State of the Internet – Looking Forward

Ever since arriving at Webtrends, I’ve told any of my colleagues that will listen “it’s all about mobile baby”.  So much so, that our CEO Alex Yoder and our SVP of Engineering Bruce Kenny just tend to shake their heads and smile each time they hear these words roll off my lips.   At first, I think they believed that I was a captive of all my own propaganda and who couldn’t blame them for that belief.   After all, we have all heard for the past decade that each year is supposedly “The Year of Mobile” — only to discover that it was just around the corner.   Likewise, I am somewhat famous for pontificating on a subject that I have a great deal of passion for.   In either case, who could blame them for shaking their heads and just smiling at me?

Quite fortunately, recent events have proven that I was hardly a victim of my own propaganda.  The first proof point was the sudden explosion that occurred with our mobile analytics sales.    Of late, it seems like most every major brand that we’re working with has switched onto the importance of mobile measurement and is turning to Webtrends for help in solving this challenge.  Our mobile analytics sales are up  in a major way and at virtually every conference that I have spoken at recently, mobile measurement is the topic du jour.   Likewise, were now seeing brands that had been trialing “freemium mobile analytics” solutions like Flurry and Google get serious about what they are doing in measurement and look for enterprise grade solutions like Webtrends that span mobile channels (apps, mWeb, tablets, QR, etc.) and don’t compromise data privacy.    These are quite surely signs that mobile measurement is outgrowing it’s infancy and beginning to mature.

The other compelling evidence was a terrific presentation that famed Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget just published entitled State of the Internet 2012.     If you haven’t yet seen this presentation, you can find it here (http://www.businessinsider.com/state-of-internet-slides-2012-10) .  It’s packed full of great data and is pretty simple to make your way through.    But, there were a few slides that really caught my attention..  The first is this one that shows how profound mobile’s influence will be by 2015.

In essence, over 2/3 of all global broadband internet connections by 2015 will be via mobile.   As impressive as this is, we’re still in the early stages of this trend.   This second chart shows what’s happening with regard to smartphone adoption and just how early we are into this trend.

While we have reached 50% penetration here in the USA, countries like China, France, Germany, etc. are still in the early stages of this trend.    However, look at the profound way that mobile is impacting how consumers connect with the web.   Last year, a study showed that 5% of all global internet traffic stemmed from mobile devices.  Fast forward to 2012 and it’s now 12% of all global web traffic.

This presentation is chalk full of all kinds of other great data on how consumers are using their mobile devices (to engage socially, to consume content,, to search for things locally, to buy things, etc. etc.) and it’s a must read for any serious mobile practitioner.   Regardless, the point here is simple and unmistakable … as I’m fond of reminding our CEO Alex Yoder — it’s all about mobile baby!!!

Which brings us right back to why we are witnessing so many large brands get serious about mobile measurement.  If you think about it,, these brands are seeing more and more of their traffic originate from mobile devices and this trend is hardly going to abate.  In response, brands have deployed smartphone apps, they have created mobile specific websites, they have deployed SMS or QR ode campaigns and have invested in all kinds of mobile advertising programs to drive even more traffic to these sites.

Mindful of all of this, it’s become literally TABLE STAKES to do mobile measurement correctly.   And by “correctly”, I am not referring to using “freemium mobile analytics solutions” that either focus on measuring one small aspect of a mobile program (apps, QR codes, SMS, etc.) or worse, rely on analytics from agencies, partners or vendors.    Instead, they are understanding that this explosion mandates a rapid move towards enterprise grade mobile analytics solutions that can be harnessed to provide insights and help marketers make better, more informed decisions on where resources should best be deployed.

If you’re still struggling to get your arms around mobile, our team can definitely help.   Start by paying a visit to our website  and familiarize yourself with our mobile measurement maturity curve.   Likewise, ask yourself some key questions about how you are currently measuring and if the answers to any of these are YES … know that you should be looking for new ways to measure more effectively:

Mobile Measurement Acid Test

(answering YES to any of these indicates you should look  further into what you are doing with mobile analytics)

1. Is your mobile data housed in tactical silos (apps, mobile web, SMS, QR, LBS, etc.)
2. Is your mobile data private and not aggregated by your provider to sell advertising or market research?
3. Does your mobile analytics solution prevent you from seeing what’s happening across key mobile channels (apps, mobile web, QR, etc.) or in comparison to other digital channels (web, social, etc.)?
4. Does your mobile analytics partner struggle to track hybrid applications (mobile websites wrapped with native code to resemble app) without duplicating session visits?
5. Are you prevented from giving your developers tools to track virtually anything they may be creating for you (iOS app, Andorid app, BB app, Win7 or Win8 app, mWeb site, mobile ad units, etc.)?

If you find yourself answering YES then know that a brief discussion with one of our sales executives might help you quickly get your arms around the COSTS associated with the manner that you are measuring mobile today.   Quite certainly, the charts above should eliminate any doubts that you have about how essential it is to get mobile measurement right today .    If you want more proof however, I strongly urge you to take the time to make your way through that presentation.   If nothing else, it should explain why we at Webtrends have placed so much importance on having the best mobile and social analytics solutions on the market and why we are obsessed with the notion of DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE.