The world is always changing, and when you work in business, it’s important that you change with it. Here are some key takeaways from 2019.
Seven out of 10 of the world’s most valuable companies by market cap are tech companies, with only Berkshire Hathaway, Visa, and Johnson & Johnson making the Top 10 as non-tech companies:
- Microsoft
- Amazon
- Apple
- Alphabet
- Berkshire Hathaway
- Alibaba
- Tencent
- Visa
- Johnson & Johnson
Of the top 25 most valuable tech companies, 60 percent were founded by first- or second-generation immigrants. They employed 1.9 million people last year.
For the very first time, people in the US are spending more time on their phones than they are watching television. A study in 2019 suggested that Americans spend over 3.5 hours on their phones, whereas they only spend around 3.3 hours watching television.
Multiplayer games are becoming more and more similar to social media networks. Gaming is also paving the way to social facets too. Mobile devices are now powerful enough to the point where they can render geography. Data speeds are now fast enough so that this can be done anywhere and it is now more convenient than ever to dive off the deep end in terms of digital gameplay. The number of interactive gamers worldwide grew 6 percent to 2.4 billion people last year, as interactive games like Fortnite become the new social media for certain people. The number of people who watch those games rather than participate is increasing rapidly.
More and more people are also using images to communicate what they have to say. Over 50% of all tweets now include images. People are also taking more pictures to try and support this brand-new style of communication in the digital world. Text really is not ideal when you look at the overall form of communication it has to offer. Ideas are now being translated into symbols and emotions.
The global population are now being identified as being internet users. 51% of people in the world are now connected and this has gone up a huge amount when compared.
New Platforms are now emerging as hubs for internet advertisements and they have experienced a startling growth ever since. Facebook and even Google are now reigning supreme and they are also experiencing a high and steady growth. As customers spend more time on digital media, eCommerce sales are also increasing, and this means that advertisers already have the captive audience they need.
Internet ad spending accelerated in the US, up 22 percent in 2018. Most of the spending is still on Google and Facebook, but companies like Amazon and Twitter are getting a growing share. Some 62 percent of all digital display ad buying is for programmatic ads, which will continue to see growth.
Customer acquisition costs — the marketing spending necessary to attract each new customer, is going up not down this is unsustainable because in some cases it surpasses the long-term revenue those customers will bring.
Free trials appear to be a very valuable, marketing tool, even now. Online streaming services are being used to try and attract new users and this appears to be the most compelling option to say the least. Over the next 10 years, people are going to try and see an increase in advertising and the money that it costs. It will however be much more focused on linear TV budgets and even TV advertising too. Advertisers are also going to try and fuel advertising growth as much as they can. They are going to try and boost their spend and they are also going to try and get a much higher level of ROI.
Adults are reporting that they are constantly online. 26% of Americans have admitted that they are rarely ever disconnected on the internet. Jordan Fox is the founder of MMP digital and he believes that marketers are going to be paying based on overall engagement soon, and not clicks. This comes up a lot when you look at influencer marketing. There are a ton of social media followers out there who have a very large following and they also have a ton of social media channels too. They don’t however have the buying power they need over the audience that they have right now.
88% of people say that they always use a second device when they are watching television and 71% say that they always look up content that relates to whatever they are watching in the middle of the show.
Messaging platforms are now offering end to end encryption, or automatic encryption. This is rising in popularity more and more by the year, with the growth of services such as WeChat increasing.
Even though more and more people are spending time online, digital advertisement revenue is actually slowing down. The report has stated that revenue has grown by over 20% in the last few years and this is when you compare it to 29% over the previous year. There is now more to spend on the platform, and business leveraging has been paid. In order to reach the target market, more demand is needed.
Security and regulation, and even GDPR are now playing a role in the slow down in general. People are now more privacy conscious and they are also becoming increasingly aware. Of course, this is going to reshape the landscape in general.