1. The reign of TV will come to an end

This year worldwide Internet use will outstrip TV use for the first time ever. The world is shifting to Internet production and traditional television is going online. 80% of the world’s internet traffic will be video. Before, the main broadcasting location has been television and the internet has been secondary – this year this will be reversed, with the internet becoming primary and television secondary.

– Joonas Välimäki, Growth hacker

2. 5G will revolutionise our understanding of smart devices

Commercial 5G operations are set to begin in the Nordics this year. The substantial increase in data transfer speed will make possible entirely new kinds of services, including news services. We will start seeing experiments in which real-time news content will be pouring into not only phones and computers but also home appliances, vehicles and public spaces.

– Teemu Kiviniemi, Journalist

3. Media houses will start taking real action to set boundaries on online discussions

People are completely fed up with argumentative debate on social media and elsewhere online. Many have already reduced their use of social media channels for this very reason. As a result, 2019 will see a heightened need to improve the quality of online discussion in one way or another. According to a recent study commissioned by the Finnish Newspapers Association, the public’s perception of the quality of social media collapsed over the last year, while news media are still considered to be of high quality. There is a demand for constructive discussion, and the results of this study indicate that news media are clearly well-positioned for developing such discussion.

– Tuomo Björksten, Journalist

4. The importance of apps will decrease

Phones’ lock screens will increasingly feature an algorithmically filtered information flow, which will increasingly replace apps’ internal news feeds. Because different functions and experiences will increasingly shift to lock screen notifications, apps will no longer need to be opened so much. More information on the growing importance of notifications can be found, for example, in the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report.

– Jarno M. Koponen, Head of AI

5. Smart speakers will start to use Finnish as well

The Google Assistant smart speaker launched its Swedish, Danish and Norwegian interface last autumn. This year, we will probably get to start using smart speakers in Finnish as well. As the language barrier comes down, we will finally get to see how Finns take on board this much-hyped technology.

– Teemu Kiviniemi, Journalist

6. Success measurement will mainstream and diversify

The new forms of digital narrative pose challenges to traditional web analytics and other measuring systems. How do you measure success when the content you create is viewed only on phone lock screens? How can you assess the impact of a new type of content on your brand image in the short- or long-term? Traditional methods such as media reach questionnaires and recognition questionnaires seem to be emerging as options in some surprising contexts.

At the same time, following the figures has become part of daily editorial work. Content creators are more and more interested in how their content is being consumed, and they are asking more and more difficult questions – and of just the right kind! It is important to be able to provide interpretation and context to the numbers.

– Riikka Lätti, Analyst

7. AI hype will subside

Gradually we are moving from overheated hype to pragmatic productisation and practical, concrete action also in consumer services – and hopefully in Finland as well. The conversation is starting to sound more reasonable and attention is being directed in a person-centred manner to the real customer benefits.

– Jarno M. Koponen, Head of AI