Every year, famous “Queen of the Net” Mary Meeker from venture capital firm KPCB, presents “The Internet Report.” This year, it comes in at a whopping 196 slides. We’ve condensed it to 13 key points that we, as marketers, care about most and think you should know:
- Internet users grew from less than 1% of the global population 20 years ago, to 39% in 2014. Mobile phone usage is even more dramatic – from 1% in 1995 to 73% in 2014!
- The biggest Internet companies today include: Apple, Google, Alibaba, Facebook, and Amazon.
- Top mobile applications by usage are messaging apps and include: Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and LINE.
- Internet user growth and smartphone subscription growth are still strong year over year, but slowing down.
- Engagement and time spent with mobile media is growing but ad spend isn’t keeping up, leaving lots of inventory and opportunity.
- Video traffic is up with new screen size formats and viewability becoming a priority.
- New fancy ad formats are making their appearance in 2015: Facebook Carousel Ad (scrolls through multiple images), Pinterest Cinematic Pin (video), Really-Short-Form Video (think 5-seconds), and Google Local Inventory Ad (products in nearby stores).
- The next big step for mobile: “Buy Buttons” as confirmed by Google, Pinterest and Instagram.
- Content is now user-generated, surprising, and curated as social platforms and messaging services rule.
- “Just in time” information, products and services are now the rule with focus shifted to “micro-moments” (Google).
- China can now pass the Internet growth torch to India.
- 12-24 year-olds remain trendsetters for anything Internet-related, with 87% of U.S. Millennials saying, “[my] smartphone never leaves my side.”
- Commerce via the Internet is up dramatically, reaching 9% of total retail sales in 2014 vs. less than 1% in 1998.
