Recent years have clearly shown that the time of online industries has arrived. Every year, new online sectors of the economy appear, and the existing ones conquer greater and greater pieces of the market.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important online industries, and the advances they made over the years.
Gaming Industry Is Going Online
The growth of the gaming industry is very clear and striking. At the moment, there are 2.7 billion gamers in the world, which is an increase of 500 million in the past three years. It is predicted that by the end of 2023, there will be an increase of another 400 million gamers.
It is incredible to think that today the gaming industry is larger than the movie and sports industries combined, as reported by The Hill. Last year, the industry was valued at $162.32 billion and is expected to reach the value of almost $300 billion over the next five years.
A big part of this growth has to do with the increased popularity of gaming consoles, but also with additional factors such as the incredible popularity of video game streamers on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch; the rise of eSports competitions; and finally, the improvements in smartphone technology and the global spread of fast internet connections, such as 5G. Also, some of today’s most known and played titles like WoW, Dota 2, League of Legends, Fortnite, or Minecraft are actually online multiplayer games.
What About the Good Old Retail Shops?
Even though at the moment, 90% of all retail sales are done in real-life stores, there are many indications this will change soon with more and more people turning to either starting their own e-shop or ordering goods online. Today, the US e-commerce market is worth more than $500 billion, and global e-commerce is worth around $4.2 billion.
These are huge numbers – which can be clearer if we consider that there are currently almost 2 billion people in the world who are online shoppers!
In the 2014-2021 period, the market experienced a growth rate of 265%, and the number of e-commerce users is expected to grow up to 2.1 billion by the end of this year – which is almost 30% of the global population. Some estimate that as soon as 2026, half of all retail sales will be done over the Internet.
Will Movie Theaters Survive?
Movie Theaters are not having the greatest of times right now. This is mostly due to the rise in the popularity of streaming services. This is how Chris Mark, one of the editors of Streaming Rant, explains it:
“The access of geo-restricted streaming platforms via VPNs is helping the streaming platform to grow rapidly worldwide. Moreover, the liberty to access your favorite content online at any time has accelerated the popularity of streaming platforms, which have finally taken over the movie theaters.”
This has also changed the behavior of movie studios. More and more studios are now considering releasing their movies not only in movie theaters, but also on streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney Plus. This often irritates the theaters, but also some filmmakers.
Still, it seems that there is no stopping now. Especially if we consider the amount of original and exclusive content streaming services offer.
More and More Online Casinos
Every year, online casinos take another piece of the global gambling market previously occupied by brick-and-mortar venues.
The reasons are many, but the most important one is convenience and a greater selection of games. Also, while land-based casinos have working hours, with online options, you can enjoy safe gambling whenever you want. With the latest tech improvements, you can also have more privacy, and with cryptocurrency, even in your financial transactions.
While traditional casino venues are struggling, online casinos are now globally popular, not only where this practice is popularized like in some parts of the Americas, Europe, or Australia, but even in traditionally more conservative countries like those in the Middle East region. This popularity gave rise to many useful online gambling guides that gather together all the relevant information gamblers can look for on the internet. For example, a guide such as ArabianBetting monthly helps over 50,000 Arabic-speaking punters in the Middle East and Maghreb region to find safe, secure, and discreet online betting sites. It seems internet gambling is here to stay.
You Can Even Enjoy Virtual Travelling
Of all the industries we are considering in this article, virtual tours are the furthest from becoming the more dominant option in the market, compared to their offline counterparts.
So far, virtual tours have often been promoted as a kind of additional marketing for the “real deal”. But there are signs that they could overcome their status as a mere “gimmick”. The technology advanced immensely, of course, but the problem is that it is not always very practical or cheap.
Still, on National Geographic, we can see virtual tours becoming a thing of their own, an experience that could be seen as an amalgamation of gaming and traveling. And it seems many people have just that opinion. As stated by Valeriy Kondruk, CEO of VR travel company Ascape, their business grew a lot last year. This is good news, as this way of experiencing new places has immense ecological advantages. Most of the new interest in virtual tours, so far, came from educators and those working in nursing homes.
The examples we went through in this article are striking enough, but the predictions are even more convincing: the future of the online economy is very bright.
We are sure that more and more industries will at least start offering online alternatives, if not completely switching to the internet market. It is very possible that what we have witnessed so far was only the dawn of the internet-based economy.
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