2013 starts very strong and time is already a precious resource. Some notes on what I am interested in:
– Redefinition of Employment:
Crisis may recede, but long term changes to employment structure will not. Rise of the Robot Economy.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2012/12/10/1303512/the-robot-econ…
Information employment less stable (as detrimental to knowledge expansion)
Possible impacts: Underwriting, Lending Structure
Robots distrupt music (courtesy of parkparadigm)
– Redefinition of Ownership:
As employment is less stable, alternative source of revenue in leveraging existing assets. Compounded with diminution of Marketplace costs. Implies rise of the Sharing Economy / Collaborative Consumption:
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/01/from_zipcar_to_the_sharing_e…
Possible impacts: Underwriting, Lending Structure, Redefinition of Merchants and their Financial Services, Increase importance of Insurance
– Redefinition of Commerce
Physical Goods becoming Digital (books as best example), Distribution of remaining Physical Goods becoming mostly Digital. Physical distribution frictions reduced for Advice to compete.
Death of the existing physical retail structure:http://qz.com/39035/the-largest-retailers-in-the-us-do-not-l…
Possible impacts: Acquiring and POS systems, Risk Management, Payment Pricing Structure, Digital Pricing, Real Estate Financing, Currencies
– Redefinition of Production
3D printing, direct sourcing in Asia, lowered production costs (?). Will we see same change in hardware startups as in digital startups?
http://www.wired.com/business/2012/12/hardware-funding/
Possible impacts: Alternative forms of financing, Embedding of id and payments, International Payments and FX, Escrow services
– Rise of Alternative currencies
Gap between existing currencies, underlying payment/compensation systems and digital age potential is becoming too important to remain for a long time. While existing and imperfect payment methods are commoditized, alternative currencies will strive on their capacity to challenge existing status quo of imperfect payment.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/bitcoinc…
Possible impacts: Payment, Merchants, Risk Management, FX, …