Mary Meeker….Pssst…The Internet Is Growing…Pass it on…And What is Really Happening on The Internet

MarY Meeker is out with her awesome powerpoint on the future of the Internet.

It’s a must read as always and has some fun charts and metrics.

Some things are starting to bother me at this point though. The ususal ‘photo sharing is doubling’ is a lovely graphic but who cares. It’s a cost on the networks and a tax on us. That’s just the truth of it.

Mary is not taking many risks with the data. What would SHE like to see? What is missing from all the fun ‘upward to the right’ data points? What does she think about ad tech…that disgusting, thick with waste and boring industry. Where is her guts. Here is my take on what she presented so far:

1. Twitter is winning the social media war, too bad they want to be a media company:

2. I am getting more insight on the future of the enterprise the last few years from Aaron Levie, founder of Box.net, than any bank or analyst. Just a sample from yesterday:

3. Global stock markets, bond markets, currencies, payments, trust, government risks, Bloomberg, Reuters, Goldman Sachs, AngelList….barley a mention.

I see Priceline at all-time highs and Google near all time highs and I see MercadoLibre near highs. Utility that monetizes beyond ads is cool. Advertising is not. Facebook is not cool enough anymore or hungry enough to get the WAZE deal closed. Are they insane. Hopefully Twitter snatches that one up. Even Microsoft.

$FB has Instagram which I love, but my kids use Vine because they know I am not on it yet. Vine is cool. Snapchat is cool. BUT, combined they are not as cool as LinkedIn and Angel List and Bitcoin.

AT&T and Verizon ($VZ) keep raising taxes and hate their customers. If they did not, they would buy the unmonetizable messaging apps and tax us for products that our kids at least use, love and need.

I am bullish. I am an optimist. I am so grateful for the internet and the tools and the smart people I get to read and follow in real-time. BUT, i am seeing way too much lazy Koolaid drunk by a new breed of bloggers and analysts.

There is much more important stuff happening on the internet under the surface than Meeker and her suited cronies are dripping on us.

Dig a little.

5 comments

  1. Pingback: Morning News: May 30, 2013 Crossing Wall Street
  3. William Mougayar says:

    True, it’s a retrospective look in the rear view mirror. Almost everything in that deck is a “trend” with a graphed history.

    But the reality is that innovation happens when it disturbs the trends.

    If she had predicted wearables, flyables and scanables 5 years ago, then that’s useful, but calling them out now that it’s obvious is not such a revelation.

    That said, I use the deck to make my own conclusions based on the data presented.

    If the trends are your friends
    What you derive
    Will make you thrive

  4. Gordon Bowman says:

    “Vine is cool. Snapchat is cool. BUT, combined they are not as cool as LinkedIn and Angel List and Bitcoin.”

    Agreed. Surprised there is no mention of Bitcoin or digital currencies in here.

  5. M. Edward (Ed) Borasky says:

    Mary Meeker’s one great skill is persuasive storytelling with graphs. As an *analyst*, I find her sadly lacking. I would not hire her for anything requiring technical competence.

Comments are closed.