Before the internet was first established nearly forty years ago, shopping online was probably as surreal and mind-blowing as magic spells at Hogwarts. Technology advancement now allows everyone to be a magician and shop online on either their phones or computers. With just a few clicks, merchandise is all set to be delivered directly to your doorstep.
Virtual real estate is booming, with sales topping US$500 million last year. In 2021, The Sandbox, the largest real estate metaverse, saw 65,000 virtual land transactions, totaling US$350 million. Meanwhile, Decentraland, the second-largest virtual world, saw 21,000 real estate transactions worth US$110 million last year.
At this point, it should come as no surprise to any of us that our entire lives are on the internet. If you run a business, chances are that you generate a lot of customer data with every sale you make. Besides that, you probably have report after report on how effective your sales plans have been, financial documents, employee records—the list can go on and on.
Blockchain technology is gaining more and more popularity with each passing day. In just a few years, blockchain has transformed from an unheard-of technology into a buzzword that is being applied to everything, such as supply chains and cybersecurity. Many startups are harnessing the power of blockchain to address unique needs in their respective industries.
If you follow the non-fungible token (NFT) space closely, you would know about the NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet ever. Dorsey sold his tweet to crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi back in 2021 and donated US$2.9 million earned from the sale to the nonprofit organization GiveDirectly’s Africa fund.
The metaverse—it’s not a sci-fi concept anymore! People are now working in virtual offices in the metaverse. It is a cloud-based, immersive social environment in which 3D avatars interact with one another. You could be on a beach in Thailand and still be able to attend that important meeting with your colleagues in the metaverse—work can take place wherever you are located.
Over the past few years, people across the globe have been transitioning to online shopping. As of 2021, 2.14 billion people are estimated to be shopping for goods and services on the internet, with e-commerce accounting for 19.6% of all retail sales worldwide. One of the companies contributing to the exponential growth of the e-commerce industry is Wish.
If you thought that you could only buy stocks from the stock market, you guessed wrong. Investors can also purchase stocks directly from the companies they wish to invest in. This is called over-the-counter (OTC) trading.
Billionaires, including Elon Musk and Mark Cuban, have waxed eloquent about meme coins. These are digital tokens that started as jokes but have since taken off in value. Some even credit meme coins for helping cryptocurrencies, in general, reach a larger audience.
The butterfly effect, a part of chaos theory (a branch of mathematics and mechanics that studies random or unpredictable events in complex systems), is a phenomenon wherein a small or seemingly unrelated event sets in motion the trajectory of something significant. It is fascinating to observe this phenomenon, especially in the dynamic realm of businesses.
Supercomputers may be our glimpse into the future. Renowned computer scientist John von Neumann proposed the term “technological singularity” to describe the point of development at which it is impossible to predict the changes that technology will bring to human civilization.
In the past, starting a business from scratch used to be an arduous process. Now, it is even more difficult to succeed as an entrepreneur, as the complexity and intensity of running a business are rising with time.
In April 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter, and one of the top tasks on his agenda is slashing jobs to cut costs. Netflix, too, has been laying off employees to cut costs after losing over 200,000 subscribers.
Despite cannabis (also known as weed or marijuana) being illegal in a large part of the world, the global cannabis market was worth US$28.26 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to US$197.74 billion by 2028. Gone are the days when venture capital firms would dismiss cannabis companies as problematic investments.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have been prominent features in Formula 1 (F1) racing since 2018. F1 has partnered with e-commerce giant Amazon to enhance its racing strategies, data tracking systems and digital broadcasts.
With more and more people holding cryptocurrencies today, the crypto crash of May 2022 has had severe financial consequences. Reliable currencies, including Bitcoin and Ether, met a terrible fate, as did stablecoins, amounting to losses of over US$300 billion.