Barring any coronavirus-related setbacks, 190 million 5G-enabled smartphones are expected to ship in 2020 as carriers continue to grow their 5G networks.
What is 5G?
5G is the next generation of mobile broadband. It’s taken 10 years to build the technology, and wireless carriers are rapidly building on their infrastructure to deploy 5G worldwide.
5G will deliver dramatically faster internet speeds to mobile devices. The first generation of 5G has the potential to increase speeds by as much as 10X current 4G LTE speeds. Future generations of 5G have the potential to increase speed by up to 100 times.
Besides faster speeds, it solves two other problems: Congestion and Latency.
If you’ve been in a crowded place, such as a sports stadium or concert, you’ve probably had that experience where internet pages won’t load, or you see that frustrating spinning wheel when you try to play a video. When there are too many devices in close proximity, the network can’t cope with it. That’s congestion. 5G solves that.
While speed is the amount of time it takes to download content, latency is the amount of time it takes for your device to communicate with servers. You can have fast speeds, but if latency is high, it can still take a long time to connect to the site and start the download or stream. Latency with 5G is reduced to nearly zero.
How Does 5G Work?
Here’s an easy way to think about how 5G works. Let’s say you’re driving down a crowded 4 lane highway that suddenly becomes just one lane. All of the cars have to merge and then squeeze through that single lane. It’s going to lead to slowdowns and backups. With 5G, all 4 lanes would stay open and keep things flowing smoothly at higher speeds.
A Dramatic Increase in Video Consumption
All of this will lead to dramatic increases in consumption. When speed, congestion, and latency are no longer barriers, the amount of content consumption is set to grow exponentially. For consumers, everything will be easier and faster. For digital publishers, they will face a more demanding audience with a rabid appetite for content, especially video.
Video consumption is expected to increase fourfold in just a few short years.
While people of all ages are consuming video, Millennials and Generation Z are watching videos at ever-increasing rates. 66% of teens (aged 13-19) already watch online videos daily. Video viewing in that age group has doubled in the past five years. These Gen Z video consumers are watching at a much higher rate than other generations.
All of this signifies an even bigger shift in video consumption, it is also changing what’s expected of content providers. The next generation of consumers will have no tolerance for low-quality or poor user experiences.
How Publishers Win in a 5G World
5G creates a tremendous opportunity for digital publishers. Publishers that want to win in a 5G world need to invest now in ways to improve digital content. Those that can distribute video at scale and target it smartly will position themselves to reap the rewards of increased consumption and monetization.
Here are five steps you need to take to be ready for 5G:
- Place videos on every page.
- Place video that is contextually relevant to page content.
- Use the ideal video unit to maximize the viewable duration.
- Use scalable video units to fit every device.
- Deploy a powerful discovery engine.
It all starts with deploying the right technology. You may need a tech partner that can scale endlessly to accommodate volume while providing visitors with a seamless experience, especially on mobile. Your tech partner will need to be able to serve up the right type of video player in the right location(s) on your site to maximize the viewability of your video ad inventory. They will also need to provide constantly updated high-quality content to augment whatever you create and have advanced targeting options to optimize opportunities.
Putting videos on every page and making them contextually relevant is impossible to handle manually. You’ll need a tech partner that can handle both tasks using advanced algorithms.
The challenge for many publishers right now isn’t creation, it’s discovery. How do you get people to find your videos, engage with them, and monetize them? Primis solves this problem by automatically playing and recommending relevant video content that will appeal to visitors with page-specific and user-specific targeting. Contextual video units can be implemented seamlessly into your site on any (and every) page.
Contact Primis today and let us show you how we can take your video to a new level of monetization and help you win in a 5G world.
