Few technology industry leaders are followed with more interest than the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. They consistently produce quality - both in their investment portfolio returns and in their publications. Firm partner Mary Meeker's "Internet Trends 2014" was highly anticipated, is now being widely circulated, and will certainly influence investment and business leaders. While you can check out the full 164 slide presentation, here are 7 of the key internet trends for 2014: -Visuals clearly make sense. People are primarily visual, and this is being reflected in how the internet is growing. Video and images are increasingly being used to communicate, educate, entertain, and advertise. It is a major driving force behind user behavior, so remember to think visually.
-Mobile device growth is increasing the availability of screens. People spend more time on mobile devices - this allows users to consume more content than when compared to traditional media like print and TV. Tablet sales grew 52% growth last year, faster than PC sales ever did. Smartphones are still growing at 20% with the most gains now being made in developing economies.
-Mobile ad spending will increase. While print media currently still holds on to a large share of ad dollars, a shift will likely come as mobile advertising starts getting paid for what it delivers: users that will view content. That these ads can be targeted and the results can be measured are further arguments for mobile ads over print and TV.
-Sensors are rising rapidly. Along with the rise of mobile devices mentioned above, the sensors such devices contain are becoming widespread. Gyroscopes, accelerometers, and proximity sensors are in almost all such devices. The latest phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, have more types of sensors than ever before.
-Quality user interface designs, along with data-generating consumers, are helping make data more useful. This is helping new companies to challenge traditionally non-cloud business models. Uber, Spotify, Yelp, and AirBnb are some industry-challenging examples.
-Fans trump audiences. According to Alex Carloss of YouTube, "An audience tunes in when they're told to, a fanbase chooses when and what to watch... an audience changes the channel when their show is over... a fanbase shares, comments, curates, creates..."
-Cloud costs are falling year over year. The costs of computing, data storage, and transmission are all decreasing significantly. Reflecting this, the quantity of items processed, stored, and transferred via the cloud is expanding rapidly, with Amazon Web Services leading the charge.
What do you think about these 7 trends? Mary Meeker's presentation is loaded with trends, data, charts, and analysis. This set of seven key internet trends were chosen from your author's immediate perspective, though it is doubtless that the KPCB Internet Trends 2014 report contains other important trends - e.g. China's web growth, digital currency growth (Bitcoin)
Share your insights as we dive deeper together and update the key trends on this post.
