Interesting Themes Trending in 2019
Mary Meeker, considered by Forbes to be the 77th most powerful woman in the world, first created the now famous Internet Trends Report – and today her report is considered by many to underline the most important statistics and tech trends on the internet, and with a 333 page report to absorb it’s an achievement in itself to digest and pick out the key points, those that should be subject to close observation.
The big themes which were highlighted in Ms Meeker’s rapid 30-minute presentation included the rise in freemium subscription business models – (where a company offers a version of its subscription service to all customers for free, which has made freemium a most successful model for Web 2.0 companies to market their products.)
More than half of the world's population use the internet and the rapid rise of big data is now often core to the holistic success of the fastest growing companies around the world. The continuing trend to gather and analyse data help businesses to provide their customers with a more personalised services and products which can often be purchased at lower prices and with a speedier delivery – pushing up customer satisfaction, who in turn will choose online over the high-street.
Other big themes that were highlighted in the 2019 Internet Trends report were encrypted messaging apps like Viber, Telegram and Signal which have end to end encryption making messaging far more secure, interactive gaming where players become totally immersed in the game whether it is serving and playing volleys and chasing the ball in tennis or actively playing gambling games (after reading reviews of the latest slots sites) where today's technology allows a player to place a bet of real money on the outcome of that game.
Another interesting trend in 2019 is the move towards telemedicine, the remote delivery of a variety of healthcare services over the telecommunications infrastructure like video conferencing and smartphones cutting out completely the need for a patient to visit their GP.
Digital add spend relies on knowing where the market is moving and despite the early warning signs of a global economic slowdown digital add spending continues to rise, driving most of the growth – advertisers have not stopped investing, but they are investing in areas like advertising technology, data and Ecommerce.
Internet and consumer behaviours shift from year to year and perhaps one of the most striking data points of the 2019 report was that over a quarter of US adults now say that they are almost constantly online, that is a staggering eighty-one million, seven hundred and ninety thousand people.
Sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were mentioned when Ms Meeker’s report touched on the challenge of moderating the harassment, bullying and violent extremism on these platforms, although YouTube's CEO (Susan Wojcicki) would not admit outright that the incredibly popular platform is contributing to the radicalization of its users, instead she chose to say that YouTube goes to great efforts not to recommend ‘borderline’ content.
