All You Need To Know About This Year’s Internet Trends

Here’s all you need to know what’s happening this year in the internet, according to Graham Christie, CCO and partner of mobile company Big Mobile.

Capital venture firm Kleiner Perkins and its taliswoman Mary Meeker, released their annual Report recently, and I’m sure you will have read synopses here and there regarding the near 200 pages.

Mobile now has the majority share (51 per cent) of all digital time spent, out of interest it was (12 per cent) in the age of iPhone 1.  In terms of new news, the Report using eMarketer data, highlights the interesting phenomenon of mobile video viewership in the vertical (not landscape) orientation.

Nearly a third of the time, (29 per cent), users watch video vertically, that’s up five per cent from 2010. It’s worth bearing in mind if you’re producing branded video content, with the evidence clear, on the Snapchat platform at least, completion rates are 9x higher on video ads watched vertically than one’s watched horizontally.

The Report is easily accessed and worth a read and feels nothing like 200 pages, the information is so succinctly put.

Mobile scale

Telco Ericsson has released its Mobility Report stating that 70 per cent of everybody, everywhere will have a smartphone by 2020, with the real momentum taking place in APAC, the region reaching two billion smartphone users.

Include all handset types across the world and mobile’s reach surpasses nine billion, and furthermore wearable’s and all other internet connected ‘things’ will reach 26 billion. Ericsson originally tabled the figure of 50 billion ‘Internet of Things’ devices, but has sharpened its forecasting to get to a nonetheless still very significant number.

The impact of this will see worldwide smartphone data usage increase fivefold. A lot of that will be mobile video that is forecasted to grow 55 per cent year on year up to 2020, and will be then gobble up a 60 per cent share of all mobile data. This places a bit of a conundrum on network roll-out’s, and the timeframe on 5G. The thing is, 4G only accounts for five per cent of the world’s mobile connections, but it’s 70 per cent in South Korea, 50 per cent in Japan, and 40 per cent in the US. It seems there’s a way to go until the ceiling is reached.

China’s mobile revolution

China’s adoption of e-commerce over mobile continues at a pace fuelled by Alibaba’s Tmall, and WeChat, with newer entrants like Yoox and Majujie fanning the flames.

Majujie is a rising star with observers crediting its popularity with ‘Pinterest like’ functionality, curation and sharing.  In China, sales over mobile are at parity with those on desktop, and according to iResearch, the Jan-March 2015 Qtr delivered 168 per cent year on year growth in mobile sales, worth an eye-watering US$58 billion. This has premium and luxury good sectors clambering to develop or upgrade their mobile app with a fuller e-commerce UX and capabilities.

Facebook’s Instant Articles

With predictions such as 80 per cent of all internet traffic on mobile by 2019, it’s bleedin’ obvious that if you’re a publisher, it’s mobile or go home, and more so, that getting into bed more with the dominant mobile platform that is Facebook, becomes tempting.

But Facebook’s Instant Articles has publishers in at least two minds. The choice as I see it depends on the publishers specific situation, whether they are managing legacy models (and if they are doing so too passively or aggressively), their NPD capabilities, sales team calibre, and capital reserves.

It’s unorthodox to allow a separate entity to dictate ad product, (therefore ad revenue), around one’s own content, but tapping more seamlessly into a huge audience base is attractive. However, this is such a pivotal time when publishers must be focused on the qualities of control and differentiation, so the decision tricky.  In the end, I think it’s one based essentially on whether tactical or strategic objectives are uppermost.

Marin Software

Marin published its Mobile Advertising Around the Globe Annual Report across markets including Australia, India, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Given its focus, it has an interest in understanding relationships across channels.  By the end of 2016 it expects mobile to have outpaced desktop, and tablet for click engagement.  There’s evidence still that the mobile and tablet is used more of upper funnel activities such as researching purchases, with consumers converting/transacting on desktop.

Display saw the most drastic mobile growth of all three channels. Mobile click share for display grew almost 60 per cent from January to December 2014, starting at 32 per cent and ending at over 50 per cent of click share, making mobile devices the majority of all display ad clicks by end of 2014. Marin concludes the Report with six best practices for marketers, as follows;

• Play to each channel’s and device’s strengths.
• Correctly attribute mobile conversions
• Optimize ads for mobile experience
• Target consumers across devices and channels
• Invest in mobile app advertising.
• Plan ahead for mobile video advertising.