Bearing this post's date, here is the link to the latest @KPCB 2014 Internet Trends report authored by Mary Meeker#. A must-read report.
Meeker and Laura McLellan, who used to be my analyst at Gartner, have been focusing on many of the same themes that punctuate the closing gap between marketing and IT (more on that in a separate post, with a preview of the digital marketing map#).
KPCB latest trends report comes at a perfect time. Sections of note in the report include:
- advertising / monetization with mobile as an area of focus (pages 13-16)
- sections on education (pages 24-28) and healthcare (pages 25-32) being at an inflection point
- re-imagining continues (page 33 on)
Some highlights:
- Global OTT (Over-the-Top) Messaging Services = >1B Users in <5 Years, which signals that frequent interactions with smaller groups of close contacts have potentially more value -- a return to mirroring real life experiences, where we take a moment to pay attention to the person in front of us (via the screen) and have a brief exchange.
- Pinterest and Instagram are ascending rapidly -- multi-platform probably being a factor along with the ease of sharing images and video in both social networks; Vine and SnapChat being "native" as multi-platform.
- Umbundling of apps -- I will be processing some of the information in coming days, here I am thinking about single use for the app while still experiencing convergence in media formats.
- Social media traffic referrals and distribution data see Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter as leaders for the first with estimated 21%, 7%, 1% of global referrals (Source: Shareaholic, 3/14), and fast time frames for the second with average article reaching half total social referrals in 6.5 hours on Twitter, 9 hours on Facebook (source: SimpleReach, 5/14).
- Re-Imagining Local Services / Reputation = Leverage + Efficiency (page 48) is worth a look and comparison with the local services your business leverages for reputation building -- what data points are trending and potentially leading indicators of changes to come?
- A deep dive on Houzz, an Ecosystem for Home Renovation & Design -- I had actually come across this in a couple of situations. The mix and ratio of content, community, and commerce is compelling. A long, long time ago, I presented the idea of web sites organized in thirds at MarketingProfs 2008 B2B forum (see make your website sticky: 10 ideas). I wrote:
The Web presence of the future may be organized completely in thirds - part editorial, part community, and part marketing weaved throughout the site; without needing to separate them in a blog, a forum, a customer idea space, and the corporate brochure-ware.
Maybe my advice given back then will come in handy now that the rest of the trend analysts are talking about it.
- Big Data trends (page 60), particularly the points on Data Mining / Analytics Tools Improving & Helping Find Patterns and Early Emergence of Data / Pattern-Driven Problem Solving.
- An interesting question on screens (page 99) More Screens = Consumers Get More Content in Less Time?
- Apps replacing TV programming channels and the importance of search; evolution of YouTube channels with Google TrueView touted as game changer (page 113).
- An in depth report on China (page 127).
- Public companies trends (page 138).
I will take a closer look at parts of the report in coming days. The whole thing is worth a look and I wanted to share my initial thoughts as an outline of what I'm paying attention to these days.
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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effect on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.