Welcome to the New Phenomena Report
I’d like to reintroduce
you to the Sandvine
Global Internet
Phenomena Report!
We have worked
hard on this edition
to bring you a
comprehensive view
of what is happening on the internet to help
the industry as a whole get a reality check
on how the hype on specifc applications
translates to network impact. With the
attention of both consumers and network
operators focused on network quality, it
is more important than ever for operators to
understand how their bandwidth is
being consumed.
This edition of the report will cover both
global macro and regional micro views of
the composition of traffc on the internet.
Sandvine’s value proposition to our customers
is the accuracy and granularity of our network
intelligence, so we focus on identifying as
many applications as we can, despite how the
internet is becoming more encrypted.
Why is this important
When networks get congested (and they
always end up congested), the solution to the
problem depends on the root cause. That
sounds logical, but network operators are
limited today by both regulatory issues and a
lack of visibility, and are struggling to retain the
visibility that they need to make the right
network investments that deliver a high quality
experience to their subscribers. Different
applications require different network resources
to achieve good quality, and without accurate
visibility into network traffc composition, network
operators cannot deliver for consumers.
The Global Internet Phenomena Report ranks
applications based on their “traffc share.” The
fascinating data that fuels the report illustrates
the disconnect between “market share” for
companies defned by subscriber counts and
how often subscribers use a service. Traffc
share is defned as the percentage of network
resources used by a specifc application relative
to other applications.
For Global and Regional overall reports, we
rank all applications that Sandvine can see. For
the Spotlight reports, we compare applications
of a specifc type (streaming video, messaging,
etc.)to see which ones lead their categories.
Cam Cullen,
VP of Marketing, Sandvine
A word from Lyn Cantor, CEO, Sandvine
The new Sandvine is a combination of the former Sandvine and Procera businesses, now fully
integrated and aligned as a global leader in the Network Intelligence market segment. Our customer
base represents over 150 T1 and T2 global network operators and our solutions touch over 2.1B
internet subscribers worldwide.
The foundation of our business model is being ‘the best’ telco network
data analytics company with use cases that help our customers
understand, optimize, and manage subscriber quality of
experience (QoE). Fundamentally, our objective is to always
provide the best vendor agnostic granularity and accuracy for
the data fowing across our customers’ networks and help
them intelligently act on that data.
You will see an ongoing commitment to deliver the pre-
eminent view of global trends and distilled insights on what
our operator eco-system sees and manages in terms of
services delivered to subscribers. As our global reach
continues to expand across fxed, mobile, cable, satellite, and
WiFi network domains, we will bring you viewpoints on the
latest trends and ‘special topics’ through our report series.
Our goal with this report is to inform the global community
on the ‘Internet Phenomena’ we live in every day and to
expose both challenges and opportunities to build a more
collaborative eco-system, providing a robust connected
experience for subscribers.
We hope you will enjoy the report as well as the enhanced
presentation of the data. If you have any suggestions on how we
can make this report better, we would appreciate your input.
Please feel free to reach out to phenomena@sandvine.
Lyn Cantor, CEO, Sandvine
About the Global Internet
Phenomena Data
The data in this edition of the Global Internet
Phenomena Report is drawn from Sandvine’s
installed base of over 150 Tier 1 and Tier 2 fxed and
mobile operators worldwide. The report does not
include signifcant data from either China or India,
but the data represents a portion of Sandvine’s 2.1B
subscribers installed base, a statistically signifcant
segment of the internet population.
This edition combines fxed and mobile data into a
single comprehensive view of internet traffc across
all network types. A future edition will break out
separate fxed and mobile traffc composition.
Within each section, Sandvine measured the global
traffc share for applications from several different
perspectives:
Downstream: This is the traffc volume downloaded
from the internet. Examples would be a video stream,
a fle download, or an app download from iTunes.
Upstream: This is the traffc volume uploaded
to the internet. It could be requests for content
(i.e., browsing the Netfix library), an interactive
messaging session, or a Twitch stream of a gaming
session from a console.
Connections: This represents the number of
“conversations” occurring for an application. Some
applications use a single connection for all traffc,
others (like Netfix, BitTorrent, or Pokemon Go) use
many connections to transfer data or video to the
end user.
Welcome!The Global Internet
Phenomena Report
October 2018
Copyright2018 Sandvine. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.NEXT<PREVIOUSSTART
Section 1: Global NewsSection 3:Spotlights
HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS EDITION
A brief overview of some of key fndings in this issue of the
Global Internet Phenomena Report.
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
What are the phenomena that are dominating the internet
in 2018 You can bet the video streaming is one, but which
video providers, and what other applications are heating up
GLOBAL APPLICATION TRAFFIC SHARE
What application categories are the leading consumers of
internet bandwidth The real question is how much traffc on the
internet is video
GLOBAL APPLICATION RANKINGS
Drilling a bit deeper, what specifc applications are internet
users engaging with and spending their valuable gigabytes on The
usual suspects are on the lists, but in what order
GLOBAL TRENDS: BEYOND THE TOP 10
What happens outside the top 10 With over 5300 signatures
present in this Global Internet Phenomena Report, there are
bound to be some interesting factoids out there. We look at Nest
thermostats, Alexa versus Siri, Ethereum and Bitcoin, as well as
some other apps that caught the eye in the data.
SPOTLIGHT STREAMING VIDEO
Not all regions are created equal when it comes to streaming
video traffc share. Netfix and YouTube are everywhere, but local
streaming is increasing.
SPOTLIGHT GAMING
What individual games are generating the most traffc on
networks Since the number of players does not always align with
traffc share, we look at each region to determine the winners.
SPOTLIGHT SOCIAL NETWORKING
Facebook or Instagram What about Snapchat Or VK and
YouKu Although the leaders are obvious, there are some surprising
names that pop up in this edition.
SPOTLIGHT MESSAGING
Skype is the global traffc share in messaging, but there are
other strong contenders not far behind that may shift the share
rankings in the next edition.
SPOTLIGHT STREAMING AUDIO
“And the winner in streaming audio is...Spotify.” The market
share numbers for streaming audio do not align with the traffc share,
so what services are being used by consumers more often
INFOGRAPHIC COLLECTION AND RESOURCES
Want to use some of this data We have a handy collection of
resources to simplify re-use of the data in the Phenomena report, as
well as links to more information if you have questions for us.
AMERICAS DOWNSTREAM TRAFFIC SHARE
Netfix once again takes the Americas crown, despite improvements in effciency, video traffc
management, and increased competition. Who else is in the top 10
AMERICAS UPSTREAM TRAFFIC SHARE
Video is the top upstream source of traffc in the Americas – how can that be
SPOTLIGHT: CONNECTED FITNESS
Ever heard of Peloton If you run a network, you should check it out.
EMEA DOWNSTREAM TRAFFIC SHARE
Gaming is having major impact on networks in EMEA, with 3 in the top 10.
EMEA UPSTREAM TRAFFIC SHARE
BitTorrent leads EMEA upstream traffc share by a large margin.
SPOTLIGHT: WORLD CUP 2018
The 2018 World Cup was a major force on the internet, with impact felt not only with the games
themselves streaming online, but also in social networking and other video streaming sites.
APAC DOWNSTREAM TRAFFIC SHARE
Social networking is a driving force in APAC networking, with Facebook Video leading YouTube.
APAC UPSTREAM TRAFFIC SHARE
P2P applications besides BitTorrent make an appearance in the Phenomena report in APAC.
SPOTLIGHT: GOOGLE
How dominant is Google in APAC It has over 40% of all connections in the region.
Section Overview
The Global Internet
Phenomena Report
October 2018
3Copyright2018 Sandvine. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Section 2: Regional News
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STARTHighlights in this edition
The Global Internet
Phenomena Report
October 2018
4Copyright2018 Sandvine. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Video is almost
of the total downstream volume
of traffc on the internet58%
is
of the total downstream volume of traffc
across the entire internet
15%
of internet traffc
is encrypted, and
TLS 1.3 adoption
is growing
More than
50%
is becoming a signifcant force in traffc volume
as gaming downloads, Twitch streaming, and
professional gaming go mainstream
GAMING
22%
31%
BITTORRENT
is almost
of total upstream volume
of traffc, and over
in EMEA alone
Alphabet /
applications make up over
of the total internet
connections in APAC
40%
Plus spotlights on:
Traffc share leaders for video,
social networking, messaging,
audio streaming, and gaming
NEXT<PREVIOUSSTART。