Looking in the Crystal Ball for 2007 – A e-Business Perspective

(Europe – Stockholm, Sweden) One week into the year 2007 and we still have not seen anything spectacular in the world of e-business. I guess people are still digesting the Christmas season and by tomorrow things will get back to normal. I must say that I expect much from this year. The end of last year turned up the heat for the e-business world with the YouTube-Google deal. What can we expect from this year then? Let us look at the crystal ball.

e-Trade: The e-trade is steadily growing year by year. This year will be no exception. As more people get used to using credit cards for e-shopping the more the market will grow. The flexibility of e-trade is turning shopping into a heaven for budget conscious consumers. I also think that companies will improve their e-trade offerings and flows. Most sellers are still learning how to create the perfect shopping experience. One of the companies that I think sets the standard is Nike. Check out their website, you can even customize your own shoes, bags and clothes. Cool stuff.

3G: Mobile telephony is moving into the next phase. As Sweden is one of the leading markets in Europe when it comes to mobile telephony I am seeing some interesting development the last month or so. Telenor, one of the Nordic operators says that they will only sell 3G phones in their stores. So the shift that everyone in the business has been waiting for has started. Much has to be done but at least I am noticing some activity. So the 3G market will move up, more and more people will use the 3G nets, but not for data, just for talking. The pricing of data use is ridiculously high and until it comes down, we will see a low use of data.

Mobile solutions: The gadget world has produced many interesting products last year and it will continue to do so. We see more and more products with WiFi and WiMax solutions. Small portable games such as PSP or Game Boy and more Blackberry looked devices. I think that this will make producers of mobile services a nice incentive to step up their efforts of creating exciting new services, but do not expect much to happen until the end of this year.

Web 2.0: The Web 2.0-fication of the Internet will continue with increased speed. It is like throwing out the old and updating with the new. The interesting fact is that the revolutionary solutions are coming from one or two people companies. Flickr is one of my favorite services that were started by photograph enthusiast. I am wondering though; will one of the big companies, such as Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft create the next big thing?

Communities: More communities for 2007. What I see is happening is just the fact that the community world is getting scattered. Like flies to honey a community is created on a weekly basis. The fact is though that they are specializing on one or more topics such as music, video, traveling etc. This is one of the many proofs I see of MySpace decreased world domination. Even though it is a great service with constantly evolving technology there is a magic wand of people’s boredom. Just as communities previous to MySpace suddenly lost their appeal the same will happen to MySpace, but of course in a much slower pace. So for this year, keep a look out for the next big community, or more correctly for the many new communities. I think that we will not again see the size of MySpace in one community.

Video: As video became popular 2006 it will continue to increase in popularity for the whole of 2007. More and more YouTube sites will appear but it will be just like the MySpace it will be the king of Internet for a long time to come. My experience with sites like YouTube is that the one that has the most content wins. I keep visiting that site time after time even though other sites are giving me a better user experience. Video blogging is a phenomenon that will take off this year but the problem is that the content that is produced by these blogs are just as many written blogs, weak in content. What I mean by that is that what is said in these blogs is interesting for just a handful people. An interesting phenomenon that will definitely increase this year is the fact that video blogs will lead to more and more people becoming famous and even getting into mainstream media as reporters, presenters etc. So, for this year, keep the look out for more video content.

TV: TV on the Web is the next big thing. Why shall I as a viewer being forced to watch whatever is being presented. There is at least one interesting project that we know of that will probably have a big impact on the TV world, the Venice Project by the Skype founders. This development combined with the YouTube phenomenon is creating a new and interesting world. Combine this with the 3G platform and it make a very interesting 2007. So, more media and more freedom of TV for this year.

Music: The digital music field will keep growing as more and more legal sites are being introduced. I think it is not a fair off bet that music will grow at least with 25% this year.

e-Government: More and more governments are realizing that the digital world is bringing them many advantages. This development will increase during the year all over EU and the US but do not expect miracles. Things in these sectors happen slowly.

Virtual Worlds: The leading virtual community Second Life saw a great leap in number of new users during 2006 and has now over one million registered users. The virtual worlds are according to my opinion and research a sleeping bear. The benefits for all parties, particularly for companies are so high that I expect it to have a big impact on the way companies conduct business. An example is the way business traveling will change in favor for virtual meetings. In this year I expect the virtual worlds to continue growing but we are still at the early adoption phase.

So all these areas have a great future for 2007, but I must say it is fairly easy to predict such a development since all areas have already seen growth. So if I would pick a wild card for this year I would say that the world of news will be attacked. We can already see with blogs and podcast how news are spreading beyond established media, but this time we will have bigger impact since more and more video-news are produced. Check this site to see what I am talking about (http://aliveinbaghdad.org/category/video/). This site is made by Brian Conley that saw online video not just as another medium for entertainment, but as a vehicle to drive home the impact of the Iraq war on ordinary civilians. Through interviews with Iraqis and images taken by Iraqis themselves, Alive in Baghdad gives online viewers a unique window into a war zone. It won best video blog at the first annual Vloggies held in San Francisco on Nov. 4 2006. So what do you think will be the big thing for 2007?