For digital-ad sellers, 2021 was always going to be a hard act to follow. As work, play and shopping shifted online during the covid-19 pandemic, internet advertising boomed. In America spending rose by 38%, to $211bn, compared with average annual growth of 21% in the preceding five years, according to eMarketer, a research firm. Smaller social-media firms such as Pinterest and Snap at times hit triple-digit year-on-year quarterly revenue growth. Even giants such as Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Meta (Facebook’s and Instagram’s), which receive a third and a fifth of the world’s digital-ad dollars, respectively, clocked rates of 50%.

对于数字广告销售商来说，2021年的盛景将难以重现。疫情期间，工作、娱乐和购物都转移到线上，网络广告如火如茶。根据研究公司eMarketer的数据，美国数字广告的支出增长了38％，达到2110亿美元，而在此之前的五年里的平均年增长率为21％。Pinterest和Snap等规模较小的社交媒体公司在某些季度里收入同比增长甚至达到三位数。就连分别拿走了全球数字广告收入三分之一和五分之一的巨头Alphabet（谷歌的母公司）和Meta（Facebook和Instagram的母公司）增速也达到50％。

The contrast with 2022 is stark. On July 21st Snap reported that its sales grew by 13%, year on year, in the second quarter, its most anaemic ever. In a letter to investors, the firm confessed that so far this quarter revenue was “approximately flat”. The market was spooked, and the company’s share price fell by almost 40%. The next day Twitter, which also depends on advertising, reported that its revenue had fallen slightly in the three months to June, compared with last year.

这与2022年形成了鲜明对比。7月21日， Snap报告称公司第二季度销售额同比增长13％，是有史以来最疲软的。公司在致投资者的一封信中承认，当前季度到目前为止营收与去年同期＂大致持平”。市场惊恐不已， Snap的股价大跌近40％。第二天，同样依赖广告业务的推特称，与去年同期相比，其收入在截至6月的三个月里略有下降。