What's Next, Now: December 2024
This month, our crystal ball predicts bluer skies in social media, the year of healthcare, a new generation of girlbosses, and more.
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but are the skies bluer on Bluesky? That appears to be the case as more users flock to the social media platform, with a significant surge of nearly 10 million users joining since Election Day.
Why the sudden increase in popularity? Several key factors are driving Bluesky’s growth, including discontent with mainstream platforms, a desire to return to simplicity, and an increased interest in decentralization. And, of course, the X-odus resulting from more and more users getting fed up with Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).
Despite Bluesky’s explosive post-Election Day growth, whether the platform is here to stay remains to be seen. Remember BeReal, Clubhouse, or Mastodon? These apps surged in popularity quickly only to die off quicker (although we prefer to believe they’re simply enjoying an early retirement).
Will Bluesky continue to thrive or will it join the retirement home of the fads that came before it? As with most things on the internet, only time will tell. However, right now, the longevity of Bluesky looks promising.
Its user base — including celebrities like Quinta Brunson, Mark Cuban, and Mark Hamill — is growing each day. The looming TikTok ban could also lead to even more users becoming active on the platform. And while Bluesky’s audience is much smaller than that of Meta-owned Threads, its daily active use isn’t far behind, meaning that while the user base is small, the engagement is mighty.
So far, few major consumer brands have joined, but as the user base grows, so does the number of brands asking themselves if it’s time to jump on the Bluesky bandwagon. Plans for a new verification system may make it more appealing for potential brand signups. But, if your brand is considering jumping on: look before you leap.
“We are very clear that our primary user is the end user that we’re serving, and so we’re building features for them,” Rose Wang, COO of Bluesky, said. “If brands come, great, but you should be authentic; that’s what we tell them. It’s not going to work if you try to sound like a brand.”
And so, while many people, including celebrities, join the platform, it’s a waiting game for brands looking to find out if the skies really are bluer on Bluesky.
This month, we discovered a new favorite bit of journalist slang: Broconomy. The term captures the risk-loving, Reddit-fueled, high-energy world of today’s financial trends — think crypto, sports betting, and speculative investing, particularly the hype-driven frenzy of meme stocks. And it’s due to be a major focus of the finance world next year.
The “bro” in broconomy isn’t just a joke about the finance bro talking your ears off at the London House rooftop bar about his buddy’s new crypto startup. It’s a literal reference to the fact that the sectors that define the broconomy are all overwhelmingly male-dominated, particularly among Gen Zers and Millennials. For instance, 42% of men aged 18 to 29 report having invested in or traded cryptocurrency, compared with just 17% of women in the same demographic. In the sports betting world, 72% of regular bettors are men. When it comes to investing, men are also more likely to chase trends and adopt aggressive strategies.
Analysts see a big year coming up for the broconomy. While crypto has notoriously faced its ups and downs, there’s some evidence to show that in today’s trading market, risky investments pay off. According to an analysis from financial firm Leuthold Group, a hypothetical portfolio holding bitcoin, gold, and memestocks returned 62% in the first 11 months of this year — more than triple the returns of a traditional portfolio.
In 2025, the oncoming presidential administration may also give a boost to the broconomy. A potentially promised “federal Bitcoin reserve” from President-elect Donald Trump shot the coin up to an all-time high of $107,000 in December, following weeks of growth after Trump’s election victory. With both financial and federal support, we’ll have our eyes on how this growing economy’s mix of risk, hype, and innovation will redefine the financial landscape.
This year, the intersection of health, wellness, and societal perceptions has become a central theme in the media’s coverage of healthcare. Across newsrooms, there was an increase in awareness of mental health, as Americans felt that our mental illness was treated worse than our physical issues. Headlines also reported on businesses starting to address mental health concerns by implementing new wellness-focused benefits like in-office therapists. Meanwhile, the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic completely reshaped public perceptions of obesity treatment. These news stories led to a broader conversation on aging and health, redubbing lifespan as “healthspan” to focus more on the quality of life as we age, not just the number.
At the same time, health technology advancements in 2024 garnered massive news attention. Innovations started to break barriers, like the brain-computer implant that assisted those with neurological disorders or the increase in wearable technology like the Apple Watch to help with managing health concerns. But, technological advancements created challenges for healthcare companies too, especially within the cybersecurity space. The cyberattack on Change Healthcare changed the trajectory of 2024, crippling the U.S. healthcare system and highlighting the urgent need for secure, digital health infrastructure.
With sweeping changes set to come from the incoming presidential administration, an intensified focus on health insurance providers, and another year of AI innovation, the focus on healthcare will intensify in 2025, across all aspects of the industry. For brands in the healthcare space, this means embracing innovation, adapting to evolving regulations, and prioritizing patient-centric solutions to stay competitive and relevant in a rapidly transforming industry. And, in terms of external communications, being willing to talk about how you’re addressing these changes is key to building trust with your intended audience, many of whom are also trying to navigate these major changes.
It’s hard to believe that a mere two years ago, AI was nearly non-existent in our everyday discussions, both personal and at work. In 2022, generative AI was rarely mentioned in the media, until, of course, that fateful November when OpenAI announced one of the first genAI tools for the public: ChatGPT. Since then, AI has been a constant in our conversations and in the media. In 2023, coverage highlighted the shock and awe of its capabilities. This year focused on adoption and the practical implementation of the technology across all industries. We also saw this AI chatter seep into the way brands talk about their technology, with nearly every tech brand referencing AI in their product messaging.
Predictions on what 2025 holds in store for AI have been pouring in for weeks. And because AI is so broad and everyone has strong opinions on it, those predictions can feel somewhat contradictory. Some experts expect companies to pivot to small language models (SLMs), AI models trained on specialized data to generate tailored outputs, which often comes in the form of internal GPTs that are specific to a company’s products and services. On the other hand, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently predicted that 2025 will bring artificial general intelligence (AGI), AI that can understand, learn, and perform intellectual tasks similar to how a human would, into the fold. The way Altman discusses how the public will react to this “superintelligence” is reminiscent of the shock and awe we felt in 2023 seeing genAI in practice.
There’s no doubt AI will remain pervasive in business and society, but we anticipate a shift in how brands discuss their AI technology next year. There will be a need to differentiate because “AI” on its own is too broad to represent the various forms, especially with new tech, like AGI, on the horizon. In 2025, we predict companies, tech and otherwise, will redefine their overall messaging and positioning based on the specifics of what their AI actually is or how they are using it. We know transparency drives customer loyalty, so being able to authentically explain your AI technology is necessary to not only avoid the oversaturation of AI itself, but also to further differentiate from the competition.
While headlines might claim the girlboss is dead, in actuality, her reign is just getting started. Women have made significant progress in business leadership this year:
The share of female CEOs in the Russell 3000, which encompasses nearly all U.S. public companies, increased to 9% from 6.8% in 2023.
Women leading private companies valued at over $1 billion more than doubled from last year.
The number of female entrepreneurs rose by 41%.
In preparation for future girlbossing, female enrollment in MBA programs has jumped 13% since 2020 (compared to just 3% for all students).
While these stats are promising, there’s a long way to go. Women are still underrepresented at every rung on the corporate ladder — women of color especially. While white women make up 28% of the entry-level workforce, that number shrinks to 22% when it comes to C-suite positions. Women of color hold 19% of entry-level jumps and just 7% of C-suite roles. To reach parity across the pipeline, McKinsey estimates it will take almost 50 years.
Meanwhile, as more women enter the corporate world and take on typically male-dominated roles, something similar is happening in stereotypically female industries. Male nurses are becoming increasingly more common, as well as other “pink collar” roles including elementary and middle-school teachers and customer-service representatives.
It’s an interesting moment to be discussing the gender job gap, given the growing anti-DEI movement that continues to sweep through corporate boardrooms. But if you take a step back and look at the larger picture, maybe it’s less so a pointed push for equity and more a slow shrugging off of traditional expectations. This trend is also reflected in the rise of trade schools and blue collar jobs among younger generations — are we moving toward a world where our norms just aren’t so normal?
If Gen Z has anything to say about it, then yes. While this transition will take place over decades, brands can still take advantage of the sentiment right now and embrace Gen Z’s love of the unexpected.
Efforts are finally being made to address the many harms of social media on kids and teens. But now, a new threat is emerging — kids are turning to AI chatbots for advice and companionship and getting dangerous guidance in return, encouraging eating disorders and self-harm.
The TikTok ban will go into effect January 19, unless the platform and its creators can find a way to stop it.
Following on the massively successful heels of TikTok Shop and SHEIN, Amazon launched its own $20-and-under platform: Amazon Haul.
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