3 Important Takeaways From Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report for Publishers

Last week, Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins and a well-known industry analyst gave her annual Internet Trends Report. This year, Meeker reports on slowing smart phone sales; the growing mobile ad industry and ad blocking; the video-usage on social media; the future of transportation; and the rise of messaging, bots, and voice-based assistants.

Here are the top 3 slides of the 2016 Report that every publisher should see and take note:

1. Ad Spending on Print will shift to Mobile in the coming years

Every year, Mary Meeker shows how American attention is divided among various forms of media and how that division lines up with where advertising dollars go. How much of our attention goes to print, say, versus how much of our advertising goes there?
Interesting to see is that while the dollars invested in ads for radio, TV and Web is rather equal to people’s attention for the channel, print and mobile media have huge discrepancies between the two metrics.
One thing is sure: neither print advertising, nor attention is going to grow anymore. It will fall even further. All publishers should consider this basic fact when planning the coming few years. Attention should be redirected towards mobile, in terms of advertising spending.

2. Adblocking will force advertisers to rethink internet advertising, and publishers to shift to new monetization models

One of the other stats that stand out is that 91% of Internet users have considered using ad blockers. For all publishers who rely on users seeing these ads this could be huge. They should strongly consider ways of monetizing their premium content.

“If there has ever been a call to arms to create better ads, this is it.”
Mary Meekers, Internet Trends Report 2016

3. Messaging apps are rapidly moving from simple text tools to platforms for commerce

And last but least, it is worthwhile that even low-level text-based messaging platforms become key components in the new consumer-driven marketplace. Facebook and WeChat dominate messaging platforms, trend that it’s growing rapidly and evolving from simple text communication to become our new home screen with options for vivid self-expression and commerce.
All publishers should give text message push notifications or other ways to reach millennials, in particular, a second thought.