Trends on Tuesday: 7 Key Takeaways From Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends Report

Jun 9, 2015

Slide from Internet Trends 2015 - Code conference by Mary Meeker, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB)

Silicon Valley analyst Mary Meeker’s annual 2015 Internet Trends report has been released and is an exhaustive analysis of the world’s digital evolution (often mobile first driven) and how it is affecting business, culture and information. Previous years’ reports have tracked emerging tech from mobile to 3D printing, and this year is no different.

Here are some of the key highlights from the report for government agencies and mobile-focused people:

  • Government digital disruption has just begun. At the beginning of the report, Meeker cites the largest industries that have been disrupted and impacted by the digital evolution and says that “Government/Regulation/Policy Thinking” is one of the areas with the most transformation coming soon. (Slide 8)
  • Smartphone penetration and Internet access by smartphone continues to skyrocket, from 18% in 2009 to 64% in 2014 (just a few weeks ago, comScore said that number hit 77%). (Slide 117)
  • Smartphones have become the go-to digital device for many, especially among millennials: (Slide 69)
    • 87% say their smartphone never leaves their side
    • 80% say it’s the first thing they reach for when they wake up
    • 60% believe everything will be done on mobile devices
  • Mobile moments are new and continue to grow. In the past three years, the amount of time spent using mobile devices for digital media consumption has exploded, from less than an hour in 2011 to almost 3 hours in 2014. This growth has been almost all new growth too: since 2011, the amount of time spent with desktops and other connected devices has remained basically the same. People are finding new time in their days to use mobile devices. (Slide 14)
  • Mobile video traffic is growing strong year over year, up three points to 55% as networks continue to get faster and more stable. (Slide 13)
  • Mobile messaging services (like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Line, WeChat, etc.) are exploding in growth around the world with almost a dozen platforms fighting for humongous audiences: hundreds of millions of monthly active users (MAUs). She cites a lot of disruption happening as these channels evolve rapidly and compete vigorously for audiences. (Slides 46-56)
    • In slide 53, Meeker says, “If [the] WeChat trend continues to play out globally, mobile messaging leaders may evolve into central communications hubs.”
    • Imagine Facebook Messenger (or another mobile messaging service) replacing your telecom’s SMS and phone call infrastructure, your email provider, your credit card/cash payment methods, your taxi service, your food delivery, your game platform, etc.—all in one app platform. All of these separate tasks, apps and services are already starting to rapidly happen on some of these single platforms.
  • Mobile is exploding globally. In 2014, 73% of the world had a mobile phone of some sort (that 5.2 billion people). Of those mobile phone users, 60% have smartphones and 40% have feature phones. (Slide 5)

    • Read more of the data-rich report and share it with your co-workers, then dig into the DigitalGov mobile archives to prepare your strategy to become more mobile-friendly.

    Originally posted by Will Sullivan on Jun 9, 2015
    Jun 9, 2015