People are worried about their future jobs and about long recessions and economies collapsing. There is a good chance that there will be a strong global economic and technological boom throughout most of the 2020s and 2030s. Instead of 3% average annual World GDP growth the 2020s could see 4-6% annual GDP growth.
Communication boom to multi-gigabit internet everywhere
Qualcomm talks about the 5G delivering $12 trillion in global economic benefits by 2035. This is multi-gigabit speeds and higher capacities unlocking the full potential of the internet of things and other e-commerce benefits.
Nextbigfuture believes that swarms of thousands of internet satellites and Google Loons and internet drones will accelerate those benefits to fully realized by 2026-2028.
Google Loon will be delivering gigabit or multi-gigabit internet to many more places. They are deploying to Kenya now. They delivered a system to Puerto Rico.
There will be Gigabit internet from thousands of satellites starting around 2022. SpaceX and OneWeb will deliver thousands of satellites into low earth orbit. Those companies will make tens of billions of dollars.
South Korea is targeting 50% coverage of 10 gigabit per second internet by 2022. Enabling 90+% adoption of multi-gigabit internet will likely boost global GDP growth by 1% per year throughout the 2020s.
Biotech, Crispr and beyond-Crispr gene therapy will boost food production and improve health
Crispr, precision agriculture and other technology to boost the global agriculture ($7.8 trillion) and aquaculture industries can increase the global economy with more food. Also, if the developing world can get more food and more nutritious food then the incomes of the poorest farmers will increase and the health in the developing world will improve.
Longevity, disease cures and improved health can reduce healthcare spending while making people more energetic and productive. The monetary worth of even a 10% reduction in all-cause mortality is $18 trillion.
Blockchain and Fintech and Cryptoassets
Blockchain has the possibility of making the $50 trillion global supply chain more efficient. Blockchain and Fintech has the potential to boost global finance and financial services industries.
Using Blockchain can enable people without financial histories to have identifications and to be able to get microloans can boost the economies of the poorest countries.
Cryptoassets can be used to boost the financing of startups and could increase overall innovation. Financial trading and exchanges could be made more efficient.
There is the potential to make the management and trading of real estate and other asset classes more efficient.
Mobile payments, smartphones
China’s mobile payments are taking over all of China’s financial transactions.
It will take a lot longer for North America and Europe to follow to mobile wallets. There will need to be a lot more improvements in efficiency and user engagement to make people convert from credit cards to mobile payments.
Alipay and WeChat made it super convenient for consumers to buy, and then they layered on additional services that consumers found engaging such as gamification and the idea of sending gifts on the Chinese New Year that got people engaged with the system.
India and Africa may follow China to faster adoption of mobile payments.