10 More Internet Trends That Affect You, Me, and the Guy Next Door

Once again, Mary Meeker, a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has updated her annual Internet Trends Report, which so many experts in technology and marketing examine to see what’s coming down the pipeline.

Last year, mobile and Big Data were all the rage, though advertisers were still a little unsure of how to leverage them. This year, we see the dust settle around mobile marketing, with some other noteworthy points to consider:

1. Mobile Adoption May Be Slowing, But We’re Spending More Time on It

This year, we didn’t see the surge that we saw before in terms of mobile phone adoption (kind of difficult to saturate beyond the current 73 percent of people globally who have mobile phones), but we did see an increase in how much time we’re spending daily on our phones. In 2012 -- just three short years ago -- the average phone owner spent 1.6 hours on his device; now he’s spending 2.8 hours daily.

2. Internet Advertising Is Getting -- Dare I Say -- Enjoyable??

Pay-per-click ads are no longer the internet’s darling. We’re seeing more appealing visual options in advertising, like Facebook Carousel Ads and Google Local Inventory Ads which let you know if your local store has what you want in stock.

3. Short-Form Video Is Taking Over

While it’s still pretty new as a marketing or advertising tool, the short-form video is getting some attention. Just look at Periscope, Vine, and the 5-second ads in Vessel.

4. Buy Buttons May Be a Game Changer

In the old days (er, last year), if you saw an ad on Facebook for a product, you could click the link to learn more about the product and actually buy it. But now Facebook (and Twitter too) has cut out the middleman, and now people can click a buy button from within Facebook.

Not to be outdone, Pinterest and Google (albeit, Google’s a little late to the party) are also offering buy buttons.

5. Using Enterprise Software Is Actually Fun

Enterprise software is beginning to not only solve pain points, but also change the process it helps with. Think about how you used to have to invest in clunky merchant processing machinery to accept credit cards. Now a simple dongle attached to your phone lets you process payments through Square. You used to have to sign and scan a physical piece of paper, but now DocuSign lets you do so digitally.

6. We’re Going Beyond the Default Text and Talk Mobile Apps

Skype was a big deal a few years ago because it let you talk (even video chat) for free or cheap, so you spent less on your cell phone bill. Now other apps -- that are turning out to be hugely profitable -- are offering alternatives to both voice and text features of a phone.

Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and a handful of other mobile apps are circumventing traditional, built-in communication tools for something hipper (and cheaper).

7. Men Are Getting on Pinterest

At least, that’s what Meeker’s research shows. Pins of car and motorcycle images have increased 118 percent in the past year; men’s fashion pins are up 96 percent. See? Pinterest isn’t just for cupcakes and crafts!

8. User-Generated Reviews Are Front and Center

User generated reviews -- think Airbnb and Yelp -- are up 140 percent over last year. This is a testament to the fact that consumers care more about what their peers say about a brand than what the brand itself says. Food for thought, advertisers.

9. Selfies Are Huge

But you don’t need data to tell you this: Stand in Times Square for five minutes, and you’ll count dozens of people smiling coyly into their cameras. In fact, 44 percent of smartphone owners use their phone camera daily, and 76 percent take photos for social media.

10. We Want It, and We Want it Now!

Our desire for instant gratification has only grown in the past year. Increase in on-demand mobile apps is pretty significant:

• 84 percent get turn-by-turn directions.
• 84 percent follow breaking news.
• 79 percent learn about community events and news.

And then there are service providers that cater to this on-demand mentality, like Lyft, Uber, OpenTable, and Airbnb.

These trends help marketers build out strategies to better capture where attention is in the online and mobile space. How will you leverage this information?