Mary Meeker’s 2018 Internet Trends Report

• United Kingdom

• Technology, Media and Telecoms

08-06-2018

Speaking at this year’s Code Conference in California, venture capitalist Mary Meeker recently presented the 2018 edition of her celebrated Internet Trends Report (“ITR”).

As mentioned in the ITR itself, its publication arrives at a critical time for the internet, as 3.6 billion people will have internet access this year, representing half the global population.

Unsurprisingly, one of the key trends highlighted in the ITR was the exponential increase of interest in cryptocurrencies, with digital currency exchange Coinbase reporting a quadrupling of its user base. Similarly, the ITR announced a buoyant year for Amazon, whose “Echo”, the current market leader in Smart Speakers, sold 30 million devices in the US alone by the end of 2017 (at a time where more people are starting their product searches on Amazon’s website than via search engines). Significant gains were also recorded by subscription service providers across industries, with The New York Times (newspaper), Spotify (music streaming) and Netflix (visual media streaming) all recording double-digit percentage growth.

As well as ecommerce, Ms Meeker spoke of the ‘privacy paradox’, arising as the result of users’ desire for more personalised, low-cost (or free) online services, whilst simultaneously becoming more protective of the personal data utilised to effect such enhancements. Indeed, the balance appears to be reaching a critical point, as tech companies continue to rise in tandem with scrutiny from both users and regulators.

Ms Meeker is a partner in global investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which has published a copy of the slides from ITR presentation here.