Economic and Regulatory Trends (6A)

1^st trend (economic)

Economic Trend: Emerging markets will continue to tread water, as debt reaches new peaks

Link: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/global-growth-stabilized-2020/ (bottom of the page)

- I believe an opportunity exists as some of its factors that say emerging markets are in trouble are dependent on China, and commodity prices which are stated to be short term issues. If they are short term issues than emerging markets still have the opportunity of being able to grow and that these issues are “bumps” in the road

- I think the prototypical customer would be entrepreneurs, investors, or companies looking at new markets to develop or start in.

- If they are able to survive the short-term issues, it could be a 50/50 split between easy and hard to exploit as they would be the first ones to be able to create companies, products, jobs and revenue in those emerging markets with little competition. However they would still need to be wary of government and culture environments there.

- I saw this information as more of an incentive to risk going into these emerging markets to see if you can breakthrough and start something. While others seeing this information might stay away, I see this as a chance for someone to take advantage and get in “early on the action”. I have a belief that as long as nothing ridiculous globally happens, and stability comes into place, markets, nations, and economies will continue to grow overtime.

2^nd trend (economic)

Economic Trend: Housing

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/06/05/major-economic-trends-all-downbeat/#2199b55f13fe

- It think an opportunity exists as with housing being so expensive as noted in living/ rent costs, and house prices in general, a price correction in the housing markets will allow people who couldn’t afford to buy to be able to get in.

- The customer would be potential house buyers, and real estate investors.

- I would say relatively easy to exploit as compared to house prices today, getting the house at a lower price means a safer purchase or investment, and you then can profit if housing surges again, or the value of your homes goes up if you are a buyer.

- The opportunity exists as when the housing crash happened, a year later my family was able to buy the home we wanted at a ridiculous “discount.” Many were unfortunate to lose their homes, but we were able to actually buy a home that fit our needs. While many might not want to catch a “falling knife” in housing as uncertainty can loom, I see hosing prices going down as the opportunity to buy.

3^rd trend (regulatory)

Regulator Trend: Technology/Data Security

 Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/waynerash/2019/12/19/regulation-in-2020--new-ways-the-government-will-affect-your-business/#5a35633d3f23

-I believe an opportunity exists because in the growing and expansive use of technology and transferring information through technology, a big issue affecting millions is data security. Many breaches have happened recently, and cyber-attacks continue to grow that affect everyone.

-Customers would be people that use the internet, technology/ data companies, government, businesses

-I say it wouldn’t be easy to exploit as one would need to be ready to invest a lot of time and resources to effectively protect data. There would also be a lot of regulation into how the data is being secured and if the ones inventing these solutions are to be trusted.

- I see this opportunity as I don’t really see that many people that are aware or scared of data breaches, even though they are happening at a very large scale and rate. People don’t usually think about getting hacked, or information about them being stolen online until they are affected by it somehow, which is why some might not see this as an opportunity.

4^th trend (regulatory)

Regulatory Trend: Privacy Regulation Will Reshape Personalization.

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2020/01/03/7-predictions-for-retail-this-year/#9471f5c78614

- I believe there is an opportunity here as privacy over the internet has become a big issue for everyone that uses the internet recently. Businesses want to know how to get information on internet users to help them sell online, through advertising, but that also leads into practices that could harm users and businesses if information is breached, which it has been.

- The customers would be internet users, e-commerce businesses, businesses that use the internet and online advertising agencies as well.

- This opportunity wouldn’t be easy to exploit as user privacy would be heavily regulated, and the ability to get useful information for business advertising would become extremely difficult.

- The opportunity is present as the challenges faced almost make it seem impossible to be able to get good information for advertising purposes. However there are always going to be loopholes that businesses can go through in order to get information, or they can come up with more generic ways of getting information and then “specify” is to cater to every user they want to reach through seeing sales demographics, memberships, and loyalty programs.