“This is the only graph you’ll need”
May 7, 2012The year was 1994, and I was attending a seminar on the rapid uptake of online technology.
The presenter, an executive of AT&T Asia Pacific, displayed a single graph of quantity over time, and told us to think of it whenever he mentioned statistics: number of people online, companies online, domain names registered, emails sent, etc.
The graph was the ascending section of a sine curve, progressing almost vertically.
It was prophetic, as it remains accurate almost 20 years later!
If you have not seen the Social Media Revolution animation by Erik Qualman (author of “Socialnomics”), you should watch this powerful 4 minute presentation (refreshed in 2012). With a Fatboy Slim track driving the pace, it covers the dramatic growth and global impact of social networking.
The same message is conveyed in his new presentation “Technology Will Kill”. The 2 minute message identifies the technologies which hand-held devices are already replacing (fixed-line phones, books, newspapers, radio, TV, maps, instruction manuals, cash*, etc.).
*A smartphone replacing cash?! MasterCard is a global provider with a proximity app for cashless transactions, while PayPal Here™ will enable credit card transactions via a smartphone attachment.
With historical perspective, the continual advancement of technology seems inevitable, but the pace of change is also continually increasing. As the data indicates, the number of years in which different technologies attained 50 million users, was:
- radio 38
- television 13
- Internet 4
- iPod 3
More recently, Facebook grew to over 100 million users in less than 9 months, and in the same length of time, one billion iPod apps were downloaded.
Another classic presentation, (which should be required viewing for all business people), is “What the HELL is social media – in 2 minutes“, by timetogetsocial. Although now 2 years old, (and therefore horrendously out-of-date), it has a strong story to tell.
Sources:
You Tube: Socialnomics “Social Media Revolution”
YouTube: Socialnomics “Technology Will Kill”
SMH: “MasterCard introduces PayPass wallet”
PayPal credit card reader for smartphones
YouTube: timetogetsocial “What the HELL is social media – in 2 minutes”
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