The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
The web is dead!
I guess all those business owners who’ve told me all these years that their customer doesn’t use the web were right. I really hate being wrong. It rarely happens.
Yet here we are. What are we going to do?
I discovered this disturbing news as I’ve been reading about the Facebook purchase of Instagram. You know, the $1 billion purchase they made of a company with only 12 employees and no revenue? Yeah, that one.
I’m scared to death there is going to be another bubble burst. I’m scared to death we didn’t learn our lesson just 12 years ago in the dot com era. So I’m reading everything I can to try to figure out what the heck is going on.
And, as it turns out, it’s not a bubble stretch. The web is just dead.
The web has been dead for nearly two years, when Wired called it so in August of 2010. I didn’t get the memo because I’ve been using it for the past two years. I guess this is one of the few times I haven’t stayed ahead of the trends.
In all seriousness, people are spending more time in mobile apps than they do online, according to the International Telecommunication Union. And, another thing that is interesting is this (according to Flurry):
Since 2007, more than 500 million iOS and Android smartphones and tablets have been activated. By the end of 2012, we estimate the cumulative number of iOS and Android devices activated will surge past one billion. According to IDC, more than 800 million PCs were sold between 1981 and 2000, making the rate of iOS and Android smart device adoption more than four times faster than that of personal computers.
The smartphone rate of adoption is four times faster than that of personal computers.
Which means people really are spending more time in apps than on the web. And, because of that and because Facebook doesn’t have a great mobile app, the Instagram purchase begins to make sense.
While I wouldn’t count the web out just yet, there are a few things you should be considering:
- Is your website mobile-optimized?
- Do you still have flash? If so, get rid of it!
- Are you considering Siri with the content you produce? She gives search results through apps before the web.
- Are you paying attention to apps such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, and Belly?
- Are you making it as easy as possible for your customers/clients to buy from you using their phones?
If you aren’t business ready for smartphones, the time is now.
P.S. I’m sorry if I made anyone worry yesterday. I got up to write and then decided, because I’ve been on the road so much, sleep was more important than a blog post. I went back to bed. But everything is fine!