Well, is the Web dead?
Of course, the Web isn’t dead, but it is changing in ways that many of us have (sadly) been ignoring. As more and more brands still struggle with the browser-based Web (and this includes everything from website development to social media and e-commerce), the Web as we’ve known it evolves. It is mobile, it is local, it is app-based and it’s going through changes that suddenly make the Facebook/Instagram deal make a little more sense (the future is in the palm of your hands… and not on a fixed screen). I’m also willing to bet that once we get mobile ubiquity (when we’re able to do on mobile what we’re doing right now with the browser-based Web) that it’s going to make our usage (and this includes buying online and social media) look like a joke in terms of usage and consumption.
Here are two pieces of information that will rock your world…
- Will smartphones account for most visits to e-commerce sites by 2014? Here’s the news from Internet Retailer: "Of 49.6 billion visits to the top 500 e-retailers in 2014, 26.4 billion, or 53.2%, will stem from smartphones, predicts mobile commerce technology vendor Branding Brand in a new study. There will be 41.0 billion visits to the top 500 e-commerce sites this year, 10.1 billion, or 24.6%, coming from smartphones, the study predicts."
- Instagram Will Take Facebook Into the Mobile Age. From The Daily Beast: "Could Facebook already be in danger of becoming obsolete? Back in 2004, when Zuckerberg hacked together the first version of the site in his dorm room, the world looked very different. Computing centered around PCs. The Internet was all about websites. Then came the iPhone and Android, and today the only reason anyone creates a website is to promote a cool new mobile app. There are a billion smartphones in the world. Soon they will outnumber PCs. Within the next decade, virtually all mobile phones will be smartphones: 6 billion people will have a constant connection to the Internet. Remember the ‘$100 laptop‘ that some do-gooders at MIT hoped would change the world? Well, it arrived, as a cool little smartphone with a 4-inch screen."
We are not prepared.
That isn’t a statement from a pundit. That is a statement from someone who is pitching new business each and every, single day. The reason we’re not prepared has noting to do with screen sizes, connectivity or a highly un-tethered consumer. The reason we’re not prepared is because the way people will use, consume, interact and create content is going to change as well. It’s one thing to be sitting on a couch and messing around with YouTube, it’s a totally different experience when you’re watching an online video while you’re standing there, holding on to a subway pole on the ride to work. Now, start thinking about media that’s more active (Facebook, Twitter, etc…), connecting to people who are closer to you or being fed content that is contextual (based off of what you’ve done and who you are with plus where you are). It’s all starting to get that much more exciting.
It’s probably going to happen faster than you expect. It’s probably happening right now.
Mitch Joel Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.