The Internet is both timeless and timely in an interesting way. While what's popular changes seemingly instantly, and what we're capable of doing on it continues to grow exponentially. Ultimately, the Internet is the digital town square of a global village, where all types and professions gather.
In 2011, I first wrote about what happens in 60 seconds on the Internet.
I've since updated the article a few times.
Each time I write the article, I'm in awe at the amount of data we create and how much it has grown. For example, looking back to 2011, I was amazed that users created 600+ new videos and 60 new blog posts each minute. Those numbers seem quaint today.
via DOMO
Shortly after I started sharing the articles, Data Never Sleeps started standardizing the data, which is helpful.
Today, the Internet reaches 5.4 billion people. Most of them also use social media.
To add some more perspective,
- In 2008, 1.4 billion people were online; in 2015, we were at 3 billion. Now, that number has almost doubled again.
- In 2008, Facebook only had 80 million users, and Twitter (now X) had 2 million users.
- In 2008, there were 250 million smartphones, and now there are almost 7 billion of them!
It is mind-blowing to consider what happens each minute on the Internet today. For example, the 104,000 hours spent on Zoom represents a significant societal shift ... and the over 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube highlights the incredible amount of content that's being created to share.
In 2023, the world created approximately 120 zettabytes of data ... which breaks down to approximately 337,000 petabytes of data a day. Broken down even further, it calculates to more than 15 Terabytes of new data created per person.
The calculations about what happens in an Internet minute will change rapidly again because of AI. Consider the amount of computing power and data it takes to power all of these new GPTs. Now, imagine the amount of new data that AI is creating. Then, try to imagine the challenge we'll have figuring out what's real, what's made up, and what is simply wrong or intentionally misleading.
In addition, as more devices and digital WHOs start creating and sharing data, it's hard to fathom the ramifications and sheer increase in data.
I'm curious about what the next five years have in store for us as we approach the 40th anniversary of the World Wide Web.
The 2.9 Trillion Dollar Drop
Last Friday was the stock market’s worst day since COVID.
The media says weak job reports and recessionary fears fueled it. Geopolitics might have played a part, too.
Over 2.9 Trillion Dollars got wiped out.
To visualize what happened, here is a market heatmap of the S&P 500 index stocks categorized by sectors and industries. Size represents market cap. There was very little green in a sea of red.
via FinViz
Last year, I asked if we would see a recession in 2024? Here is an excerpt from that post:
Yes, last week was potentially alarming. Even the ordinarily resilient tech giants took a hit.
With the unemployment rate reaching 4.3% in July, the three-month moving average is at least 0.5 percentage points above the minimum of the previous 12 months’ averages. This triggers the Sahm rule, which supposedly signals a recession. According to the rule, reaching the 0.5% threshold indicates a recession. When the jobless rate rises quickly, it suggests the economy is slumping.
But, even the inventor of the rule, Claudia Sahm, says the doomsday narrative may be overblown.
I’m not here to tell you that everything is sunshine and roses, but I am here to remind you that no indicator exists in a vacuum. While the negative performance is real, household income is still growing, and consumer spending and business investment remain resilient.
Not to mention that with graduation, there’s a massive increase in the workforce, which also impacts the numbers.
Recessions can build slowly - but come quickly - but as they build, there is time to react ... and even better - there is time to not ‘react’ but ‘respond’.
AI will likely impact the workforce, business, and eventually ... the economy.
I’ve learned that the market often feels random because you can’t predict events like global pandemics, threats, assassinations, or cybersecurity outages.
Over time, I’ve focussed less on guessing what will happen and more on responding faster and better to what happens.
With that said, I do have an opinion here. It’s an election year, and I suspect the government will push every button and pull every lever to boost the market leading into November. Even though markets and the economy are not the same thing, many voters believe they are. So, I would say this correction is perfectly timed ... and I anticipate a steady ramp-up so that people feel as good as possible about the economy when they vote.
What do you think is going to happen?
Posted at 09:48 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Ideas, Market Commentary, Television, Trading, Trading Tools, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
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