The 2022 Digital & Tech Hot List: The Future Is Now, Thanks to These Players and Platforms

To her opponents on TikTok (often straight men lambasting women for their looks), her comebacks are cutting and calculating. But to Drew Afualo’s fans, they’re warranted and mostly hilarious. Her witty responses to displays of fatphobia, transphobia, sexism and racism have gotten the reactionary content creator 7.8 million followers on TikTok. This puts her ahead of public figures like Kim Kardashian, who has 4.7 million. Afualo’s videos often receive an average of more than 2 million views. “My platform is literally built off of making terrible men uncomfortable,” said Afualo, Adweek’s Digital & Tech Creator of the Year. In February, Afualo launched her own podcast, The Comment Section, through content company Brat TV. The show invites TikTok stars like Jackie Aina and Antoni Bumba to discuss the most noteworthy and nasty comments on their pages, as well as cover an array of topics, like “How to Be a Bad Bitch” or being “Fake Woke.” According to influencer agency Whalar, which reps Afualo, the simulcast show brings roughly 50,000 streams across Apple and Spotify and 150,000 on YouTube. Continue reading here. —Meseret Ambachew

With myriad apps contending to garner younger people’s attention, BeReal has climbed the ladder with its antidote to the pressures of having to appear perfect on social media. The app, in a push for authenticity, prompts people to take one unedited picture at a random time that changes daily after receiving a notification. To date, BeReal has been downloaded 43.3 million times since its launch in December 2019, according to Apptopia, with the U.S. as the top market, contributing 40% of new users. This summer in particular saw hype around the app’s popularity, which resulted in glitching such as being unable to upload photos. In its latest venture, the French startup is currently exploring in-app payments for extra features to avoid emulating Instagram’s ad-driven format. Even so, the hype has spurred brands like e.l.f. Cosmetics, Chipotle and Delta Air Lines to mark their debut on BeReal by sharing organic posts with promo codes that can be used by followers. —Trishla Ostwal

Ever heard of a digital rendition of a designer gown selling for a whopping $5,000? It’s possible on Roblox. The platform is the year’s hottest digital playground for brands such Gucci, whose Roblox activation saw 34 million users, and Alo Sanctuary, which had 49 million visitors at its activation. Roblox has not only been a driving force for brands but also for the creator economy. In 2021, the creator community earned a total of $539 million on the platform, according to Roblox. And 52.2 million average daily active users are spurring more action from brands, with the platform currently testing a new ad product that will let brands place 3D promos within their activations. —Trishla Ostwal

While Game of Thrones fans are still (impatiently) waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish writing the fantasy novel series the show was based on, A Song of Ice and Fire, gamers are ecstatic the author took the time to work with FromSoftware president and CEO Hidetaka Miyazaki on action role-playing game Elden Ring. “Ye dead who yet live, your grace long lost, follow the path to the Lands Between beyond the foggy sea to stand before the Elden Ring. And become the Elden Lord.” That challenge did not go unheeded. Marketed by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Elden Ring was released Feb. 25 and surged from more than 12 million units sold worldwide as of March to 16.6 million currently. Simultaneously releasing it in 14 languages helped move the needle. “It’s astonishing to see just how many people have been playing Elden Ring,” Miyazaki said earlier this year in a statement. “We hope players enjoy a high level of freedom when adventuring through its vast world, exploring its many secrets and facing up to its many threats.” —David Cohen

If you know someone who owns a virtual reality headset, odds are it’s a Meta Quest 2. The wireless next-generation headset debuted in 2020, and more than 14.8 million had been sold as of July. Not only that, users have spent more than $1 billion on content for the devices to date, according to Meta. That includes breakout fitness application Supernatural, accessible to people of all ages and fitness levels; games like Beat Saber, which range from music packs from Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga to NFL Pro Era, the first fully licensed National Football League VR simulation game; and communities like Ping Pong Parkinson, founded by musician and ping pong player Nenad B. after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Speaking of communities, there are limitless possibilities for creating them within VR community and game Horizon Worlds, developed by Meta, which came out of beta last December and debuted in France and Spain in August. There’s certainly no debating CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s commitment to the metaverse—after all, he did change the company name. —David Cohen

The technology sector’s most compelling soap opera began innocently enough on March 14 when mega-entrepreneur Elon Musk purchased 9.2% of Twitter’s stock. The roughly six months since then have been unsettling for employees and uncertain for advertisers—see if you can keep up. Musk was added to Twitter’s board of directors but declined days later. He agreed April 25 to acquire the company for approximately $44 billion, or $54.20 per share, in cash, but almost immediately showed signs of buyer’s remorse. He sent a tweet early on May 13 questioning Twitter’s assertion that spam and fake accounts represent fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users, and then replied to CEO Parag Agrawal’s detailed response with a poop emoji. After threatening to call off the deal in June, Musk eventually followed through on July 8, leading Twitter to file a lawsuit. Musk’s legal team claimed Sept. 9 that the company’s severance agreement with former head of security Peiter “Mudge” Zatko violated the terms of the merger agreement. Just four days later, it took all of six minutes for Twitter shareholders to approve the merger at a special meeting. The two sides were set to go trial in the Delaware Chancery Court Oct. 17, but in an about-face Oct. 4, Musk sent a letter to Twitter saying he would reinstate his offer, and Twitter tweeted its intention to close the deal at $54.20 per share. Stay tuned. —David Cohen

Depop combines the intoxication of social media—from finding a likable creator to learning what your friends are up to—with the growing popularity of resold fashion. Incumbent commerce platform Etsy saw this value and purchased London-based Depop for nearly $1.5 billion last year. Depop brought an army of younger shoppers with it; when the acquisition was announced, 90% of its active users were under 26. At the time of the deal, the platform had 30 million users and generated $70 million in 2020 revenue from the fees it earns on sellers’ transactions. (More recent figures aren’t available, now that the company reports results with Etsy.) Under new ownership, Depop has managed to remain buzzy, announcing partnerships recently with Olivia Rodrigo, Megan Thee Stallion, HBO and Netflix. —Catherine Perloff

Microsoft started the year by announcing the biggest acquisition in its history: a $68.7 billion all-cash purchase of gaming firm Activision Blizzard, publisher of the massively popular Call of Duty, Warcraft, Overwatch and Candy Crush franchises. The deal, which is expected to close next year pending regulatory approval, would make Microsoft, which is already the maker of Xbox gaming consoles, the third largest gaming company in the world. The acquisition’s timing is both opportune and fraught. On the one hand, it gives Microsoft a bigger foothold in the buzzy metaverse and rounds out its growing ambitions in advertising, with its purchase of ad-tech firm Xandr ushering in a lucrative partnership with Netflix’s upcoming advertising tier. But on the other hand, Activision faces reputational and legal risks from accusations of sexual harassment. Plus, Big Tech deals tend to get caught increasingly in regulators’ crosshairs. —Catherine Perloff