Internet Trends Report 2019 compiled by Mary Meeker, an influential figure in the industry makes the following observations:
- The growth in the number of internet users is tapering with a growth rate of 6% in 2018 as against 7% the previous year.
- 8 billion internet users, more than half the world population is now online.
- The global smartphone sales have declined (by 4%) for the first time in 2018. This also highlights the fact that the existing users are not updating their phones as frequently as companies would want them to.
- The decline in sales also suggests the difficulty in getting the rest of the world population online.
- Immigration has contributed to rising companies in the technology space in the US like Amazon (Jeff Bezos, 2nd generation Cuban immigrant), Apple (Steve Jobs, 2nd gen Syrian), to startups such as WeWork (Adam Neumann, Israel), SpaceX (Elon Musk, SA), Instacart (Apoorva Mehta, India), Rubrik (Bipul Sinha, Arvind Nithrakashyap, Arvind Jain, Soham Mazumdar – India) and many
- Short-form video is the new king of internet consumption and apps such as Douyin (TikTok) and Kuaishou recording phenomenal growth.
- Privacy is a concern for internet users.
The report portrays where the humanity collectively stand in technology, advertising, consumer behavior and society.