LISTEN: Village Media is getting into the business of social networking with the upcoming launch of Spaces, the digital publisher’s localized community social platform that aims to give users a place to gather to discuss shared topics of interest from local sports to community history. On this episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast, Spaces Community Manager Lacy Atalick makes her podcast debut, talking about how Village Media plans to keep the toxicity that’s been the downfall of other platforms out of Spaces, and their mission to chase authentic community engagement. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:
T.O. Webfest, held Sept. 17-18, has presented its annual awards celebrating the short form or web series industry in Canada. The Best Series Grand Prize went to Get Up, Aisha, produced by Toronto’s Jonas Diamond, Marushka Jessica Almeida, Nisha Khan & Rabiya Mansoor and streamed on CBC Gem. Les météorites, produced by Quebec’s Mylène Augustin, won Best Drama, while Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror went to Space Janitors (Season 4), produced by Davin Lengyel, Brendan Halloran & Mark De Angelis. Best Comedy Series went to Stories from my Gay Grandparents, created by Scott Farley and Perrie Voss. In the Next Up! Live Pitch Competition, Isabella Shibuta won for her series in development, Alice is Asian. Find the full list of winners here.
Instagram will lead social media growth for the decade, according to a forecast from Statista Market Insights. While TikTok has led user growth for the past four years with its user base skyrocketing by 202% between 2019 and 2023, four times more than Instagram, the report says TikTok is about to see a significant slowdown in user growth. The forecast suggests Instagram’s global user base will grow by roughly 250 million or 17.8% in the next five years, followed closely by Facebook with a 17.1% growth rate and around 480 million new users. Snapchat ranked third, with a projected 15% growth and 95 million new users.
