Last week, Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers presented her Internet Trends report for 2014 at the Code Conference in California. Each year since 2001, KPCB has partnered with some of the best data analysts in the country to create a comprehensive report of rising Internet trends across all industries. This year, the presentation resulted in a 164-slide deck that you can read in its entirety here. Since we’re fans of tl;dr analyses & content curation, though, here are some of the most important points from the first half of the report.
Mobile Device Usage
-Content consumption on mobile devices is on a steady incline with a 72% increase from 2013.
-Of mobile devices, tablets have the most room for growth as well as the highest growth rate.
-The average revenue per user (ARPU) of Facebook increased by 57% on desktop and 79% on mobile, and Twitter’s APRU increased by approximately 80% on desktop and mobile.
-20% of consumers’ time is spent on mobile devices while only 4% of ad spend is allocated to mobile.
Overall, marketers are focusing more on mobile advertising, as seen by the increase in ARPU on Twitter and Facebook (it means that each user is generating more revenue than they did last year, presumably through advertising). That said, they should still be putting more of their budget into mobile because a fifth of their entire market is spending their time on mobile devices. I’d predict an increase in tablet sales and apps to keep up with the rapid pace of growth as the tablet tries throughout 2014 to catch up to the smartphone in popularity.
Education
-1/3 of 4-year college grads say they weren’t prepared for their jobs.
-4/5 Americans said that education issues are extremely important to them.
-Multiple online learning platforms have seen over 50% growth in 2014.
-Education startups are expanding with direct-to-consumer products, leading to mass adoption and lower distribution costs.
-25 million Americans are now learning second languages thanks to online education programs like Duolingo, making for a 14X increase from 2013.
The increase in online learning tools leading to the ease of attaining new knowledge is a notable advancement in the education system of America. Increasing numbers of students with or without college degrees are expanding their expertise online and becoming more aware of the issues that exist in the modern world of education.
Messaging Apps
-The number of messages sent through apps like SnapChat, WhatsApp, and other direct messaging apps is inversely proportionate to the number of contacts in the app.
-Telephone contacts are becoming more active ways to connect users than the Social Graph (friends on social networks).
The apps that are targeted more closely to the actual phone contacts of the user rather than those with whom they are connected on social media, further demonstrating our hypothesis that it’s more meaningful to connect with those who share our interests rather those with whom we are simply connected through social networks.
Social Media & Content Distribution
-Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter make up almost 30% of all social referral traffic.
-Half of the social referral traffic that comes from Facebook comes within the first 9 hours, and half of the social referral traffic that comes from Twitter comes within the first 6.5 hours.
This is extremely important for content curators and users of tools like Scoop.it. The fact that half of the referral traffic to a piece of content shared on Facebook and Twitter takes about 7.5 hours backs up the hypothesis that content shared on social media is strongest within the short time period after it’s posted. After that, it becomes more and more difficult to find until it is eventually lost in the noise. Sharing content via a landing page and a place where each pieces of content is indexed as a new post helps increase sharing as well as referral traffic and content life-cycles.
Content & Community
– Meeker names the Internet Trifecta: Content, Community & Commerce, with content coming from consumers as well as professionals, community being built via context and connectivity, and commerce being encouraged via seamless purchase cycles within content marketing.
-The best and most successful types of content are “uploadable, shareable, and findable.”
Connecting with current and potential customers via content includes providing relevant context to their specific situations as well as fostering a connected environment in which they can eventually make a purchase without having to put forth any extra effort. Further, having a home for your content makes it not only more shareable but also more findable for those who don’t yet know you exist.
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Interesting article but wish there was more about the personalization of content as well as the dominance of social sharing on the Internet.