Increasing number of Internet users worldwide, growing popularity of mobile devices, crucial role of recommendations, and visual communication – those are some of key trends that are shaping the Internet, according to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2019 report.
Publication of Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report is an important event anticipated every year by marketers, managers, experts and businessmen.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the latest edition.
- Half of the world’s population is online
3.8 billion people, which amounts to 51% of the world population, were using the internet in 2018 (up from 49% in 2017). China has the largest number of total internet users (21%) in the world, followed by India (12%). The growing number of internet users is directly connected to the increasing accessibility of mobile devices. Currently 26% of U.S. adults are almost constantly online vs. 21% three years ago. According to Mary Meeker, 63% of American adults are trying to limit the time they spent on their smartphones.
- Social media usage growth slows down
The number of users who log into social media platforms every day is still growing, but the growth is slowing down. While in 2016 and 2017, social networks noted as much as 6% growth year-over-year, currently that increase has slowed with social media usage up only 1% between 2018 and 2019.
- Instagram and YouTube have their momentum
YouTube experienced daily usage increase (percentage of internet users who log into the platform at least once a day) from 22% in 2017 to 27% in 2018, and Instagram’s usage grew from 13% to 19% during the same period.
At the same time Facebook, which still has the highest percentage of internet users logging in at least once a day, saw a decline from 31% in 2017 to 30% last year.
- Recommendations are key aspect in marketing
As Mary Meeker puts it:
Effective + Efficient Marketing = One’s Own Product + Happy Customers + Recommendations.
- The role of visual content keeps growing
Creating graphic content, sharing it and stimulating the audience’s engagement in this way – these are essential elements of online communication.
Meeker notes that for the last two decades the number of images captured and generated on smartphones has been growing, and points to the popularity of image sharing on social networks from Instagram and Pinterest to Twitter, where 50% of impressions now include some kind of visual content.
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