Growth of Internet users worldwide is essentially flat, and smartphone growth is slowing, too.
Those sobering insights were among the hundreds packed into the much-awaited Internet Trends report, an annual tech industry ritual led by Mary Meeker, a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Wearing an Apple Watch while standing at a podium onstage at Recode’s technology conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Wednesday, Meeker blazed through highlights from her 213-slide presentation in about 20 minutes.
She said the number of global Internet users hovers at about 3 billion, with new ones slow to come online. She attributed the slowdown to stagnating GDP. Global GDP growth in six of the past eight years was below the 20-year average.
Developing countries have proven harder to capture than expected because Internet access remains inaccessible or unaffordable for many, the report said.
Here are some other highlights from the report:
‧ India is the one country where Internet usage is growing, up 40 percent compared with 33 percent a year ago. India passed the US to become the No. 2 global market behind China last year
‧ The Asia-Pacific region represented 52 percent of smartphone users globally last year. The rapid growth in recent years has begun to slow, dropping to 23 percent last year from 35 percent in 2014.
‧ North America, Europe and Japan represented 63 percent of global GDP in 1985. By the end of last year, their contribution dropped to 29 percent.
‧ China and emerging markets in Asia represented 63 percent of global GDP last year.
‧ Online advertising is still not very effective. Advertisers are spending an outsize amount on legacy media.
‧ Global birth rates are down 39 percent since 1960. So where will technology growth come from? Who knows, but at least there is this: Global life expectancy is up 36 percent since 1960.
Despite the doom and gloom in this year’s report, some businesses should be optimistic.
Meeker highlighted opportunities for online shopping companies, live sports viewing, messaging, advertising and artificial intelligence.
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