Reading Time: 2 Minutes
Hello people!
How’s it all going?
Whoa can you believe that half of 2019 has flown by? Seriously, feels like I’m aging every day…
How’s those New Year’s resolutions going?
Unfortunately haven’t achieved mine yet… but hey, there’s still another 6 months to do it right!
Continuing on the tech theme of recent posts, this week I had the privilege of reading the highly anticipated annual “Internet Trends Report” from Mary Meeker.
Mary is one of the most closely followed Internet and Tech investors out there, having started her career on Wall Street as an analyst, and first covered internet based stocks in the mid-90’s.
She is sometimes referred to as the “Queen of the Internet” and needless to say, is widely respected.
Each year she produces a report on, well, the Internet. Here’s some of the highlights from this year:
Penetration
Some 3.8 billion people, or 51% of global population were internet users last year, up from 49 percent (3.6 billion) in 2017.
Growth slowed to about 6 percent in 2018 because so many people have come online that new users are harder to come by.
Sales of smartphones are declining (by 4%) as whoever is able to access the internet, already is.
Users
53% of the world’s internet users are located in the Asia-Pacific region, with China being the largest with over 800 million users.
You can also see that emerging markets still significantly lag more developed economies in terms of their use of the internet.
As they become progressively wealthier, investors identifying technology and digital media companies that can capitalize on their growth, might prove a lucrative exercise in the long term.
Companies
The rapid growth of technology and the internet since the turn of the century has resulted in 7 of the top 10 largest companies in the world coming from the sector.
Globally, US tech companies dominate the landscape with the rest of the world playing catch-up. 18 of the largest 30 global tech companies (with exposure to the internet) are in the USA but the emergence of some non-USA powerhouses, particularly out of China, suggests that the tide may be slowly changing.
Future company trends
Meeker’s report also highlights that the tech giants are finding it harder to maintain the growth rates of recent years.
The astronomical returns the tech sector has provided in the last twenty years may not be as easy to achieve going forward, with investors likely requiring a more selective approach to investment.
For example, there was a time when Google and Facebook were undisputed kings of the online ad revenue world but the growth of other USA advertising platforms such as Amazon, Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest has begun to outstrip the big players.
Google’s ad revenue grew by 1.4 times over the past 9 quarters and Facebook’s grew 1.9 times, whilst the combined group of the new players grew 2.6 times.
Though it is pleasing to see that innovation at tech companies outside the US has remained robust.
Popular areas of growth include fulfillment, delivery, and payments.
Online usage
Meeker’s research indicates our American cousins are spending 6.3 hours a day on the internet and increasingly that time is being spent on mobile devices or set-top boxes that allow them to access digital media content.
26% of US adults consider themselves online “almost constantly.” That number jumps to 39% for 18 to 29 year-olds surveyed.
~~~
I think it’s very important to understand what future internet trends belie, not just in terms of investing but also in terms of the general direction the world is heading towards.
As the Meeker report states, everything and everyone is becoming more and more connected.
It’s amazing that I was born in a time when the internet was just a plot-line for a radical sci-fi movie, and now look where we are!
Hope you enjoyed this post, and of course if you want to check out her full 333 page presentation, you can do so here (link).
What do you think? Did you enjoy this post? Please help me out if you enjoyed this and put your email in and click on the little “subscribe” button at the top right. This way, you’ll never miss my words of awesomeness! So do the right thing, be a subscriber and get it straight to your inbox fresh out of the oven!
26 Comments
xclusivefashionmeetslifestyle
This is super awesome post about the internet trends and should be shared!!!
The Frugal Samurai
I reckon right! Share, share, share! Hahaha thank you
Erika Tiara
Your article is awesome, loved the way you explained everything with charts! Thanks for sharing such great information
The Frugal Samurai
That is most kind of you to say! Thanks for reading 🙂
ktlexius
Great stats and useful information. These stats should be infographics so we can pin them!
The Frugal Samurai
Oh yeah! That’s a GREAT suggestion, thank you!
amayszingblogs
Great info about Internet Trends Report I’ve never heard this before now it gives me a lot of information! Thanks for sharing!
The Frugal Samurai
That’s quite alright, thank you for reading and hope you got something out of it!
Michael David Oyco
Wow! So many useful stuffs and info here. thanks for sharing this one. A nice reference for the future.
The Frugal Samurai
Thanks for saying so!
Krysten (@WeirdGirlBlog)
Wow this is all really excellent information, it’s always good to be in the know. Thanks so much for sharing with us!
The Frugal Samurai
My pleasure, and hope you learnt a couple of things here and there!
Kenny Ngo
I love that it’s such a learning post. I gleaned a lot of information from it. Thank you for this.
The Frugal Samurai
No problem, thanks for reading!
Pink Frenzy/Öku Möku (@Pink_Frenzy)
This was really interesting read. So much new info I didn’t know before.
Laura
https://pinkfrenzymissl.blogspot.com/
The Frugal Samurai
Well now you do, thanks for reading!
Erik the Hungry Traveller
Thanks for the fun facts. I did not even know China had 800 million users really that many?!?
The Frugal Samurai
Yeah I know, it’s crazy right!
Ana
I enjoyed reading the internet trends and some interesting figures that you’ve shared. I’ve to admit that I can’t survive without the internet…lol!
The Frugal Samurai
I know, I know, that makes the two of us! But hoping you got a thing or two from the post!
toastycritic
I can see why it would be hard to maintain the growth rates of these companies. I think they should stop selling themselves based upon growth rates and focus more on participation rates at this point because there are only so many people on the planet.
The Frugal Samurai
Agree, it’s come to the point where the market is increasingly saturated, though still some corners where the digital reach hasn’t quite gotten there yet, be interesting to see how it progresses over the next decade.
Lavern Moore
Your breakdown of the internet trends report is very helpful. I can use this information.
The Frugal Samurai
Please do! And thanks for reading.
Danielle
I had no idea about many of these internet trends. I always find it fun to learn about things like this.
The Frugal Samurai
No problem come back any time and happy to help! Thanks for reading.