The pace of change in the Internet over the past 10 years has been stunning. Who could have foreseen the massive uptake of search, social networking and e-commerce, which have truly transformed the way we conduct our business and personal lives?

What is even more striking is that this pace of change is not slowing down. Who knows what we'll see over the next decade. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say we'll see even more personalized and targeted use of the Internet in our business and private lives.

For example, I believe location-based services will be extremely important, with the rise of GPS-enabled smartphones and other devices. We'll see a lot more advertising spend shifting to the Internet - probably more than half - with companies able to target their audiences better than ever before, based on a whole range of personal preferences, behaviour, location and context.

What does this mean for society?

We have already seen the positive, democratizing effect that the Internet can have, and I believe this effect can only get stronger in the future.

Technology helps create a level playing field for information access that will drive more intelligent and discerning buying behaviour, political and economic debate and education. 

Because of the amount of data analytics and accountability available from digital technology, we'll see huge productivity gains that will provide impressive growth potential. This also carries the risk of lower employment levels unless governments recognize the need to invest in lifetime education, training, mobility and incentives.

Consumers will become more empowered, with control over what they are prepared to allow brands and goverments to engage in.

The Internet - driven by the likes of eBay, Amazon, Apple, Google and Walmart - will dominate the primary channels to market for goods, services, media, entertainment and information. Bricks and mortar will decay as a source of growth for traditional players as on-line commerce takes 50% of consumption over the next 25 years. The upside of this could be the recycling of real estate to meet the accommodation needs of the three billion additional people on the globe over the next 40 years.

And for marketers, publishers and agencies?

Technology developments will allow marketers to create richer, more relevant, better value, targeted messaging and content. Greater consumer power will demolish sacred cows and old-style corporate inertia. Brands will also need to deliver much more than image and/or price benefits - the mantra will be "fit for purpose across a multitude of personal needs".

There is also a huge opportunity for agencies to retrieve a richer creativity proposition … but only once they've conquered the need for seamless integration of online (especially mobile) and offline, and fully embraced the need for co-creation and engagement with consumers on their terms. But will networks reinvent themselves before they are overtaken by smart boutiques who "get it"?

For publishers it will be critical to find a viable business model to monetize electronic content and provide advertisers with the value they're after: they can't afford to stick with the traditional paper-based models. Apple has led the way in monetizing what some consider "free" electronic content.

We are only just seeing the beginning of what mobile-enabled Internet technologies will be able to deliver in terms of highly targeted, personalized content and services. This, I believe, is where marketers have a real opportunity to more cleverly market to people based on their lifestyle relevance and experiences.

Graham Beckett is co-founder of Results International, a company that provides in-depth advice to the shareholders of marketing communications and new media companies on the creation, building and realization of value.

In 2004, Graham wrote a book based on his experiences of 15 years of working in mergers and acquisitions in the marcoms industry, 'Driving Successful M&A: Achieving full value from mergers and acquisitions in marketing communications', published by Profile Books. All those copies that have not been purchased by his mother or given to friends are on sale through the Results web site (http://www.resultsinternationalgroup.com)