Firms & Funds

Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report dissects mobile, cloud, gaming

-
Businessman using modern laptop with graph.Business startup.Analyze strategy conceptsBusinessman using modern laptop with graph.Business startup.Analyze strategy conceptsStrategy text with business icon on modern laptop screen with graph chart background.marketing success and goals concept ideas. Photo courtesy of HAKINMHAN/iStock/Getty Images

Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report is a no-nonsense look at the forces shaping the digital economy, and this year’s 355-slide dissertation is no different.

It examines online advertising, interactive gaming, streaming media, the digitalization of healthcare, enterprise cloud computing and mobile usage in China. And it allows Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, to make this observation: compute power and human potential will drive the 21st Century similar to the way manufacturing and industry drove the 19th and 20th centuries.

Here are a handful of key takeaways from this year’s report, which was released today:

  • Internet ad spending is within six months of passing television ad spending, with mobile ads playing a key role. The ads, Meeker said, are becoming targeted storefronts with an increased focus on their measurability.
  • Online gaming is evolving rapidly with e-sports competitions becoming big spectator events, and consumer engagement and collaborative play perhaps foretelling for a new era of computer-human interaction.
  • Cloud computing is accelerating change across the enterprise with adoption reaching new heights and customer expectations mirroring those of consumer apps. New cloud companies are providing more intuitive experiences, Meeker reports.
  • In China, mobile use continues on the rise with companies such as Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu capturing large audiences and entertainment entering a transformation from consumers increasingly willing to pay. The Chinese interactive gaming market now surpasses the U.S. market.
  • The Chinese on-demand transportation market also is the largest in the world, Meeker says.
  • Finally, healthcare is at a digital inflection point, with medical research and knowledge doubling every 3.5 years, and the accumulating data possibly accelerating research insight. As a result, the pace of change in healthcare delivery could increase.

Action Item: To see this year’s Internet Trends slide deck, visit http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

Photo of laptop with graph courtesy of HAKINMHAN/iStock/Getty Images