SUMMARY: Mary Meeker's 2019 Internet Trends (5 min read)

For the last 10 years or so I've eagerly anticipated Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends report. This year it came out a couple of days ago on 11th June, I skimmed the 333 slides and forwarded the report to a few friends and colleagues I thought would appreciate it.

For the most part the response was 333 slides! Is it worth a read? Which inspired me to pull out my favorite 23 and put a line of commentary against each. This is a personal view and I'd urge you to look at the entire deck if you can find the time, for me it's great fuel for my subconscious.

Deep breath....

The Average (USA) person now spends almost 7 hours per day online…

Because there is a commercial imperative to make digital companies that make money from people online

Unsurprisingly Google and Facebook are doing best at this game with their platforms YouTube and Instagram winning most over the last year:

As more people fill every second of their days, voice entertainment (via earpods or other) takes the main stage, becoming a hugely untapped channel:

The way we might control this new auditory wave is likely through speaking to our devices and voice assistants, which are massively on the rise (Here’s a graph about Amazon’s Echo, other smart speakers and assistants are available):

The Sharing economy is upon us:

Remote Freelance working is coming of age

The Fintech dream is starting to play an ever larger part in our lives, helping us ‘take control’ of our finances like we never have before. This is just the beginning :

Images as a foundation of communication show strong signs of growth. Meaning the platforms like Instagram will gain more and more importance at sit at the heart of future "Super-Apps" (read on..):

Pure Play Freemium business model has proven out. These examples pave the way for many more entrants with this model:

We have reached the Global tipping point for >50% transactions being completed digitally. 7% through messaging apps showing growth of “Conversational Commerce”, assume this is skewed by WeChat but believe that’s the direction of travel. 

Personalised experiences are what customers want, I personally believe that chatbots are the route to the 1:1 nirvana of brands talking to each and every customer as an individual.

Data is what’s needed to train our systems and AI to deliver advantage. What I see here is that China and Asia will have more raw material to work with and are thus on the path will win the AI game:

This is why we might feel overwhelmed! Important for us humans to build skills that focus on resilience, adaptability and keep calm to process this all (I see this as a trigger for skills like mindfulness which helps us process this massive change):

People are now online almost all the time, I think I said that already..:

Growing focus on “digital detox”

More than half of humanity now online, many all the time:

China on the march, adding significantly to global GDP:

If you can make it in, set up a business to deliver for, or enable, the rising services and urban dwelling communities in China. There are billions to be made there:

China is leading the way in innovation in the conversational commerce space:

...Pushing Facebook to adopt this faster

What will perform this task in the West? Is a unified Messenger / Instagram / WhatsApp tech stack going to be our SuperApp? (I think so…):

To not look to the East for inspiration right now, I believe, would be to miss a trick..

Thirsty for more? See the entire 333 slide deck here.

About the author:

Charles Cadbury is CEO and Co-Founder of Say It Now, the UK’s leading premium developer of Voice Assistants and Messenger Bots specialists in Natural Language Processing, the sub-field of Artificial Intelligence that enables computers to process and analyse large amounts of natural language data. Feel free to connect.