20 of the most important Mary Meeker slides for mobile marketers

A circle-the-date event in the technology world is analyst, venture capitalist, and technologist Mary Meeker’s annual state-of-tech Internet Trends Report. Some call it the most anticipated slide deck in Silicon Valley.

Meeker’s latest uber-deck on the state of all things digital weighs in at a staggering 333 slides.

You heard that right. 333 slides.

(And you though Bob-in-Finance’s deck was long.)

Like true partners in your success, we here at Singular have taken the hit and read each and every slide in that endless deck — including the fine print and sources at the bottom of the pages — so you don’t have to.

You’re welcome. (Just don’t test us. Please.)

We searched high and low for the slides that are the most relevant, most important, and most actionable for mobile marketers, and gathered them here for your TLDR; enjoyment and edification.

Proceed …

1: Half of the world is now online

Last year, the world finally passed 50% online participation. Growth slowed to 6% annually, but hit 51% in 2018. The best part for mobile marketers: most of that is via mobile.

 2: 53% of potential users and customers are in Asia Pacific

So you want new customers? Slowing growth in the Americas and Europe have you worried? You’d better start thinking of an Asia Pacific story. China might be a hard nut to crack, but it’s massive. Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and other nations of the Asia are also huge opportunities.

3: There’s a LOT of digital commerce money to be made yet

Sure, e-commerce and m-commerce growth is slowing. That’s what happens in maturing markets. But e-commerce as a percentage of U.S. retail sales is still tiny … it’s only 15% of all retail. That means there’s 85% of retail sales out there waiting to be captured.

4: The Facebook/Google duopoly is big, but the 4 horsemen are growing faster

Yes, Google and Facebook do take massive chunks of the digital advertising pie. And they’re still growing. But emerging platforms like Amazon, Twitter, Snap, and Pinterest are growing faster (and we might add Apple to that list, for mobile app install campaigns).

5: Freemium works, and not just for games

Spotify and Zoom are two examples Mary Meeker highlights as companies offering free services (music and conferencing) that are effectively converting free users into paid customers.

6: Personalized recommendations drive growth

Singular customer Stitch Fix has shown rocket-ship growth by carefully and empathically listening to their customers and recommending options that are best for them … not necessarily for Stitch Fix’s quarterly revenue growth.

7: Privacy regulations are impacting ads, experiences … and revenue

Facebook attributes some of its slowing revenue growth to privacy regulations as well as changes on major platforms like iOS. In response, the company is rolling out GDPR controls globally, not just in Europe, and trying to get ahead of legislation and consumer concern.

8: We now spend more than 25% of our total lives with digital media

We spend 6.3 hours a day with digital media. More than half of that, 3.6 hours, is on mobile. That’s increasing time, attention, and engagement … which all add up to monetization capability.

9: Investment remains high: VCs are doubling down

Existing platforms seem to own the internet, but the one constant of technology is change. And the fuel of change, cash, continues to be injected into the tech economy in ever-increasing amounts: almost $200 billion in 2018.

10: YouTube is about to surpass Facebook in one key measure

30% of internet users access Facebook at least once a day. 27% do the same with YouTube. But Facebook’s numbers are trending down, and YouTube’s are trending up. (Note: Facebook-owned Instagram is on the upward swing too.)

11: Good old-fashioned TV is still a monster

Yep: digital TV viewing is up more than 6X since 2010, and is now 28% of all daily video watching minutes. But TV is still 72% … and some mobile marketers are taking huge advantage of that for user acquisition, among other things.

12: If you’re not advertising in Stories, where are you advertising?

Stories are GROWING with a capital G. They’re up about 2X just on Facebook, and we know other platforms have them too (Snapchat shout-out! YouTube!)

13: On-demand customers: 2X growth in 2 years

We want dinner delivered, transportation available, services rendered, and we want them when we want them, not a minute later. That means opportunity in multiple verticals.

14: Direct-to-consumer, or consumer to manufacture, is massive

A Chinese company you’ve never heard of, Pinduoduo, connects 443 million buyers to manufacturers and has grown 2X over the last five quarters. What it means: brands connecting easier, quicker, cheaper with consumers.

15: Globally, mega-apps are very much in vogue

At one time, apps did everything. Then, they performed mobile mitosis and atomized their functionality, splitting into single-function apps. Then, a la Facebook, they combined it all once again: social, commerce, messaging, jobs, games, videos.

In the west we’re still not sure if we like this, but in China and India, the mega apps Jio and WeChat are alive and well.

16: Gaming is social

Gaming is social, and almost no significant game should be released without a social component. Discord is at 250 million users. Twitch has grown viewership 2X in two years. And Fortnite is helping people make friends and get along.

17: Global expansion is getting harder

Thanks to the expansion of splinternets, censorship, control of digital media, and other developments, it’s getting harder than it already was to expand globally.

18: On-demand work is growing

If you’re building an on-demand service, you’re going to need on-demand workers. Good thing: their numbers are increasing. Just be aware, more and more states are classifying them as employees, not contractors. And it’s doubtful the entire workforce can live in a gig economy.

19: Your work force is now … everywhere

The number of remote workers almost doubled since 2000, and the rate of increase has accelerated in the last few years. Why? Slack, Google docs, Zoom, and a whole host of collaboration software.

20: China shows us the future of retail

Is retail digital? Is retail mobile? Is retail bricks-and-mortar? Is retail messaging? Is retail video? Is retail influencer-driven? The answer is yes.

There’s more, of course. Lots more. For the full 333 page slide deck, check out Mary Meeker’s entire presentation.

If you’re interesting in learning how the best marketers in the world take advantage of emerging trends with world-class marketing intelligence, try a Singular demo.