State Of The Internet 2016 - What You Need To Know
It’s my favorite data of the year - Mary Meeker’s State of the Internet report - check out my previous summaries from 2015, 2014, 2013.
Here are this year's major takeaways:
Advertising
- Internet advertising is growing and Facebook is now a significant player.
- If you’re going to advertise you’d better be using video and if you’re targeting 16 to 34 years olds you need to be using Snapchat
Social Networks
- Facebook continues to dominate and it’s betting the house on video.
- Snapchat has exploded in the last year and you need to understand it if you’re targeting millennials
Imagery
- Both video and images are growing in importance.
- Emoji & Gif use is going to grow twinned with the importance in messaging apps - check out Google’s new IOS keyboard.
Science!
- Voice recognition is almost here and it’s going to change everything!
- Self driving cars are going to appear faster than we think.
The Rest Of The World
- Less important for local businesses but India and China are maturing fast.
- Western culture is going to be stunned at just how big these markets are.
What Does This Mean For You
People are going to experience your business on a mobile device, with a short attention span and they’re going to be influenced by rich media rather than text.
If I was a B2C business this is what I would be doing:
- Cleaning up my website and removing any unnecessary messaging and options and distilling the front page above the fold into a single good looking call to action.
- Looking at how to incorporate video into my messaging
- Experimenting with Snapchat
- Allocating a small budget and be playing with targeted Facebook Ads
Here are 4 more slides from the report - it's fascinating stuff. If you have a spare hour I thoroughly recommend you have a read - the information is really well presented and you can read the slide deck online here.
Feeling a little down? Listen to this, it really helps you feel better.
Image Credit: Internet Trends 2016 by Mary Meeker