In 2020, most technology prospects failed due to the coronavirus pandemic. While online entertainment and pharma skyrocketed their profits like never before, other markets such as travel and tourism suffered from all-around bankruptcy.
Now, when most verticals have adapted to the new reality of 2021, potential investors are in doubts about whether the rapidly-growing industries would continue to grow at the same pace, or if remote or live experience wins in the long run.
Social Acceptance
Social distancing and disasters have saturated the planet in 2020. They triggered people to demand a much higher level of tolerance both online and offline. Retailers and service providers now realize the importance of checking a product for public acceptance first so as to avoid possible social hatred.
Apple has headed this trend with its policy changes to go live along with the iOS 14 release. The company claims to protect its users from discrimination, user data misuse or risk of infringements. Apple will ask its users directly whether they want to share their data with advertisers or not. Apple is the first company to limit data sharing with non-Apple platforms but the trend might be soon repeated by other corporations.
Before a business reaches its customers, it must verify that its product is accepted by the public through testing it in small target groups to see if the audience likes a brand-new product, or if it needs to be changed.
Create the necessary infrastructure, build target audiences for hypothesis testing to win in the race.
Data Protection
Sensitive data protection becomes a forefront business challenge. An encrypted messenger is no longer enough, so companies have to develop a custom cybersecurity solution to make sure that data is secured against compromising. Here comes the blockchain as one of the best technologies to meet the demands.
Nick Grebenkine, a blockchain company owner, says, “For years blockchain was used mainly in banking and supply chains. It proved to be efficient for these data-focused industries, and now, in a distributed world, blockchain has all chances to become a must-have for any other vertical since it allows to store data distributedly with no risk of data loss or unauthorized change.”
Sensitive data requires extra attention due to the risk of scam or fraud. This is why data protection-oriented solutions will be long-demanded in all industries.
Invest in the cloud and blockchain-based solutions because now these technologies are being rapidly adopted in an unlimited number of verticals.
New Business Approach
The pandemic forced businesses to immediately correspond to the changing circumstances. Restaurants have transformed into food deliveries. Stores, banks and service providers have switched to online sales. Deliveries, pharma and hygienic product resellers have benefited from the lockdown the most, and those who were already present online turned out to be the most profitable.
Entertainment has grown into a leader in the online experience. The all-around Netflixication forces businesses to translate their sales strategy to the new online language. Evidently, this is a hard task because everybody’s online doing the same.
The online-first orientation requires businesses to make the user experience a top priority – the more products you display in a more user-friendly way, the more are the chances you sell them.
Find a niche you can switch your business to. Learn your customer from entertainment channels. Invest in streaming platforms because there you will find your customers in the nearest years.
SaaS and EaaS
Car rentals, rental housing and numerous live-experience platforms have lost customers in 2020. Some of them were agile enough to adapt immediately. They shared software, online space, cars, and facilities with transforming businesses that urgently needed help with logistics, storage or technical maintenance.
In other words, these fast-changing rentals have turned into Software-as-a-Service and Equipment-as-a-Service providers by simply reusing their resources in a new way. You can revitalize your business similarly. Or you can have a closer look at the companies that were among the first ones to readjust their business model – such companies have all chances to grow big no matter what.
Clean and Tidy
High sanitary standards and cleanliness requirements will remain mandatory for years. Offices must be clean, sanitizers must be available everywhere, vacuum packaging is preferable.
This necessity opens wide opportunities for starting a business in the cleaning industry. But let’s have a look from the other side – cleaning costs a lot of money. Visitors will ask for a cleanliness confirmation. Customers will want to know the product origin verification. To comply with these demands, companies need a combined system of video control, automated packaging quality control, and a bunch of IoT sensors for tracking the conditions of area cleaning or product production in real-time. Develop a quality control system for enterprises. Or invest into those developing it.
Clouds
The volume of digital data has skyrocketed in 2020, with online entertainment blossoming and businesses moving online. In this regard, many companies had to face the problem of insufficient data storage. Another problem for newborn online businesses is the importance of having your business compatible with as many platforms as possible. This necessity urges companies to develop additional software so as to continue operating without delays.
Cloud storage can solve both issues – while giving you plenty of space to keep your data, clouds often provide you with the required compatibility instruments acting as an interlink between your legacy software and the up-to-day tools.
It’s high time to invest in cloud computing because new methods of data storage are not yet designed. You can choose between public and private clouds. Or you can look at distributed ledgers.
AI and ML
There’s always a risk of human error whilst a machine will do a task in a defined time on a known level of quality. This means that the earlier you apply AI and ML algorithms to your business the more profit you will get, whatever the profit is.
At present, artificial intelligence and machine learning expand to drive most verticals such as banking, biotech, pharmaceuticals and science. Algorithms are taught to predict outcomes, they perform programmed actions, analyze performance, and help to adjust the system for better results. Consequently, machines replace humans which leads to higher efficiency.
These cutting-edge technologies are probably a number-one area for investment – you can either invest in the development of your own artificial intelligence solution or find an AI-focused company developing for high-margin verticals such as banking or retail.
Summary
The global shutdown in 2020 has changed the business environment in most economies of the world putting forward online presence and technology development.
Altogether, this means that if you’re looking for innovations to invest in, it is now better to choose cutting-edge technologies that face a growth boost, such as AI, ML, IoT, cloud computing and distributed systems.
It will be important to check with the public whether a business meets public expectations and whether a product or service is delivered according to sanitary or social regulations. Entertainment has always been a profitable business however the spike we’ve seen in early 2020 is already declining and is likely to turn to its average as of 2020. After all, agile business models win over the niche, logy strategies.
