Code Conference : Mary Meeker, 1^st June 2016

The publication of this report was flagged up to me by the less famous Zuckerberg sibling, Arielle. This report from venture capital firm KPCB (@KPCB) is essential reading for anyone involved in the internet ecosystem. We all carry a certain number of assumptions about the world around us, but this report presents the hard facts. There’s a huge amount of information in there, and some deep dive data. Some stand out areas that it tackles include:

• The slowdown of internet and smartphone use growth. The barriers to moving into low penetration territories such as infrastructure, income and user capability.
• Global economic trends – the growth drivers that are waning.
• Online advertising growth accelerating, in the face of challenges like ad blocking software. How Spotify and Furious 7 made video ads work.
• Consumer mind-set profiles – who are the millennials, what they expect and how they act.
• The evolving consumer landscape bricks, brands and digital.
• How Stitch Fix are using data collection, personalisation and feedback to create a new way of shopping.
• The increasing power of video and how delivery methods affect reach and buzz. How advertisers are using brand filters to great effect.
  

  My @Snapchat filter is available in theaters all week. I expect a lot of @Terminator snaps. #TerminatorGenisys pic.twitter.com/6mwfmyTPip

   

  — Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) June 27, 2015

• Increasing integration of live streams and social experience. (Head smack – I’ve been amazed this hasn’t happened sooner.)
• How images can unlock new content, community and commerce experiences – for example Houzz.
• Messaging – strong user and use growth. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat lead the way.
• Methods of self-expression becoming more sophisticated as we’ve moved from J to Snapchat lenses.
• Messaging for business customer service and commerce is increasing. “The magic of the thread” – how a conversation with a business means an easy to access log of previous communication, context, specifics, preferences.
• Sales lifecycle can begin on messaging, end on-line.
• Messaging apps increasingly becoming the second home screen.
  
• The rise of the voice interface – driven by better computing power, better accuracy, better services to interface with. Google voice searches up x35 since 2008. (Need to solve the problem of background noise.)
• Computers and the automobile industry. Ride and car sharing, self-driving cars.
• China – Huge opportunities, high barriers to entry for the Western SME.
• Internet company financing – some overvaluation but some under valuation. Few winners, but those who win, win big.
• Data as a platform / opportunity – for example Looker.com, Mapbox, Datadog
• Data security as a platform – Ionic.
• Concerns over data security and cyber crime.

Enjoy!