Want to know what the latest internet trends are? I’ve scoured Mary Meeker’s 355-page report and pulled out 10 things that caught my attention.
If you’re looking for stats to help you do your job, this report is for you. It covers global trends, looks at what’s coming up, and for the first time, the 2017 report also looks at enterprise.
Mary is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), which partners with the brightest entrepreneurs to turn disruptive ideas into world-changing businesses. The firm has helped build and accelerate growth at pioneering companies like Amazon, Google, Nest, Twitter, Uber, and Mandiant.
Here are the highlights from her report, followed by 10 things that caught my eye:
1) Seeing around corners
The most successful internet companies are those who’ve evolved and expanded their businesses to include more products and services.
With “big getting bigger,” these companies are often led by founder-driven innovation and “being able to see around corners.”
Meeker states: “There are pockets of internet company overvaluation, but there are also pockets of undervaluation. Very few companies will win. Those that do can win big. Over time, the best rule of thumb for valuing companies = value is present value of future cash flows.”
2) Leadership games
This quote from 2007 stood out for me…
So what’s happened since and how have games and gaming strategy helped current leaders?
What does this mean for leadership in the future?
With the rise of coding books and games for children, such as Osmo, I’m excited to see what my children’s generation will do once they enter the workplace and how those skills will be put to use.
The rise of gamification is well documented. This year’s report included examples of how it is being used to influence multiple businesses. I like the phrase driving usefulness…
3) User generated content
This slide caught my attention. It highlighted how user generated content (UGC) can generate higher engagement than brand generated content.
It reminded me of the Edelman Trust Barometer finding of peer-to-peer communication being more trusted (and powerful) than CEOs or Government.
I wrote about what this means for brands in my Wonky Comms article and how we’re increasingly seeing user generated and peer-to-peer content inside organisations.
I wonder what the engagement rates are of UGC in internal comms compared to content generated by comms teams.
Can anyone point me towards such information?
4) Rise of visual search
Pinterest has often been talked down as “it doesn’t drive sales.” So I was interested to note the sales stats cited in this report for the platform.
Further reading: How to use Pinterest for internal communication.
Of particular note for communicators is the future of search and the critical role images will play.
How can images rather than keywords be used in organisations? How will that impact the way we design and communicate? This has got me thinking.
5) Up in the clouds
This is the first year I’ve seen an enterprise focus to the Meeker report. It detailed how cloud adoption is reaching new heights and creating new opportunities.
What are you seeing in your organisation?
This is how the cloud is accelerating change:
Do you agree with point three regarding security? Are you putting safeguards in place to ensure vulnerabilities are known and acted upon in your organisation?
The report also noted expectations of enterprise software has shifted as users expect products to be well designed, easy-to-use and as reliable as consumer apps. I’m not surprised by that.
6) Cloud-enabled apps
Cloud-enabled apps are rising rapidly in the enterprise as they are cheaper to build, easier to adopt but harder to secure.
The average number of cloud services was found to have “serious security and compliance implications – 94% of cloud apps are not enterprise-ready.”
This reminds me of the Shadow IT conversation I heard at SmileExpo17 last week.
What’s your view?
It’s important to note the number of network breaches is on the rise, caused by email spam and phishing spam. This is being linked to the growth of the cloud and builds on the security point above. What’ the reality for you?
7) Enterprise design
The ratio of designers to developers is increasing in enterprises as people expect better experiences, to match consumer-quality products. I expect to see this number continuing to rise in years to come.
8) Healthcare is at a “digital inflection point”
The era of human touch from 100 years ago has shifted to machine assisted 25 years ago and is now at technology enabled/digital.
There is now a rapid growth in sources of digital health data, including wearables and electronic health records. These are helping change the way healthcare is managed.
9) Increasing voice accuracy
The report revealed voice-based platform back-ends have increasingly accurate voice recognition, with 95% being recorded. With Siri, Alexa and Voice via Google on the market, how will we see this translate for the corporate world?
I use voice activation a lot at home, from searching for programmes to turning on lights and discovering the weather forecast.
It’s part of the way my family communicates and my 5-year-old daughter and two-year-old twin sons know how to use it.
10) And finally, deliveries…
This resonates with my household who know most of the local delivery people by sight, if not name! Coupled with my daughter’s fascination for unboxing videos, which is also a topic covered in the report, it seems internet shopping will continue to be a growth area for the foreseeable future. Which is to be expected.
So there you have it, my 10 highlights from this year’s internet trends report.
What are yours? You can access the whole report online, View as PDF and below:
Thank you for stopping by,
Post author: Rachel Miller
First published on the All Things IC blog 2 June 2017.
