Mary Meeker: Internet Trends 2016

Annual must read for the curious mind. My takeaways and thoughts.

Full report here, enjoy.

Video of Mary’s presentation at Recode’s 2016 Code Conference, here.

1. India has 277MM Internet users and surpassed the USA to become #2 — behind China with 668MM at 49% penetration— India is only at 22% penetration. My previous post also illustrates India’s growth potential, “India has Mastered the Missed Call.”
2. USA Internet ad growth (+20%) is due to mobile growth (+66%) and that is largely due to Google and Facebook. Moreover…mobile has a lot of room to grow — 25% of time spent in media is on mobile, yet only receives 12% of ad spend. Represents a $22B opportunity.
3. As mobile video continues to grow on Facebook, a challenge for content creators and brands is to find ways for the video to work with sound off. Digiday reported that as much as 85% of Facebook video views happen with the sound off — article here.
4. Snapchat’s 3V ads take full advantage of the current mobile video experience: Vertical (made for mobile), Video (best storytelling asset), Views (always full screen, 100% viewable). And…I would add Control. Snapchat gives the user (almost) full control over the experience — skip, swipe up, replay— that is a good experience. Similar to edit content, I would love the option to layer filters/emoji/etc and share an ad. Some ads are worth sharing. My previous post takes a deep dive into Snapchat, here.
5. Snapchat Lenses and Filters have shown that if an ad enhances the experience, users will embrace (aka the ad blocker solution) — case in point, Taco Bell Cinco de Mayo Lens had 224MM views on Snapchat in 1 day. Is MSQRD Facebook’s answer?
6. Physical retailers become digital retailers (Neiman Marcus)…and…digital retailers become data-optimized physical retailers (Warby Parker, Amazon). It’s all about data, data, data. On a separate note, the top 2 retailers in China by revenue are both pure-play e-commerce — Alibaba and JD.com — and 31% of WeChat users purchase via WeChat. Thus, is the next major retail frontier via messaging apps? Looks like it. Expect Facebook Messenger to scale fast.
7. Who is going to win the “real-live” race — Twitter, Snapchat, Google…what will it take to beat the biggest messaging platform — Facebook/WhatsApp? Interesting but not surprising, more users watched College Football and MTV Music Awards Snapchat than watched the events on TV. The definition of “watch and viewership” will change.
8. USA numbers: 37 avg. number of apps installed / 12 avg. number of apps used daily / 3 avg. number of apps accounting for 80%+ usage — Facebook, Chrome, YouTube — the big 3…for now. Messaging apps charged by Artificial Intelligence — Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. — will change that. Messaging apps = 2nd home screen. I cannot wait to try out Google’s Allo messaging app.
9. Voice = next computing interface. On avg. humans can speak 150 vs. type 40 words per minute. Amazon Echo — est. ~4MM units sold — integrated into the home, auto, mobile, etc. is just the beginning. As of May 2016, 1 in 5 searches on mobile app are voice searches (Android in USA). Google Home will help scale fast. Typing to search is so 2015.
10. On the brink of an Automotive Golden Age. The car may be the most advanced computing device you use, increases safety due to automation/reduced human error, makes your commute more productive (significant entertainment opportunity), saves money (or even makes you money), reduces pollution, etc. For OEMs, if ownership dips, will the new business model be focused on vehicle miles over vehicles sold?
11. Social (visual = video + image) networks lead the pack. Interested to see how the below chart shifts for % Reach Among Age 12–24 and % Reach Among Age 12–17.