Predictions - 9 Key Digital Trends For 2015

This year looks a particularly exciting one for the digital world with emerging sectors ranging from wearable tech to fintech promising to make real strides forward. Here the team at StrategyEye Digital IQ share their predictions for 2015.

SEteamWe’re excited to welcome a new .rising leader this week in the form of our colleagues over at StrategyEye Digital IQ – a subscription service tracking global technology, media and telecoms markets, with a particular focus on startups and disruptive tech trends.

Here the team draw on the unique data tracking tools at their disposal to share their predictions for the key digital trends we can expect to see coming up over the next 12 months. For more information on any of these trends, simply click through.

 

Predictions – 9 Key Digital Trends For 2015

This year looks a particularly exciting one for the digital world with emerging sectors ranging from wearable tech to fintech promising to make real strides forward. The traditional advertising and entertainment industries will continue to adjust as digital disruption shows no sign of slowing down. The sharing economy, a new wave of e-commerce marketplaces and the internet of things are all likely to make an impact this year. Here we look at the most significant trends for 2015 in nine key areas, as well as the investment outlook for each.

 

1. Sharing Economy

shareCollaborative consumption and sharing will only grow and diversify in 2015, with people will increasingly share cars, parking spaces, pets, tools and high-priced equipment. But if this sector is to truly reach its potential, legislation needs to catch up with innovation. This year will be a key one in terms of finding legal and safe ways for businesses to operate.[Read More]

Investment Outlook: Investment soared in this space to some $4.5bn across 88 deals in 2014. That’s up significantly from around $1bn across 50 deals in 2013 as the sharing economy expands by diversifying and embracing more niches.[Read More]

 

2. Internet of Things

nestConsumer adoption of the ‘internet of things’, or IoT, is likely to explode in 2015 as more and more manufacturers such as Philips and Samsung bring smart appliances and devices to market that will become part of the fabric of people’s lives. There is also likely to be support from the establishment, with governments getting behind smart city programmes that involve energy efficiency. The biggest challenge for the IoT is standardisation.[Read More]

Investment Outlook: The Internet of Things made a serious impact in the tech consciousness last year with more than $1.5bn invested across 116 deals in 2014. Expect investment to continue increasing in this emerging category this year. [Read More]

 

3. Wearable Tech

smartwatchWearable tech became a buzz term in digital media circles during 2014 and consumer awareness and adoption increased in tandem. Expect this level of adoption to increase  in 2015, spurred on by the release of Apple’s smart watch at the end of March. Apple’s may be the most high profile, but there will be a huge range of smart watches on the market by the end of the year with a variety of price points and differentiating features. [Read More]

Investment Outlook: Wearable tech investment hit $1.2bn in 2014 across 53 deals. Expect investment levels to stay strong this year as new devices enter the market and many crowd-funded startups look to VCs to invest in the next generation of their devices.      [Read More]

 

4. Social Media and Messaging

social mediaaDespite its relative youth social media is a mature market these days. Take Facebook. Immediately derided post-IPO it quickly began to concentrate on mobile and its revenues increased accordingly. Despite concerns over stagnating user growth, don’t expect its revenues to do anything other than grow this year. For Twitter, it’s a different story… [Read More]

Investment Outlook: More than $2.6bn was invested in the social media space in 2014 across some 243 deals. That’s down from the $2.9bn invested across 265 deals in 2013 – and decreasing investment is likely to continue in 2015. [Read More]

 

5. E-commerce and Marketplaces

OnlineInnovation and investment in e-commerce show no sign of slowing down. The one-size-fits-all e-commerce model pioneered by the likes of Amazon and eBay is still relevant and obviously popular, but specialist e-commerce players that focus on or cater to a particular niche are still receiving investment, particularly in mature markets.One trend that emerged last year that is likely to continue during 2015 is that of online and offline offerings continuing to blur. [Read More]

Investment Outlook: E-commerce continues to be one of the most popular investment areas with some $15.7bn invested across 632 deals last year, up significantly from the $7.5bn invested in this space across 525 deals in 2013. [Read More]

 

6. Entertainment

headphonesStreaming will continue to dominate downloads as the online access form of choice for consumers when it comes to digital music. But this won’t necessarily translate into profits for the streaming platforms this year, although their popularity will continue to rise. This could prove a watershed year for virtual reality, as headsets from Sony, Samsung and Facebook’s Oculus finally hit shelves. [Read More]

Investment Outlook: There was a healthy increase in entertainment investment in 2014 with some $1.6bn invested across 135 deals. Investment in video took up the largest share in both 2013 and 2014, topping $700m each time. [Read More]

 

7. Advertising

displayadThe content marketing approach to advertising is not going away and expect more blurring of the boundaries between advertising and editorial in 2015. Throw programmatic buying into the mix, alongside truly sophisticated targeting and marrying the three together this year will be the aim of most progressive advertisers. Don’t expect it to be easy though. Delivering the most-appropriate content to consumers is never easy. [Read More]

Investment Outlook: Investments will be in mobile-first ad startups, a new generation of analytics companies and a few anomalies that take a radically different approach. (Don’t ask us who the latter are…yet!). [Read More]

 

8. Fintech

fintechIf 2014 was about payment, lending and other alternative finance services beginning to gain significant traction with early adopters then this year we’ll see whether key fintech players can begin to crack the mainstream. Expect to see elements of the established finance industry and fintech startups working even more closely together. [Read More]

Investment Outlook: In 2014 $3.8bn was invested in the space, up some $2bn from that invested in 2013. In 2015 expect investors to look at emerging markets and companies that target the unbanked. [Read More]

 

9. Devices

tabletsInnovations in wearable tech and Internet of Things devices aside, there look to be few surprises in store in the traditional devices space this year. The smartphone space will remain a cut-throat business with razor-sharp margins for most. In the tablet space after years of accelerated growth the market will slow down. [Read More]

Investment Outlook: The wider hardware sector saw strong growth last year with investment more than quadrupling in 2014 to USD4.5bn compared to USD1.1bn in 2013. Notably, home-grown Chinese brands are becoming more powerful as such firms are now able to produce high quality products on their own. [Read More]

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