The 2017 Mary Meeker Internet Trends that Brands Need to Know

Mary Meeker is ready with her 2017 internet trends report, which she delivered at this year’s Code Conference in California. At 350 pages, there’s a ton of data, but here are the five takeaways that all brands need to know.
1. Brands are finding new ways to collaborate with customers to strengthen their marketing. Increasingly, brands are regramming Instagram content from customers to increase engagement and to reach a wider audience online.

2. User-generated real-time geolocated images are becoming more prevalent. Increased smartphone usage and social apps are leading to more creative location-based storytelling. Through photo metadata, filters, and more consumers are increasingly sharing data about their whereabouts.

3. Brands have a new-found focus on the content that is being displayed across their e-commerce channels. From social media to email campaigns, marketers are creating targeted, curated storefronts of their products in online advertisements.

4. There's a seeming contradiction: Retail store closing may break a 20-year record, yet Amazon and digitally native brands are opening more brick-and-mortar locations. The explanation? In-store retail experiences are changing to better reflect the wants and needs of today's consumers.

5. The Internet as a retail distribution continues to become more powerful. E-commerce growth is accelerating and is expected to continue to grow. Increasingly, we are seeing subscriptions stores such as Sling, WSJ, and Legal Zoom take over market share.
