Depending on the generation, the devices that we are in contact with change at rapid speed. As I mentioned at the start, when I first saw Star Wars and decided I wanted to become a movie director, the screen was around 800" in size, or even bigger when using 70mm film. Today's smartphone screens are just 5 or 6 inches wide. When the size of screens gets so small, clearly it is not possible for the whole family to watch the same smartphone screen together, and so it is most common for people to watch the content that they want to watch, when they want to watch it on their own device. This data is slightly old, but in 2004 statistic showed that smartphone usage time had increased 5.3 fold over 10 years. The other day there was an accident in which a 10-year old boy accidentally fell onto the train tracks because he was watching his smartphone. We are becoming so involved in the cyber-world that we are gradually losing the feeling of being in the real world. People are becoming absorbed in their smartphones.
One other important point we should focus on is that 70% of the time spent using smartphones is spent on social media. When an interesting article circulates, we as professionals track and research "how did everyone find out about this article?" As a result, there are some cases where only 2% of the people found them by searching Google. Most people find those articles from social media such as Facebook and Twitter. In the past when computers were the mainstream, we would first do a search for places when friends say things like "let's go to that curry restaurant" or "let's all take a trip together to Izu". But more recently, it is far more common to use Q&A sites or LINE to ask friends "are there any good curry restaurants around here?" or "does anyone know of a good place to stay in Izu?" There is an explosive increase in the number of uses of the Internet in which Google searches are no longer valid.

Naturally, the sales strategies for various companies are changing. In the past we had "owned media", where companies would create their own websites and create programs to make them easier to find in Google to ensure more people could view them, but that era has ended. Now, the staff of all companies are racking their brains trying to figure out how to get good word-of-mouth advertising for their companies. One good example is LINE stamps. Companies make stamps they think people will want, and then offer them for free if the person follows the company. This is the same strategy as, "if you buy Coca-Cola, we will give you up to 20 "Star Wars" figurines" which was popular in the past. The background of popular digital premium content is without a doubt due to social media popularity.
The 20th century idea when releasing new products was to show a few commercials during prime time spots on television to create a buzz, and then effectively increase the sales in retail stores. However, less and less people are watching television, so it is now not that simple. More people are spending a greater time on their smartphones, so even if a company wants to utilize this media, they cannot simply interrupt the user as they can with a television commercial. This is why "content marketing" is now popular. When you are looking at Facebook or Instagram, you may have noticed information sandwiched in the feed that says, "hey everyone, here is something interesting, do you want to take a look?" This is content marketing. If you can get people to think, "Wow, if Rola says Snapchat is that good, I'm going to try downloading it myself", then you've hit it. That might actually be an advertisement that Snapchat has paid money for.

Conventional channels of information flowed from the "top down", but that flow has now changed to "side to side". Success or failure depends on how well the topic flows from friend to friend. As I mentioned a little before, there are some Instagrammers who are regular reader-models, but who can gather 500,000 followers if they are good at taking photographs. That number is comparable to the number of followers famous people have on Twitter. Of course, companies are aware of this too, and will try approaching Instagrammers with contracts that exchange free cosmetics for exposure on Instagram. Some people will charge a 3 million yen signing fee for such contracts. 10 contracts give a 30 million yen a year income, making it a lucrative market for Instagrammers.
At present, I think all companies are attempting to incorporate a sense of marketing that people naturally want to share in their daily lives. In your futures careers too, if you understand the importance of using social media and can propose new ideas, people may say, "that's a good idea, I'm going to trust my project to this person", helping you to carve out your own future.