The next Google or Facebook just might be taking those early steps tucked away in some basement. Also many of these startups will be gobbled up by the bigger cash rich technology giants.
6. Emphasis on Local Dollars
Many major Internet companies like Amazon and Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) are increasingly ramping up their offerings to be the recipient of local advertising dollars as well as from daily deals. These companies are looking to tap into the huge local market that is largely untapped, and will be competing even more with companies like Yelp and Groupon.
7. Social Media Will Become More Prominent
Consumers’ choices are increasingly becoming more social. Social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr are becoming increasingly more valuable. With very high growth in the number of visitors, these companies will become more important in the coming years, as advertisers are heavily after user balls.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) leads the pack, as it is accountable for more than 5 out of 6 minutes being spent in these social networking sites in the U.S., according to comScore.
8. Payments Will Be More Digital and Mobile
Consumers are increasingly becoming more comfortable with making payments online and via mobile. eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) and its PayPal subsidiary processed total payments on mobile devices of more than $14 billion in 2012, and expects to process at least $20 billion in 2013.
In addition, digital wallets like Google Wallets and Visa’s V-Me are expected to gain more momentum as users increasingly utilize mobile based payments.
9. Advertising Budgets Shifting
Consumers are increasingly accessing information through the Internet. As a result, consumers are largely consuming videos and reading news through their iPads or Kindles. Advertisers are rapidly shifting their advertising budgets from traditional outlets like TV and Newspapers to high traffic online outlets like Facebook and YouTube.
10. Emerging Market Names Will Grow Bigger
Increased internet penetration along with faster connectivity speeds in most parts of the world will lead to new winners in the technology space. Numerous regional winners in the Internet and technology space will emerge spanning various BRIC markets.
The likely beneficiaries in the e-Commerce space will be Alibaba and the “Latin eBay” Mercadolibre Inc (NASDAQ:MELI). In the search engine space, Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd (NYSE:QIHU) will respectively engage in more heated competition to fend off bigger rivals like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo in their own respective markets.
The Takeaway
A handful of these companies will do phenomenally well over the next 5 or 10 years. The ones that constantly indulge themselves on innovating and recreating newer themes will outperform the broader market as well.
The article Emerging Themes in the Internet Sector originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Ishfaque Faruk.
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