From 55 Slides to None: Mary Meeker Drops India From 2018 Report

The renowned internet landscape report has no special mention for India or any trends brewing in the market.

Mary Meeker’s much-awaited report covering the global internet landscape was revealed on Wednesday, but there was a big surprise in it. The Mary Meeker 2018 report, unlike last year has no mention of India, which is one of the biggest markets in terms of internet users in the world.

The perplexing part is that, in 2017, more than 55 slides out of the total 355 in the report listed trends and insights for the Indian market. This year, none.

So, what’s changed? Has India become a stagnant, maturing market that’s got nothing innovative or disruptive to offer? We still don’t know the reason behind India’s omission from the report, but it definitely doesn’t paint a rosy picture for the country or the economic future of one of the fastest growing markets.

You can go through the full Mary Meeker 2018 report over here:

Internet Trends Report 2018 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

As you might recall, the 2017 Mary Meeker report showcased India as an emerging internet superpower, even though only 27 percent of the country’s population was connected to the internet back then.

It also emphasised on the cost of internet per GB seeing a big drop since 2016 (especially after Jio came into the picture). This ensured that Indian consumers were paying Rs 21 a month on an average to use the internet.

Roughly 50 percent of the world, or 3.6 billion people have access to the internet. 

The Quint has reached out to the publishers of the report to gather the reason behind India’s dramatic fall in its assessment and will update the copy with any response we get.

China on the other hand, features on the list for its active involvement in the digital ecosystem. According to the latest numbers, the country has over 500 million users who use mobiles for payments.

In terms of the popular messaging apps, Facebook, WhatsApp and China-based WeChat have more than 1 billion monthly active users. Around 13 percent of retail sales are now coming from e-commerce, this number 10 years back was pegged at 5 percent.