and eBay were all founded on U.S. soil, and are currently running the show when it comes to marketplace e-commerce. These online retailers are responsible for a large portion of the ever-growing  e-commerce revenue, which surpassed 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars in 2025. Pure players and early adopters on top. Generalist marketplaces are a global force, as their immense product range makes them ideal one-stop shops. The ranking of the largest online marketplaces in the country, based on gross merchandise value, is led by Amazon and Walmart by a wide margin. Amazon was founded in the.com era as an online alternative to bookstores. Not long after Amazon began achieving the retail dominance it currently enjoys, retail giant  Walmart commenced e-commerce operations, launching Walmart Marketplace in 2009. As a consumer survey from 2025 confirmed, Amazon remains the most popular online shop in the U.S., followed by Walmart and Target. Facilitating sales through third-party platforms. These marketplace behemoths operate with a combined marketplace/retailer model, with direct sales revenues coming from first-party sales and further revenue streams derived from third-party sales. Connecting shoppers with external sellers has proven to be a lucrative business. Amazon's annual revenue surpassed 700 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, with third-party seller services alone generating over 50 billion dollars per quarter. Such platforms are also well-established for C2C online sales. In the United States, consumer-to-consumer e-commerce is closely tied to eBay, whose annual revenue topped 11 billion U.S. dollars in its latest fiscal year. One company that has done especially well in satisfying the demand for artsy, crafty, and vintage products is Etsy, which had over 88 million  active buyers as of the first quarter of 2025. Chinese contenders shaking up the playing field. While mostly domestic players dominate American marketplaces online, Chinese marketplaces have carved out a significant foothold. A 2024 survey found that over half of U.S. online shoppers had purchased from Temu, with Shein and TikTok Shop also attracting sizable audiences. Shein's U.S. e-commerce sales reached around 20 billion dollars in 2025 and are projected to keep growing. Meanwhile, Temu's app downloads in the U.S., though off their 2023 peak, still numbered in the millions each month through early 2026. Online marketplaces currently sit atop the e-commerce throne in the U.S., with Amazon crowned king of online retail. The rapid entry of Chinese platforms signals that the competitive landscape is far from settled, pushing established and emerging players alike to fight harder for American shoppers' attention.

The global paint and coatings industry is a major subset of the international chemical industry. Coatings refer broadly to any type of covering that is applied to an object's surface for functional or decorative reasons, or both. Paints are a subset of coatings that are also used as a protective coating or as a decorative, colorful coating. In 2025, the  global paint and coatings industry was estimated to be valued at roughly 187 billion U.S. dollars, and it's forecast to surpass 277 billion U.S. dollars by 2035.. Market growth is mainly driven by increasing demand in the  construction industry, with the automotive, general industrial, coil, wood, aerospace, railing, and packaging coatings markets also fueling expansion.  Asia is the world's leading paint and coatings market. The Asia-Pacific region constitutes the largest paint and coatings industry worldwide, with a market share of 46 percent in 2023. The region's commanding share of the market is expected to expand even further, driven by the continued population growth and urbanization in China and India. While Asia dominates in market share, the Middle East is poised for the strongest volume growth, with volume increases of 3.1 percent in 2023 and 3.9 percent projected for 2024. In contrast, North America is expected to see a 4.8 percent decline in market volume in 2023. On the trade side, Germany, China, and the United States ranked as the leading exporters of paints, dyes, and varnishes in 2024, with Germany alone shipping over 12 billion dollars' worth. From walls to wind turbines: key coating segments. The industry spans several distinct segments. Architectural coatings, used in building and construction, generated a total output of roughly 37 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, and the segment is forecast to keep climbing through 2031. Industrial coatings represent an even larger share of the market, serving automotive, marine, and heavy-equipment applications. Meanwhile, special-purpose coatings, including solar panel coatings, self-cleaning paint, and anti-microbial formulations, continue to attract R&D investment. Top players and their global footprint. The global paint and coatings industry is dominated by Sherwin-Williams and PPG Industries. In 2025, Sherwin-Williams led all competitors with a reported revenue of roughly 23.6 billion U.S. dollars, while PPG Industries generated about 15.9 billion U.S. dollars across its segments. Other important players include the Dutch multinational AkzoNobel and Japanese manufacturer Nippon Paint. Five of the ten leading global paint companies by revenue are based in the United States, underscoring the country's outsized role in the sector. With construction activity rebounding in parts of Asia and the Middle East, and specialty coatings opening new application frontiers, the paint and coatings industry appears well positioned for steady expansion over the next decade.

The global video game industry is a billion-dollar business and has been for many years. In 2025, the revenue from the worldwide gaming market was estimated at almost 522.5 billion U.S. dollars, with the mobile gaming market generating an estimated 126 billion U.S. dollars of the total. Despite record-breaking revenues, the industry’s growth rate is projected to slow in the near future.  The Big 3 in video gaming. The Big 3 in the video gaming industry have long been Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. These three companies are major video gaming hardware makers and currently dominate the console gaming market. Due to this infrastructure advantage, the Big 3 are the biggest video game publishers worldwide, making billions of U.S. dollars from video games every year. According to the most recent data, the Big 3 video gaming companies generated more than 45 billion U.S. dollars in quarterly gaming revenue, with Microsoft and Sony holding the largest market shares. Who are the major gaming industry players outside the Big 3? Success in the gaming industry is not only limited to platform owners. Due to its success with mobile and online games, Chinese digital giant Tencent is also among the top companies by gaming revenue. Video game developers and third-party publishers are also highly valued. Up until its acquisition by Microsoft, Activision Blizzard (of Call of Duty fame) was the largest pure-play gaming company. Other leading gaming industry companies include U.S.-based Electronic Arts (EA), Take-Two Interactive, and Roblox Corporation, as well as European gaming giants Ubisoft and Embracer Group. Additionally, Asia Pacific is home to some of the most well-established and renowned gaming companies like Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, NCSoft, NetEase, and Nexon. Gaming hardware as a basis for market dominance. Hardware makers Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony hold a considerable advantage over other gaming companies as they own and operate the major console gaming platforms: the Nintendo Switch is one of the best-selling gaming consoles of all time, and current-gen consoles Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S compete neck-and-neck for consumer wallets and attention. To date, the PlayStation 5 has sold nearly 90 million units, compared to about 34 million Xbox X/S console sales. As all these gaming consoles feature impressive graphics and major games, platform exclusivity is one of the main battlefields to win players over to one gaming environment.  Deal activity in the gaming industry. The gaming industry is highly consolidated, and while gaming M&A and investment deals saw a post-COVID normalization, there were still 172 mergers and acquisitions within the industry in 2025. Many of these mergers are all about the extension of gaming ecosystems, while others are based on gaming publishers wanting to enhance their reach along the gaming-induced value chain. Game engines and development technology companies have seen major investments in recent years, and new technologies such as in-game advertising also feel the monetary love from gaming companies.  What redefines the gaming landscape. After the gaming industry faced tough times due to the strong post-pandemic contraction, sales and revenues are slowly recovering. The gaming hardware and accessories market is even expected to steadily grow in the upcoming years. However, video games have become more expensive, making price-conscious consumers buy fewer games at full price. Also, many publishers have gotten their audiences engaged with endless Games-as-a-Service (GAAS) titles such as Fortnite, Genshin Impact, or Destiny 2. With countless hours invested in specific live gaming titles that receive a steady stream of updates, gamers are less likely to switch over to new titles during their finite gaming time. In turn, gaming studios have become more risk-averse. Regardless of these struggles, the gaming industry has still been able to produce some hits and surprises in 2025. Players keep playing, and the industry's capacity to innovate ensures the next breakout hit may be just around the corner.

The  U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026, prompting Iran to engage in retaliatory strikes. The impact of these events has reverberated worldwide, with global markets showing increased trepidation of further escalation. Essential infrastructure across the Middle East, such as oil plants, desalination plants, and airports, has already been struck. The Strait of Hormuz, which handles a large share of global commodity flows, including a third of global crude oil shipments and 20 percent of LNG shipments, has effectively seen a freeze in its transit trade volume as of early March. While an initial ceasefire had been agreed to on April 8, the parties to the war, including the broker state Pakistan, failed to come to an agreement concerning the Hormuz strait. Impact of the war on global energy markets . As the impacted region is home to some of the largest producers of oil and gas, the war has led to a surge in prices of oil and other commodities. On 9 March 2026, Brent crude shot above 100 U.S. dollars per barrel for the first time since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, making it the biggest rise since 1983. Although significant worldwide, this impacts some regions more than others. Specifically, oil and gas dependent developing economies like Pakistan are severly impacted. About 80 percent of oil shipments going through the strait go to Asia, with China, India, South Korea, and Japan being some of the largest recipients. Of these, Japan and South Korea rely the most on imports from the Middle East.  Japan imports about 95 percent of its oil supplies and 11 percent for LNG from the region. Around 70 percent of this oil and 6 percent of this LNG come through the Strait of Hormuz. South Korea also relies on the Middle East for its crude oil supply, with most of this coming from the strait as well. While both countries have stockpiles for a state of emergency, both are estimated to last only around 200 to 250 days. This has already impacted markets in Asia significantly. On March 4, South Korea experienced the greatest single-day drop in stock market history, with the KOSPI benchmark index dropping around 12 percent. In Japan, the one-year implied volatility of the Nikkei 225 average rose by almost 30 points on 9 March 2026, the highest since 2020.  Further concerns about commodities and industrial shipments. In addition to oil and gas, the effects of the war on the hydrocarbon industry also touch upon industrial metals like aluminum and fertilizers, among others. Global fertilizer prices have already risen since early 2025. As fertilizers are hydrocarbon derivatives, they are largely produced in the Middle East. Both production and prices of nitrogen fertilizers in countries like India and Pakistan are likely also impacted by the lack of LNG imports from Qatar. The longer the war lasts, the more impact will be felt worldwide. The shutdown of gas production in Qatar also led to concerns about helium production. Helium, as a byproduct of gas production, is used as a cooling gas for MRI machines but also semiconductor production. About a third of global helium production in 2025 was contributed to Qatar. Other byproducts of the oil industry are also impacted. The price of polypropylene shot up by almost 30 percent after the beginning of the war, impacting global plastics and packaging production. Long-term consequences of a prolonged war. Analysts suggest that this war is one of economic attrition, with Iran aiming to make it harder for the United States and Israel to justify the cost of the war as it goes on. The longer the war goes on, the greater the risk for oil refineries in the region becomes. There have already been strikes on refineries in Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Qatar has temporarily ceased production of liquefied natural gas in response to strikes as of March 2026. With oil exports blocked, production of oil and gas may shut down, posing risks of equipment failure and long-term productivity decline. While Saudi Arabia can divert some of their oil exports through the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea, circumventing the Strait of Hormuz, others with limited capacity, like Iraq or Kuwait, have fewer options. However, additional strikes on major pipelines for such diversions are highly possible. Gasoline prices in the U.S. have hit record highs since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war as a result of rising oil prices, and natural gas prices in Europe and the United States are also expected to rise. For Europe, this comes at a time when gas inventory in many European countries is low, with Germany’s storage capacity standing at about 20 percent filled. The effects of the war will not be limited to oil and gas but also to derivatives of the hydrocarbon industry, such as industrial feedstock and metals. With markets anxious to bulwark themselves from the fodder, further responses across industries are expected as the conflict continues.

Industrial management shapes the global economy we live in today. As part of the supply chain network, the logistics industry performs a multitude of services that facilitate the movements of goods. The size of the global logistics market was worth 9.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023 and is expected to exceed over 14 trillion U.S. dollars by 2028. One of the services that the logistics industry provides is third-party logistics (3PL), which helps firms of all sizes to fulfil their business performance and production.  What is 3PL? In general, 3PL is a full suite of logistics services, from warehousing and order to inventory management and automated shipping. 3PL enables industrial organizations to access the larger service network of global supply chain logistic providers. For instance, a manufacturer firm integrates the 3PL system into its production and operational system; thus, finding tailor-made solutions for distribution, storage, and transportation. Participants in the 3PL market generate an economic value that amounts to over 1.17 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023.  The global 3PL logistics industry has grown rapidly over the past few years as demands for transportation, warehousing, and many other services have expanded. Asia-Pacific accounts for more than one-third of the world’s 3PL market size, making it by far the largest regional market. The United States and China generated the largest revenues in the 3PL market by country of 300 and 280 billion U.S. dollars respectively in 2023. For the U.S., the world's largest 3PL market, this was decline from the previous year, when  total revenue in the United States had soared to a high of 406 billion U.S. dollars   Outlook for 3PL services. Like any industry, logistics is also not immune to disruptions. Where in recent years, companies operating primarily in the field of logisitcs had dominated the market, they have all been overtaken by the e-commerce giant Amazon. As of 2024,  Amazon recorded a gross logistics revenue of 156 billion U.S. dollars, approaching five-fold the amount that its closest competitor, DHL Supply Chain & Global Forwarding generated in the same year.  This change highlights some of the challenges to 3PL suppliers operating  in an uncertain market. Aside from new competitors in the market, companies are also having to adapt to a changing technological and business environment. Disruptions to global supply chains that drive up operational costs, having to invest more in new technologies, and labor shortages all rank among the top challenges faced by the industry in 2025. Particularly technological developments are rapidly changin the face of the industry. Nearly all 3PL providers worldwide forsee a substantial change to their industry through the introduction of artificial intelligence, while about half also believe that driverless vehicles will have a transformational effect on the industry.

In the United States, acts of violence committed with the use of firearms have become an everyday phenomenon plaguing the nation. Averaging almost 47,000 deaths from firearms annually, the United States is the only high-income country to report such a high death toll from gun violence. From 2016 onwards, there has been over 10,000 homicides by firearm in the U.S. each year and firearms were the most used murder weapon in the nation by far. In addition, the number of mass shootings and school shootings has been increasing over the last few years, with younger Americans emphasizing the reduction of gun violence and mass shootings as one of the most important issues to their generation. Despite rising rates of gun violence, however, many Americans remain fiercely protective of their constitutional right to bear arms. A crisis with unequal burdens. Gun violence does not affect all Americans equally. Data on firearm deaths by ethnicity reveal deep and persistent disparities, with Black Americans bearing a disproportionate share of gun homicide deaths. The gun homicide rate by race and age is particularly stark among young adults. Beyond homicides, firearm suicides represent the single largest category of gun fatalities, accounting for more than half of all gun deaths annually. Younger Americans are acutely aware of the issue, consistently ranking the reduction of gun violence and mass shootings among the most important issues facing their generation. The political culture of gun violence. Despite widespread concern, gun control remains one of the most polarizing issues in American politics. The Second Amendment's constitutional guarantee of the right to bear arms has made national-level legislation difficult to pass, and the debate breaks sharply along party lines: a large majority of Democrats favor limiting gun ownership rights, while an even larger share of Republicans prioritize protecting the right to own guns. Cross-partisan support exists for specific measures, with majorities backing universal background checks and other targeted policies, yet satisfaction with the nation's existing gun laws has remained persistently low. State laws and their limits. With federal action limited, gun policy in the U.S. is largely determined at the state level, producing wide variation. States with stronger gun safety laws generally experience lower rates of violence, and data on gun violence rates by state reflect stark geographic differences. However, the patchwork system has notable weaknesses: states with strict laws can still face elevated violence rates due to gun trafficking from neighboring states with looser regulations. Nowhere has the absence of comprehensive national legislation been more visible than in schools, where the rate of school shootings vastly outpaces that of any other high-income nation, leaving policymakers to navigate deeply entrenched cultural and constitutional constraints.

Biotechnology is steadily reshaping the pharmaceutical industry, both in scale and technological relevance. Global prescription drug revenues are projected to reach around $1.2 trillion in 2025, with expectations to surpass $1.7 trillion by 2030, reflecting sustained demand for advanced therapies. Within this market, biotech-based medicines are gaining share, accounting for roughly half of pharmaceutical sales in 2025, while conventional drugs continue to decline proportionally. This shift is driven by the growing importance of targeted treatments, including biologics and orphan drugs, which address complex and rare diseases more effectively than traditional approaches. Strong growth in biotech products and pipelines. The commercial success of biotechnology is reflected in rising drug sales and a robust development pipeline. Global biotech drug sales have expanded significantly, reaching an estimated $458 billion in 2024, up from just under $150 billion a decade earlier. At the same time, innovation is accelerating across modalities such as monoclonal antibodies and recombinant therapies, with pipeline assets expected to generate substantial future revenues. For example, monoclonal antibody drugs alone are projected to deliver nearly $325 billion in revenue by 2030. New modalities are generally gaining prominence, with their share of pipeline value expected to reach about 60 percent by 2030, highlighting a structural shift toward next-generation therapies.  Innovation ecosystems and investment momentum. Biotechnology’s expansion is supported by strong ecosystems and sustained investment activity. The United States leads globally, with around 3,200 dedicated biotech companies in 2023, far ahead of other countries. Financial backing remains substantial despite market fluctuations, as the industry in the U.S. and Europe raised approximately $73 billion in total capital in 2024, including venture funding and public offerings. Emerging segments such as gene editing and mRNA therapies further illustrate innovation momentum, with markets like CRISPR expected to expand rapidly over the next decade. Together, these factors underline biotechnology’s role as one of the most research-intensive and investment-driven sectors in the global economy. Expert insight. Biotechnology is transitioning from a high-growth niche into a structurally dominant force within the pharmaceutical industry, supported by both strong commercial performance and a deep innovation pipeline. The shift toward advanced modalities—such as gene editing, mRNA, and cell therapies—signals a long-term transformation in how diseases are treated, moving from broad-spectrum drugs to highly targeted interventions. This trend is echoed by broader industry analyses, suggesting that AI-driven drug discovery is increasingly reshaping biopharma R&D, with machine learning accelerating target identification and improving development efficiency. Similarly, advances in generative AI are expected to enhance precision medicine approaches, enabling better patient stratification and more effective therapies. Looking ahead, the convergence of biotechnology and digital technologies is likely to define the next decade of healthcare innovation. While challenges such as high development costs and regulatory complexity remain, the combination of scientific breakthroughs and technological acceleration positions biotech to drive sustained industry growth—particularly in oncology, rare diseases, and personalized treatments.

Since its gloomy days during the pandemic, the live music industry is back on its feet, revived and blooming. There is of course one person who helped shape these past years for the industry: Taylor Swift, whose Era’s Tour sent literal and metaphorical shockwaves around the globe. With audiences eager to experience live events again, not only Swift's tour, but live music worldwide recorded record-breaking numbers. However, a challenging economic situation for consumers combined with ticket prices that keep rising could put a damper on the market’s growth. Revival of the industry in light of record figures. After two years of uncertainty, in which the industry was put on hold and its figures were plummeting, live music worldwide is celebrating its comeback since 2022. And what a comeback it has been. Not only has the industry been revived, but attendance and revenue are surpassing pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, music tours reached a revenue of 8.9 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, compared to around five billion U.S. dollars seen in the year before the crisis. In addition, global ticket sales leveled at around 70 million these last three years, roughly 10 million more than in the 2010s. Survey data from 2025 indicates that this trend could very well continue, as nearly half of consumers in the United States expressed the intent to spend more on live music events during the following year. Rising prices could reshape consumer habits. The prices for live music events depend on a number of factors, such as the artists themselves, the type of event and location, as well as the seating category. Therefore, the range of pricing can differ massively across the industry. Still, on average, global ticket prices for music tours increased by around 70 percent since 2015. Dynamic pricing also influences the amounts consumers have to pay for live music events. This practice, already known in tourism and air travel and recently established by ticket providers to adapt ticket prices based on different factors (such as demand), faces mixed approval from consumers all around the globe. The ways in which consumers can now experience live music events have also diversified across time and medium. For instance, the release of concert movies generated several hundred million U.S. dollars in revenues globally, a realm that is also dominated by Taylor Swift. The movie “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” brought in more than 260 million dollars alone, of which the majority was generated domestically. This new trend turns out to be beneficial for the artists, consumers, the music industry, and movie theaters. The enthusiasm for live music events appears to be unshattered, as attendance is higher than ever. However, economic challenges and rising ticket prices put pressure on the consumers. Provided this development continues, it risks putting out this newly ignited flame. Consumers have already started discovering new ways of experiencing live music, such as concert movies or digital and virtual concerts that could turn out to be more accessible to them, financially and physically.

American consumers spend more time with digital media than with traditional formats. The shift in consumption towards digital media in the country started almost a decade ago, and this trend has been growing ever since. Traditional media, while still important, are nevertheless losing the attention of U.S. users.  Traditional TV is losing traction…. The biggest fans of TV viewing in the U.S., based on time spent, are 75 years or older, Black Americans, and men. Nearly 130 million U.S. households have TVs, with the largest local television markets being New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. However, a little over two-thirds of American TV households cut the cord in 2024 and this number is expected to rise to three-quarters by the end of 2027. …and VOD is looking for the support of advertising. Consumer spending on subscription video-on-demand, once very dynamic, has been showing signs of slowing down. Plagued by recession and rising inflation rates, video viewers are now reaching for cheaper visual entertainment solutions and turning to ad-supported video services. Audio consumption is also highly digitalized. Audio streams are a popular source of music listening in the United States. More than a third of U.S. adults say that music streaming is a superior way of listening, while owned music on physical formats such as CDs and vinyl is considered superior by less than one-sixth of Americans. Podcasts are rising in popularity, with younger consumers more keen on this format. However, the industry is seeing a shift among older age groups, who are becoming increasingly interested in podcasts. In general, those who do not listen to podcasts say they have no time for it or cannot find anything new and useful in them. All in all, podcast users mainly turn to YouTube to stream their favorites, as video podcasts are growing in popularity.  Is media consumption ruled by algorithms? Today the number of internet users in the United States is only slightly higher than the number of social media users in the country, which means if they have internet, they most probably have social media profiles. For many Americans, social networks have become hubs for finding news, media, and entertainment, and more than 40 percent of respondents to a survey say social media platforms are their go-to source for finding new movies or TV shows. Thanks to technological advancements in this area, such as artificial intelligence, publishers can now identify their target audiences with greater accuracy and deliver content to consumers based on their previous activities and interactions. The result is that the user receives more relevant content that is better tailored to their preferences, a factor that helps drive future engagement. What is more, common recipients of such recommendations are Gen Z, who learn about upcoming entertainment options from ads on social media. Among this demographic in particular, BookTok is a good example of algorithms serving content suggestions based on user behavior. This and similar platforms will shape the future of media discovery and consumption. Consumers, who are now constantly online, prefer quick recommendations instead of lengthy browsing of catalogs and media libraries. Digital media and artificial intelligence go hand in hand in delivering such experiences.

From cheap cell phones at the turn of the century to a 2,600 Euro, triple-fold, premium smartphone, the Chinese smartphone industry has come a long way since the early 2000’s when clandestine manufactures engineered mobile phones around MediaTek’s wildly available chipset. Today, China is the largest smartphone market in the world with some of the world’s largest brands. Taking over China and then the world. There is fierce competition in the Chinese smartphone market, dominated by domestic brands. After more than a decade, market shares have been divided among the six industry leaders. However, despite this, Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Honor, and Huawei fight for market position constantly, resulting in varying market shares every quarter. While Apple is the only overseas brand that prevails in the Chinese market, home brands become increasingly successful in global markets. With their competitive pricing, they have the edge in developing economies. For instance, the brand Transsion focuses mainly on the MENA and African markets. The fall and rise of Huawei. The past decade has been a rollercoaster for Huawei. Until 2020, the company was China’s leading smartphone brand, with market shares of over 40 percent. However, the company’s addition to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List in 2019 and 2020, restricted the company’s access to U.S.-made chips that were essential for the smartphone products. Consequently, Huawei sold its smartphone brand Honor and almost entirely halted its smartphone operation. In late 2023, however, Huawei surprised the industry with the release of the Mate 60 Pro that included a domestically developed 5G chip, clawing its way back to success, and released a triple-fold premium smartphone. Impenetrable domestic players expanding west. It will be an uphill battle for any company that intends to enter the Chinese smartphone market. This is part of the reasoning for brands like Transsion skipping the domestic market altogether and targeting overseas customers directly. The larger brands are still in the process of establishing themselves in the European market, with Xiaomi being the most successful. While the Chinese smartphone industry is mature, the fast-moving nature of the market can create opportunities as companies continue to utilize the domestic ecosystem as a jumping board to gain traction overseas.

Rapid urbanization is changing how people live, commute, and work around the world. As cities grow, congestion often becomes a more prevalent problem on city transport infrastructure creating demand for more mobility options including shared mobility services. Mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), also known as Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS), emerged as a response to the increasing mobility need in cities across the globe. It recasts mobility as using a mix of integrated transport modes that can be used as appropriate, often through a single online platform, rather than foregrounding individual ownership of vehicles. The aim is to provide customers with the most convenient and customized services so they may choose the method and means that best fit their budget and travel time constraints. Today, MaaS is a dynamic and fast-growing market incorporating urban mobility solutions from both public and private organizations. Efficiency-enhancing is the basic maxim for organizations performing in this industry to address the challenges of mobility in urban life. In less than a decade, this market is expected to grow almost four-fold, growing to 500 billion U.S. dollars by 2030. MaaS as part of urban mobility. Urban infrastructure, public transport, and availability of sustainable transport options are crucial factors determining urban mobility level of cities. Cities with good urban infrastructure are often able to offer better living standards for their citizens. As of 2024, Singapore scored as the leading city for its public transport, while San Francisco scores particularly highly on technology adoption. Ride-sharing, scooter-sharing, e-hailing, bike-sharing, and car-sharing are some of the main services provided by MaaS organizations across the globe. Other MaaS companies provide the online platforms and digital systems facilitating the integration of multiple modes of transport. Investment in MaaS technologies. Much of the success of the MaaS industry goes hand in hand with the emergence of accompanying technologies. To ensure further growth potential, the industry organizations invest in research and development of technologies and services that may radically reshape how we travel. Consequently, firms or start-ups within this industry must spend large sums of cash to establish themselves and be at the vanguard of the MaaS industry. Global startup funding for mobility services totaled nearly 39 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Meanwhile, the market for these services is expected to continue growing. The value pool for micro-mobility services is projected to grow to 28 billion U.S. dollars by 2030, while that for the car-as-a-service market is expected to reach 175 billion U.S. dollars in the same period. Autonomous vehicle technology is also receiving increasing attention within the MaaS sector and is expected to become the hallmark of ride-sharing services, enabling immense cost-saving for firms. While the technology is not ready to be widely deployed yet, revenue forecasts for the autonomous taxi sector, estimate a market value of nine trillion U.S. dollars for 2030.

The ride-sharing industry organizations utilize recent technological advances to match drivers with passengers through a customer-to-customer (C2C) business model. Consequently, these type of firms operates rather as a platform to enable those owning a car to operate as a taxi whenever they wish. In this respect, ridesharing operates similarly to a taxi service. However, there has been an important difference in that ride-sharing companies often did not fall under the regulatory and licensing requirements that traditional taxi companies are subject to. This generally granted ride-sharing companies a price advantage over taxi companies, which is why ridesharing is generally considered a ‘disruptive’ technology. In recent years, regulatory agencies have been addressing this loop hole and ride-hailing is becoming increasingly tightly regulated. Nonetheless, ride-hailing has been continued eating into the taxi market share, while the U.S. ride-hailing market has is continuing to grow the taxi market is contracting. Economic performance of the ridesharing market. The market-creating activity of the sharing economy has enabled the ride-sharing market to tap into the readily existing dormant supply of services and has challenged the status quo of taxi businesses In the United States. Over recent years, the ridesharing market has seen significant growth in potential and real economic performance. Ride-hailing revenue in the U.S. has reliably outpaced taxi revenue in the past years. The differential is projected to continue growing. While ride-hailing revenue is on an upward trend, projected to grow to nearly 61 billion U.S. dollars in 2029, taxi revenue is expected to drop to under 19 billion U.S. dollars by the same year. U.S. consumers are already more likely to use ride-hailing services than traditional taxi services. Market dynamics between Uber and Lyft. Uber and Lyft are the largest players in the global ride-sharing market, with Uber remaining the dominating platform. In the global marketplace Uber benefits from being active in around 70 countries around the world, while Lyft is only active in the United States and Canada. In the U.S. Lyft is able to claim a larger share of the market - 24 percent - than on the global stage. Despite its stronger presence on the U.S. market, it has to contend with Uber’s even stronger dominance in the United States, where Uber holds a market share of 74 percent. Compared to Lyft, Uber has been able to establish a larger customer base in the United States, with more consumers reporting having used Uber in the past year than Lyft.

Live sports programming attracts millions of U.S. viewers every year, occupying the first spots of the most watched shows in the United States. Sporting events are often linked to traditional cable networks, as they own the rights to the most popular sports leagues, such as the National Football League (NFL) or the National Basketball Association (NBA). However, streaming services increasingly saw the potential in recent years and grew their spending on sports rights worldwide, with ESPN Unlimited, Apple TV+, and Netflix being the latest options entering the sports broadcasting industry.  On-demand services increase their sports coverage. Amazon Prime Video, ESPN Select (formerly ESPN+), Peacock, and YouTube TV are currently the  most popular streaming apps in the U.S. to watch sports. While Peacock and ESPN Select have been essential to consumers watching live games and events for several years, more and more large media companies recently jumped on the bandwagon and now provide live sports via their streaming services. Between 2026 and 2028, Netflix, for example, will spend 35 million U.S. dollars per year on the rights to broadcast selected Major League Baseball (MLB) games. Amazon’s sports coverage, on the other hand, includes the NFL games on Thursdays branded as “Thursday Night Football” (TNF) on Prime Video. This move has been crowned with success – the  streaming viewership of TNF grew by nearly six million between the 2022 and 2025 seasons, with the event gaining traction across all age groups. As American football is the most watched sport on TV in the U.S., it is not surprising that also Netflix entered the sports broadcasting business and provides the professional American football league on Christmas. Most streamed sports. The Super Bowl – the yearly championship game of the NFL – remains the undisputed winner among sporting events in terms of TV audience in the United States. The number of streaming viewers surged recently, with a new survey finding that the online medium outpaced cable TV as the leading way to tune into the game. Other upcoming sporting events are also popular among streaming viewers. Nearly two in three Americans plan to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics via live streaming, compared to half of cable TV consumers. However, while streaming providers are seeing an uptick in  time spent watching sporting events, cable, satellite, and antenna still dominate sports consumption overall. With the enthusiasm for sports remaining high among American consumers, the integration of this content into streaming has opened up new avenues for viewer engagement. Despite traditional TV still belonging to the go-to platforms for major events, the overall trend suggests that sports fans are adapting to the streaming era, driven by the desire to access exclusive games and the promise of expanded offerings on these services.

Ocean shipping is an integral part of the supply chain for most industries, making it a backbone of global trade. The volume of seaborne trade has been showing a growing trend since 1990. Between 1990 and 2024, the volume of cargo transported by ships more than tripled, from four to nearly 13 billion tons. Hand in hand with the rise in seaborne trade goes the increasing capacity of the global merchant fleet. Between 2013 and 2025, the capacity of the worldwide merchant fleet grew by about 67 percent, reaching over 2.4 million deadweight tons in 2025. China as the shipbuilding powerhouse. Many of the newest additions to the global merchant fleet are now being built in China. Aside from being home to the busiest container ports worldwide, China has also been the global leader in shipbuilding since 2010, exporting mainly bulk carriers, oil carriers, and container ships. Tonnage volume in the orderbook of Chinese shipbuilders has been steeply increasing, nearly tripling in the period between 2020 and 2024. Shipbreaking, meanwhile, remains centered on India and Bangladesh, which in 2025 accounted for over 60 percent of commercial vessels being dismantled globally. Geo-political uncertainty spells trouble As the backbone of global supply chains, ocean shipping is highly susceptible to economic and geo-political pressures. As of early 2026, shipping through the Suez Canal remained significantly reduced compared to 2023 levels due to attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. Instead, shipping fleets have largely been diverted around the Cape of Good Hope, which has seen an increase in trade volume of roughly 100 percent. between January 2023 and January 2026. This was one of the factors leading to record-high container freight rates in 2024, scratching the 6,000 U.S. dollar threshold. Rates have since returned closer to those in early 2023 but prices remain variable. If tensions in the Middle East recede, shipping routes may shift back to the Suez Canal, bringing down transport distances and potentially reducing shipping demand. In addition, the trade tensions between the United States and its trading partners, are creating volatility in global trade that are adding to an uncertain outlook for the global shipping industry. 

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technologies provide environmental comfort through thermal manipulation (heating and air conditioning) and acceptable indoor air quality (ventilation). Sometimes refrigeration is also included as a supplementary segment of the industry, naming it HVAC-R. The size of the HVAC industry is different across regions. Asia and North America have some of the largest HVAC market sizes, with the largest  demand for air conditioners worldwide. China alone makes up more than a third of global demand. While in many markets they did not compete yet with air conditioners and traditional heating systems, heat pumps are a type of HVAC equipment that has gained prominence in the past years. In France alone, which was the  European country with the largest stock of heat pumps in 2024, there were roughly 6.5 million units. The HVAC industry is forecast to grow in the upcoming years. Increased demand through energy transition processes or even increased cooling needs in data centers contribute to the trend. Growing industry, but challenges persist. It is generally assumed that growing concerns worldwide about climate change and awareness of energy efficiency will lead to a growing demand for climate control systems. In some countries, this development has been further propelled by government initiatives providing tax cuts for such systems on top of home upgrades or refurbishments. However, the industry is also facing important challenges. The issue of skilled labor shortages has affected the HVAC market and many other industries that require many skilled professionals. It is forecast that there will be roughly 139,300 plumbing and HVAC workers in the UK by 2029, a figure that only accounts for the number of people working on construction-related activities, such as installing equipment. Rising prices for energy and electricity are also a concern amidst global crises and wars that lead to market shocks. Smart homes and data centers drive industry growth. Roughly half of the energy consumed by residential buildings in the U.S. in 2024 was used for space heating and cooling, water heating, and refrigeration, with these uses also making up a sizable share of the energy usage of commercial buildings. To decrease the carbon footprint of the building sector, it is increasingly critical to use more environmentally friendly HVAC equipment and install smart home tools. In 2025, 41 percent of realtors considered smart and connected buildings an important feature for their clients. Smart thermostats and HVAC equipment connected through the Internet of Things can control and automatically regulate the temperature of a room, which in turn allows a more efficient usage of energy. In addition to that, thermal insulation and other similar features of green buildings can help maintain a home at the ideal temperature using less energy. Another reason for the current industry growth is global investment into AI and data centers. Power and cooling solutions are the  most important capability sought by IT leaders for their data centers. With the number of data centers increasing fast, the need for large-scale cooling solutions will likely support the growing demand in HVAC even further.

Despite the uncertain economic environment and the challenges that the industry is facing, the construction sector in the United Kingdom has continued growing in the past year. The  gross value added of construction activities in the UK has been growing since the first quarter of 2025, although the fourth quarter saw a small decline compared to the previous quarter. There are several issues putting pressure on the construction sector, such as the ambitious housing construction goals from the government, the labor shortage, costs remaining high, and regulatory changes.  Is the construction industry still growing? The construction output of the construction sector in the UK has continued increasing in the past years, with a growth rate of 0.2 percent in 2024 and 1.8 percent in 2025. However, that growth has been decelerating since 2021, when there was a strong recovery, growing by 12.6 percent. Figures on the residential segment also showed a positive outlook; the number of housing starts in the UK as a whole increased noticeably in the past year, with England driving most of that growth, while housing starts in Scotland and Wales were lower than in previous years. Other segments also show signs of growth, with the value of infrastructure and private commercial construction orders growing by about 1.5 billion British pounds in 2025. Both of those figures, housing starts and construction orders, show that the number of projects under construction in those segments is expected to grow.  Construction costs are still high. Despite those indicators showing positive trends in the residential, commercial, and infrastructure segments, certain issues will remain challenging for the construction industry in 2025. Although inflation has been slowing down in the past year, the price of most building materials continued growing in 2025, with the price of imported sawn or planed wood growing by 8.6 percent, that of paint by 6.5 percent, and that of a couple of other products by over four percent. Meanwhile, there were roughly 34,000 job vacancies in the construction sector in the UK, the lowest figure since 2020. According to industry professionals, financial constraints, planning, and regulation were a few of the other factors that were limiting the building activity in 2025.  Although the construction industry in the UK has some uncertain times ahead, public and private spending is expected to continue growing in 2026.

The evolving consumer demand and product innovations keep on driving the growth of global cosmetics market. In recent years, revenues experienced significant growth, and forecasts indicate that this upward trend is set to continue. The market was in fact projected to be worth about 139 billion U.S dollars by 2030. As of 2024, North Asia and North America together were the leading geographic zones in the cosmetic market, each making up nearly 30 percent of the global market, followed by Europe with a share of 24 percent. Generally, the cosmetic market can be broken down into five main categories: skin care, hair care, make-up, perfumes, and hygiene products. European market overview. Looking at the Europe, skin care products and toiletries are the two dominating products. While skin care's market value reached a value of about 30.1 billion euros in 2024, toiletries were close behind. By comparison, decorative cosmetics achieved the lowest result, with only 13.9 billion euros. In the same year, the consumption value of beauty and personal care items in Europe added up to nearly 104 billion euros. Within Europe, Germany held the highest market value, at about 16 billion euros. In second place came France, followed by the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain. Leading cosmetics companies. Based on its brand value of approximately 12 billion euros, the Chanel and L’Oréal brand was first in the ranking of  European cosmetics brands in 2025. The French personal care company L’Oréal was founded in 1909 and has not only become the largest cosmetics and beauty company in Europe, but also in the world. Nivea followed, with a brand value of about seven billion euros. Nivea is a German personal care brand, owned by the multinational corporation  Beiersdorf AG, founded in 1882. In the past years, both companies showed increasing revenues – according to the latest available financial figures, L’Oréal reached its peak at approximately 43.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, while Beiersdorf peaked at around 9.85 billion euros in the same year. Thanks to the rising revenues of the European cosmetic market and the growing success of the several companies founded in the region, this area's strong performance is likely to continue in the coming years.

Originally from the Americas, the tobacco plant was likely used ages ago by natives in religious ceremonies or medical treatments. In the modern era, social tobacco usage has turned into a global market of more than one billion smokers. Each year, over 3.5 million hectares of tobacco are harvested around the world. Although several non-American countries rank among today’s top global tobacco producers, Brazil, Argentina, and the United States still hold relevant positions on the list. Mexico’s role as a regional player. As one of the leading Latin American tobacco producers, Mexico’s annual tobacco production reached nearly 17 thousand tons in 2019. That same year, the harvest area was estimated at approximately seven thousand hectares —roughly the total agricultural area of the British Virgin Islands. Consequently, the North American country has become a major player in the region’s international trade, exporting more than 250 million U.S. dollars of the product. However, like many other industries worldwide, the Mexican tobacco manufacturing was severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The production of tobacco in the country had shrunk from nearly 17.5 billion Mexican pesos in 2019 to just over 11.3 billion by late 2020, which is around the total value recorded five years prior. The state of Nayarit, located between Sinaloa and Jalisco on the Pacific coast, is likely to be the most affected by this crisis since it accounts for 80 percent of the total area planted with tobacco in Mexico. Smoking’s loss of reputation in Mexico. With the growing awareness on the dangers of smoking and the additional health risks posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the consumption of cigarettes in Mexico dropped in 2020 as well. That year, smokers in the country consumed on average one pack of cigarettes less per week than they had the year earlier. The decrease in tobacco consumption among the Mexican population can, however, be observed at least since 2010. Between that year and 2019, the smoking prevalence in the North American country went down by more than three percentage points — a trend that is expected to continue in the following years. By the mid-2020s, it is namely anticipated that just roughly 12.3 percent of the Mexican population will be active smokers. The Mexican government has additionally taken specific measures to discourage the consumption of tobacco substitutes. In 2020, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed an executive order, which banned imports of electronic cigarettes into Mexican territory. This action follows the direction marked by the General Law for Tobacco Control ( Ley General para el Control del Tabaco ) issued in 2008, which already prohibited the commerce of these products in the country.

As one of the world's most economically significant agricultural crops, tobacco is a general term given to products prepared from the cured leaves of plants belonging to the Nicotiana genus. India stands behind China and Brazil, as one of the largest producers and exporters of this product. Tobacco consumed in any form poses health risks and complications and affects a large population of passive smokers. The highly addictive alkaloids present in tobacco make it hard to quit. Despite these health issues, the tobacco industry is flourishing due to its economic importance. Tobacco is mainly produced in the states of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh in India, where the weather is suitable for the crop. Besides, smoking tobacco in India is known for its quality and places the country in the leading revenue earning bracket worldwide. Tobacco products consumption. While most of the tobacco is processed into cigarettes, the leftovers are used to make the popular beedi or bidi, where tobacco is wrapped in tendu leaves. Smokeless tobacco has been quite popular in the country for centuries with variants of chewing and snuffing tobacco products. Due to easy access and low cost, products such as paan/pan, gutka, and flavored tobacco are widely consumed by young and old alike. Unfortunately, this makes for distinct red paan stains on walls all over the country. A variety of bidis and smokeless tobacco products are made in cottage industries without warnings on the packaging and sold in family-owned shops and stalls. Furthermore, at least 75 percent of cigarettes are sold as single sticks, so buyers don’t see the warnings on the packet. Ban and taxation on tobacco products. Tobacco consumption has been reduced significantly in the country. Despite this, it is still used by 267 million people, and as society liberalizes more women are taking up smoking. A series of legal precautions and warnings came into effect at the turn of the millennium. It started with banning advertising of tobacco and alcohol use, followed by mandatory pictorial warnings on products. A Supreme Court judgment in 2001 banned smoking in public spaces in the country, and a series of governmental anti-tobacco advertisements followed this message. Public spaces and restaurants have designated areas for smoking. In addition, ban on the sale, manufacture, distribution, and storage of gutka and all its variants was implemented in May 2013 and consequent notifications have enforced a strict ban on all smokeless tobacco products. Furthermore, prohibition on the use and sale of e-cigarettes was announced in 2019. The number of legal cigarettes has decreased while the illegal cigarette trade has increased dramatically due to high cigarette taxes and strict tobacco control laws like India's 85 percent pictorial warning on tobacco product packs.

Indonesia has one of the highest smoking rates in the world and is one of the biggest producers of tobacco worldwide. Despite a ban on tobacco purchases for those under the age of 18, many Indonesian teenagers have started consuming tobacco products largely driven by curiosity. In 2023, the smoking prevalence in Indonesia stood at around 38 percent. It was estimated that the prevalence would continue to increase and reach approximately 38.6 percent by 2029. Kretek - the Indonesian cigarette of choice. In 2023, approximately 240 thousand metric tons of tobacco were produced in Indonesia. In that same year, Indonesia imported tobacco from other major producers to fulfill the tobacco industry's needs. Different than other countries, Indonesian smokers tend to favor the local kretek cigarettes. Kretek is a clove cigarette that consists of tobacco, ground clove buds, clove oil as well as other spices such as cumin, cinnamon, or nutmeg. Saccharin is then added to the kretek cigarette wrapping paper to give it a sweet taste. Machine-made kretek cigarettes are most common in Indonesia, with a share of around 75 percent of the Indonesian tobacco market. Kretek cigarettes are, however, more harmful than regular cigarettes due to a higher percentage of tar and nicotine - the average Kretek cigarette has 56 milligrams of tar and 2.8 milligrams of nicotine. A survey on the daily cigarette consumption in Indonesia found Indonesians smoke on average between six to ten cigarettes a day. Smoking - a habit that is here to stay? There have been some attempts to restrain smoking in recent years, such as an increase in government funding for medical research on the health impacts of smoking. However, the Indonesian government had always been supportive of the kretek industry and was slow to implement a functioning system of tobacco control and consumer protection as the tobacco industry is one of Indonesia's largest economic contributors. Cigarette costs and tax rates in Indonesia are known to be low in comparison to other countries. At the beginning of January 2022, Indonesia finally increased its tobacco excise across all cigarette varieties by an average of 12 percent. However, this step was taken to generate additional revenues to help the nation stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis and has not been effective in reducing Indonesia's tobacco consumption. While tax revenue and price increases are important steps to ease the country's pressure, the Indonesian government also needs to focus on reducing its smoking prevalence. The fact that cheap cigarettes are a major contributor to Indonesia's tobacco epidemic must also be emphasized. In 2023, a pack of cigarettes in Indonesia was around 21,000 Indonesian rupiahs for kretek cigarettes and 28,000 rupiahs for white cigarettes. There is still a long way to go before Indonesia's tobacco consumption is drastically reduced. Decreasing the price gap between the most and lowest-priced cigarette products and enacting the highest legal tax rates seem to be the preferred recommendations by Indonesian health organizations.

The United States has one of the largest retail markets in the world, and many of the biggest retail companies are located there. Over the last couple of decades, total retail sales in the United States have grown considerably, from just under three trillion U.S. dollars in 2000 to more than 7.2 trillion dollars in 2024. Quarterly consumer spending has also been climbing, surpassing 16.7 trillion dollars by the end of 2025, supporting expectations of continued growth. Where Americans spend: from department stores to digital carts. One of the largest sectors within the United States retail market is general merchandise. This sector comprises stores that do not specialize in a single product type but offer a wide range of consumer goods, from apparel and home furnishings to electronics. These include department stores, dollar stores, and big-box retailers. In 2024,  general merchandise stores made sales of approximately 940 billion U.S. dollars, continuing the pattern of constant year-on-year growth since 2009. In comparison, clothing and clothing accessories store sales amounted to roughly 304 billion dollars in the same year. Meanwhile, e-commerce's share of total U.S. retail sales surpassed 16 percent by the third quarter of 2025, underscoring the ongoing migration from physical stores to online channels. Amazon vs. Walmart. Two of the largest retailers in the United States are Amazon and Walmart. Amazon is undoubtedly the leading company in the e-commerce market and one of the most trusted companies by consumers in the retail market. The company's total revenue surpassed 716 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, overtaking Walmart's fiscal year revenue for the first time. Still, Walmart remained the leading U.S. retailer based on retail sales in 2024, with roughly 569 billion U.S. dollars. Founded by Sam Walton in Arkansas in the 1960s, Walmart is one of the largest retail corporations in the United States and the world. With AI-powered shopping tools gaining traction among younger generations, the competition between these retail giants is moving further into the digital realm, suggesting the next chapter of American retail will be shaped as much by technology as by store footprint.

The topic of crime in the United States is broad, technically covering any action punishable under state or federal law. One common way to narrow the scope is to focus on offenses involving jail time and then differentiate between violent crimes and property crimes. Violent crimes involve force or the threat of force against a person, while property crimes involve the taking of money or goods without direct confrontation. Property crimes significantly outnumber violent crimes, with larceny-theft remaining the most commonly committed offense by a wide margin. Crime rates continued to fall in 2024. According to the FBI's latest data, both violent crime and property crime rates dropped significantly in 2024, reaching their lowest levels in roughly two decades. The decline was broad-based: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter cases saw particularly sharp decreases, while robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft all trended downward as well. Researchers largely attribute the continued drop to the unwinding of pandemic-era stressors that had fueled a surge in homicides between 2020 and 2022. Despite the national downward trend, significant geographic variation remains. States such as New Mexico, Louisiana, and Colorado continued to report high rates of both violent and property crime, while New England states generally recorded some of the lowest rates. Washington, D.C. technically topped several crime rate lists, though this result is misleading due to its strictly urban geography; when compared to other major U.S. cities, the capital ranked behind multiple metropolitan areas. Public perception does not match the data. Despite sustained decreases, surveys consistently show that a majority of Americans believe crime is increasing each year. This gap between perception and reality has persisted for decades and is partly fueled by extensive media coverage of high-profile incidents. Critics point out that while the FBI's overall figures have improved, areas such as gun violence and mass shootings continue to shape public anxiety and dominate the national conversation around safety. Additionally, the FBI's transition to its new National Incident-Based Reporting System has improved data quality, but gaps in agency reporting mean national crime figures may still undercount the true scope of criminal activity across the country.

History tells us that as long as spectator sports have existed, people have bet on them. The first recorded instance of this came in Ancient Greece, when punters speculated on the outcome of the Olympic Games. Since then, the sports betting market has undergone countless evolutions and grown into an industry with a market size totaling over 87 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. One such evolution has been the rise of online sports betting, which has made accessibility to sportsbooks unprecedentedly easy, while also compounding the potential risks associated with problem gambling. Having overtaken in-person sports betting in market size in 2021, online sports betting accounted for more than half of the total industry revenue in 2024 and was projected to grow to around 73 billion U.S. dollars by 2030. What are the biggest sports betting markets? When it comes to the total amount wagered on sports by continent, Asia is by far the largest sports betting market globally, accounting for over 60 percent of total sports betting handle in 2024. However, with sports betting only being legal in some U.S. states since 2018, the burgeoning sports betting industry in the United States is expected to continue growing, having grown by around 12 billion U.S. dollars in market size year-on-year between 2021 and 2025. Meanwhile, the most popular sport by betting handle in 2024 was soccer, with over 779 billion U.S. dollars wagered on it. In fact, bets on soccer made up around half of the  total sports betting handle worldwide that year, with approximately 60 percent of bets wagered on sports in Asia going solely on soccer. What are the biggest sports betting companies in the world? In 2025, FanDuel, DraftKings, and Marina Bay Sands ranked as the  most valuable sports betting companies worldwide. As online sportsbooks, these companies have been able to ride the wave of growth that has propelled online sports betting into the dominant sector it has become. This is clearly illustrated by the revenue of DraftKings Inc., which grew by 985 percent between 2020 and 2025. However, with 45 percent of sports bettors worldwide saying they did not have a preferred online sportsbook as of 2024, the room for smaller and prospective betting companies to get a firm footing in the market is considerable. What does the future hold for sports betting? With each country able to shape its own legislation for sports betting, it is difficult to make blanket statements on the future of the industry on a global scale. Nevertheless, as a market that has existed for multiple millennia, consumer demand is likely to remain robust. When coupled with greater ease of access to betting platforms via digital devices, the burden of responsibility for consumer safeguarding is also heightened. This is especially the case for the U.S., which is poised to become an ever-larger sports betting market in the coming years, however, one that is relatively inexperienced in dealing with problem gambling outside of traditional settings such as casinos. In this regard, regulators in the U.S. may find themselves looking across the pond, with sports betting in the United Kingdom having come under increased scrutiny and regulation in recent years.

All advertising markets across the globe win, yet some win more than others. Ad spending worldwide increased by five percent to almost 832 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, compared to a growth rate of eight percent in the previous year. Whereas global ad revenues concentrate in areas with large populations or high purchasing power – preferably both – their evolution depends on a wider set of indicators. It was projected that, in 2026, the APAC region would be the  world's fastest-growing in terms of advertising and the only one whose expansion matched the global average. The second-placed region, The Americas, would follow closely behind, while EMEA is expected to register growth of little over four percent. Expanding markets, different evolutions. The Americas' relevance for the advertising world cannot be understated. The United States remains the largest ad market on the planet, with spending exceeding 450 billion dollars in 2025. Canada and Brazil also make it to the top 10. The Canadian ad market  stands out as one of the highest-digitized across the globe: Sources predict that, in 2026, online channels will account for about three-quarters of Canada's total ad revenues. Meanwhile, Asian markets are set to outperform those in the Americas. Within the region, China leads with a total advertising market of around 250 billion U.S. dollars. The data also highlights China’s particularly rapid momentum in retail media, one of today’s most dynamic segments in advertising. In fact, China surpasses Canada, Germany, and the U.S. by more than 30 percent in  share of retail media in digital ad spending.  Within EMEA, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France stand among the 10 leading global ad markets. The UK harbors an industry known for its creativity, pushing the country to rank as  Europe's most effective ad market  as of 2025, an index score-based list informed by each territory's performance at award shows. Germany still stands out for very different reasons: the persistent importance of TV and daily newspapers for its advertisers. The two media combined account for over 60  percent of Germany's ad spend, while online channels lag with about 13 percent.  France's ad revenues  grew by three percent in 2025, surpassing 19 billion euros that year. Part of its solid development comes from housing corporations such as Publicis, the second-largest ad holding worldwide, and JCDecaux, the largest out-of-home (OOH) media company on the planet. Global ad trends: CTV, RMN, and influencers. The three terms define the  major digital trends in the advertising sector worldwide. During a survey published at the end of 2025, four in five participating global brands reported plans to invest more in advanced or connected TV (CTV) in 2026. Online retail media networks (RMNs) were a close second, with a large share of respondents saying they intended to increase the budget for that significantly. Their continued interest reflects the format's still unstoppable appeal, as digital marketplaces like  Amazon, Alibaba, and Mercado Libre compete for consumers and advertisers alike. Some 58 percent of participants stated they would raise  influencer marketing  budgets, thus boosting an industry whose revenues were forecast to skyrocket by about one-third in 2025, exceeding 32 billion dollars. Brands focus on consolidated trends that meet potential clients where they are: watching TV and video, shopping online, and following their favorite content creators. 

With Las Vegas or Atlantic City alone, the United States is home to some of the most renowned gambling locations in the world. Accordingly, gambling is undeniably woven into the cultural iconography of the United States. The gambling industry is also a major cog in the U.S. economy, with the national commercial gross gaming revenue (GGR) reaching 71.92 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. The majority of this revenue is generated by casino slots and table games, which totaled around three-quarters of total GGR in 2024. That year, Nevada’s GGR outstripped every other U.S. state, totaling over 15 billion U.S. dollars. In comparison, Pennsylvania generated the second-highest amount of GGR, with 6.88 billion U.S. dollars. Where is gambling legal in the U.S.? Under federal law, gambling is legal in the U.S., however, each state can define its own regulations as it sees fit. Consequently, it is easy to lose track of what distinctions make certain forms of gambling illegal in one state but perfectly acceptable in another. For example, following the federal legislature's legalization of sports betting in 2018, 38 states had decided to follow suit as of July 2025. However, six of these states decided to only allow in-person sports betting. As is also often the case, there have been conflicts in interpreting legislation at state and federal levels. One instance of this is daily fantasy sports (DFS) in the state of Nevada, with the state’s Gaming Control Board insisting that DFS are a form of gambling and therefore require a license. However,  leading DFS platforms have argued that under the 2006 Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act, fantasy sports are recognized as a game of skill rather than luck and therefore do not need to pay for a gaming license. As of September 2025, this conflict had yet to have been resolved, creating the bizarre situation of popular apps such as DraftKings or FanDuel not being accessible in the U.S. capital of gambling, Las Vegas. How many people gamble in the U.S.? Recent years have seen an uptake in gambling in the U.S., with 57 percent of U.S. adults saying they participated in gambling in 2025. In comparison, 43 percent took part in 2019. Concurrently, attitudes towards gambling have become increasingly permissive in the U.S., with 62 percent of adults saying they found it acceptable in 2025. Six years previously, this figure had stood at 50 percent. When it comes to the  most popular forms of gambling in the U.S., playing the lottery has been the consistent favorite, with 37 percent of the U.S. population having taken part in 2023. Looking to the future, there is an expectation that the U.S. gambling industry will grow steadily over the coming years. This is especially true for online gambling, whose market size was forecast to grow from around 25 billion U.S. dollars in 2024 to 40 billion U.S. dollars by 2029. However, in-person gambling is not expected to disappear any time soon, especially in locations such as Las Vegas, where visiting casinos is part of the holistic touristic experience.

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a relatively large and populous country in Western Asia. It has been the ancestral home of the Persian people for almost three millennia, and it was the seat of power of some of the world’s largest and most influential empires. Iran’s rich history has meant that Persian culture, innovations, and teachings have had a major impact on the development of many Asian and European societies alike, as well as the evolution of Islam. Today, Iran borders seven other countries and occupies the stretch of land between the Middle East and Central and South Asia, as well as the coasts of the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and the Caspian Sea, giving it a strategically important location. Additionally, factors such as its economy, energy industry, military, and religious influence mean that Iran is considered one of the leading geopolitical powers in Western Asia. On February 28, 2026, a joint military operation between Israel and the United States launched airstrikes on Iran, marking a significant escalation in a confrontation that had been building for months. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the war. The U.S. government said the offensive was intended to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and noted that it might also present an opportunity for wider political change within the country, but also gave other, at times conflicting, explanations for the strikes. The war has thrown Iran and the Middle East into turmoil and could potentially upend the future of the country and the region. Moreover, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, an important transport corridor for oil, gas, and other commodities, has had a negative impact on the global economy and caused fear of a new global recession. History of Iran. The territory of present-day Iran is one of the longest-inhabited and culturally rich in the world. The Achaemenid Empire (7th to 4th centuries BCE) was the largest of the ancient world (outside of China), at its peak it stretched from Greece and Egypt to India. Because of this, Persian innovations, knowledge, and culture played a fundamental role in the development of many ancient societies across Afro-Eurasia. After falling to Alexander the Great in 331BCE, these regions were split across various successor states, and Persian influence weaned until the Arab conquest in the 7th century CE, where Persian culture and science become a defining component of the Islamic Golden Age throughout the Medieval period. In the 16th century, the Safavid Empire emerged, marking what many consider as the beginning of modern Iranian history, the foundation of Iran’s national identity, as well as the transition to Shia Islam. Iran’s power fluctuated over the following centuries, namely due to the expansion of the Russian Empire, while territorial concessions and forced expulsions in the Caucus region saw Iran’s borders and demographic composition shift greatly. Major famines in the 1870s and during both world wars each resulted in the deaths of several million people – estimates vary as population records are scarce. Iran declared neutrality in both world wars but became the staging ground for conflict between European powers in WWI, and was annexed by the Allies for its strategic importance in WWII. Throughout the 20th century, Western interest in Iran largely became tied to its fossil fuel reserves - Iran emerged as an “energy superpower” in the mid-1900s and was a founding member of OPEC in 1960. The Iranian Revolution. After WWII, progressive and modernizing reforms put in place by the new Shah’s administration saw a dramatic improvement in the health, education, and living standards for much of the population, and the economy was among the fastest growing in the world. However, many religious, intellectual, and leftist groups had become critical of the king’s consolidation of power and his ties with Israel and the West, as well as perceived corruption and economic inequality on a much broader scale. When rising oil prices caused recession in the 1970s, opposition groups united – anti-government protests turned violent, with authorities attacking and killing protestors on several occasions. As conditions worsened in the late-1970s, protests grew larger and the Shah went into exile in 1979. There is no consensus on the death toll of the Iranian Revolution - Western sources put the death toll at a few thousand, while Iranian figures claim up to 60,000. Revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini (exiled by the Shah in 1964) returned to Iran as the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The new administration took a hardline religious conservative approach to governing - previously-allied secular groups from the Revolution were ostracized, elements of Sharia Law were implemented that changed the rights and status of citizens, and ties with the West and Israel were cut. The Iran-Iraq War then broke out in 1980 - Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Iran as he was fearful of the spread of revolution and hoped to capitalize on the tumultuous situation. The eight-year war was fought on both sides of the border, resulted in the deaths of several hundred thousand people (possibly 200,000 Iranians), and ended in a stalemate in 1988. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini then died in 1989 and was succeeded by Ali Khamenei.  Stability returned to Iran in the 1990s, elements of the economy were privatized, and Iran’s influence in the Middle East grew. Iran today - natural resources and geopolitical tensions. Today, Iran is the  second-most populous country in the Middle East, after Egypt, and ranked among the three largest economies in the region, with Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Iran is not considered a demographic outlier, and most major indicators are in line with the global average or regional trends. Fertility is below replacement level, but natural population growth is maintained due to falling mortality and increased life expectancy. The country also has a positive migration rate in most years, as it has greater economic and education opportunities than many neighboring countries. It is the  third largest producer of natural gas in the world, is among the top ten oil producers, and has a large share of the world’s proven reserves of each resource. All its fossil fuel industries are state-owned and are responsible for over half of state revenues in most years. Although it implements elements of presidential democracy, Iran is considered an autocratic theocracy, and the president ultimately answers to the Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei had served as president for most of the 1980s before becoming Supreme Leader. The state of democracy in Iran is ranked among the lowest in the world – criticism of the Supreme Leader is a punishable offense, censorship is high, and the legitimacy of presidential elections has regularly been called into question or resulted in large protests. Iran has received international condemnation for its human rights record and restrictive government policies. Thousands were killed and arrested during protests between 2022 and 2023, and from December 2025 to January 2026. Due to its nuclear weapons program, Iran has been the most heavily sanctioned country in the world in recent decades (but was overtaken by Russia in 2022 ), with the loss of foreign investment valued at several hundred billion dollars. Its ambitions have been an area of concern for Israel and the West for some time – in 2015, Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear weapons program, but the deal collapsed with U.S. withdrawal in 2018. Tensions increased thereafter, ultimately resulting in the 12-day wa r in 2025 and the outbreak of the war in February 2026. Additionally, Iran has been involved in proxy conflicts with both Israel and  Saudi Arabia since the revolution – Iran does not acknowledge the legitimacy of the state of Israel, while its rivalry with Saudi Arabia is multi-faceted and relates to historical, economic, and geopolitical factors, as well as the fact that both countries view themselves as the leaders of their respective branches of Islam. Furthermore, Iran built up the so-called Axis of Resistance, consisting of the Shia-dominated government in Iraq, the Assad government in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen. However, the axis was substantially weakened following the attack by Hamas against Israel in October 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the Israeli insurgency into Lebanon in 2024.

Solar photovoltaics is one of the most cost-effective technologies for electricity generation and therefore its use is growing rapidly across the globe. Global solar photovoltaic capacity has grown from around 40 gigawatts in 2010 to approximately 2.2 terawatts in 2024. Only in that last year, installations increased by almost 40 percent. In 2024, cumulative solar PV capacity reached some 886 gigawatts in China alone. Investments in solar photovoltaic energy have grown during the last years and the technology stands out as the most heavily funded renewable energy source. China's solar PV market. The capacity of newly installed solar PV has continued to steadily grow over the last decades, with China being one of the largest markets for solar cells and module production. China is home to the majority of the world’s solar module manufacturers. In 2023, the country accounted for almost 85 percent of solar module production. Although China is the country with the largest solar PV capacity worldwide, the technology contributes to roughly 10 percent of the country's electricity mix. However, China continues to place a larger focus on moving to clean energy sources and is expected to continue adding solar capacity. Since the industry’s beginnings in the country, China has moved from a small, rural-oriented solar program to one of the largest markets in the world. Decline in solar energy costs. The average cost of solar PV systems has greatly decreased during the last few years, and amounted to 691 U.S. dollars per kilowatt in 2024. This has allowed the technology to scale up, with more and more new projects not relying on subsidies and solar investments increasing in the past few years. Many companies are now signing renewable corporate purchase agreements (PPAs) for energy sourcing, with solar usually being the main technology of choice across the world. Solar energy outlook worldwide. In the last few years, the solar photovoltaic sector has experimented rapid growth. From 2025 to 2029, solar PV capacity additions worldwide are forecast to range between roughly 655 and 930 gigawatts annually. In total, the world is expected to have an installed solar capacity of more than six terawatts by that last year, with China being by far the largest solar market.

In 2018, approximately 5.13 quadrillion British thermal units of energy derived from biomass were consumed in the United States. U.S. biomass energy production is expected to grow to 5.54 quadrillion British thermal units in 2050. When retail gasoline prices have peaked, biofuels have increasingly gained importance as a transport fuel. In 2018, U.S. biofuel production grew to about 38.1 million metric tons of oil equivalent, up from about three million metric tons in 2000. The global production of biofuels reached just about 95.4 million metric tons of oil equivalent in 2018, where the U.S. continues to lead biofuel production. Not only is biomass a good alternative to petroleum-based products, but it is also an important contributor to the nation’s power supply. Net electricity generation of wood and wood-derived fuels came to a about 39.9 gigawatt hours in 2019, making it the third largest non-hydroelectric renewable energy source after wind and solar. Over recent years, governments across the world have realized the importance of alternative sources of energy, as traditional means such as coal and oil are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. As a result, there was a massive spike in investment in biofuel technologies, although, investment has decreased in recent years during the global recession and the collapse in oil prices. Furthermore, the production of renewable fuels as a whole has seen a great increase, with a projected 36 billion gallons being produced in 2022, up from just 9 billion gallons in 2008. Biomass is seen as one of the most promising sources of energy for the future as it produces comparatively fewer harmful carbon dioxide emissions, and it is both abundant and renewable, thus reducing the world's dependency on fossil fuels. However, biomass still produces harmful methane gases and is currently more expensive and inefficient in comparison to fossil fuels.

The story of fossil fuels began millions of years ago when ancient organisms died and were gradually buried by layers of rock and sediment. As these layers grew thicker, the organic matter was subjected to intense heat and pressure. The remains of plants and organisms can be chemically altered by this process and changed into substances known as coal, crude oil, and natural gas. These are the three main types of fossil fuels. They are still necessary to help meet the energy and electricity demands of many countries, including the United States. Today, fossil fuel industries drill or mine for these energy sources, burn them to produce electricity, or refine them for use as fuel for heating or transportation. U.S. coal primarily used in electric power sector. Coal was the first fuel exploited by humans for energy on a large scale, it is a black or brownish-black carbonaceous rock formed from dead trees and other plants. The U.S. is the third largest coal consumer worldwide. The country's electric power sector was responsible for 8.9 quadrillion British thermal units of coal consumed in 2022. However, the use of coal has notably decreased in recent years. The role of crude oil and gas in U.S. energy consumption. Crude oil and gas were formed from dead marine organisms. After crude oil is pumped from the ground, it is sent to a refinery where different parts of the crude oil are processed into various petroleum products. Crude oil is often used to fabricate liquid-fuel products like gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating oil. The transportation sector is by far the largest consumer of petroleum products in the U.S. Unlike coal, petroleum consumption has remained high, despite growing concerns over its impact on the climate. Meanwhile, natural gas has overtaken coal as the main fuel for U.S. electricity generation. Apart from the electric power sector, natural gas is also a valuable feedstock in the chemicals manufacturing industry. In 2022, the average natural gas price for U.S. industry consumers stood at 7.9 U.S. dollars per thousand cubic feet.

The United States is one of the largest wind energy markets in the world. In terms of installed capacity, the country ranks second worldwide, after China. As of end of 2024, the total wind power capacity installed across the United States stood at over 154 gigawatts. Overall, wind energy has become the largest renewable electricity source in the U.S., accounting for roughly 10 percent of electricity generation in the country. However, newly installed wind energy capacity has been gradually decreasing since 2020, when a record 17 gigawatts of new wind power capacity were installed. In 2024, the country's wind capacity additions amounted to four gigawatts, the lowest since 2013. Furthermore, the current Trump administration has taken significant steps to slow down energy transition efforts, impacting wind energy project developments. Wind power’s role in U.S. energy market. Electricity generation from wind in the United States reached a peak of over 453 terawatt hours in 2024, with figures having grown steadily since the early 2000s. In 2023, wind power production in the country registered a slight decrease, amounting to some 421 terawatt hours. Following China, the U.S. ranked as the second leading country in newly installed wind power. That year, the United States added about four gigawatts to its wind farm fleets, roughly the same amount as Germany. Texas was by far the U.S. state with the greatest new capacity installations, followed by Oklahoma and Wyoming. Regarding wind companies, GE Vernova is the largest U.S.-based wind turbine manufacturer. In 2024, the company generated a revenue of 9.7 billion U.S. dollars through its wind energy business segment. Offshore’s rocky start and future prospects. Despite having a huge resource potential, the U.S. coast has been largely untapped for offshore wind deployment. As of May of 2024, the country with a coastline of over 12,000 miles had only 174 megawatts of offshore wind capacity installed. As of that time, there were also roughly 80 gigawatts of offshore projects in the country's offshore pipeline, with over four megawatts already under construction. However, the current Trump administration has implemented several actions targeting offshore wind projects, including withdrawals from offshore leasing, reviews of active projects, stop-work orders, and cancellation of grants. These measures represent a shift from prior support for offshore wind and are keeping the industry almost entirely on hold. U.S. wind energy outlook. Although to a lesser extent than offshore wind, onshore wind energy is also experiencing a slowdown in the United States. Policies impacting land-based wind project developments such as permitting freezes have resulted in severe disruption and uncertainty, as well as widespread project cancellations and delays. Although wind continues to be the largest renewable energy source in the U.S., new installations are forecast to slow down in the near future, along with investment and employment in the sector.

There has been no steady increase in the world's nuclear energy generation over the past two decades. In fact, the share of nuclear power in global electricity generation hit its lowest value since the beginning of the century in 2024. However, nuclear energy capacity has grown by over 20 gigawatts since the 2000s. Only two countries in the world generate most of their electricity from nuclear sources: France and Slovakia, both located in Europe. The United States and China produced only around 20 and five percent of their power from nuclear plants, respectively, despite having the largest nuclear energy production capacity in the world. The world's largest nuclear energy producers. As of May 2025, 441 nuclear power reactors were operational worldwide across 32 countries. Around 20 percent of them were in the United States, the largest nuclear power-generating country in the world, followed by China, France, and Russia. The U.S. and France did not have any nuclear reactors planned in 2025, contrary to China and Russia. That year, 28 nuclear reactors were under construction in China, and the country planned the construction of another 40 reactors within the next 15 years. In turn, Russia had 27 nuclear units in the pipeline. China was expected to become the largest nuclear power producer within 10 years. Nuclear energy policy: a global snapshot. After the 2011 nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, concerns about the safety of nuclear plants regained the spotlight, and several world countries producing nuclear power vowed to accelerate the shutdown of existing plants and stop investment in new facilities. The first country to put this plan into practice was Germany, which phased out nuclear energy in early 2023. Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland planned to emulate this country, but Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden reversed their nuclear policy following the global energy crisis in 2022 and extended the lifetime of their nuclear reactors or planned the construction of new units. Being a low-carbon electricity source, nuclear energy was included among the energy sources for a green transition in major economies like the U.S. and the European Union. For this reason, the global nuclear power capacity is expected to continue growing in the upcoming years, especially in Asia, where the projected nuclear reactors are concentrated.

The rapid expansion of utilities and data centers in the U.S. presents new challenges for smart grid networks. As investments in electricity networks continue to rise, global power grid spending is forecast to shift significantly by 2050, with the Asia Pacific region emerging as the dominate player. An increasingly important element of smart grids is for expanding the use of several technologies, including variable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and electric vehicle charging stations. Technologies such as smart meters, which function as multi-directional networks capable of monitoring, measuring, and managing electricity transport, are seen as valuable investments for integrating these technologies into a broader network. Smart grid technology driving U.S. investment. In the United States, a key player in the Americas, smart grid technology is attracting substantial investment. By 2024, investment on smart grid devices and systems, including advanced metering infrastructure, is forecast to reach 6.4 billion U.S. dollars. This trend aligns with the broader shift towards more efficient and responsive power systems. The adoption of advanced metering infrastructure is already evident, with over 127 million advanced meters installed in the U.S. by 2023, far surpassing the 22.7 million automated meter readers already in use. Smart meters are a crucial device in smart grid infrastructure. They enable utilities to secure revenue collection through accurate reading and energy billing. As of 2023, almost 128 million advanced meters had been installed in the U.S.. Florida-based utilities company Florida Power & Light Co was the leading advanced meter-supplying utility in the U.S., providing almost six million advanced meters to customers that year. Southern California Edison Co. followed in a close second, with some 5.7 million meters installed. Renewable energy and electric vehicle infrastructure. Power grid investment has become increasingly closely tied to the growth of renewable energy and electric vehicle adoption. In 2024, renewable energy sources are expected to represent over 90 percent of electricity capacity additions in the U.S., highlighting the need for grid upgrades to accommodate these clean energy sources. Simultaneously, the electric vehicle charging infrastructure is expanding, with J1772 connectors dominating the market. As of December 2024, there were over 131,300 J1772 connectors in public charging stations across the country, far exceeding other connector types and indicating a growing demand for EV-ready power systems.

For over a century coal was among the main sources of electricity generation in the United States. However, due to a surge in domestic natural gas production it lost its position as the largest contributor to the power mix in 2016. In the years since, decarbonization efforts and renewable gains have further diminished coal’s role in the U.S. power sector. Coal consumption within the power sector. The electric power sector is by far the largest consumer of coal. As the use of coal power has declined over the past decade, so too decreased overall U.S. coal energy consumption with figures having stayed below 10,000 trillion British thermal units since 2022. Coal power plants are usually more heavily used in the summer months, when electricity demand is higher due to greater need for air conditioning. Costs of coal for electricity generation and regional variances. Its comparatively cheap cost is one of the reasons why the power sector is holding on to coal. A look at natural gas vis a vis coal prices shows that coal prices are less volatile and often notably lower than natural gas prices, with the latter tied to oil production and as such the vagaries of the oil market. Texas tops the ranking for U.S. coal power capacity by state, although it is not the state with the most number of plants and is also not serviced by the leading U.S. coal power generating utilities. Duke Energy Carolinas, which provides electricity to customers in South Carolina, generates around 26 terawatt hours of coal power every year, more than any other utility in the country. Outlook on a changing U.S. coal power landscape. U.S. coal power is expected to see the greatest reduction in annual production between 2025 and 2030 and is forecast to experience only minimal losses from then onward. In terms of future proofing existing coal plants, a 2024 analysis suggests that capital costs of a retrofitted coal plant in the U.S. would remain above 2,000 U.S. dollars per kilowatt regardless of carbon capture rate until at least 2030.

Natural gas is the main source of electricity generation in the United States. Having overtaken coal in 2016, natural gas has become indispensable for the U.S. power sector. The country requires energy at ever-increasing amounts for residential, commercial, and industrial purposes. Natural gas has met much of this need especially following the implementation of hydraulic fracturing in the early 2010s. The natural gas supply chain and costs. Natural gas is made up of compounds of hydrogen and carbon. Once extracted from an underground reservoir, it is transferred to a processing plant to remove impurities and by-products. Methane and other useful gases are often separated from natural gas to be further used in the petrochemical industry. The processed gas, called dry or consumer-grade natural gas, is then sent through pipelines and stored in underground fields or towards distribution companies that send the gas to consumers. In 2023, the price for natural gas was roughly 3.36 U.S. dollars per million British thermal unit of electricity generated. While average installation costs for natural gas generators ranged between 722 and 1,677 U.S. dollars per kilowatt, depending on the technology type. Largest producers and consumers. The electric power sector is the largest natural gas consumer in the country. In 2023, U.S. natural gas energy consumption reached over 32 quadrillion British thermal units, with utilities accounting for around one third of that amount. Most of the natural gas used in the U.S. is produced domestically. More than one trillion cubic meters were extracted in 2023, while Texas was the leading natural gas energy producer in the country. Although there has been greater emphasis on renewable fuels in recent years, the role of natural gas for electricity generation worldwide is expected to increase in the coming decades.

The United States is one of the countries with the highest consumption of renewable energy worldwide, ranking second after China and accounting for some 14 percent of the global renewable energy consumption. In total, the North American country consumed roughly 8.6 quadrillion British thermal units of renewables in 2024. Overall, the share of electricity generated from renewable energy sources in the U.S. has presented an increasing trend over the last few years, reaching a share of 24 percent in 2024. Under recent projections, the majority of the United States' utility-scale power capacity additions are expected to be from renewable sources, with solar being the largest contributor. As the cost of clean energy technology continues to fall, it is expected that renewables will continue to displace traditional energy sources. Nevertheless, the current Trump administration has taken significant steps to slow down energy transition efforts in the United States, bringing a landscape of uncertainty to the sector. Wind energy remains the leading renewable energy source in the U.S. Cumulative wind power capacity in the United States reached roughly 154 gigawatts in 2024, increasing by some four gigawatts from the previous year. This marks the lowest figure in new wind energy installations since 2013, when roughly 1.1 gigawatts of wind power were added. Furthermore, major federal interventions, such as halts on new leasing and permitting for renewable energy projects in federal lands, are hindering the expansion of renewable energy sources, particularly wind. Nevertheless, with over 450 terawatt hours of power generation in 2024, wind energy remains the leading source of renewable electricity across the country. Solar energy: fastest-growing renewable technology. In comparison, solar power generation totaled around 218 terawatt hours in 2024. Solar energy sources tend to be concentrated in the western part of the country, although in the last years, the technology has been growing in popularity and it is being widely adopted. Currently, solar energy is the fastest-growing renewable energy source, accounting for the largest share of new power capacity additions in the United States. The low cost of solar photovoltaics, along with its ease of deployment, are resulting in the rapid adoption of the technology. On the other hand, hydroelectric conventional power has long been one of the most important renewable energy sources in the United States, although growth has been minimal during the last years. U.S. renewable energy outlook. In 2024, a total of 8.6 quadrillion British thermal units of primary renewable energy were consumed in the United States. Although the current Trump Administration is slowing down renewable energy deployment in the country, consumption of renewable sources is forecast to increase in the longer term. In the following decades, the U.S. is projected to increase its energy consumption from renewable sources, reaching approximately 19.4 quadrillion British thermal units in 2050.

After reaching historic highs in 2022, global energy prices spent most of 2023 and 2024 on a gradual downward path, moving closer to pre-war levels. That trajectory has been interrupted by renewed geopolitical instability in the Middle East, including disruptions to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's daily oil supply passes. The reemergence of supply risk through this critical corridor has renewed upward pressure on energy prices heading into 2026. Geopolitical shocks on oil prices. After two years of declining annual averages following the 2022 price spike, crude oil benchmarks have begun rising again in early 2026. The weekly oil prices of Brent, WTI, and OPEC basket have all moved to their highest levels in several years. In the United States, gasoline and diesel prices had been broadly stable or declining throughout most of 2024 and into 2025, offering consumers sustained relief following the sharp peaks of 2022. That pattern broke abruptly in the first week of March 2026, with diesel recording one of its steepest single-week price increases in recent years, and regular gasoline climbing sharply in parallel. Coal and renewables. While oil markets have returned to volatility, coal prices have continued falling since their 2022 record and now stand well below that peak, supported by higher production and weaker demand. In 2024, onshore wind and utility-scale solar photovoltaic ranked among the lowest-cost options for new generation globally, while nuclear remained the most expensive on a levelized cost basis — a multiple of what wind and solar require. This structural cost advantage may increasingly insulate electricity markets from the recurring geopolitical shocks that continue to affect oil and gas prices. Two forces, one market. Geopolitical risk and falling generation costs are pulling energy markets in opposite directions. Chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and other global conflicts remain capable of producing sharp, sudden price spikes — as both 2023 and 2025 have shown. At the same time, the cost of generating electricity from onshore wind and solar has continued to decline, with both technologies now among the lowest-cost sources of new generation worldwide, and further reductions are forecast through the mid-2030s. As such alternatives become more cost-efficient, more markets are likely to move toward them to become less exposed to the supply disruptions that have defined previous years.  

E.ON is one of the leading investor-owned multinational gas and electricity utility companies worldwide, both in terms of energy supplied and number of employees. In 2025, its sales revenue was one of the highest in the world. Its activities employed over 70,000 people, making it the energy company with the largest number of employees in the world. Financials of E.ON. E.ON’s revenues amounted to some 80 billion euros in 2024, after having increased steadily for the last few years. Meanwhile, E.ON's net income was the highest since 2010, above 5.5 billion euros. While revenue decreased in 2024, E.ON's cash-effective investments increased to around 7.5 billion euros, up from 6.5 billion euros in 2023. This boost in investments suggests the company's commitment to future growth and infrastructure development. E.ON activities. Customer solutions and energy networks are E.ON’s major segments. Uniper, created in 2016 from the separation of E.ON into two main parts, maintained the company’s conventional power generation and energy trading operations. Having retained the power generation activities of E.ON, Uniper ranked among Europe’s largest electric utilities by power sales. In 2019, E.ON transferred its renewable power production segment to RWE. E.ON has retained its own retail and distribution services. In 2024, E.ON’s electricity sales were above 200 terawatt-hours, one of the largest volumes in Europe after Italy’s Enel and Uniper. That year, E.ON’s gas sales amounted to over 400 terawatt-hours. One of the core company’s commitments is carbon neutrality. Thus, over the last few years, E.ON has put the decarbonization of the power grid at the center of its strategy and is investing in renewable energy. Renewables neared 90 percent of the generation capacity connected to E.ON’s grid in 2023 and is projected to increase.

The Chinese electricity industry has been in the focus of both domestic and international discussions ever since the reform and opening of the People’s Republic in the late 1970s. Seen as the engine room of industrial momentum, the government prioritized the expansion of the pre-existing generation system using cheap and available resources. This has resulted in much effort being placed into the buildup of coal power plants and made China the country with the largest installed coal capacity in the world. Nevertheless, coal power is not the only energy segment in which China takes the lead. Industry structure and largest companies. Until the early 2000s, Chinese infrastructure struggled with imbalances in the electricity system, with wide parts of the country suffering from frequent local blackouts. To even out load peaks and valleys in the supply of electricity, the highly fragmented grid system had to be developed as well. As a result, the Chinese government privatized parts of the sector beginning in 2005. Whereas the transmission and distribution of electricity remained under state control, the power generation market was partly opened to private and foreign investors. The main reasons for this change in direction were the need to operate the system more cost-effectively and to attract investments in renewable resources. Some major grid operators now include the former monopoly State Grid Corporation, and China Southern Power Grid. Meanwhile, Huaneng Power International rose to become the leading Chinese power generating company based on revenues. The reign of coal and growing clean energy deployment. Although shares have notably decreased in the past decade, coal remains China's main source of electricity production, accounting for over 60 percent of total power output. Greater awareness over environmental and health impacts concerning coal usage has buoyed renewable investments, with wind and solar sources regularly recording the greatest year-on-year power generation capacity growth. The Chinese government was aiming to cover most of future energy demand using clean resources. China’s Electricity Council expected clean power to account for 50 percent of total installed capacity for the first time by the end of 2022. However, as of 2024, the country had not yet achieved this goal. Nonetheless, surging wind and solar deployments in addition to the scale of long established hydropower facilities have led to China becoming the country with the largest renewable energy capacity worldwide.

Hydro Québec is one of the largest electric utilities in Canada that purchases and generates clean energy. This public utility is based in Montreal and focuses primarily on generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity across Québec. It was established in April 1944 under the government in Québec after criticism from citizens on the high prices and profits of the electric sector in the province. Its Robert-Bourassa dam is also the largest hydroelectricity facility in Canada. Financial performance of Hydro Québec. In 2023, Hydro Québec's revenue came to about 16 billion Canadian dollars. This was more than double the revenue generated by its competitor Hydro One, which came to 7.8 billion Canadian dollars that year. Hydro Québec's number of customers served was over four million customers and has one of the lowest electricity prices in North America. If the company has an electricity surplus, the company will often sell part of the electricity to nearby systems in Canada and the United States. Currently, Hydro Québec focuses primarily on hydroelectric generation but has also begun to develop other renewable technologies such as wind energy and biomass. Electricity sales volume of Hydro Québec. Households are the company’s largest customer group. In 2023, Hydro Québec's electricity sales volume amounted to 68.1 terawatt hours to residential housing units, whereas commercial, institutional, and small industrial businesses bought some 48 terawatt hours of electricity that same year. Total electricity sales came to 200.3 terawatt hours that year. Due to environmental concerns regarding large dams and reservoirs, Hydro Québec set up an environmental protection committee in 1970 to oversee and study the effects on surrounding wildlife.

Harnessing the kinetic energy of flowing water, hydropower has established itself as a reliable source of renewable energy, not only does hydropower account for over one third of the total installed renewable capacity worldwide, it also plays a vital role in supporting agriculture and managing water resources. Despite its many advantages, hydropower is not without controversy due to environmental concerns, particularly regarding the disruption of aquatic ecosystems and alterations to natural river flows. Hydropower generation and consumption. Hydroelectric energy production has increased to almost 4.5 petawatt hours, with global hydropower consumption reaching 40.26 exajoules in 2021. Predictably, countries with the highest share of hydropower consumption are those with plenty of running water. In fact, hydropower is considered one of the cheapest sources of energy; after a facility’s construction and installation, harnessing the power of flowing water is essentially free. Additionally, the speed of running water can also be controlled through turbines to produce electricity on demand. China has the greatest hydropower generation of any country worldwide. Large versus small hydropower projects. Although hydropower is considered a renewable energy source, large hydropower dams can still be responsible for environmental problems such as disrupting and damaging aquatic ecosystems. Most new hydropower projects worldwide must undergo an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment. Small hydropower technologies, are an alternative to large dam facilities, which garnered about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in funding in 2019. The small hydropower market size is expected to grow to some 2.6 billion U.S. dollars by 2030. In summary, hydropower offers significant benefits, but its future development will need to carefully consider both its energy potential and the environmental implications, ensuring a balanced approach to sustainable energy production.

In the United States, there are around 3,000 electric utility companies providing power to more than 160 million customers. An electric utility is most often a company that facilitates, generates, transmits, or distributes electricity to both public and industrial consumers. Electric utilities can be involved in one or more of these activities. For example, electricity marketers that only buy and sell electricity can also be considered utilities. These utilities were responsible for over 2.2 petawatt-hours of power generation in the U.S. in 2024. Leading U.S. utility companies. Several U.S. electric utilities, including NextEra Energy, Southern Company, and Duke Energy are among the largest utility companies in the world in terms of market value. With power generation, distribution, and storage infrastructure located throughout the United States, Florida-based NextEra Energy was the world’s most valuable electric utility in 2024, with a market value of 156.33 billion U.S. dollars. Recent years have seen impressive growth in NextEra’s installed renewable energy capacity, as the company pursues significant CO₂ emissions reductions. A NextEra Energy subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Co., ranks as the leading U.S. electricity utility in terms of customers, serving more than 5.8 million users in 2023. Florida Power & Light Co. was also the leading utility based on electricity sales that year. Meanwhile, serving electricity and gas customers in six states, Duke Energy is the largest U.S. electric utility based on revenue, generating almost 30 billion U.S. dollars in financial year 2024. A sector in transition. The reduction in the price of renewables and energy storage, the establishment of carbon regulations, and growing international pressure have helped push the energy transition in the U.S. in recent years. Many utilities are now investing heavily in clean energy, proposing steep reductions of emissions and increases in efficiency. In fact, renewable electricity generation in the U.S. is expected to more than double in the next decade. In 2025, three out of the five largest renewable energy companies worldwide were U.S. based. Utilities have faced rising difficulties in recent years, with new distributed capacities that are leading companies to upgrade their transmission and distribution grids. Combined with an aging existing infrastructure, operating expenses for transmission and distribution of major investor-owned electric utilities have increased continuously over the past decade.

Hydro One Incorporated is an electricity utility that serves the province of Ontario, Canada. Along with other utilities, it is regulated by the Ontario Energy Board which controls electricity rates and the natural gas industry in the province. Hydro One provides electricity to roughly 1.4 million customers across Ontario. Establishment following Ontario Hydro reorganization. In 1906, under Ontario’s Power Commission Act, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario (HPEC or Ontario Hydro) was established. The company was created in order to build transmission lines to supply utilities with electricity generated by private companies already established in Niagara Falls. In 1999, the company was reorganized into five separate companies, including two commercial entities – Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One. Hydro One is now responsible for electricity transmission and distribution, with its distribution segment generating close to five billion Canadian dollars every year. Financials and service area. The company operates a large majority of the high voltage transmission grid across Ontario and distributed 27.5 terawatt hours of electricity in 2019. That year, Hydro One’s total revenues reached 6.48 billion Canadian dollars. Competitor Alectra generated 3.78 billion Canadian dollars in the same time period. Hydro One has several subsidiaries in Ontario including Hydro One Networks which serves the majority of rural regions in the province, and Hydro One Remote Communities which serves 22 communities that are not connected to the grid. It is currently one of the largest government-owned electricity agencies in Canada. However, in 2015, the Government of Ontario began to sell Hydro One shares to the public. The provincial government planned to sell up to 60 percent of the company but promises to hold 40 percent of its share. Since 2004, electricity prices in Ontario have decreased notably, falling to an average of 1.36 Canadian dollar cents per kilowatt hour in 2020.

The harnessing of heat energy found within Earth's crust has a history dating back thousands of years. While ancient cultures used this geothermal energy for bathing and cooking purposes, modern uses include electricity generation, district heating, and various industrial applications. The global geothermal electricity capacity has been consistently increasing for over a decade and, in 2023, surpassed 14.8 gigawatts. The United States is the world leader in cumulative installed geothermal capacity, with roughly 2.7 gigawatts installed as of end of 2023. U.S. geothermal energy consumption. In 2023, the United States consumed some 120 trillion British thermal units of geothermal energy, with the power sector accounting for almost half of the county’s consumption. Although the uses of geothermal energy are diverse, including residential home heating and various industrial uses, the electric power sector accounts for the vast majority of the U.S. geothermal consumption. In 2023, over 16 terawatt hours of electricity were generated using geothermal resources in the United States. Although geothermal energy plays an important role in several states, it accounts for only 0.4 percent of total U.S. electricity generation. Despite the benefits of geothermal power, the costs for operating and maintaining geothermal power plants are some of the highest in the country compared to harvesting other renewable energy resources. Geothermal resources in the U.S. As geothermal resources tend to be situated near tectonic plate boundaries or other geological hot spots, the Western United States is a prime location for harnessing this energy. California, located on the border of the North American and Pacific plates, is the U.S. largest geothermal energy consume r, followed by Nevada. These two states consumed 40.5 and 15.7 trillion British thermal units of geothermal energy in 2023, respectively. The U.S. is one of the largest consumers of geothermal energy worldwide, leading in the electric power sector with approximately 2.7 gigawatts of installed geothermal capacity. Due to vast geothermal resources located in the Western part of the country, geothermal energy plays a vital role in several states such as California and Nevada. Although the costs of geothermal power plants are still high in comparison with other renewable energy sources, they are expected to decrease in upcoming years.

SolarCity Corporation was a United States based solar panel developer founded in July 2006 by Peter and Lyndon Rive. The company was based on a concept suggested by Elon Musk and fully acquired by Tesla in November 2016, when total U.S. net solar power generation stood at 36 terawatt hours. SolarCity was headquartered in San Mateo, California, but the company also boasted over 75 local operation centers around the country. The company served customers in 19 states and had helped install solar systems for homeowners, schools like Stanford University, government agencies, as well as commercial clients like Walmart. In it’s last financial year before acquisition, the company made 730 million U.S. dollars in revenues, more or less evenly split between component sales and operating leases. SolarCity provided a variety of products and services through a distributed service model. Apart from solar, the company was also involved in the U.S. electric car charging market. Through a partnership with Rabobank, SolarCity made electric car charging free for Tesla vehicle owners along Route 101 in California, between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In terms of energy storage, SolarCity had also rolled out a pilot program to test Tesla and Panasonic’s Powerwall storage device in 500 California homes. A variety of well-known investors backed SolarCity, and some of their most prominent financing partners included Morgan Stanley and the Bank of America. In 2011, SolarCity and Google created a fund worth 280 million U.S. dollars to finance U.S. residential solar installations.

First Solar is a manufacturer of low-cost, thin-film solar panels, developer of large-scale solar farms, and an operations and maintenance service provider. The United States-based company is the leading producer of thin-film solar panels worldwide, accounting for roughly 45 percent of the market for this solar technology. In 2024, First Solar ranked as the leading solar company based on market capitalization worldwide. First Solar's financial standing. In the fiscal year 2023, First Solar's operating income was 857.3 million U.S. dollars, the highest value registered in the last years. Uncertainty over expiration of government subsidies, tax incentives, and other financial support for renewable energy adoption greatly shape First Solar’s performance. This is particularly true for large markets such as the United States, Japan, France, and India, which are among First Solar’s main sales regions. Nevertheless, the company is among the leading solar energy companies worldwide. In 2023, First Solar's net sales reached 3.3 billion U.S. dollars. Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy solutions. First Solar primarily manufactures cadmium telluride-based photovoltaic modules and has created new technologies that have broken several solar efficiency records. First Solar’s research and development expenditures have jumped in recent years, increasing the efficiency of the company’s thin-film module technologies. Cadmium telluride solar cells are a type of thin-film solar cell and manufactured by First Solar using 30 different types of raw materials. In order to reduce its waste footprint, the company became the first within the industry to introduce a module collection and recycling program. First Solar was established out of Solar Cells Inc. in 1999, rebranding as First Solar Inc.. It began producing commercial products in 2002 and in the 2010s became one of the largest solar manufacturers in the world. The company specializes in cadmium telluride photovoltaic technology.

In the last decade, the offshore wind industry has experienced enormous growth. Wind turbines installed at the sea have a greater potential to harvest energy than wind turbines installed on land. In comparison to onshore wind, offshore wind energy is considered to be steadier and stronger. However, its construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher. The installed costs of offshore wind energy amounted to 2,800 U.S. dollars per kilowatt in 2023. In comparison, the installed costs of onshore wind power plants were roughly one third of that amount. Despite the higher costs, offshore wind has a great potential for harvesting non-polluting renewable energy. Offshore wind energy worldwide. From 2010 to 2024, offshore wind energy capacity increased from 3.1 gigawatts to about 79.4 gigawatts. In that last year, the world added roughly eight gigawatts of offshore wind power, mostly in Europe and Asia. Generally, offshore wind farms are installed in shallow waters using bottom-fixed turbines. However, floating offshore wind structures are becoming more common, allowing the installation of wind turbines in deeper waters. Overall, offshore wind energy investments worldwide reached 33.75 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Leading offshore wind markets. In 2024, China was by far the country with the highest offshore wind power capacity, with over 41 gigawatts installed as of the end of that year, which equates to roughly half of the total offshore capacity installed across the world. In 2024, China installed some four gigawatts of new offshore capacity. Many European countries are also important markets for offshore wind, with the United Kingdom boasting the largest capacity. The UK had some 15.9 gigawatts of offshore wind installations as of the end of 2024. The country is also home to some of the largest offshore wind farms worldwide, such as Hornsea 1 and 2. Offshore wind outlook. In 2024, a total of eight gigawatts of offshore wind capacity were added worldwide. Global offshore annual capacity additions are projected to range from 17.1 to 55.5 gigawatts from 2025 to 2034, with Europe and China leading the market. Offshore wind will account for a substantial portion of the world’s energy needs. A decrease in the global levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of offshore wind over the last decade as well as technological improvements like larger turbines and longer blades will help to fuel the growth of global offshore wind.

The United States is a net exporter of energy. 2019 was the first year in a half century that the U.S. produced more energy than it consumed and was able to export greater volumes of primary energy than it needed to import. This is the result of increased domestic oil and natural gas production as well as greater use of renewables, and a decline in primary energy demand. Energy consumption came to 94.65 exajoules in 2019. Nevertheless, the U.S. is still one of the leading importers of crude oil – the largest source of primary energy. Proponents of energy independence argue for the need to explore the country’s untapped domestic oil reserves as well as removing limitations on oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, the Arctic, and the Outer Continental Shelf. However, environmental and economic concerns are strong contenders against increasing oil production and exploration. As a result of increased domestic production, petroleum imports into the U.S. fell to an estimated low of 9.1 million barrels per day in 2019. The majority of petroleum supplied came from Canada, while OPEC countries only accounted for a daily import volume of 1.6 million barrels. Canada is also the largest supplier of natural gas. Pipelines transported 2.69 trillion cubic feet of natural gas into the country in 2019. Meanwhile, liquefied natural gas imports came to 76.5 billion cubic feet in 2018, a significant decrease from a peak of 770.8 billion cubic feet brought into the country via LNG terminals in 2007. Apart from pipelines connecting the U.S. to its neighbors, it also has multiple transmission links to both Canada and Mexico. In 2018, the U.S. imported 58.26 terawatt hours of electricity.

The Georgia Power Company is an electric utility in the United States that serves mostly all of Georgia’s counties and provides electricity to approximately 2.5 million customers. Georgia Power, along with various other companies like Gulf Power, is owned by Southern Company. The company began operations in the early 20th century as the industrial sector grew and thus, the demand for electricity started to increase. It was initially established as the Georgia Railway and Power Company to consolidate streetcar lines and their generating plants. Today, the Georgia Power Company owns and operates about 46 electricity generating plants, including hydroelectric dams, fossil-fuel generation plants, and nuclear power plants. In 2019, the Atlanta-based electricity provider generated approximately 8.4 billion U.S. dollars in operating revenue. In the same year, the number of Georgia Power employees decreased for the fourth year in a row to some 6,900. Having sold 85.49 terawatt hours of electricity, Georgia Power was ranked second among the leading U.S. electric utilities by electricity sales. In light of the financial pressure the coronavirus pandemic has put on households, Georgia Power has opened an installment payment plan until March 2021. It serves over two million residential customers and nearly 320,000 businesses. Georgia Power is among the leading U.S. utilities based on retail sales, having generated 7.75 billion U.S. dollars in 2018. The utility company actively supports the research and development of solar energy among other renewable sources and announced that it will continue to increase their renewable energy portfolio.

Entergy is among the leading players in the gas and electric utility industry in North America. The utility primarily operates in the deep southern regions of the United States. The company was established in November 1913 with the formation of the Arkansas Power Company, which was dedicated to bringing electricity to rural Arkansas. To produce energy, the founder, Harvey C. Couch, used sawdust from a lumber company in rural Arkansas. As of 2018, Entergy was one of the largest electric utilities in the United States based on retail sales. Most recently, Entergy reported around 11 billion U.S. dollars of revenue. The energy company is headquartered in the Central Business District of New Orleans, but temporarily relocated after Hurricane Katrina hit the city in August 2005. Entergy employed over 13,500 people in the United States as of 2019. Entergy has subsidiaries across the southern U.S., including Entergy Arkansas, Entergy Louisiana, and Entergy Texas. The company’s two main businesses are divided into its utility segment and the non-utility segment. Entergy Arkansas and Entergy Louisiana provide electricity to about 23,700 and 10,890 industrial customers, respectively. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a national economic indicator based on customer evaluations of the quality of products and services using a scale of 0 to 100 and available to household consumers in the United States. With an index score of 75, Entergy was among the top twenty utilities with the highest customer satisfaction in the past.

Waste energy is derived from the primary treatment of waste products that enables the generation of energy in the form of electricity, heat, or as a combustible fuel commodity, such as ethanol. In 2018, revenue from electricity generated from waste was estimated to be around 54 million U.S. dollars in the United States. Considered a form of energy recovery, the technological process involved in waste energy generation can be applied to waste materials that are either in liquid (e.g. domestic sewage) or gaseous (e.g. refinery gases) form. In the United States, its most prevalent application is in the processing of municipal solid waste; commonly referred to as “garbage”. In 2017, approximately 268 million tons of municipal solid waste was generated in the United States. The process of energy generation from municipal solid waste is undertaken through the process of incineration in combined heat and power plants (CHP) or in landfills. The first U.S. incinerator was built in 1885 on Governors Island in New York and, as of 2018, the number of waste-to-energy facilities in the United States stood at 75. Municipal solid waste usually consists of biomass materials like paper, wood, cardboard, leather products, food scraps, grass and leaves from yard trimmings. It can also be made up of non-biomass combustible materials like plastics and other synthetic materials derived from petroleum. In 2018, about 517 trillion British thermal units of energy were derived from biomass energy consumption in the United States. Paper and paperboard were the most common material generated in the municipal waste stream in the United States. A number of new and emerging technologies also exist that are able to generate energy from waste but without the need for direct combustion. These include the use of thermal technologies, like gasification or non-thermal ones, like fermentation.

Between 2026 and 2029, Germany plans to cut energy costs for consumers and businesses by 42 billion euros. This comes off the back of the energy crisis, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted fuel supplies, prices surged, putting significant pressure on households, businesses, and industry. Since then, the German government introduced a number of financial measures to support both private and business energy consumers in covering costs. Among these is a price cap for electricity prices, valid since January 2023. For households and small businesses, the cap is for 80 percent of their average consumption. For mid-size and large businesses, the cap refers to 70 percent of electricity consumed the year before. Industrial electricity prices. Industrial electricity prices in Germany have experienced significant fluctuations over the past few decades, falling to 17.09 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024. This figure represents a substantial increase from the 9.34 cents per kilowatt-hour recorded in 1998, highlighting the evolving landscape of energy costs for German industries. However, electricity prices have somewhat stabilized since reaching a record high in 2022 at 43.2 cents per kilowatt-hour during the energy crisis. Household electricity prices. Similarly, household electricity prices also show fluctuating in recent years. In 2024, households on a basic supplier contract paid almost 46 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to around 30.5 cents per kilowatt hour a decade before. The basic supplier, Grundversorger in German, is the largest electricity provider in a respective area supplying the highest number of households.

The wind energy industry in Europe dates back almost forty years, with the continent's first wind farm opening in 1982 on the Greek island of Kythnos. It had five turbines with a capacity of 20 kilowatts each. Almost 10 years later the world’s first offshore wind farm was erected off the coast of Denmark. The industry has come a long way since then. The total wind power capacity in Europe has seen steady growth over the past years, reaching more than 268 gigawatts in 2024. Leading wind markets in Europe. Germany has by far the highest wind power installed capacity in Europe at more than 72 gigawatts in 2024, followed by Spain and the United Kingdom. Regarding offshore wind installations, the UK is the leading market across Europe. In 2023, it reached an offshore wind capacity of 15 gigawatts, almost reaching the amount of installed onshore capacity in the country. Other European countries with a large offshore capacity in Europe include Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium. In total, offshore wind in Europe reached a capacity of 37 gigawatts in 2023. Wind power generation in Europe. In 2024, electricity generation from wind in the European Union amounted to roughly 488 terawatt hours, up from 479 terawatt hours a year earlier. Wind power is an important contributor to the continent's energy mix and the main renewable energy source, recently overtaking hydropower. Furthermore, the European wind industry employed over 188,000 people directly and over 183,000 indirectly in 2023, and generated a revenue of more than nine billion euros that year, which included the activities of onshore and offshore wind developers, wind turbine and component manufacturers, service providers, and offshore wind substructures. Overall, wind power is forecast to continue growing in Europe in the next years. From 2025 to 2030, the European Union is projected to install between 17 and 28 gigawatts of wind energy annually. By 2030, Germany, Spain, and France are projected to have the highest onshore wind capacity installed, whereas the UK will remain leading the offshore sector.

The Southern Company is among the leading players in the gas and electric utility industry in the United States, in terms of sales revenue. In the financial year of 2019, the company generated operating revenue of about 21.4 billion U.S. dollars. Southern Company’s headquarters are currently located in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices in Birmingham, Alabama as well. Currently, the company employs about 27,900 people in the United States. The company began operations in the early 20th century as the demand for electricity started to increase in the United States. As of 2018, the Southern Company sold around 196 terawatt hours of electricity. Since its establishment, the Southern Company has also gone onto acquire companies including Alabama Power, Georgia Power and Gulf Power. Southern Company subsidiaries operate using hydroelectric, gas, coal, and nuclear sources in order to generate electricity. Its other subsidiaries include Southern Telecom which provides collocation and dark fiber optic lines to network businesses. Southern Company and its subsidiaries are currently serving over nine million customers in the Southeast of the United States. As a coal-burning energy company, greenhouse gas emissions are one of its primary environmental concerns. According to a 2017 study, conducted by the University of Massachusetts, the Southern Company is the largest greenhouse gas emitter among U.S. corporations, with 99 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Southern Company has partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy on various environmental research programs.

Nuclear power has been a significant energy source in the United States for decades as the nation's most important single source of carbon-free electricity. The U.S. stood as the global leader in nuclear power in 2025, with reactors dotting the map across 28 states. Although the energy mix of the U.S. was still dominated by fossil fuels in 2024, the country was one of the largest consumers of nuclear power in the world, as well as the largest producer of this type of energy. However, with the licenses of nuclear plants expiring and maintenance costs soaring, dedicated policies and investments are needed to rouse the U.S. nuclear energy sector. The declining age of nuclear reactors in the U.S. In 2024, there were 94 nuclear reactors in operation across the United States. The age of these nuclear power reactors is declining: all except three are more than 20 years old, and over 50 plants are over 40 years old. Many of them will require a license renewal before 2050 to continue operations. The vast majority of these plants will be covered for 60 years under the original 40-year license and 20-year license extension. Some of them, such as Turkey Point 3 & 4, obtained a license extension for up to 80 years of operation. The reactors Vogtle 3 & 4 were the only commercial nuclear facilities launched in 2023 and 2024, after 10 years of construction work. As of 2025, there were no nuclear reactors planned or under construction in the country. Outlook on nuclear energy sector in the U.S. The levelized cost of electricity production from nuclear sources in the U.S. is considerably higher than that from gas-fired and wind power plants, which, in addition, receive subsidies from the U.S. government. The competitiveness in deregulated electricity markets (approximately 50 percent of the nuclear electricity markets in the U.S.) led to early retirements of several nuclear facilities in the last few years when the operation and maintenance costs became unbearable. Despite the difficulties faced by the U.S. nuclear industry, recent policy changes may provide support for it. An executive order released in May 2025 declared the intention of quadrupling the nuclear energy capacity in the country by 2050, a measure that would help to meet the increasing electricity demand by AI and data centers while keeping the U.S. carbon footprint at bay. As of June 2025, around 20 new nuclear projects had been proposed in the country. However, the feasibility of this ambitious plan in terms of cost and waste management is uncertain.