An Internet trends guru, Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, gave her annual assessment on May 31 at the Code Conference in California. For trend observers, here are some takeaways of major Internet trends:
- Smartphone use has slowed. In 2015, smartphone shipments grew by 10 percent; last year, the growth declined to 3 percent. This mirrors continued slowing of growth in Internet use.
- Why type when you can talk? Voice is replacing typing in online queries, especially those made with mobile devices. Some 20 percent of mobile queries were made via voice in last year. Accuracy of voice is now about 95 percent.
- Internet is replacing television. In just 10 years, Netflix has grown from zero to more than 30 percent of home entertainment revenue in the U.S. Meanwhile, TV viewership continues to decline.
- Immigrants are powering tech companies. Last year in the U.S. a tally showed 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies were founded by first- or second-generation Americans; collectively they employ about 1.5 million people. Those tech companies include such giants as Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook.
For much more in-depth info from her annual analysis click to see the slideshow from her talk (355 slides).