Latest internet trends give businesses reason to worry

The annual trends tornado from "internet whisperer" Mary Meeker hit the ground last week, and it makes for terrifying reading. If you're in business, that is, and have to face the consumer masses every day.

Internet Trends 2015, presented at the Code Conference in California last week, kicked off the fear factor with a summary of time spent per day on digital media in the US, which presages where the rest of the world will follow in the next few years.

The average adult has consistently spent about 2.4 hours a day on desktop or laptop computers from 2008 through to 2015, but the time spent on mobile devices has shot up from less than half an hour in 2010 to more than two hours a day since 2013.

Last year, it reached 2.6 hours, overtaking computer-based media for the first time.

story_article_left1

In South Africa, we will reach this level of mobile access to media soon, and that represents the first scare for business: media houses in this country are notoriously slow to embrace digital alternatives, and are still far behind the mobile curve.

It is only the tabloid-style newspapers, with their sensational headlines and short, concise stories, that are already geared towards instant conversion to mobile reading.

Broadcast media, too, is in trouble. An unexpected consequence of the mobile revolution is the extent to which consumers are creating and viewing content in a vertical format, as a result of the shape of the smartphone.

Meeker showed that, from 2010 to 2015, the average American spent about 4.5 hours a day watching TV in a horizontal format. A further 2.7 hours was spent watching horizontal content on computers and other devices. Back in 2010, vertical viewing took up, on average, 0.4hours a day. By 2014 it had increased to 2.6hours, expected to rise to 2.8hours this year.

It means that, from almost nowhere five years ago, vertical content will consume 21% of viewers' time. Yet, no broadcaster is considering vertical content. It can be argued that it is easy to watch horizontal content on a phone, but that's not how phone-generated content is being filmed.

Mobile network operators are the next threatened category. While they insist SMS is alive and well, and push instant messenger providers to share their revenues, they're having their lunch eaten from under their noses.

story_article_right2

Meeker pointed out that six of the top 10 most used apps globally are messaging apps, all reflecting a high average number of user sessions daily. It excludes pre-installed apps, so reflects user preference. That spells not only the end of consumer-generated SMS, but also great peril to voice revenues.

She singles out WeChat, with 549million users, as pointing the way in evolving into a central communications hub.

Ironically, that's something the mobile operators have never been able to provide, even while positioning themselves as if they do. However, the combined demands of e-commerce, location-based services, identity management and individual engagement mean this is a bird that has long flown the coop.

Other industries can't relax, either. One simple trend - the massive growth in customer-generated reviews and feedback - means that reputation management will be the next strategy frontier. Even the big disruptors of the digital age, such as Uber, Airbnb and Facebook, are probably unprepared for the extent of this tornado.

Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter @art2gee