Mary Meeker, the Queen of Internet, revealed the 2019 edition of her annual internet trends report at Code Conference 2019 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
According to the report, there are 3.8 billion users of Internet, which is more than half of the total population of the world. China is having the highest number of internet users (21%), followed by India, the US, and Indonesia.
Meeker highlighted maturation of the internet economy, growth in freemium subscription business models, telemedicine, interactive gaming, encrypted messaging apps and growth in digital ad spending.
Here are some of the most interesting trends from the report:
1. Over 50% population of the world has connection to the internet, up from 49% in 2017. However, the growth has slowed down because so many users have come online and it is hard to find new ones.
Since most of the world is already online (majority of them accessing internet using smartphones), the sale of smartphones has also declined.
2. Microsoft tops in the list of world’s top companies by market capitalization. Seven out of the top 10 are tech companies and four of the top 6 are US based. Here’s the full list:
3. The number of mobile users adopting internet remains below 50% in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, due to which the revenue growth among the world’s largest tech companies is slowing.
4. 15% of the retail sales now come under e-commerce. However, the growth of e-commerce has also slowed down. It grew 15.6% in first quarter 2017, but 12.7% in first quarter 2019.
5. Facebook and Google continue to dominate the online advertising market, impacting revenue of other independent and smaller advertising companies. Though, companies with popular services like Amazon, Pinterest, and Twitter are accelerating their share in the market.
6. In 2018, adults in America were spending an average of 6.3 hours per day on internet, up 7% from a year ago. Most of them access the internet from smartphones and other connected devices, while some do it from desktop devices as well.
7. Images are increasingly a relevant way of communication between users. Now, over 50% of Tweet impressions involve images, video and other media posts. Back in the year 2006, the platform used to be text-only. With this, there is an increase in the picture editing platforms as users are increasingly telling stories via edited images.
8. Number of digital gamers and interactive media users grew 6% to 2.4 billion people worldwide. The number of users watching the games is also rising.
9. Privacy concerns on internet have become a bigger selling point and people are expecting more options to make online communication safe. 87% of the internet traffic in Q1 was found encrypted, up from 53% three years ago.
10. There is a shift in the healthcare ecosystem, which is becoming more digitized. There will be growth in hospitals that adopt telemedicine, digital health tools and consultations on demand.
To read full report, click here.
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