One thing is certain: the Internet will never be the same again. If they predictions about the next ones developments in the web sector seem obvious and inevitable, it is also true that they will lead to marked changes in our experience of using the Internet. Here in Europe (with significant peaks in our country) too many have recited the 'de profundis' for Facebook by identifying the product of Zuckerberg with all social networks: nothing could be more wrong. Social networks will still dominate, perhaps in a decade Facebook will be supplanted by other more valid platforms but there is none on my horizon this one again eventuality.
Anyway, here are my 4 observations:
1 – Technology will move.
Twitter is in fact the first social network designed to be carried easily on mobile (the first startup even envisaged SMS as a means of dialogue between users). Facebook was not born with this vocation, and suffers precisely in the smartphone component. To date, 10% of global traffic generated by the Internet passes through mobile devices: don't be fooled by the figures, this is an average. In India the figure is close to 60%, in Egypt 70%. AND how many of us fix the smartphone next to the bed before sleeping? :) We know how it will end. People's mobility needs and the spread of increasingly high-performance smartphones (and at a lower average cost) will cause take-away internet to skyrocket.
2 – Social media is the new starting line.
More than 50% of smartphones connected to Facebook. Social lines (Fb), Interest and theme lines (Twitter, Pinterest) and Influence lines (Klout) are the new frontiers of the web. What is the future of research, the action that people today identify as the one that starts their experience on the Internet? You turn on your PC, start your browser, search for something. Finished. For many today we start directly from the Social Network: Google and Microsoft are moving quickly to make up for this social lack of their products (Google+ is still at a standstill, is expected a Microsoft branded social network and I expect it). Finally, Facebook Search: some balance will begin to shift.
3 – Another internet.
The Universe of the 'traditional' Internet is no longer expanding: will it collapse on itself? Facebook has inaugurated the trend of its own "adjacent web that is not searchable by Google". Apple and other giants have followed suit. From an internet as an open frontier we are moving towards an internet of "neighborhoods". And after recent political developments (Internet blockade in China, Internet blockade in Iran), will we have one Internet per continent in the future, with 'digital borders' to cross?
4 – Videos. Videos everywhere.
Many successful companies were born and thrive through the Internet, they have not yet entered the media production perspective. The future of TV is truly exciting, a huge part of the innovations will come from that world: I'm not entirely convinced by 'smart TVs' made of closed apps: I believe in a TV that renews and supports its contents in real time with the contribution of those who create it as well as those who observe it: 85% of tablet users fiddle with their device while watching TV. Put one and one: what does it do? What will he do to us? What can he do about it? Global companies are working to answer these questions.
