Frost & Sullivan to unveil 12 megatrends that will dominate till 2025

Frost & Sullivan is set to reveal radical future concepts in an analysis titled ‘World’s Top Global Mega Trends To 2025 and Implications to Business, Society and Cultures” on 14 May in London. By 2020, personal robots ranging between US$1,500 and US$4,500 could enter our lives, while technologies such as 3D printing could likely generate revenue of US$7.1 billion, the company said.

The new report, which also includes the rise of wearable devices and virtual currencies, details 12 new megatrends that will drive growth and innovation in the world. Said Archana Amarnath, Programme Manager, Visionary Innovation Research Group: “We are not only seeing new trends such as wearable devices, 3D printing, and virtual currencies. Mature trends such as urbanisation are rapidly evolving and changing patterns with the new world, thereby creating new business models and value chain networks in the future.”

One megatrend will be that of the “Internet of things” in the home, work, and city environments which will bring huge opportunities for growth. Frost & Sullivan values this ecosystem — comprising the connected home, work, and city — at US$731.70 billion by 2020, with the connected city segment accounting for over 50% of the revenue. The megatrend will offer "immense opportunity" to telecom, M2M and software vendors who will be experimenting with different types of new business models, the company said.

New business models will emerge as an important megatrend, defining ways for businesses to monetise new opportunities. Different types of business models can be witnessed among different stakeholder relationships – from business-to-consumer (B2C) to business-to-business (B2B) to government-to-business (G2B). 

Some of these business models can be disruptive or transformative and may result in a potential collapse of firms in the industry, Frost & Sullivan noted. For example, ‘sharing’ business models such as peer-to-peer money lending and car sharing have already led to a transformation in the financial services and mobility industries. New digital media models like on-demand or streaming services such as Netflix or Roku are already being seen as a serious threat that could lead to the potential collapse of the traditional broadcasting industry.