With billionaires Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos making their way to outer space, space travel became a hot topic in 2021. The increased interest in space is also evident in the fact that space infrastructure companies saw US$14.5 billion in investments in 2021, a 50% increase from 2020.
After years of research, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a part of our society. From automated customer service representatives to cars that can drive themselves on the road. And now, the technology is being used to address one of the world’s most pressing concerns: mental health.
Two internet buzzwords that have recently fueled the internet world are “Web 3.0” and “metaverse”. Seeing the potential these new platforms offer, many companies are exploring the possibility that Web 3.0 and metaverse technologies have to offer. While both technology trends are describing our digital reality and the future of the web, they are different in what they do and how they go about it.
Entrepreneurship is a tough journey, especially for women who have to go head-to-head with way more challenges. Despite a long history of adversity, women continue to leave a legacy of perseverance and tenacity. This isn’t something we say; it’s the numbers that speak. In the past two decades, the number of women entrepreneurs has risen by 114%. As of 2021, women account for 252 million of the world’s 582 million entrepreneurs.
In theory, sleeping less ought to be a blessing for those who have too much to do and too little time. You have more time to be productive and get things done. It would aid in long-term success, as they would be doing more than those who are fast asleep, right?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine threw the stock market into a frenzy. Oil prices shot up, with one barrel costing over US$100 for the first time since 2014. The cost of food grains, including wheat and soybean, rose, as did the fear among investors. While gold prices surged, many others fell sharply, thus resulting in investors losing huge sums of money. Where many saw—and experienced—losses, some saw opportunity. They decided to buy the dip.
Decentralized financing (DeFi) is a way of taking banking outside the control of traditional financial institutions. It has emerged as a new and revolutionary way of investing funds with quicker transaction speeds. As of January 2022, US$92.3 billion of value is locked in on DeFi platforms.
In January this year, the crypto market experienced a massive crash and lost a total of US$1 trillion in value. With this crash came the fear of the onset of crypto winter, where the prices of cryptocurrencies drop with no upswing in sight. While the fear has since subsided, the crypto market has been experiencing a crash amid growing conflict in Ukraine.
Launching a company is a major undertaking. You need to build a team, find clients and keep the business running smoothly. Above all, you need funds! But not all startups have unlimited budgets to do it. Most startups are bootstrapped, or self-funded.
If you can play games, work together and hang out at concerts as virtual avatars in the metaverse, then sex doesn’t seem too far off the mark, right? According to a game development theory called “Time to Penis” (TTP), every platform or game has a certain time period before users find out how to create a penis on it.
The crypto market had a great run through 2021. In November, its market capitalization hit US$3 trillion, and Bitcoin reached an all-time high of US$68,000. However, jumping into 2022, the market has experienced some roadblocks. On January 14, Bitcoin fell by 12% to US$36,000, dropping to its new lows since July 2021. Bitcoin’s crash saw a parallel fall in other cryptocurrencies as well, resulting in a total of US$1 trillion being wiped out of the crypto market.
Imagine signing in to your class, but instead of joining a Zoom meeting, you enter a virtual world where you can choose your avatar, play games with your peers and earn points for assignments done well. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Well, that’s the concept behind gamified education technology (EdTech).
The fashion industry is always on top of the game, quickly adapting to any innovative technologies that might come its way. From using virtual influencers to promoting their products to creating their own metaverses, fashion retailers have been actively expanding their horizons. On February 14 this year, we saw the launch of the metaverse fashion week in the Second Life metaverse.
In the early 2000s, the multiplayer online game Club Penguin was a new age internet phenomenon. You could buy outfits for your customizable penguin avatar and decorate your igloo any way you wanted. You also had the ability to chat and interact with others through various social scenarios in the game.
Burnout is something we have all experienced at some point in our work lives. But what we may not be aware of is that factors outside of work, such as a pandemic, can also aggravate work-related stress and our coping mechanisms or resilience against it.
From being named word of the year to becoming a romantic Valentine’s Day gift idea, NFTs have become more and more mainstream in the past year.