Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2013 as a forecast for 2017-2025, so many predictions can now be tested and have aged, including Google Glass and a robot revolution starting in 2016. The 2013 figures cited, such as 23andMe DNA sequencing for 99 dollars and a 1,300-dollar 3D printer, are also from that time.
We continue looking at the future of business and at job opportunities for young people and entrepreneurs with an eye on 2017–2025, because everything is changing and we have to adapt to those changes.
We can see that the future is overwhelmingly technological. So even as we try to guess and predict what’s coming, we can’t know whether, 18 months from now, some new technology will appear and become the cure-all for new entrepreneurs, turning into one of the most profitable sectors, as social networks and mobile apps were until recently.
Yesterday we published 10 jobs and businesses that will be booming by 2020; today we sum up the industries and sectors that will be very profitable (some of them already are) in 2017–2025.
This roundup of industries and sectors draws on USNews and on a thorough analysis by market-trend experts at CNBC.
1. Cloud education.
Companies such as Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, Codecademy and Skillshare, and nonprofits like Khan Academy and edX, are allowing anyone in the world with a connection to the cloud to get high-quality education from Harvard, Stanford, or MIT! Broadband internet access will reach places that can’t get it today.
2. Clean energy.
This is the biggest challenge. Energy sectors include solar, wind, biofuels, bioenergy, carbon capture and storage, nuclear fusion, and battery storage (including plutonium and strontium batteries). New energy sources will improve living conditions in developing countries.
3. Sustainable, smart homes.
Adapting homes so they are energy self-sufficient, along with the many applications of home automation. Think of home automation, robotics, mobile apps, technology and housing, and you’ll probably find a business opportunity, especially if you also factor in savings for the consumer.
4. Nanotechnology.
This new technology is based on manipulating microscopic materials, making it possible to work with and manipulate molecular structures and their atoms. Nanotechnology is driving major innovations in areas such as carbon nanotubes, water desalination using graphene and 3D printing with claytronics, as well as big advances in medicine and surgery and new industries that will change a great many products.
5. Organic food.
Consumers are increasingly aware of the junk they’re eating, which would explain the boom in organic food shops and herbalists. Sadly, Spain is the most permissive country when it comes to GMOs, but luckily it’s also one of the countries where, despite the crisis, the most organic grocery stores are opening.
6. Water desalination.
Recent research at MIT used graphene to create a highly energy-efficient way to remove salt from water. As the human population grows (it will reach 9.5 billion by 2050), this will help guarantee access to drinking water for communities that lack it.
7. Convergence of phones and PCs.
Our smartphone will soon be our PC as well. We’ll just have to plug the phone into an HDMI monitor to turn it into a full computer. Once smartphones are powerful enough to run Excel, there will be no reason to have a separate computer unit for the bigger monitor. Already, in India, 59% of internet users go online only from their phones.
8. Technology and biotechnology.
Technology is a latent business opportunity in any country, but within the chemical industry Spain has a lot of talent. Biotechnology applied to health opens up a whole new world for new entrepreneurs.
9. Quantum computing.
In 2013, Google bought a D-Wave II quantum computer and, together with NASA, set up the Quantum Artificial Research Center (QUAIL). Unlike binary computers, where bits must be either in state 1 or state 0, quantum computers use superposition to allow every state between 0 and 1, which makes much faster processing possible. Research on quantum particles will vastly multiply computer speeds, which will also speed up what researchers can do.
10. Mobile apps.
Very soon, our phone will be the most important and necessary thing in our lives. It will be our wallet, probably our key to open doors, our parking-space finder and our remote control for household appliances. Mobile apps are probably at 5% of their creative potential, so for the most tech-minded and innovative entrepreneurs they will remain a very profitable source of income.
11. Home automation.
Home automation was already part of our immediate future. In a few years, anyone who can’t close a window at home or start the washing machine from their workplace 10 km away will be something of a dinosaur. One thing leads to another: thanks to mobile apps, home automation will see a revival in which system developers will have the chance to do business with appliance and building-material manufacturers.
(Read: 10 booming markets)
12. Cloud-connected devices.
In the future, cloud-connected chips and sensors will be built into everyday devices. It won’t just be TVs, tablets and phones that are connected, but also heating, cars, fridges, pacemakers, and so on.
13. Contact-lens smartphones.
Take Google’s Glass project, for example. Google’s project is probably just the beginning of a new technology. See: 7 industries Google Glass could revolutionize
14. Data storage.
Recent work at Harvard has made it possible to store data in DNA: 700 terabytes of data in a single gram of DNA. In 2012, IBM announced that it could store one bit of data in just 12 atoms.
15. Electronic devices and synthetic materials inside the human body.
We already have pacemakers, cochlear implants (to restore hearing), bionic eyes and synthetic organs. This trend will accelerate in the coming years, enabling rapid advances in human health. But it will also spark plenty of debate over fundamental ethical questions and human rights. If you want to learn more about this, you can watch the documentary Transcendent Man: The Singularity Is Near.
16. Elder care.
Seniors will be one of the most profitable businesses, not only in caring for older people but also in entertainment, especially now that the cuts have reached the IMSERSO trips (Spain’s state-subsidized holidays for retirees). And it’s not just the domestic market: Spain’s good weather will turn the country into a paradise for foreign retirees. So there’s business both in care and support and in low-cost entertainment for seniors.
17. Artificial intelligence.
In 2011 came the first man-versus-machine Jeopardy! contest, and IBM’s supercomputer Watson beat champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. This was a far more complicated test for artificial intelligence than the one Deep Blue faced when it beat the world’s best chess player, Garry Kasparov. Now IBM is using Watson’s technology to help doctors diagnose patients and to help brands connect with their customers.
18. Tourism in all its forms.
Specializing in one type of tourism can make the difference in this sector: gay and lesbian tourism, adventure tourism, extreme tourism, eco-tourism, business tourism…
19. Synthetic biology.
Biology used to be nature’s domain alone. Now that humans have learned to edit the code of life, applications have emerged such as smart fuels, synthetic algae, synthetic food that could feed billions of people, and modified stem cells that could extend life…
20. Climate engineering.
David Keith and Andy Parker at Harvard are making important advances in climate engineering. One promising option for removing CO2 from the atmosphere is bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).
21. Technologies to fight brain aging.
In 2011, research by Dr. Gary Lynch at UC Irvine explored the link between ampakines and increased electrical activity between neurons, to let us think and remember the way we did when we were young.
22. Clean transport technologies.
Tesla Motors has been a pioneer in this field, and the rally in its shares shows that the company and the electric vehicle are on a very good path toward a future that is no longer so distant.
23. Graphene manufacturing and exports.
We’ve already talked about investing in graphene, and as it happens, Spain is very well positioned among the nations that export this material. Today, according to ICEX (Spain’s foreign trade and investment agency), Spain’s industrial production of graphene is the largest in Europe. (Read: Emerging business opportunities)
24. Personalized medicine and gene sequencing.
After the completion of the Human Genome Project and the full sequencing of human DNA, companies such as 23andMe have made progress in personal genetic sequencing. Now, for just 99 dollars, you can have your DNA partially sequenced and learn more about your ancestry and your risk of disease.
25. Robotics.
This is the technology of building automated machines that can replace humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes. They resemble humans in appearance, behavior and/or cognition. We’ll see lots of robots in the future: Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro has created a robot twin of himself. Geminoid uses motion-capture sensors to replicate every single human movement. Bill Gates is already announcing a new economic revolution which, apparently, will begin in 2016 with the creation and use of robots in daily life.
26. Driverless cars.
Both Tesla and Google are working on building a car that drives itself. In Masdar (United Arab Emirates), the “City of the Future”, automated electric transport cars (called podcars) run underground as part of the initiative to build a carbon-free city.
27. 3D printing.
Five years ago, 3D printers were out of reach for anyone but big companies. Today anyone with 1,300 dollars can buy a Cubify 3D printer and print thousands of objects.
28. Private space travel.
Companies such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, owned by our dear Richard Branson, are working to make commercial space travel possible. By 2025, anyone with 100,000 dollars (or even less) will be able to go to space. By 2050, anyone with $5,000 will be able to make the trip.
29. Natural user interfaces
This is technology that lets you interact with a system without using controllers, just with gestures. Natural user interfaces include touch, voice, hand gestures, and thought.
Siri (on the iPhone) already enabled voice interaction in 2010. Leap Motion is working on interaction through hand gestures. Finally, Emotiv is trying to show that, through a headset, games can be controlled by the player’s mind and facial expressions.
30. The clothing of the future is technological.
From clothes that charge your devices to clothes that change with their surroundings. It’s already a reality today; it already exists. See: 6 futuristic ideas in the clothing business
31. Cybersecurity technologies.
In a technological world where our own data, company data and even governments’ information is stored on devices, cybersecurity won’t be an option but a necessity for everyone, so we could estimate this market at many billions of euros over the next decade.
32. All kinds of innovative solutions to common problems.
Whether through technology or innovation (which is even more powerful than technology), entrepreneurship in the future will be only for the brave and the bold. See: 6 of the most innovative business ideas of 2013.
33. Subscription businesses.
This industry has an ever wider market, since it offers customers discounts while the company works with exact figures for the number of customers and orders. More on subscription businesses.
See also: The 40 most profitable business ideas of recent years
Featured image: Dwurban, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
