Article from the February / March 2013 issue of SA Guide to Business Magazine.

SPECIAL REPORT:

Mary Meeker, a former investment banker turned venture capitalist who works for Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the most influential Silicon Valley venture capitalist firms, published her annual Internet Report recently.

Meeker gained fame as an early Wall Street Backer of the internet and championed the stocks of successful companies like Google, eBay, Amazon and Microsoft early on.

In her 2012 Internet Report Meeker indentified several interesting internet trends. Perhaps most noteworthy is the manner in which mobile devices are taking over the market. We review the five most remarkable mobile trends identified in the report.

1. Mobile internet traffic is growing exponentially

At the close of 2009, mobile traffic represented 1% of all internet traffic. A year later and it was up to 4% and as of November 2012 mobile traffic has grown to 13% of all internet traffic. This trend doesn’t look like it will abate anytime soon either as continued announcements of surging smart phone and tablet sales is made.

What does it mean for your business? You should make sure you are able to accommodate mobile browsers. Having a mobile site is great, but perhaps of greatest value in the online industry right now is to have a responsive website – one which dynamically adapts to the browser and screen size upon which it’s viewed on.

2. There is immense room for growth in mobile advertising

Advertisers – particularly small and medium enterprises – are always in search of marketing options with the highest return on investment. Since the amount of time spent on mobile phones is not matched by the level of spending on advertising on the platform, it seems mobile is great opportunity for advertising.

What does it mean for your business? You should investigate advertising channels on mobile devices. You could have access to millions way ahead of every other company and potentially save costs as it does not yet appear to be a very popular – and thus expensive – form of advertising.

3. By the second quarter of 2013, more tablets and smart phones will be in use than personal computers.

In 2012 the number of smart phone users increased to 1.1 billion – a growth of 42%. Despite this, still only 17% of cell phone users worldwide are smart phone users, indicating more significant growth to come.

Similarly use of the iPad has increased by incredible numbers; the rate of uptake of the iPad has outstripped that of both the iPod and iPhone. Three years ago, less than 2% of American adults owned a tablet or an e-reader. Now 29% own some sort of tablet or e-reader and young people and children are very interested in owning a tablet or e-reader.

Clearly the popularity of mobile products will remain on the increase while the use of personal computer’s decline.

What does it mean for your business? A mobile strategy which covers your customers’ bases is vital. As mobile devices become the norm, it’s important to make sure customers can easily get in touch with support, register for newsletters and view text, image and video content with ease. Consider the use of mobile technologies to support your business, like instant notifications and location tagging and awareness.

4. E-Commerce via mobile devices is continuing to increase

The amount of shopping done via smart phone and tablet is increasing as better technologies are developed to enhance the shopping experience of mobile device users. A record 24% of all online sales done of 2012 Black Friday – sales day in the US – was done via mobile devices.

What does it mean for your business? Your online store should be optimized for mobile and you should consider adding special features that take advantage of the capabilities of mobile devices. Some companies now make it possible to virtually try on products using the camera on mobile devices.

5. Revenue from mobile apps and advertising continues to increase

Mobile apps are becoming monetized, with income from app monetization and advertising exceeding 19 billion in 2012.

What does it mean for your business?

You should be investigating the mobile business apps available to individuals which could increase the productivity and efficiency of your business across the board.