Internet Trends in 2016
What do you need to know about what’s going on in the World Wide Web recently? Here are some of the biggest and most important Internet trends from 2016 that you should keep in your back pocket:
- The rate of Internet adoption across the globe is stagnant at 9%. Currently, about 3 billion people or about 42% of the total population have access to the Internet
- The adoption of smartphones is actually slowing down
- Android is increasing their share of the smartphone market, even though overall sales have shrunk
- The world of instant messaging is led by WeChat and Facebook, is continuing to grow, and is continuing to evolve, with new communication options, beyond just text, being integrated all the time, including some that make it easy to express yourself visually and to use instant messaging for ecommerce purposes
- Facebook and Google control a combined 76% of the US advertising market, but studies show that most advertisers are spending most of their time and money on old media, while new media is capturing audiences and leaving the advertisers in the dust
- About 20% of all searches on Android are now voice searches
- Voice interfaces are going to continue to become more and more important, as just about every smartphone operating system has developed one and some companies are developing devices specifically for voice interaction, like the Amazon Echo
- Amazon Echo is seeing higher sales, iPhone is losing their footing in the market
- China actually seems to have a stronger Internet presence than the US
- Many companies that are not related to the tech industry at all have started to buy up tech companies to ensure that they can keep up with an economy that is based more and more on the Internet
Internet trends seem to be leaning toward the adaptation of the user. User feedback is what drives the trends that we see happening and its what will continue to shape the industry going forward. Make sure you’re focusing on the user experience when trying to keep up with the latest trends!
