GWI 6 Preview
As we start to process the data for GlobalWebIndex 6, there are a number of areas that we will be exploring. This will be released externally in December, providing, yet again, the most comprehensive view of how internet adoption and its impact is changing the world around us.
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Below are a list of key areas we will be exploring. Of course, we are bound to stumble upon plenty of other revealing trends, such is the benefits of a continuously updated dataset. Stay tuned!
Growing Market Differentiation Update: We have seen a growing localisation and increasing differences between countries as consumer driven social platforms have enabled users to evolve the internet without barriers, infrastructure or investment. Global social platforms have enabled anyone to gain a localised internet experience, community and content. We look further to see if this is continuing.
Packaged Internet Update: Mobile, tablets and apps are the fastest growing aspect of consumer technology, and we expect GWI 6 to reveal these shifts in ever more detail. This underlines the increasing pointlessness of only collecting data on PC, browser based activities and underpins, why we use a survey methodology. We are collecting data on a number questions that are particularly interesting to us. Firstly, will consumer intention to switch to tablets and smartphones identified in Waves 4 and 5 begin to be seen in purchasing behaviour? We have no doubt that the TV will remain the primary screen in the household, but will content be increasingly delivered via the internet? Finally, is tablet and mobile behaviour starting to differentiate, and what does this mean for app developers and brands alike?
High Tech = Less Social? One area of surprise in our data, is often the dominance in social media adoption by low tech, lower income markets. There are many reasons for this (as explored here), but one key area is the confusion between “in home” or “big ticket price” technology and social media. At its most extreme is Japan, the land of uber high-tech robots, is also a laggard in the adoption of social media. We will explore the link, or lack of link, in the coming GWI 6 trends deck.
Death of Digital: One theme we’re exploring in detail is how the lines between digitised and non-digitised content and experiences are disappearing in terms of the way consumers behave on and offline. The compartmentalism of the Internet as “digital” is increasingly irrelevant. As we move forward, the “Internet of Things” will further drive this term into irrelevance as every objects, events and people become data points, all connected through the Internet.
Google+ Impact: Google announced on October 13th that Google+ had surpassed the 40 million subscriber mark but how many of these users actually actively engaged? We test the reality of the market and look at whether it’s impacting behaviour or usage of rival services.
Facebook Fatigue Update: While we’ve seen ongoing falls in user participation, when we published this before, we saw some rebuttals (even from Facebook), that it was a seasonal trend. However, we believe this is a longer term one that is consistent with the changing way that consumers utilise social media. New non-summer data from GWI 6 should verify the trend.
Mobile OS War: The latest update from the iOS5, Android and Windows Phone mobile wars. What consumer segments choose what? Which countries prefer Android? And, of course, the all important: Why?