Last Updated on February 29, 2024
It is always interesting to discover which industries will leap to the forefront as each year passes by. For the past few years, the cryptocurrency industry has jumped from huge obscurity straight into the public limelight thanks to the Bitcoin boom.
2018 saw public-use drones become popular throughout the western world, although the incident at Gatwick Airport in December 2018 somewhat soured public drone use.
Although it is hard to establish which industries will boom in the future, (nobody really predicted the huge spike in cryptocurrency prices) you can use trends to predict which industries are likely to become big in the future. These are our tips on the industries that we think are likely to boom in 2021.
1. Veganism
“The vegan market is just getting started” – Food Industry Report
The vegan lifestyle is a trend that is growing year in year out in the western world. People are turning to a plant based diet for health reasons as well as to combat a downward swing in successful animal welfare. Veganism is of course a diet based primarily on plants, fruit and oats. A vegan diet contains no animal products and vegans don’t eat foods that come from animals, including dairy products and eggs.
2016 was hailed as the year of veganism but its increasing popularity ensures that the consumption of vegan products is no longer a marginilised social movement – it is cruelty free and by many estimations, much healthier than a meat or dairy based diet.
Plant based milks, especially, have become extremely popular – so much so that that even non vegans/vegetarians have switched from cow’s milk to one of the numerous vegan milks that are on supermarket shelves.
According to Reuters, scientists in London have declared that an ideal diet for the health of the planet and its people includes a doubling of fruit and vegetables and a halving of meat intake. It has also been suggested that eating less meat is essential to curbing climate change.
As more and more people become aware of the advantages for both their own health as well as that of the planets of switching to a vegan diet, there will be a greater demand for vegan products as well as vegan restaurants.
In large European cities such as London, Barcelona and Prague, vegan restaurants have sprung up throughout the metropolises. In one of the most vegan friendly countries in the world – Portugal – vegan options in all public institutions and eateries are required by law.
In truth, the vegan industry has been close to booming for several years now. Whilst the meat and dairy industries have been constantly looking to put down and criticize the advantages of an all vegan diet for many years now, it looks as though veganism is set to become a mainstream lifestyle choice for millions more people in 2019.
2. Esports
“The Esports gaming and gambling industry is about to explode in 2021.” – EsportsOnly
Esports; the sport of competitive video gaming. If you still think that video gaming is something that immature teenagers do in their dank bedrooms then you should think again.
The video gaming industry itself is worth billions of dollars whilst the popularity of esports has gone through the roof within the past few years. For a long time, esports operated in a niche, but thanks to streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, the esports industry has exploded into a sea of popularity.
Unlike a lot of sports, esports has absolutely no limits. The internet allows an American player in America to play against a South Korean player in South Korea. Twitch and YouTube allow people to live stream themselves playing video games to an audience whilst YouTube allows content creators to build a fan base and sow their content to millions of people worldwide.
Esports have attracted massive followings. The most popular esports – the likes of League of Legends, Counter Strike and Dota 2 are watched my hundreds of millions of people every year.
The League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational, for example, was watched by 360 million unique viewers – almost three times more than the amount of people who watched the Super Bowl. Although not all forms of esports gather such large audience numbers, each game has its own loyal fan base and the numbers are increasing.
One of the biggest drivers of the esports industry is brand sponsorship. Esports is primarily watched and played by millennials – a notoriously difficult generation to market too.
Not only this, but the fact that esports tournaments are drawing audiences that number into the hundreds of millions creates a fantastic opportunity for brands to advertise themselves to millennial consumers who are hooked on video games.
On top of this, emerging tech means that playing and watching esports and video games becomes more and more enjoyable at every passing year. There are also rumours that esports will soon be made into an Olympic sport whilst the Asian games have already introduced esports into their list of events. But take our word for it, esports is here to stay and there is no ceiling for how large it can become.
3. Artificial Intelligence
“Artificial Intelligence is expected to be the most impactful technology on commerce.” – Forbes
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a new concept. Ever since the Terminator films, the world has been aware of AI. However, unlike the Terminator films, AI has helped humanity – for the time being at least.
The AI industry has been on the peak of the big time for several years now. Currently, the technology is not quite at a high enough level for AI to be able to influence the average person’s life to such an extent that they sit up and take notice.
However, as technology in general continues to improve, so will AI. AI refers to technologies capable of performing tasks normally requiring human intelligence. Siri, Google Now and Cortana are all examples of AI.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates predicted that the interfacing with computers would eventually be via voice and we are starting to see that prediction turn into reality.
“We are at the point of a big transformation,” stated Patrick Gauthier, the Vice President of Amazon Pay at the end of 2018. “With voice we are going to see different complimentary experiences emerge.” It goes without saying that AI will make human life easier.
At the same time, there are those who think that AI will replace jobs that humans are doing – thus causing a higher level of unemployment.
Whilst others even think that if humans are not careful, AI will cause the eventual extinction of humanity – Elon Musk being one of these. Although, Musk has recently announced a $1 billion initiative to develop and adopt a safe AI.
4. Eco-Friendly Items and Packaging
“2021 can be an amazing year for growth and discovery.” – Inhabitat
Environmentally friendly initiatives are currently all the range. With the constant global warming warnings, the huge amount of plastic in our oceans and on-going deforestation, a greater number of people have come to realise the extent of the damage that human-beings are causing upon Earth. It is because of this why environmentally friendly items and packaging are becoming ever more popular to consumers.
It should be painfully obvious now that one use-only plastic is littering and destroying the eco-systems of Earth’s oceans. Coral reefs are dying at an extremely unnatural rate, as are the animals that call the oceans their homes. Therefore, more and more businesses that are looking to address and even take advantage of the problem of pollution and global warming are opening.
Alternative plastics are one of the biggest sellers within the eco-friendly items industry. Plastic requires a huge amount of petroleum to produce, never breaks down and is probably the number one reason for all the waste problems currently seen in the world.
Consumers all over the world have begun switching from plastic produced items to plastic alternatives. Thanks to this trend, lots of companies have begun using environmentally conscious packaging whilst the one that are not switching risk being labeled and boycotted.
Thankfully, an increasing amount of consumers now prefer to pay a little more for their goods if it means that they are not contributing to the planets destruction. The number of people buying these products will continue to rise in the future meaning that companies that sell environmentally friendly products will see an increased sales trend in 2021.
5. Green Energy
“An exciting time for green energy advancements.” – BlueAndGreenTomorrow
2021 should be a very exciting year for green energy advocates and companies. Major companies now realise that it is good for their brand and their reputations to focus on sustainable methods and are therefore switching to environmentally conscious products.
Green data centers especially are expected to come into the public domain in 2021 as more and more technology industries beef up their efforts to become environmentally friendly.
Green data centers are a type of server facility that uses energy efficient technologies. Green data centers take advantage of newer and more efficient technologies and do not contain obsolete systems such as underused servers.
With the huge growth in internet usage across the globe, the power that is needed in data centers has increased substantially. This has resulted in large environmental impact and has increased pressure on companies to react and follow a green policy.
Other forms of green energy such as solar panels, wind power and clean battery systems are also set to become more mainstream.
Advancements in technology have meant that green energy initiatives are now easier and less expensive to implement than they once were. Although green energy still has a long way to go, 2021 could be the year for this industry to take off.