Key Points from Mary Meeker's Internet Trends and thoughts

1. Mary Meeker’s
Internet Trends
2016: Key Points

2. INTRODUCTION
Mary Meeker (the oracle) has unveiled her Internet Trends for 2016 - if you
don’t know who Mary Meeker is, what she predicts in these annual trend
reports normally have a big impact on how we do business years’ down the
line, for example, in previous reports she correctly foresaw the moves toward
mobile video, messaging apps and China’s dominance.
If you want to read the entire study (all 213 slides) it’s here
http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/2016-internet-trends-report , but if
you want just the top line points, it’s these:
• In 5 years at least 50 percent of all searches are going to be either
images or speech
• Advertisers Remain Over-Indexed to Legacy Media (missing an
opportunity with mobile)
• 420 million people now use mobile ad-blockers, up 94 percent in the
past year
• Social Networks want to be your new TV
• 55% of US users find, or shop for products on Pinterest
• Messaging apps are growing rapidly, opening up the way for
conversational commerce
• Generation Y (Millennials) aren’t interested in reaching a brand through
the telephone, it’s social messaging and the internet, or web chat
In the slides ahead I’ve put a bit more context to these key points (with the
relevant slides) and some thoughts

3. 50 PERCENT OF ALL SEARCHES ARE GOING TO BE EITHER IMAGES OR
SPEECH
The headline takeaway is the prediction that in five years, at
least 50 percent of all searches are going to be either images or
speech. Meeker points towards the success of Amazon.com’s
Echo smart-speaker, a device powered by artificial intelligence
that is “always listening” for voice commands and Google’s word
accuracy rising to 90%.
Takeout: it feels like we are currently at the crossroads of search,
with the growth of messaging apps (more of which later) there is
an argument that the future of search will actually sit within
messaging apps, with chatbots as personal assistants (the soon
to be released Facebook M and Google Assistant, for example).
Whether it’s voice controlled, or chatbots, or both, as Meeker
argues how we think of search will certainly not be the same in
the next five years

4. ADVERTISERS REMAIN OVER-INDEXED TO LEGACY MEDIA
Takeout: Somewhat surprised to see that legacy media still
holds such a broad sway in the US- TV remains one the most
effective mediums to achieve mass awareness, but for example
Ad-buying firm Magna Global shifted $200 million of the
clients' money it usually reserves for TV ads over to YouTube.
Magna Global explained the decision as one based on price:
watching live TV is on the decline (particularly with young
people), but TV ads keep going up.
YouTube has been banging this drum for a while now, telling
advertisers they would need to shift 24% of their TV budgets
over to YouTube if they wanted to reach young people and
providing research suggesting that YouTube ads generate a
better return on investment than TV ads most of the time.

5. 420 MILLION PEOPLE NOW USE MOBILE AD-BLOCKERS, UP 94 PERCENT IN
THE PAST YEAR
Takeout: According to Mary Meeker’s data 93% of consumers
consider using ad-blocking software. A separate study found Ad
blocking is expected to reduce US display advertising by some
$3.9bn in 2016, a figure that is forecast to treble over the next
four, with a total of $39bn being lost over five years. As Meeker
said "If ever there was a call to arms to create better ads, this is
it“. Will it continue the precipitation towards social advertising on
Facebook, Instagram and other social channels that currently
remain immune to Adblocking

6. THE PROBLEM WITH VIDEO ADVERTISING AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE
VIDEO FORMAT
Takeout: Meeker argues that the best Video Ads are
Authentic/Entertaining/In-C0ntext/Often Brief, or Hyper-
Targeted. All hail Snapchat and Facebook (and Instagram too)
then. (if you’re interested in a hyper-targeting case-study this
one is good)
https://www.facebook.com/business/success/deutsche-telekom
Takeout: social networks want to be your new TV. Reinforces
that this is the culture of now/the culture of creators where an
ordinary person has the opportunity to become a celebrity via
social media. By-the-by, on social influencers, recent research
from Twitter found that that 40% of those surveyed said that
they've purchased an item online after seeing it used by an
influencer on Instagram, Twitter, Vine or YouTube. Further to
this 49% said that they rely on recommendations from
influencers

7. SOCIAL COMMERCE VIA PINTEREST
Takeout: a powerful argument to be investing and using
Pinterest if you’re a retail brand; traditionally social has not been
thought of as a commerce channel. Social is used for inspiration,
browsing, discovering yes, but not shopping. In the most part,
unsurprisingly, it is thought we are using social networks with
how they’re intended to be used: posting pictures, giving
updates, consuming content
Pinterest has flipped the script to become a visual search engine
for users

8. CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE VIA MESSAGING
Takeout: messaging apps are the social networks for the
smartphone era. Meeker argues that Messaging apps in general
are becoming a second home screen for many people, acting as
their entry point into the internet. According to eMarketer, more
than 1.4 billion consumers were using messaging apps by the end
of 2015; that’s 75% of all smartphone users and an increase of
31.6% over the previous year. Ben Eidelson put it succinctly:
“Messaging is essentially the child of the social and mobile
platforms and can bring with it the best from both.”
Takeout: Conversation threads within these messaging apps will
provide a seamless experience. You never lose context, and the
business never loses context about who you are and your past
purchases. Gone will be the traditional e-commerce journey of
going to the website to create an account and the countless
notification emails thereafter. Now we will have an experience
that is made for the smartphone, significant because
Smartphones are replacing computers for internet use, for
example two-thirds (65%) of all adults use a smartphone to go
online(Ofcom, 2016)

9. GENERATION Y (MILLENNIALS) ARE CHANGING HOW WE COMMUNICATE TO
BRANDS
Takeout: Generation Y (Millennials) aren’t interested in reaching
a brand through the telephone, it’s social messaging and the
internet, or web chat. This is a particular consideration for
Customer Service, if you’re a Telecoms brand, for example, don’t
expect your Twitter channel to be full of complimentary @
replies, commenting on the outstanding content you’re
producing, but rather irate millennials using it as a resource for
customer service