Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2019, with later updates to the 2021-2022 years in its title and text. Its forecasts (mobile wallets replacing cash by 2022, 3D printers, tablets replacing textbooks) are now past. Its statistics date from around 2013, and Spain’s taxi versus VTC (Uber, Cabify) dispute is as of early 2019.
A while ago we published 10 technology trends that are changing the way we do business today, from Juniper, a research firm that studies technology trends. If its recent forecasts for 2021–2022 are right (and so far everything suggests they are on track), anyone who wants to do business in the new world should be looking for ways to get into these sectors or invest in them somehow.
They will also need to understand how users’ habits and behaviour are changing around the world.
We have also put together a couple of reports on business trends in health and wellness and some business ideas related to tourism and leisure.
At the end of the article I’ve left you several lists of business ideas of all kinds.
The business trends that are already clear for 2021
1. Smart cities and smart homes
Both cities and homes will tend to become smarter. We’ll be surrounded by sensors and apps that connect the switching on of street lights, traffic lights and transport. Exactly the same is happening in homes: robotics and home automation, together with apps, will let anyone start cooking dinner from the office, close a blind remotely and have complete control over their home.
2. Mobile payments
Mobile wallets are growing at a good pace. By 2022, many people probably won’t need to carry cash or cards to do their shopping, as the number of shops and services where we can pay with our phones will have grown.
3. New mobile devices, or is the phone the future?
Will the laptop become obsolete? Google brought out Google Glass and Samsung its smartwatches. Apple’s watch also came onto the market, and there will probably be other tech devices we don’t know about yet. But what will the mobile device of the future be? Which will be the most profitable industry in mobile devices? For now, everything points to the smartphone itself.
4. iPads and tablets will grow in schools. Goodbye to books?
It makes sense: any device weighing 100 grams can store tens of thousands of books, yet we keep loading our children with 20 kilos on their backs. Many schools are already buying computers, while others are asking parents to buy their children a tablet so they won’t need to buy many of the textbooks.
Publishers will probably have to adapt to the times and let old-style textbooks die.
5. Fitness and health devices and apps
Athletes already use many apps to keep track of their weight and routines, along with a host of devices that send our heart rate, the kilometres we’ve covered and so on to our phones. The pocket personal trainer is a reality, and so is testing our blood sugar at home with a device that sends the data to a mobile app. There are even smart shirts that warn us if we’re having a heart attack. Anything is possible.
6. Private clouds
We’re obviously talking about the cloud on the internet. Storing personal data in password-protected public storage may make some people think we’re handing that information over to the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and so on, and that’s probably the case. So, according to Juniper, there will be a boom in people choosing private storage services, and specialist cloud storage companies with “anti-NSA” levels of security will appear.
7. A boom in 3D printers (even more)
3D printers have had a good year, but in 2022 they’ll do even better. There have already been moves in the industry, with some 3D printing giants buying smaller companies focused on home 3D printers. The future lies in selling these printers to individuals. What’s still needed is for printing materials to get cheaper.
Goldman Sachs pointed to 8 industries to invest in for the long term, including e-cigarettes, new cancer therapies, reinsurers and compressed natural gas.
Among the most profitable businesses of the future, we would also have everything related to human longevity, beauty and health, alternative energy, hybrid vehicles and greener food.
8. The taxi industry?
In Spain right now there is a battle between taxis and VTC ride-hailing services (Uber, Cabify), a battle taxi drivers may be able to drag out for now, but they would only be putting off the hour of their death. Will Google’s self-driving taxis be the ones to finish off the taxi industry?
The trends that are changing the way we do business
We don’t behave the way we did just 10 years ago. That’s a fact. Technology has brought great advances and also great setbacks, but we have no choice but to adapt to the new environment if we want to do business or find a job that fits the industry’s new needs. A few years ago, social networks appeared as a form of entertainment. Today they are a necessity for promoting a company and making ourselves known.
See also: Innovative business ideas
That’s why we need to understand what is changing in people’s habits in order to understand how we can make money from those habits. To that end, the company SAP drew up a list of trends in the future of business that companies need to understand and take advantage of.
1. Social media for breaking up with people
On the one hand, new technologies are making us more cowardly: more and more couples break up over a WhatsApp or Facebook message. Some psychologists say it’s like ripping off a plaster, quick and painless. Ironically, though, it’s much harder these days to get rid of your ex, who can keep an eye on your status on social media, and nowadays changing your phone number doesn’t stop the other person from getting in touch with you.
2. We look at our phones every 9.6 minutes on average
Over 24 hours, a person looks at their smartphone up to 150 times. That’s why some companies are already taking advantage of it to put their advertising on the phone’s lock screen. When we look at our phones, it isn’t to check the weather.
3. The amount of content on the internet keeps growing at an astonishing rate
Users carry out more than 2 million Google searches every minute and upload more than 72 hours of video to YouTube every 60 seconds, according to the Daily Mail. When we talked about the businesses of the future for 2020, we already said that big data centres and the analysis of that data would be one of the most profitable businesses, since controlling and using data gives a business an edge.
4. We watch more and more video online
The future of cinema, and probably of television, lies on the internet. Many “YouTubers” will end up with more audience pull than shows on the main TV channels. In fact, it’s already happening: there are YouTube channels with more users than any TV programme has ever had in viewers.
5. We want to know what our friends are doing and where they’re going
New technologies are meeting a human need that is growing exponentially: curiosity. Social media is more about social science than about technology, since today it’s possible. Likewise, many celebrities have found in technology a way to seem closer to their fans thanks to social networks.
6. Complete strangers advise us when we shop
Before buying something, we look for information online. If, in a forum of supposed experts, people say that what we wanted to buy is worse than product X, they can change our minds more easily than the usual word on the street.
That’s why price comparison sites for all kinds of products are becoming a necessity, even though companies themselves often post opinions about themselves under pseudonyms. In fact, people are hired to clean up the brand’s image on forums and blogs that are discussing the product at the time.
7. The shopping experience
If, in traditional retail, a customer unhappy with a shop assistant’s service might not come back, online it’s much worse. If a company fails on service, price and quality don’t matter. A single shipping mistake can ruin the credibility of an online shop that’s just starting out.
8. Mobile data plans
Although companies are working hard to offer ever better prices and service on mobile data plans, people use public Wi-Fi whenever they can, with the security risks that entails.
9. Hiring staff
Human resources departments have their own cross to bear: they need ever more innovative hiring methods, and at the same time, with the speed of the internet, candidates know all about those innovative methods.
Not long ago there was talk of an algorithm that pre-screens candidates based on the keywords in their CV and a few tests. In a clearly technological industry, and with companies’ needs changing, HR departments will probably look very different in the years ahead.
10. Health and the environment
Clearly, a report on the future of business couldn’t leave out two of people’s biggest concerns: their health and the environment. As we explained in our report on health and wellness trends, users increasingly lean towards a healthy life and opt for natural products.
I hope this article on trends, along with our business ideas, has been useful to you.
Further reading: business ideas you can take advantage of
- 37 small business ideas with high profit potential and low risk
- 30 profitable small business ideas
- 21 businesses that can be very profitable
Featured image: Hodlipson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
