Welcome to the April 2022 edition of Top Conversations in Technology, where we break down which topics are leading, rising and falling each month to help technology marketers maximize relevance and adapt to changing market dynamics. In this month’s analysis, we focus on variations in news and blog citation volumes month-over-month (versus March 2022) and year-over-year (April 2021).
Big Picture: After conversational gangbusters in Q1 2022, April brought an overall slowdown in technology discussion volume. A full 198 of the 215 topics we analyze showed a drop in conversation levels from March 2022. By contrast, 122 topics posted gains from February to March, and only 93 posted losses. Of the 16 topics that did grow in April, only seven posted gains of 40% or greater.
Top Ten: Despite volume declines, the top three topics are still the top three. #1 Cryptocurrencies, #2 Bitcoin, and #3 Supply Chain continued to dominate the charts. Blockchain moved up to #4, displacing #5 Smartphone but mostly because Smartphone had a big drop in mentions (down 33%). Similarly, #6 E-commerce and #7 Drones each climbed one spot despite losing roughly a third of their coverage volumes, while #8 Cybersecurity dropped two spots on a 55% mention decline. #9 5G held its position, but #10 Artificial Intelligence (down 29%) displaces #11 Wi-Fi (down 49%).
What’s Climbing: There were a handful of topics that posted gains in April. Utility Computing topped the list with a 4X mention increase tied to use of utility models by over-the-top service providers. Five additional topics towards the bottom end of our rankings showed substantial gains, including:
- #203 Compute Service – up 95%
- #185 Location Tracking/Privacy – up 90%
- #165 Cloud Access Security Broker/CASB – up 77%
- #179 Customer Education – up 69%
- #148 Enterprise Video – up 54%
The highest-ranking topics to show gains were not that high-ranking, including #54 Retail Tech (up 40%), #70 Workplace Safety (up 23%) and #87 Computer Aided Design/CAD (up 1%). While consistent with the overall trend, it will be interesting to see if this continues, and where potential jumps come.
What’s Falling: Everything. Nearly everything fell in April. High ranking topics with substantial losses included #8 Cybersecurity (down 55%), #9 5G (down 51%), #11 Wi-Fi (down 55%) and #18 Video Conferencing (down 52%). Top losses from the full index included:
- #25 NFT – down 72%
- #111 Data Warehousing – down 71%
- #141 API Integration – down 61%
- #195 Function as a Service/FaaS – down 56%
- #212 Thermal Monitoring – down 56%
- #159 Network Attached Storage/NAS – down 52%
- #72 Health Tech – down 42%
- #187 IT Service Management – down 51%
Looking Ahead: Moving further into second quarter of 2022, will these widespread losses be a blip, potentially driven by a shifting news focus on the Ukrainian incursion and widespread economic woes? Or will we see a resurgence in crypto, supply chain and cybersecurity topics? How will the COVID variants impact tech discussions as the world struggles to stabilize? We will continue to watch and analyze how the discussions morph, shaped by both new technologies and current events.
Questions? Comments? See a topic we are not tracking? Please share below, and we will address in future installments.
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