Travel
It will come as no surprise that the global travel sector has been hit extremely hard by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Planes everywhere are grounded, beaches and restaurants sit empty, and people everywhere wonder when things may return to normal.
According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the global travel and tourism sector accounts for 10.3% of global gross domestic product and supports 330 million jobs worldwide. From car rental companies to hotels, there is no corner of the travel sector that has been untouched by the pandemic.
Even though countries around the world are beginning to ease lockdowns and discuss how to reopen responsibly, COVID-19’s impact on the global travel sector has been staggering. The U.S. Travel Association expects a $519 billion decline in travel spending in the U.S. in 2020, with travel-related job losses reaching eight million by the end of April alone.
These projections, though undeniably bleak, do not capture the long-term trajectory of the travel sector.
In the short-term, travel-related businesses are going to suffer mightily. In the long-term, however, the pandemic will end and people will start traveling again. The pandemic will not erase the essential need for travel, but it will change how we travel. Industry experts anticipate that technology will play an increasingly important role in helping to limit physical contact between people and surfaces.
Airports, for instance, are likely going to increasingly implement new technologies that provide for a less crowded and more touchless travel experience. Airports were already moving in this direction, but the painful lessons of COVID-19 will accelerate the transition.
Amid all the doom and gloom, it is important to note that massive disruptions, though terribly painful, ultimately ignite innovation and drive creative problem solving.
Airbnb was founded in 2008, in the depths of the Great Recession, and became a wildly popular solution to the problem of soaring rent prices. By 2018, Airbnb owned about 20% of the entire U.S. consumer lodging market.
The global travel sector is down, but not out. New companies will emerge from this crisis and disrupt the sector in ways we cannot anticipate, and established companies will need to innovate, streamline, and modernize in order to draw customers back. In this space, there may be opportunities for intrepid investors.
For those interested in the investment potential of this crucial sector, there are a few key points to understand.
What Makes up the Travel Industry?
The travel sector is vast and contains many industries, including transportation, lodging, food and beverage, entertainment, and more. Travel may be domestic (within one’s home country) or international (outside of one’s home country), and may be for pleasure (tourism) or business.
The economic significance of the travel sector is enormous. For example, international and domestic travelers in the U.S. directly spent about $1.1 trillion in 2019. This spending supported 15.8 million jobs and generated $179.7 billion in tax revenue.
In comparison, in 2019, U.S. consumers spent about $400 billion on consumer technology and about $460 billion on new vehicles.
As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), the travel sector’s weight varies significantly from country to country. For example, 2.9% of the U.S.’s GDP is attributed to travel, while 15% of Spain’s GDP and 13% of Italy’s GDP are attributed to travel.
The immediate economic impacts of the pandemic lockdown will be most acutely felt in countries where travel spending represents a large portion of overall GDP, and governments around the world are scrambling to develop recovery plans to prevent layoffs and bankruptcies. In mid-April, U.S. airlines agreed to a deal with the federal government for about $25 billion in assistance in exchange for airlines continuing to pay employees through September 30th. 70% of this federal assistance comes in the form of a one-time cash grant that does not need to be repaid, while the remaining 30% comes in the form of low-interest loans that must be repaid over 10 years.
The Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said in a statement that the agreement would “help preserve the strategic importance of the airline industry while allowing for appropriate compensation to the taxpayers.”
Why Invest in Travel?
The travel sector is in survival mode at the moment. The name of the game at this point is to maximize efficiency and raise enough money to cover costs while the pandemic runs its course.
Government assistance will help in the short-term, but in the long-term people will need to start traveling again in order for businesses to stay afloat. Looking at the situation pessimistically, it is possible that a prolonged shutdown will lead to a recession, and people travel less during recessions.
On the other hand, if the pandemic is brought under control in the near future, it is also possible that demand for travel will increase sharply. Another possibility is one in which demand for domestic travel increases while demand for international travel stays low.
There is some evidence that this last possibility may be the most likely. After easing lockdowns and reopening the economy, domestic air travel in China has doubled over the past two months.
After weeks (and in some places, months) of lockdown, people everywhere are eager to leave their homes. One recent survey of 2,000 travelers found that for 82% of respondents, travel was only temporarily paused, and 42% would be ready to make travel reservations if there were no deposits required or cancellation fees.
There is still enthusiasm and demand for travel, but the timing of when and how travelers can make their plans a reality remains to be seen. For investors interested in capitalizing on a resurgent travel market, it will be crucial to stay informed and keep a close eye on public sentiment, easing or tightening of government travel restrictions, and the market’s ability to meet demand when it returns.
How to Invest in Travel
Naturally, investing in an industry in crisis can be risky, but travel-related ETFs and mutual funds allow investors to access the space without tying them to any one company. A search on Magnifi suggests there are a number of ways to gain access to the travel segment via these funds.
Unlock a World of Investing with a Magnifi Investment Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the April 30, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Forestry
One of the more interesting quotes often attributed to famed investor Warren Buffett concerns planning for the future: “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Forests take decades to grow and mature and only moments to destroy. Properly managing a forest involves meeting the economic necessities of the present while laying the groundwork for ecological health and economic potential into the future. Forests provide countless, critical ecosystem services, including storing and purifying water, stabilizing soil and preventing erosion, capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and fostering biodiversity.
Forests also provide significant economic benefits, including timber for construction, wood pulp for paper, and firewood for heating and cooking.
Historically, the ecosystem services and economic benefits of forests have often been in conflict with each other, with people often placing short-term economic benefits above long-term ecosystem health, ultimately at the cost of both.
For a recent example of this conflict, look no further than the 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires. In an attempt to clear land for cattle grazing, ranch owners across the shrinking Amazon rainforest lit fires that quickly spread out of control, burning an estimated 2.3 million acres of forest and darkening the midday sky of cities hundreds of miles away.
Forests must be carefully managed in order to provide mankind with crucial economic benefits while also performing essential ecological functions. Millions of acres of burned rainforest may provide ranchers with a temporary economic boom in terms of a larger grazing area, but the long-term effects of haphazardly clearing forests result in dire ecological and economic costs.
Professionals in the forestry industry work to achieve a sustainable balance between the environmental and economic demands placed on forests. Though the management of forests is a very old profession indeed, the forestry industry is currently in the midst of a rapid modernization as business and environmental interests implement technological innovations that increase profitability and improve ecological health.
This modernization is especially significant because of the role forests play in fighting climate change. Forestry professionals are looking to innovation to help them do more with less, and the growing urgency to address climate change will likely mean that innovation will be highly valued.
For those interested in the investment potential of this important industry, there are a few key points to understand.
What is forestry?
The North Carolina Forestry Association defines forestry as “The art and science of managing forests to produce various products and benefits including timber, wildlife habitat, clean water, biodiversity and recreation.”
As an industry, forestry is vast, encompassing a multitude of business operations concerned with harvesting, transporting, refining, and distributing forest products. Deeper still is the underlying machinery and technology that make modern forestry possible. 100+ years ago, harvesting timber often involved men felling trees with axes or saws and transporting the timber to a sawmill via mule train. These days, timber is often harvested using cutting-edge technology, such as the cut-to-length (CTL) harvesting method. With CTL harvesting, specialized equipment cuts, cleans, and loads logs for transport in a matter of seconds, all while operators are safely inside the machine cabs and away from falling branches and dangerous terrain.
There is a growing movement in the forestry industry towards what is referred to as “precision forestry.” Precision forestry is an approach to managing forests that utilizes advanced technology to unlock greater economic and environmental value through improved information gathering and operational control.
For instance, lidar is a cutting-edge surveying technology that uses lasers to generate extremely detailed maps. After mapping a forested area using lidar, forestry professionals are able to accurately estimate the quantity of standing timber, as well as where the access road should be built and which machinery should be brought in to do the job. Better information through technologies like lidar means that forest managers are able to make decisions that improve cost-efficiency and minimize environmental damage.
When combined with other cutting-edge technologies, such as drones, soil sensors, and IoT-integrated devices throughout the harvesting and reforesting process, precision forestry is set to unlock significant value across the forestry industry.
Why invest in forestry?
While the accelerated adoption of advanced technologies is likely to improve cost-efficiency and drive innovation across the forestry industry in the coming years, current trends indicate that the industry faces tough headwinds. The demand for construction lumber, which surged in the years following the Great Recession, is waning, and domestic producers are facing increased competition from foreign lumber firms.
In the U.S., industry performance is highly correlated with the strength of the housing market: a robust housing market usually means more new homes and an increased demand for wood products.
For instance, Weyerhaeuser (the largest forest product company in the U.S.) experienced a sharp stock price drop as a result of the Great Recession and the collapsing housing market, from a high of $86 per share in early 2007 to a low of $15 per share in mid-2010.
U.S. revenues from forest products in 2019 totaled about $128 billion, and revenues from exports of forest products in 2019 totaled about $16 billion. Paper mills, which currently comprise the single largest segment of the U.S. forestry market, are forecast to see revenue decrease by -2.6% annually over the next five years. Sawmills and wood production, the second-largest segment, are forecast to see revenue increase by 1.1% annually over the next five years.
The segment with the fastest projected growth is prefabricated home manufacturing (think mobile or modular homes), which is forecast to see revenue increase by only 2.2% annually over the next five years – a sharp decline from the 8.6% annual growth the segment saw during the previous five years.
Successfully investing in forestry involves understanding the underlying market forces driving industry performance and trends, while assessing the value of a mid or long-term stake in the industry relative to other, higher-performing industries.
How to invest in forestry
However, forestry is a legacy industry that is dominated by a few major players. That means investors have few choices when investing directly, and that fact puts them at risk in the case of an industry-wide downturn. Investing in forestry via related ETFs and mutual funds, though, allows investors to access the space without tying them to any one company. A search on Magnifi suggests there are a number of ways to gain access to this segment via these funds.
Unlock a World of Investing
with a free Investment Trading Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the April 12, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
5G
Although 5G appears to be a relatively new trend, it has been in the works for much of the last decade. This new type of internet access, which is anticipated to potentially replace in-home WiFi in the near future, is beginning to emerge among a few select carriers. Verizon, T-Mobile, and other popular carriers are making it easy for their current customers to transition from 4G LTE to 5G mobile internet, which is a stepping stone for applying the technology to other Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the future.
[5G is Just Part of it. Invest in Mobile Technology as a Whole.]
But investing in 5G while the concept is still relatively new, you can gain an edge over the competition by being one of the first to support an up-and-coming service that is likely to have a strong impact on the future of mobile internet.
What Is 5G?
Although some people may simply think of 5G as a replacement for WiFi, the overall potential of the technology is much more complex. First and foremost, 5G is beginning to replace the 4G LTE connection that most cell phone carriers currently use to provide internet access when a reliable WiFi connection is not available. 4G, which came out approximately a decade ago, was a modern replacement for the primitive 3G and 2G mobile internet of early cell phones. Each version made new features possible, increased the speed and capability of cellular data, and boosted the range at which cell phones could get a reliable signal. Like previous upgrades, the widespread release of 5G technology is expected to increase our ability to immediately access the information we need from anywhere in the world.
[What will 5G mean for the future of video streaming?]
5G coverage is divided into three groups: low-band spectrum, mid-band spectrum, and high-band spectrum. High-band spectrum, which is the classification that most major carriers are currently focusing on, generally provides the strongest and fastest signals. However, this type of spectrum has a much more difficult time reaching through buildings than low-band and mid-band spectrum. For this reason, it is important to carefully consider the pros and cons of each type of spectrum to get an idea of which is likely to be the most successful in your area before choosing one to purchase or invest in.
Why Invest in 5G
Although the 2020 5G market is expected to be in the range of $5 billion, 5G technology is anticipated to grow exponentially over the next five years, reaching over $650 billion by 2026.
The reason for this is the fact that widespread 5G coverage has not yet replaced 4G LTE and WiFi, in part because of regulatory hurdles and delays. Once those issues are resolved, it is expected that 5G adoption will take off nationwide, but it’s still not clear what that timeline will look like and how soon all of this will happen. Still, that explosive potential is why this up-and-coming form of mobile internet is an important area for investors that are interested in the latest technology to keep their eyes on.
After all, like many emerging industries, 5G technology is being pioneered by a handful of standout companies, both large incumbents and fast-growing startups. And it’s still early in this cycle. Investors who get in on 5G now will have far more upside to ride up than those that wait until the technology is fully rolled out and in broad use.
How to Invest in 5G
However, like many types of new technology, investing in 5G does come with potential risks. Although 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and other older signals have been studied in-depth as far as both immediate and long-term safety, not as much is currently known about the impact of long-term exposure to 5G’s electromagnetic fields. What’s more, it’s not yet clear how soon the national 5G roll-out will actually happen nor which companies will take the lead.
Investing in the sector via an ETF or mutual fund, however, is a good way to counter these risks while still gaining exposure to this high-potential segment. A search on Magnifi indicates there are a number of ways for investors to access 5G this way.
Unlock a World of Investing with a Magnifi Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the April 8, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Video Games
If the image that comes to mind when someone mentions video games is a teenage boy sitting in their parent’s darkened basement playing Mario Kart, surrounded by discarded Mountain Dew cans and Doritos bags, then it is time to discard this outdated stereotype.
Whether or not you yourself enjoy playing video games in your leisure time, gaming has evolved considerably and expanded well beyond its niche origins to sit squarely in the entertainment and cultural mainstream. Fortnite, you may recall, became a global cultural phenomenon following its 2017 release, with everyone from World Cup soccer players to Michelle Obama getting in on the dances popularized by the game.
The demographics of gaming are rapidly evolving with this expansion into the cultural mainstream. In a recent study by AARP, the percentage of adults age 50-59 who play video games at least once a month increased from 38% in 2016 to 44% in 2019, with women more likely than men to regularly play.
Gaming’s explosion in popularity is due, at least in part, to transformative changes in the video game industry over the past decade.
Ten years ago, if you wanted to play the latest game, you would go to a local store (GameStop, for instance), buy the game for around $60, and take the discs home to install/play. These days, mobile gaming (primarily on smartphones) accounts for the largest share of total gaming revenue worldwide, and popular games are often free to download and play. Developers monetize these free games by offering players in-game purchases.
Another relatively recent development is the rise of subscription gaming, which offers players access to a multitude of games for a monthly subscription fee. Similar to the “streaming wars” between Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc., developers are scrambling to build competitive subscription services as they work to attract larger shares of the growing market.
For those interested in the investment potential of this dynamic market, there are a few important points to understand.
What Are Video Games Circa 2020?
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a video game as “a game in which the player controls moving pictures on a television screen by pressing buttons or moving a short handle.”
Video games have been around in one form or another for decades, beginning with arcade gaming in the 1970s and transitioning to home gaming in the late 70s and early 80s with popular titles such as Space Invaders, Frogger, and PacMan.
Gaming today largely falls into three distinct categories: console gaming, personal computer (PC) gaming, and mobile gaming. Console gaming happens on devices that are built exclusively to play video games (think PlayStation, Xbox, etc.), while PC gaming happens on high-performance personal computers, and mobile gaming, as the name implies, happens on your mobile device (such as your smartphone or tablet).
Until relatively recently, console and PC gaming were the dominant forces in the video game industry, but the recent explosion of smartphone use and internet connectivity globally has dramatically reshaped the industry.
According to market research firm Newzoo, mobile gaming is currently the fastest-growing segment in the video game industry, and revenues from mobile gaming account for 46% of the total gaming market in 2019. This isn’t to say that dedicated gamers are ditching their consoles and PCs in favor of games on their smartphones; rather, the market is expanding as more people gain access to free or inexpensive games through their mobile devices.
This expansion and diversification of the gaming ecosystem have given rise to novel revenue streams; most notably, live streaming and esports.
Live streaming involves gamers broadcasting themselves playing video games live on the internet. The practice has become wildly popular, as evidenced by Amazon’s 2014 acquisition of the streaming startup Twitch for $1 billion.
Esports, meanwhile, refers to competitive, organized video gaming. You may recall the story about the 16-year-old who went home with $3 million after winning the 2019 Fortnite World Cup.
Global revenues from the burgeoning esports market exceeded $1 billion in 2019, an increase of 26.7% over 2018 revenues. The emergence of live streaming and esports has fueled greater interest in gaming while offering outside investors a new way to reach this diverse group of consumers.
Why Invest in Video Games?
According to Newzoo’s 2019 Global Games Market Report, there are more than 2.5 billion people globally who play video games, and global revenue from gaming reached $148.8 billion in 2019. The U.S. market alone generated about $35.5 billion in 2019.
As a point of comparison, the 2019 global box office for films reached a record $42.5 billion, and the U.S. box office finished with $11.4 billion. This means that in 2019, people spent more than three times as much on video games as they did on seeing movies.
This remarkable performance comes amid a changing revenue landscape in which console and PC gaming account for less and less consumer spending.
Mobile gaming comprised about 46% ($68.2 billion) of overall market revenue in 2019 – an increase of 9.7% over 2018 revenues. Though smaller than mobile, console gaming continues to see healthy growth, occupying 30% of the market ($45.3 billion) with an increase of 7.3% from 2018.
Newzoo forecasts that video game revenues will grow to $196 billion by 2022 at an annual growth rate of 9%. Mobile gaming will continue to grow over the next several years, increasing from 46% of the total market in 2019 to a forecasted 49% by 2020 ($68.2 billion to $95.4 billion).
Mobile gaming’s expansion in the market may even be accelerated by outside factors, including the rollout of 5G networks (faster connectivity means better gameplay in more places) and further advancement of augmented/virtual reality (think Pokémon GO).
The video game market offers a unique investment opportunity because the industry is projected to continue its extraordinary performance in the coming years, and the various segments offer a wide variety of options when it comes to risk vs. return.
How to Invest in Video Games
However, despite their popularity and long-standing growth, investing directly in the video gaming sector can be challenging. There are hundreds of different companies working on individual gaming properties, and the rise of mobile gaming has introduced new players to the sector, such as mobile providers and hardware manufacturers. However, a search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of other ways to profit from the growth of video games as a whole.
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
This blog is sponsored by Magnifi. The information and data are as of the Mar 17, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This material is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as individualized investment advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities tailored to your needs. This information covers investment and market activity, industry or sector trends, or other broad-based economic or market conditions and should not be construed as investment research or advice. Investors are urged to consult with their financial advisors before buying or selling any securities. Although certain information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy, completeness or fairness. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. This content may not be reproduced or distributed to any person in whole or in part without the prior written consent of Magnifi. [As a technology company, Magnifi provides access to tools and will be compensated for providing such access. Magnifi does not provide broker-dealer, custodian, investment advice or related investment services.]
Unlock a World of Investing with a Magnifi Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the January 22, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Climate Change
Once a year, the CEO and Chairman of BlockRock, Larry Fink, sends a letter to the CEOs of the world’s largest and most influential companies. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with over $7 trillion in assets, so the annual letter always attracts a great deal of attention.
In the letter, sent on January 14, 2020, Mr. Fink argued that climate change is driving a “fundamental reshaping of finance,” and that “In the discussions BlackRock has with clients around the world, more and more of them are looking to reallocate their capital into sustainable strategies. If ten percent of global investors do so – or even five percent – we will witness massive capital shifts. And this dynamic will accelerate as the next generation takes the helm of government and business.”
For BlackRock to announce that it is placing sustainability at the center of its investment approach, and to argue that investors and businesses would be wise to follow suit, it is nothing less than a seismic shift with enormous potential implications. This isn’t some small company announcing that it’s placing a renewed focus on sustainability; BlackRock is a financial colossus, and when they say that they are rethinking their investment strategies because of climate change, investors around the world should sit up and pay attention.
It should go without saying at this point that climate change poses a singular threat to mankind and the Earth’s biodiversity. The World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risks Report, which annually identifies the most pressing global challenges, ranked “climate action failure” as the top global risk in terms of overall impact, and, for the first time in the report’s existence, the top five risks in terms of likelihood are all climate-related.
There is growing public pressure on governments and businesses to do more to address the threats, and an increasing number of Americans rank it as a top policy priority for the Federal Government.
Climate change is a problem that is so large and complex that it simply cannot be tackled by one group acting alone; as such, governments and businesses need to work together on the transition to renewable energy. As the BlackRock letter makes perfectly clear, the private sector can no longer afford to ignore climate change.
There are promising signs that this message is finally sinking in, as evidenced by recent announcements from several powerful companies detailing bold new climate action plans. Amazon, for instance, recently launched a new initiative called The Climate Pledge, which promises that the company will transition completely to renewable energy by 2030, order 100,000 electric delivery trucks, and invest $100 million in reforestation projects around the world.
In addition to this initiative, Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, recently announced that he was committing $10 billion of his own money combat climate change.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft made headlines recently with its own bold pledge, announcing that it would work to become carbon negative by 2050, in that it would “remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975.” Microsoft simultaneously announced that it was investing $1 billion in a “Climate Innovation Fund.”
These recent announcements, coupled with the ground-shaking BlackRock letter, make it clear that the risks posed by climate change are beginning to disrupt traditional investment practices. For the savvy investor who understands the magnitude of the changes that are beginning to occur, there is tremendous opportunity in combating climate change.
For those interested in the investment potential of this critical issue, there are a few important points to understand.
What Is Climate Change?
The United Nations explains the problem of climate change thus: “Greenhouse gases occur naturally and are essential to the survival of humans and millions of other living things, by keeping some of the sun’s warmth from reflecting back into space and making Earth livable. But after more than a century and a half of industrialization, deforestation, and large scale agriculture, quantities of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have risen to record levels not seen in three million years.”
As greenhouse gasses concentrate in the atmosphere, more of the sun’s heat is prevented from radiating out into space, which slowly drives global temperatures up and creates a whole host of serious problems. According to the NOAA 2019 Global Climate Summary, “the global annual temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.07°C (0.13°F) per decade since 1880 and over twice that rate (+0.18°C / +0.32°F) since 1981.” 2019, the year that saw the devastating Australian wildfires and destructive Atlantic hurricanes, was the second-hottest year on record since record keeping began in 1880.
Efforts to bring together a solid, international coalition committed to tackling climate change have proved difficult thus far, with meetings such as the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit concluding without making much in the way of significant progress.
However, millions of young people in cities around the globe walked out of school on Friday, September 20, 2019, to express their anger at climate inaction and demand substantive, swift change. These young people are energized, politically active, and highly motivated – they represent the groundswell that will richly reward those who turn away from fossil fuels and toward innovative, renewables.
Why Invest in Climate Change?
Technological innovation is key to fighting climate change.
No matter how much we legislate, protest, and conserve, we need technology to help get us out of this mess. Thankfully, humans are nothing if not resourceful, and our desire to keep the planet safe and healthy for future generations means that the market for innovative, clean technology is going to continue to expand.
One challenge currently facing startups focusing on climate change is a lack of venture capital (VC) interest. For VCs, why put your money in a risky startup with moderate short-term returns when a software startup’s short-term return could be enormous? The answer to this question is rather simple: because the world is in trouble and the power of the almighty dollar can help.
Matt Rogers, co-founder of Incite Ventures, a fund that supports mission-driven enterprises, puts it another way: “Sitting on your pile of money while the oceans are rising may not help you stay dry.”
How to Invest in Climate Change
However, supporting a topic as broad and all-encompassing as climate change isn’t as simple as buying a few stocks. The issue crosses industry lines, investment segments and even international borders. That’s why it can be more impactful to invest in fund that are involved in a number of different businesses working on solutions related to climate change.
A search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of different ETFs and mutual funds available to investors who want to get involved in climate change technology without having to invest in dozens of different companies directly.
Unlock a World of Investing with a Magnifi Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the March 6, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Cybersecurity
Upon arriving for work on March 19, 2019, employees of Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro found alarming signs posted throughout the office notifying staff that the company had been hacked and to not use any network devices. Locked out of all company computers, and unable to even use the office printers, desperate employees drove to local print shops to make the signs.
What happened at Norsk Hydro in early 2019 was a significant, and increasingly-common, type of cyberattack in which hackers gain entry to a company’s secure network, encrypt important data, and hold it hostage until the company agrees to pay a ransom. Norsk Hydro decided early-on that it would not pay the ransom and would instead endeavor to retrieve the data from back-up servers. While Norsk Hydro scrambled to address the attack, no company computers or devices could be used, which meant that the 35,000 employees across 40 countries were, temporarily, reliant on pen and paper to conduct business.
Ultimately, the attack cost Norsk Hydro an estimated $71 million.
The threat of cyberattack is becoming more sinister as life moves increasingly online. Hackers continuously probe systems for vulnerability, and individuals, businesses, and even governments are learning (sometimes the hard way) that cybersecurity needs to be taken extremely seriously.
[Cybersecurity matters more than ever in today’s Blockchain-enabled economy. Here’s how.]
The World Economic Forum’s 2019 Global Risks Report, which annually identifies the most pressing global challenges, ranked cyberattacks among the top 10 risks globally in terms of overall impact. Facing this looming threat, organizations around the world are investing heavily in cybersecurity solutions.
For instance, federal funding for the newly-created Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency increased by $334 million between 2019 and 2020. In addition to building internal cybersecurity capability, businesses are under increasing pressure to comply with new data privacy laws, such as the recently implemented General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union. Implementing strong cybersecurity practices is increasingly seen as essential for organizations of all sizes, and businesses offering cybersecurity solutions are in high demand.
For those interested in the investment potential of this booming market, there are a few important points to understand.
What Is Cybersecurity?
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (often referred to as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework), cybersecurity is defined as “the process of protecting information by preventing, detecting, and responding to attacks.”
[It’s not all virtual. Here’s how to invest in… Military & Defense]
A successful cybersecurity strategy involves multiple layers of protection integrated across an organization’s technology and workforce. This involves securing devices, the network, and cloud with advanced protection technologies that prevent outside intrusion and bolster internal security. Educating people on basic cybersecurity principles is equally as important as implementing advanced security tools; even the best security systems can fail if people are careless or unaware of potential threats.
Organizations that implement a successful cybersecurity strategy often do so with the help of a cybersecurity framework, which helps inform decision-making when it comes to thinking critically about cybersecurity risks within an organization. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is one such framework, and it is increasingly implemented by private companies in the U.S. as cybersecurity concerns increase.
Still, cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated as technology becomes increasingly interconnected, and organizations of all shapes and sizes are scrambling to update their cybersecurity strategies. Unfortunately, hackers adapt, and the threats evolve just as fast as the defenses. There is a growing gap between the need for cybersecurity solutions and the ability for organizations to produce those solutions in-house.
Increasingly, organizations are looking to third-party security providers to help cope with complex, evolving threats. Even a robust, well-trained staff of IT professionals may not be sufficient to protect an organization from these threats. As such, there is growing interest in companies like Splunk, which specializes in analytics-driven security solutions. Splunk is valued at more than $25 billion, and the company’s total revenues increased 36% over the past year.
The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced that it is buying Splunk software as part of a 10-year, $820 million purchase agreement.
Why Invest in Cybersecurity?
The global cybersecurity market is growing rapidly. According to market research by Mordor Intelligence, the global cybersecurity market was worth about $161 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow to about $363 billion by 2025 at an annual growth rate of 14.5%.
However, market research by International Data Corporation (IDC) paints a more conservative picture, valuing the 2019 cybersecurity market at $106 billion and growing at an annual rate of 9.4% to $151 billion by 2023.
Regardless, the trend is undeniable: cybersecurity is a healthy and growing market.
All the fundamentals are solid, and powerful global trends are pushing cybersecurity toward the forefront of all conversations surrounding technology for years to come (data privacy issues, the internet of things and increased connectivity, grid vulnerabilities, etc.).
Mordor’s research notes that the cybersecurity market is somewhat fragmented, meaning that it is highly competitive and not completely dominated by a few powerful companies. For potential investors, this diverse market offers real opportunities for sustained and potentially rapid growth.
Venture capital (VC) funding in cybersecurity companies has been increasing rapidly over the past several years. According to KPMG, VC funding of cybersecurity companies in 2018 reached a record $6.4 billion, and 2019 funding numbers are expected to exceed that figure. Given that technological innovation and adoption are accelerating globally, and that cyberattacks are occurring more frequently and with greater impact, investment in cybersecurity solutions will likely continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
For the savvy investor with an eye on the future of technology, the cybersecurity market offers excellent growth potential.
How to Invest in Cybersecurity
However, as an emerging and highly-technical industry, jumping right into cybersecurity by investing directly in one of the field’s leading firms can bring with it undo risk for investors. As with any tech investment, it’s important to understand the products and services that these companies are offering their customers, and how those offerings truly set them apart from the competition, in order to accurately gauge the potential growth as well as the potential risk in any cybersecurity investment.
A search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of mutual funds and ETFs available that offer exposure to the growing field of cybersecurity requiring investors to get a PhD in technology first.
Unlock a World of Investing with a Magnifi Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the February 26, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change.This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Internet of Things (IoT)
If you were among the lucky attendees to the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, you likely would have noticed that “connectivity” was one of the show’s most prominently featured trends.
CES bills itself as the “world’s largest and most influential tech event,” and many companies at the show chose to display “smart” products that feature internet connectivity as a means by which the product becomes more useful to the consumer. For instance, Weber, the company famous for its round, charcoal kettle grills, featured its new “Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub,” which promises to serve as a kind of “step-by-step grilling assistant that sends notifications directly to your smart phone on everything from a food readiness countdown, to when it’s time to flip and serve.”
Kohler, the company primarily known for its plumbing fixtures, featured its new voice-controlled “Moxie” showerhead/wireless speaker, which “lets you stream your favorite music, news or talk radio right in the shower with you.”
Smart devices like these are becoming increasingly popular as daily life becomes more connected to and shaped by the internet. The interconnection of our devices via the internet is often referred to as the “Internet of Things,” or IoT for short.
An entrepreneur named Kevin Aston first coined the term “Internet of Things” back in 1999 in an attempt to describe the connection between physical objects and the internet. At the time, Aston was working on linking Procter & Gamble’s supply chain to the internet through RFID tags.
These days, IoT encompasses the vast, interconnected ecosystem of devices, sensors, computers, and networks that communicate with each other and with us. There are more than 20 billion devices with internet connectivity in use today, and there is enormous value in the data that these devices generate.
This value extends well beyond the realm of consumer electronics. For instance, IoT is considered the driving force behind Industry 4.0, a term described by Deloitte as the “new industrial revolution—one that marries advanced manufacturing techniques with the Internet of Things to create manufacturing systems that are not only interconnected, but communicate, analyze, and use information to drive further intelligent action back in the physical world.”
For those interested in the investment potential of this innovative technology, there are a few important points to understand.
What Is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
According to research and advisory firm, Gartner, IoT is the “network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment.” The overarching purpose of IoT is for physical objects to sense and report information in real-time so that a process can be made more efficient, convenient, or safe.
The practical applications of IoT are vast, and faster, more affordable technology is driving innovation across very different industries.
Let’s start with the problem of traffic safety. The City of San Jose, California, is currently integrating IoT solutions in order to make intersections safer for pedestrians. For instance, IoT sensors communicate with traffic signals when someone crossing an intersection may require a bit more time before the signal turns green.
Another problem IoT is helping to address is that of food waste. According to the UN, roughly one-third of the world’s food production is lost or wasted every year. The Danish supply company, Globe Tracker, is working to fix that by offering IoT solutions that keep a close eye on food as it moves around the world in shipping containers. Globe Tracker’s sensors continuously record and transmit data on the container’s location, temperature, humidity, etc.
This kind of data is highly valuable in all supply chains, but it is especially valuable in perishable food supply chains. Innovators in business and government are going to increasingly adopt IoT solutions to address the complex problems of the 21st century, and providers of such solutions will increasingly innovate and drive IoT technology forward.
Why Invest in the Internet of Things (IoT)?
By all accounts, the IoT market is thriving, and there is good reason to think that even greater growth may be on the horizon.
According to a 2019 report by the International Data Corporation (IDC), global IoT spending in 2019 was forecast to reach $745 billion, a 15.4% increase over the $646 billion spent in 2018. IDC also projected that global IoT spending would surpass $1 trillion in 2022, with manufacturing, consumer, transportation, and utility industries accounting for a significant portion of the spending increase.
Adoption of IoT is happening worldwide and across industries at a rapid pace. Mordor Intelligence projects that the compound annual growth rate of the IoT market is 21% between 2020 and 2025. Internet-connected devices are also getting cheaper to produce and are becoming more widely available. McKinsey & Company projects that the number of internet-connected devices will increase to 43 billion by 2023, a nearly 300% increase from 2018 numbers.
Underlying all these positive numbers is an enormous potential boost that is somewhat difficult to quantify: 5G. Mobile carriers are currently in the process of deploying 5G (the fifth-generation wireless network) across the U.S. and around the globe. 5G provides considerably faster mobile connections and will, according to Qualcomm, “seamlessly connect a massive number of embedded sensors in virtually everything through the ability to scale down in data rates, power and mobility to provide extremely lean/low-cost solutions.”
The 5G rollout will take time, and as with current data coverage, not every location will get lightning-fast speed. Those locations that do benefit, however, are in for a potentially transformative period of IoT innovation.
How to Invest in the Internet of Things (IoT)
Despite all of this growth and potential, the Internet of Things remains a developing, high-volatility sector, meaning that it can make for a risky investment when bought directly. Rather, a search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of other ways to profit from IoT innovation via mutual funds and ETFs that cover this fast-growing sector.
Unlock a World of Investing with a Magnifi Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the February 12, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Cancer Treatment
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s awful for the hundreds of thousands of patients and their families impacted by it.
But, there is hope.
A new 2020 American Cancer Society report shows the largest single-year drop, 2.2%, in the rate of people dying from cancer ever recorded in 2017, the most recent year tracked.
Even more promising, the report indicates that the rate of people dying from cancer has dropped every year for 26 straight years.
How did we get here? More effective early detection, treatment advances, and lifestyle changes, for starters. But there is a lot more innovation that’s happening in modern cancer care that’s improving the odds for cancer patients everywhere. These new technologies include:
Artificial Intelligence for Cancer Care
The modern healthcare system is today based on electronic health data. Now, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) technology, we are finally able to more efficiently analyze and categorize that data, allowing researchers to identify disease and treatment trends that are leading to a better understanding of the elements that affect cancer growth or decline. Moreover, researchers and clinicians alike are now able to more quickly access and compare information about patients with similar cancers.
The startup company, Paige (Pathology AI Guidance Engine), for example, applies AI-based methods to better map the pathology of cancer. Paige raised $45 million in funding in late 2019.
The Cancer Genomics Cloud (CGC), which houses a number of cancer data sets, including the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), makes a huge amount of data available to researchers quickly and securely.
These technological efforts are leading both to increasingly personalized cancer care and new treatment options in the fight for a cure.
Genomics Testing for Better Cancer Treatment
Liquid biopsies investigate “any type of specimen other than tissue — including blood, urine, and cerebral spinal fluid — that can be interrogated regarding the functionality of a cancer tumor.” An important tool in early detection, liquid biopsies can detect cancer before it becomes visible or shows symptoms. And, in the case of blood or urine specimens, the biopsies are non-invasive.
Guardant Health, a provider of liquid biopsies, saw its stock grow 78% in 2019. And that’s just the beginning. The market for liquid biopsies is projected to reach $6.5 billion by 2026, but could grow to as much as a $100 billion market by some estimates.
Immunotherapy and Cancer
Immunotherapy harnesses the power of the immune system to help patients fight a wide range of diseases, including cancer. In the spring of 2018, there were 753 cell-based therapies in development according to the Cancer Research Institute.
And, some are working magic for patients. Keytruda, approved to treat a range of cancers, brought in approximately $11.1 billion in sales for the drug giant, Merck.
Improving Patient Access
Beyond housing mass data for researchers and clinicians, the internet is giving cancer patients themselves a place to connect with vetted expert information and with other patients.
SurvivorNet is a community of cancer patients and survivors, as well as a forum for expert information. Its goal is to increase access to information about treatment options. SurvivorNet recently raised $10M in a Series B funding round.
Why Invest in Cancer Treatment?
When it comes to cancer, traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation are still commonly used and are generally effective. But, they are also aggressive and indiscriminate, and often come with debilitating side effects (although medical cannabis has been shown to help ease these symptoms).
As medicine becomes more personal, so too are cancer treatments, with doctors and researchers moving towards increasingly patient-centric therapies.
Why now? Electronic health records, genetic testing, big data analytics, and supercomputing are the tools of precision care, and now, doctors and scientists have them. The results are both better targeted therapies available to patients sooner after diagnosis and cancer treatment options that are both in development and widely available multiplying fast.
This leaves investors with lots of options. Not only are there new therapies and drugs on the market, there are new testing technologies, AI companies, and online platforms that have the potential to be the next big thing.
How to Invest in the Future of Cancer Care
Cancer is something that we all want to beat. And, these days, our chances of actually accomplishing that goal are better than ever.
As new technologies become commercialized, millions will be diagnosed earlier and successfully connected with their cures. It won’t happen overnight, though. It will happen one breakthrough at a time.
Picking those winners ahead of time is difficult, however, and typically calls for advanced medical research knowledge and understanding that most investors simply don’t have. But, a search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of other ways to profit from cancer care innovation as a whole via mutual funds and ETFs.
Unlock a World of Investing with a Investment Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the February 6, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Organic Agriculture
The next time you are out on a walk and notice a humble honey bee buzzing from flower to flower, take a moment to stop and appreciate the importance of the busy little insect. Because its work is at the heart of all organic agriculture.
According to the FDA, “About one-third of the food eaten by Americans comes from crops pollinated by honey bees, including apples, melons, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, and almonds, to name just a few.” Pollination is essential to agriculture; without it, many plants cannot produce seeds and fruit, and our dinner plates would look very sparse indeed.
Unfortunately, honey bees are in trouble.
Beekeepers in the U.S. have been sounding the alarm for years, reporting sharp declines in honey bee colonies for over a decade, and the winter of 2018/2019 saw the biggest decline on record. This sharp decline in honey bee colonies is thought to be caused by several factors, including shrinking crop diversity, habitat loss, insecticides, and parasites. In particular, a widely used group of insecticides called neonicotinoids are coming under increased scrutiny as mounting research demonstrates the toxicity of the chemicals to honey bee populations.
Farmers apply neonicotinoids to their fields in an effort to prevent pests such as aphids, but end up unintentionally damaging honey bee colonies, which in turn damages crop yields and the surrounding ecosystem as a whole.
Declining honey bee populations in the U.S. are symptomatic of an ongoing conflict in modern agriculture that pits short term profitability against long term sustainability. Spraying a field with herbicides may kill weeds one year, but the weeds that sprout the following year will be herbicide-resistant, and the farmer will have to invest in new and increasingly complex chemical concoctions to stay on top of the evolving weeds.
In response to the industrialization of modern agriculture, a thriving movement has emerged that emphasizes quality over quantity. Organic agriculture is a process of producing food that focuses on environmental sustainability. The Rodale Institute, a leading organic agriculture nonprofit, considers organic agriculture to be a “vision for working and living in harmony with nature. The result is healthy soil, which grows healthy plants, which make for healthy people. By abstaining from synthetic inputs and encouraging natural systems, organic farmers help create a better future for people, animals, and the environment.”
For those interested in the investment potential of this growing market, there are a few important points to understand.
What Is Organic Agriculture?
In the context of the U.S., “organic” is a labeling term that food producers affix to products to indicate that their products comply with the organic standards of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA’s organic standards are lengthy and cover many agricultural processes, including crop production, livestock/poultry production, and product handling/labeling. (Learn More: Why logistics matter in agriculture.)
Before a food producer can apply an organic label to their product, USDA inspectors must first certify that the producer is in compliance with the relevant organic standards. In general, the USDA’s organic standards require that food producers use natural processes to produce food.
With crop production, for instance, one of the organic standards is that the land cannot have had synthetic synthetic fertilizers or weed killers applied to it for at least three years before harvesting an organic crop. The organic standards also mandate that organic livestock and poultry have access to the outdoors year-round, and may only be temporarily confined due to poor weather or concerns over the animal’s health.
Making the transition to organic or going organic from the get-go can be a difficult, expensive endeavor for food producers. It is undeniably cheaper to produce food using synthetic chemicals and industrial processes.
Environmental benefits aside (which are substantial, if difficult to value monetarily), going organic offers food producers access to a rapidly growing market. Young adults are increasingly focused on food quality when they shop, with a recent YouGov study noting that 68% of millennials surveyed responded that they are willing to pay more for higher quality products.
For a young consumer with health and environmental concerns on their mind, the choice between an organic tomato costing $2.25 and a non-organic tomato costing $1.50 may not be as obvious as one would assume. In this space, there is significant opportunity.
Why Invest in Organics?
Consumer demand for organic food is booming in the U.S., but domestic supply has not kept pace. The development of precision agriculture has helped, but the shortcoming largely boils down to the fact that producing organic food is more difficult and expensive than producing food via conventional agriculture.
In an effort to facilitate the transition to organic from conventional while satisfying their customers’ growing demand for organic food, large food companies are increasingly partnering with small producers. Established brands like Annie’s (owned by General Mills) are partnering directly with domestic farmers, eliminating many of the hurdles new organic producers face in bringing their products to market.
With a consumer base willing to pay more for products they value, and with the support of established companies that recognize organic’s potential, the organic agriculture market is primed for substantial growth and expansion in the coming years.
According to research from the Organic Trade Association, sales of organic products in the U.S. reached $52.5 billion in 2018, up 6.3% from 2017. Sales of organic foods accounted for $47.9 billion in 2018, an increase of 5.9% over 2017 food sales. This increase in organic food sales far exceeded the 2.3% growth seen in non-organic food sales during the same period.
Figures from 2019 look equally healthy, with Category Partners and Organic Produce Network reporting that sales of organic fruits and vegetables increased by 5.1% between 2018 and 2019, while sales of conventional fruits and vegetables increased by about 1.9%.
These trends demonstrate that consumer interest in organic products is strong. Young consumers are more concerned about their health and the health of the environment than any preceding generation, and these consumers are on the cusp of becoming the most dominant group with respect to consumer spending.
Organic agriculture represents a unique opportunity in the investment landscape because it offers the potential to serve an undersupplied but growing market with products that are increasingly seen as ethically and environmentally superior to similar products available at lower prices.
How to Invest in Organics
But, for investors, organic agriculture as a category is almost too broad. It’s a trend that impacts almost every aspect of the food and ag industry, but it’s something that very few companies are dedicated entirely to. Every company in the space has an organics program, making it very difficult for investors to get in on this trend directly without investing in a very broad group of companies.
However, investing in a mutual fund or ETF that offers exposure to the organics market can be a good way for investors to access this growing segment of agriculture without having to invest in many companies directly. A search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of funds available today for those investors interested in investing in organic agriculture.
Unlock a World of Investing with a Magnifi Investment Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the publish date unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Virtual Reality
Our addiction to screens isn’t anticipated to change anytime soon, but with the growth of virtual reality, how we relate to our screens is sure to.
The proof? Headset sales are booming. Over the holiday season, Facebook’s popular Oculus Quest virtual reality headset sold out and is now on a two-month back-order.
In other words, when it comes to virtual and augmented reality, the technology is ready and so are the users.
So, what exactly is virtual reality?
Virtual reality is a type of technology that “shuts out the physical world,” creating a completely immersive experience in digitally created “real world” or imagined environments.
This is slightly different from augmented reality, which adds digital elements to our real-life view. Think of Pokémon Go, for example, which digitally plants Pokémon characters around real-life cities and towns for players to physically go and find. That’s augmented reality.
What Can Virtual Reality Do?
Both virtual reality and augmented reality are changing the ways that almost all industries deliver goods and services to consumers.
First, and maybe first to come to mind for most people, is virtual reality’s place in the gaming world. The video gaming industry is anticipated to grow to as large as a $300 billion industry by 2025. Virtual reality will no doubt help to stimulate that growth, transforming the gaming world by dramatically changing the dynamics of how players relate to their games.
After all, games are no longer built like the old Nintendo or Atari platforms. New games allow players to be real participants in the action, and virtual reality is just the next step in this direction.
For instance, the much anticipated virtual reality game, Half Life: Alyx, is set to release a sequel more than a decade after its first iteration. Other highly anticipated virtual reality video game releases include The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, The Walking Dead Onslaught, and Iron Man. These games have a ready market and mountains of consumers that have or have yet to order their headsets.
Virtual reality and gaming, yes. But what about virtual reality and spas? Yes, it’s a thing.
The Four Seasons Resort in Oahu is now offering the world’s first multisensory virtual reality and wellness experience in what it calls the Vessel. And, it’s not alone. Spas across the U.S. now offer similar experiences in a device known as the Somodome, a self-contained meditation pod.
Virtual reality is challenging companies to reimagine how they engage consumers of all kinds. This includes retail, even though online shopping seems to be doing just fine without it. Consider virtual reality shopping. Soon you may be sipping coffee and exploring the various kitchen options from the comfort of your couch thanks to Ikea’s Virtual Reality Showroom.
Beyond consumer goods and services, virtual reality has huge potential to improve training for higher education and corporate entities alike. Walmart is on board, training employees with virtual reality programs that offer new hires the opportunity to experience specific customer situations. The military is also using virtual reality for training purposes, and even the Denver Broncos football team is using virtual reality as a tool for training new and injured players (quarterbacks specifically).
The technology also has the potential to be used for highly sophisticated simulations in the healthcare field. Emmanuel Hospice, a non-profit hospice company, offers patients the ability to leave their rooms with virtual reality-based therapy. Using the technology, one patient went on a virtual trip to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, and another to Ireland.
The possibilities are endless and virtual reality technology is everywhere.
Why Invest in Virtual Reality
With all of these different applications, it should come as no surprise that the VR industry is set to grow rapidly. The global virtual reality market is anticipated to reach $120.5 billion by 2026, a dramatic increase from $7.3 billion in 2018.
And, the market is ripe for investment. As the technology advances, virtual reality is expected to play an increasing role in training and education, entertainment, retail, healthcare, and more.
Not only is the technology required for virtual reality improving, but the costs associated with it are decreasing. Quality virtual reality experiences require both a headset and a powerful graphics card. These two elements have big-name companies like Sony, Samsung, and Facebook, as well as lesser-known companies, competing for market share in each. As virtual reality becomes increasingly mainstream, these companies are poised to benefit.
Beyond these two primary technology elements, virtual reality is also primed to create new investment opportunities in the industries that adopt it. Whether it’s the next big game, the next big hospital training platform, or something we have yet to imagine, industry-specific virtual reality solutions are sure to create a buzz and further stimulate consumer adoption.
When it comes to virtual reality, opportunity abounds. You can invest in the technology itself, or the products, services, and solutions that it delivers.
How to Invest in Virtual Reality
Of course, virtual and augmented reality are high-growth, high-volatility sectors, meaning that they can make for risky investments when bought directly. Rather, a search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of other ways to profit from virtual reality innovation via mutual funds and ETFs that cover this fast-growing sector.
Unlock a World of Investing with a Magnifi Account
Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the January 22, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.