Top Takeaways — Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report 2019

Since 2004 Mary Meeker (a top-ranked VC) has been releasing an incredibly in-depth analysis of Internet Trends, which has become a must-read for insight into the diverse and ever-evolving tech ecosystem.

The 2019 report has been released and THE big difference between last year and this year is that Mary Meeker dramatically departed VC behemoth, Kleiner Perkins, to start a new $1.25 billion investment fund called call Bond.

This did not stop Mary and the Team from creating a meaty report however, checking in at a very healthy 333 slides. As always, I try to distill this information down into the top takeaways and insights for the year.

USERS

Over 50 percent of the world (3.8 billion people) are now online and using the internet, this is up from 2017 (3.6 billion).

But overall growth is slowing to about 6 percent in as new users become harder to come by (also evidenced by the stall of smartphone shipments).

E-COMMERCE

Continues its steady growth, when compared to the percentage of all retail sales in the US. E-commerce is just over 15% of all sales however, so there is still room to grow.

ONLINE ADVERTISING

This one is interesting, with a significant shift in digital advertising that is headed into peoples pockets, as Mobile Ad spend is skyrocketing and will more than likely surpass TV in next years report (34% vs 35%). Overall Internet Ad spend accelerated at 22% YoY growth, (the majority of which was mobile). The slide below outlines the decline of print usage. Ad dollars reacted more slowly to media changes than did audience behavior — but it’s caught up enough for a full three-quarters of ad spend to disappear.

Most of the spending is still on the big two (Google and Facebook), but other companies (such as Amazon and Twitter) are seeing an increase in market share. CAC (cost of acquisition) continues to grow as competition intensifies, which will, likely at some point soon, become unsustainable as CAC will outweigh the Life Time Value of the customers.

INTERNET USAGE

The Average American spends over 6 hours on digital per day, 3.6 of which are on mobile (that's one hour/day more than we did in 2014). But time spent on computers/desktop is sacrificed and has declined. Mobile usage has also (probably permanently) surpassed TV viewing (226 vs 216 minutes/day on average).

In terms of the platform of choice, YouTube and Instagram are making the most gains with people communicating more and more with visual images and short videos over text and words (MishGuru, Shuttlerock, Wipster, and PageProof — looking at you!). Some of the top players are also taking action to help monitor and limit usage.

FREEMIUM

It’s not just for B2C businesses like Dropbox and Spotify. Freemium is now a strategy employed in gaming, in Enterprise, Cloud and Online Payments.

DATA GROWTH

Data volume is growing extraordinarily and forecast to grow even more so in future years.

The whole concept of data is in transition from a noun to a verb. It can be leveraged to win customers through insightful intelligence. NZ Companies such as Marsello and PredictHQ are really set to execute well here. But with this data-centric world come pushes and concerns in the last year for more privacy from hardware and software companies. With this increase in data growth, comes the messy long tail of bullying, problematic content, the polarization of content, and rise of Cyber Attacks.

WORK

The creation of the internet has also enabled the rise of the on-demand/gig economy worker and they are increasing in significant volume in the US, due to companies like Uber and Etsy.

However, their motivations for this work do not seem to be motivated by long-term lifestyle or career choices. Remote (employed) workers are also on the rise thanks to online collaboration tools such as Zoom and Slack. The benefits of remote work seem great.

ONLINE EDUCATION

Traditional tertiary education schools are expanding online offering classes and full online degrees but completion and retention rates vary.

FOUNDER IMMIGRATION

Immigrant founders have been an important driver for highly valued tech innovation in the US. Something that will likely be impacted by the current admirations stricter views on immigration.

HEALTHTECH

Health care increases towards a more digitized industry. With the Big Tech Leaders taking larger roles coming in from the outside.

There is also a significant rise in telemedicine and on-demand consultations and digitization of health records.

ASIA

We seem to be transitioning over to a less Western Internet as most of the internet growth is occurring in Asia, namely the Asia-Pacific region and China also seems to be on the rise with innovation.