Well we’re just over halfway through 2016 – and what a year for tech! First, Apps for virtual reality took off, followed by large growths in both the IoT and SmartTV apps. HealthCare continues to be well served with new advances in management and reporting Custom SaaS. Then just recently, the AR game app Pokemon Go took the world by storm, showing us the true potential of this burgeoning market. We’ve even had a few surprises – like that of DuoLingo’s app for Edtech, TinyCards. TinyCards surprised us by acquiring nearly 10x the amount of users the Pokemon Go app has, and has proven the true potential of the Edtech Industry – but you can read all about that here. Instead, we want to take another look at some markets the clever entrepreneur should watch. But the truly astounding part of this blog isn’t Duolingo’s phenomenal success. It’s the fact that the three biggest markets we want to talk about aren’t insurgents. They are startups with a plucky attitude and a great idea. In fact, they’re more like industry giants. Long established markets that many entrepreneur has written-off as old news. Which markets are we talking about? 1. Social Media Websites and Apps 2. Ridesharing 3. Food Delivery Apps Surprising, right? But these markets are showing all the signs of growth – and money making potential. So without further ado, let’s dive into our first industry. Facebook, Twitter, and Social Media 10 short years ago, Twitter was just getting started – most entrepreneurs dismissed entirely. Facebook was barely 2 years old and still only served college students. Mark Zuckerberg was an unknown entity. But everyone was Friends with Tom and Myspace was booming. Today? Twitter provided momentum for the Arab Spring, toppling governments. Most marketers consider it an essential aspect to the success of any marketing campaign. People hold it up as the gold standard for user engagement. Facebook? Well. I just had to check if Myspace was still a website, so….yea… Also, as of yesterday, Facebook was having its best (half) year of all time. Let’s take a look at some their most startling closing Q2 numbers in 2016. ♦ In the 2015 Q2 numbers, FB had a net income of $719 million, not a bad number by any stretch of the imagination. But as of July 27th, 2016, FB’s revenue was up 186% to a whopping $2.055 billion. ♦ A 17% increase in Daily Active Users (plus a 22% increase in mobile users! Go Mobile First now!) to a total of $1.13 DAU. ○ 60 million users were added in Q2 2016 ALONE. ♦ A new all-time high stock price of $123.34 a share. So what does this mean to you, the entrepreneur? Well the Social Media game is not over. Social Media websites can fill a wide swath of purposes: shared hobbies, business networks (think LinkedIn), making new friends, etc. Social Media sites not only serve to grow and promote your brand, but it can be one of the greatest marketing tools to promote any brand. In other words, a SM site can make you money and grow your own presence at the same time. Sound like something you’d like to do? Check out some more great ideas for social media websites. And don’t forget – this is the age of mobility. Consider starting with a Social Media app to better position your startup. RideSharing Im going to admit to something here: with our main offices in Silicon Valley we tend to have a bias towards local US Tech news. But we have offices with marketers, salespeople and developers all over the globe who keep us abreast of the last happening in their area. Today’s example has already made global headlines, but any change that adds literally over 1 billion people to an already hot market needs to be discussed. China, as of Thursday, July 28th, has officially legalized Ridesharing service. While ride-sharing existed in China previously, its position was tenuous at best and not even really legal (funnily enough: it was still the world’s largest ridesharing market!!!). Without the approval of the Chinese government, services like Uber and DiDi were taking a huge risk operating in the area. But now, that risk is gone and all that remains is the planet’s highest populated country. To us in the US, these are always a rude awakening: there are huge parts of the world that are just now coming online (if at all). That means that most of the world still has the potential to become an app user. With China just legalizing ridesharing, we are bound to see a big uptick in rideshare apps based in China and elsewhere. The better news – these markets are saturated with rideshare apps like much of the US. In other words, nows your chance to make it big. After all, we know the business model uber has built succeeds – and we know how it works! GrubHub and The New Food Delivery Late July is the time for many a Q2 reports and if Facebook was surprising in how much it grew, how about a 26% overall growth for GrubHub? In three months. Yea, you read that right. If GrubHub continues to have this level of success, it will have either doubled or nearly doubled in size in about a year. GrubHub also broke their previous revenue generation, bringing in a full $120 million in Q2 alone! For the stock junkies out there, the profit-per-share for this company grew 37% – time to buy grubhub stock! 7.33 million people used Grubhub in the same period – a 24% increase from this time last year. So, clearly, this is a growth industry. Even better, there aren’t an excessive number of food delivery apps out there. Plus, much of the US (not to mention elsewhere, see above point!) still doesn’t have access to such a fantastic service. Once again, we find ourselves at the intersection of opportunity and possibilities. What do you need to get started? Inspiration, dedication, and the right development team on your side. No matter what your tech project is, we can help. Start Making Money Now! SDI knows how to leverage websites, apps, and software in a variety of industries, including the three mentioned above. We know how to make tech projects succeed, whether that’s an app like Pokemon Go or you just want to know how to build a Social Media app. Call us (408.621.8481 / 408.805.0495) or email us for a free consultation and quote.