• by Wayne Friedman , October 13, 2016

For the first time, total Internet users' minutes has slowed to single-digit percentage gains -- which could signify a major change in the way digital ad media is sold.

Total minutes slowed to 4.23 billion minutes in the second quarter of this year -- a 8% gain from 3.9 billion in the second quarter of 2015, according to MoffettNathanson Research.

Mobile apps contributed 2.6 billion for mobile apps, up from 2.3 billion. The mobile Web was at 379 million (up from 352 million), and desktop minutes were at 1.23 billion, down slightly from 1.27 billion. 

“This is significant because it may very well mark the beginning of the end of a multi-year cycle of mobile-driven volume growth... it begs the question of whether CPM growth may soon take over as the primary drive for digital ad revenue growth,” writes Michael Nathanson, senior analyst of MoffettNathanson Research.

The best-positioned companies in the future? MoffettNathanson writes that Google and Facebook control seven of the most used apps in the U.S. -- nine out of top 15, according to comScore. Apple, Amazon, Pandora, Snapchat, and Pinterest are also in the top 15, with Twitter in 17th place.

MoffettNathanson says there were 132 apps with more than 5 million unique viewers in June 2016, up 7% from 123 a year ago. Twenty-eight of those had more than 20 million uniques, versus 27 a year ago. “There are now fewer properties consolidating more user share at the top.”