eSports continue to surge

eSports have momentum, especially with young demographics, perhaps most visibly in the Epic Games battle-royale phenomenon Fortnite, with the largest payer base and the biggest audience. In the month of August 2018, Epic Games hosted 78.3 million Fortnite players.

The eSports, which racked up 300 million viewers worldwide last year, is on track to surpass a billion dollars for the first time this year, across all markets, and not just from indirect revenue sources, like advertising and sponsorship. Merchandise sales, ticket sales, and other items that consumers purchase directly make up about a quarter of that income.

 In the first week of that same month, viewers on the social streaming platform Twitch watched an aggregate 28.5 million hours of Fortnite play. But as more broadcasters spend to fit eSports into their programming, they may learn that eSports — and the video game platforms on which the industry is built — are more complex than they appear.

The ‘mobile workforce’ will dominate the new economy

The Industrial Revolution was initiated through new technology — the steam engine — but its impact was felt widely across where people lived and worked, with whole new communities and social effects resulting. Cities, offices, suburbs, factories arose and, in time, the current technological revolution will have just as great an effect, making everyone as mobile as they wish to be.

Gig economy is re-shaping the workforce dynamics. Technology has fundamentally altered the nature and perception of work. Work and workforce are no more limited to the four walls of an organisation. The fourth industrial revolution will rejig workforce model in a manner which will disrupt and uproot already existing business models. Gig economy has become one of the leading frontiers in the HR industry, hinting towards a rapid change in the traditional sourcing and management of manpower. Times Jobs conducted a comprehensive survey on the rise of gig economy and its impact on HR fraternity. 

 New economies will grow away from cities and new social structures will evolve, enabled by this mobile, flexible and adaptive way of working. Requesting flexible working has become a legal right in some countries, and even where it isn’t, it’s becoming an essential for modern work and the only way to compete for the best people in an increasingly febrile “war for talent”.

Personalised Nutrition becomes a thing

One of the most promising developments, and one we predict will become increasingly visible in 2019, is personalised nutrition based on your gut microbiome. Diet and nutrition advice tends to be delivered at a population level (e.g. five-a-day, eat more fibre), but the more we understand about the gut, the more we discover that a one-size-fits-all approach to diet doesn’t work.

 Biotech companies like Viome and Atlas Biomed have been promoting at-home gut testing for a couple of years as a way of finding out more about your gut and what to eat, and this year Carbiotix became the first company to release a low cost gut microbiome test.

 In 2019, Project Sapiens — a team led by geneticist Tim Spector and including some of the best artificial intelligence experts in the UK — will release a test that uses machine learning to help people understand how their body responds to specific foods.

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the science of understanding and manipulating materials on a nanometre scale. A nanometer is just one billionth of a metre, or the length of a few atoms placed end-to-end. Already nanotechnology is being used in the production of some microprocessors, batteries, computer displays, paints and cosmetics. But this really is just the begnning of a manufacturing and medical revolution.

The Nanotechnology is defined as the study and use of structures between 1 nanometer and 100 nanometers in size. To give you an idea of how small that is, it would take eight hundred 100 nanometer particles side by side to match the width of a human hair. While this is the most common definition of nanotechnology researchers with various focuses have slightly different definitions.

There are many different points of view about the nanotechnology. These differences start with the definition of nanotechnology. Some define it as any activity that involves manipulating materials between one nanometer and 100 nanometers. However the original definition of nanotechnology involved building machines at the molecular scale and involves the manipulation of materials on an atomic (about two-tenths of a nanometer) scale.

Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering alters the traits of living organisms by changing the information encoded in their DNA. This may involve the creation of genetically modified (GM) plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as the development of genetic medicine. Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the direct manipulation of an organism's genes using biotechnology.

The term genetic engineering initially referred to various techniques used for the modification or manipulation of organisms through the processes of heredity and reproduction. As such, the term embraced both artificial selection and all the interventions of biomedical techniques, among them artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization (e.g., “test-tube” babies), cloning, and gene manipulation.

In the latter part of the 20th century, however, the term came to refer more specifically to methods of recombinant DNA technology (or gene cloning), in which DNA molecules from two or more sources are combined either within cells or in vitro and are then inserted into host organisms in which they are able to propagate.

Digital Banking takes off

Digital banking is the digitization (or moving online) of all the traditional banking activities and programs that historically were only available to customers when physically inside of a bank branch. This includes activities like: i)Money Deposits, Withdrawals, and Transfers, ii)Checking/Saving Account, iii)Management, iv)Applying for Financial Products, v)Bill Pay, vi)Account Services,vii)Loan Management.

Between 2017 and 2018 there was a 24% increase in digital transactions, with more than two-thirds of millennials in the US using their smartphone as a wallet. This is creating an environment where traditional financial institutions are implementing innovative digital banking solutions, while start-ups grow at a rapid rate due to the demand from venture capitalists to invest in fintech.

online banking primarily focuses on remote deposits, money transfers, bill pay, and basic online management of accounts. Other synonyms for online banking include internet banking, virtual banking, and e-banking. So, online banking focuses on digitizing the “core” aspects of banking, but digital banking encompasses digitizing every program and activity undertaken by financial institutions and their customers.