Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Every year, Mary Meeker, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, releases her internet trends report full of insight about everything from mobile device usage to internet usage breakdowns to internet usage breakdowns..Meeker unveiled the 2015 report at Recode’s Code conference today.

Highlights include:

- Internet users grew by 8 percent in 2015, down from 10 percent in 2013 and 11 percent in 2012

- Mobile subscriptions grew to 7 billion, with 2.1 billion smartphone subscriptions

-  New internet users are “likely to onboard” for the first time via a messaging app

- 64 percent of people are online in the US using a smartphone, up from just 18 percent in 2009....

Much has been written about Facebook’s acquisition of the rapidly growing WhatsApp for $19 billion. What does this say about the future of social media?

... Even now as its competitors grow and its younger users flee to more private and streamlined sites, Facebook’s long shadow can be seen throughout the social sphere; while it may no longer be on the cutting edge of development, it certainly knows how to recognize companies that are and integrate them into its platform.

So, in context with this WhatsApp purchase, what can Facebook’s acquisition history, both of talent and of products, tell us about the future of social media? To begin an in-depth analysis, we highly recommend giving this acquisition timeline tool a look, as it effectively compares the history of acquisitions across the top tech firms. Below, we’ll analyze Facebook’s various acquisitions, with the caveat that many of these phases overlap even as they trend forward...