China and India account for most internet users: 2019 internet trends report

The much anticipated annual internet statistics and trends report from Mary Meeker is here.

The noted venture capitalist published her 333-slide Internet Trends report Tuesday ahead of a presentation at Recode’s Code Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Meeker, the Bond Capital founder and former Kleiner Perkins general partner, has tracked internet statistics and technology trends since 1995 when she was an analyst at Morgan Stanley.

Here are some of the highlights from this year’s report:

• More than half the world’s population — 3.8 billion — is online. China and India lead the pack, followed by the US, Indonesia, and Brazil.
• As of last week, seven out of 10 of the world’s most valuable companies by market cap are tech companies — Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook. Also, seven out of the top 30 valuable companies are from China.
• Media consumption on mobile devices (33 percent) almost equal that of time spent on TV (34 percent).
• India’s privately owned mobile carrier Reliance Jio has 307 million customers, with annual data usage of Jio Network almost hitting 17 EB (exabytes) in 2018. For reference, the global monthly internet traffic surpassed 21 EB in 2010, and now stands at a staggering 122 EB.
• Amazon Echo has an install base of 47 million worldwide since its launch four years ago. Wearable technology is booming, and users have doubled in the past four years to 52 million.
• The number of gamers worldwide grew 6 percent to 2.4 billion people last year, as titles like Fortnite have become the new social networks of choice for avid players.
• 63 percent of US adults are trying to limit personal smartphone use, up from 47 percent in 2017.
• In Q1, 87 percent of global web traffic was encrypted, up from 53 percent three years ago.
• Facebook (43 percent), YouTube (21 percent), and Twitter (12 percent) continue to be the biggest sources for news.
• 42 percent of US teens have experienced offensive name-calling online, and 16 percent of them have faced physical threats.
• 55 percent of internet users live in a country where political, social, or religious content is censored or blocked.
• Only 53 percent of websites support two-factor authentication, limiting its effectiveness.
• Annually, 4.5 billion hours are spent watching educational “how-to” videos on YouTube, making it preferred learning tool among Gen Z users.

You can view the full internet trends report archive here.