With economists predicting the worst economic downfall since the times of the Great Depression, many people are considering entrepreneurship as a good alternative to traditional employment. As job positions are being cut down by millions all across the globe, transforming your expertise and innovative ideas into a new startup seems like a viable alternative to waiting for the time and tide. One of the possible solutions is to and use the developing trends to ride out the global crisis. With millions of people being locked down in their houses and apartments for an uncertain period of time, now may be the best time for innovative startup owners to consider some promising niches created by COVID-19. Below, we will analyse 3 interesting startups to investigate in the following several years.
- Edtech
Education technologies or edtech are one of the spheres that are predicted to flourish during COVID-19 and after it. As noted by industry experts, the reasons for these optimistic predictions are as follows:
- The rapid switch towards remote education has highlighted multiple areas of inefficiency in traditional school and university education.
- Thousands of people losing their jobs have to quickly acquire new skills and competencies without physically visiting employer premises.
In both situations, remote education seems to be the key to minimising unnecessary contact and providing equal opportunities to all people. Just imagine a poor boy from Bali being able to get a proper degree from Harvard and escape poverty without having to travel across the world and finding the resources to live in one of the most expensive countries in the world. As shown in the following infographics from Statista, the expected growth rates in the sector of advanced education technologies can range between 300% and 700% within the following 5 years making it one of the most lucrative spheres to enter. Now is the best time to explore this sphere and assist traditional educators in transforming their knowledge into the new format.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1085930/edtech-expenditure-forecast/
- On-Demand Logistics and Delivery Services
With people being forced to order food and groceries online during the coronavirus lockdown, many of them have suddenly recognised the convenience of on-demand logistics services. Here are just some basic ideas in this field that make your life easier and save a lot of time:
- Affordable 24/7 food deliveries.
- The pickup of all letters, packages, and shipments from the selected pickup points.
- Innovative last-mile delivery options.
The last element may be especially interesting to hi-tech startups. The increasing popularity of contactless deliveries and the growing numbers of small packages sent to and from households have already attracted interest in robot and drone transportation. These options can be perfect for last-mile deliveries from centralised warehouses. Getting your letters, small packages or food delivered by drones right to your office or your doorstep provides for unmatched convenience and wins new customers for the startups providing such services. Another infographic from Statista presented below suggests that this sphere can demonstrate a tenfold growth in revenues over a single decade.
Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/17201/commecial-drones-projected-growth/
- VR and Streaming
The COVID-19 lockdown has been a gold mine for streaming services such as Netflix or Disney+. With people having nowhere go to, it is no wonder that content creators decided to launch many global premiers such as Mulan in the online format rather than wait for official cinemas to open. The gaming devices market has also been extremely lucrative for innovative companies with the advancement of such technologies as VR helmets and NVidia GeForce Now. The second one allows gamers to play remotely from any device via their laptops, low-end PCs or mobile devices by streaming the actual game to them from the company servers.
For startups, VR and streaming technologies can open new vistas in:
- Vocational training.
- Virtual communication and videoconferencing.
- Remote medical operations and telemedicine.
- VR tourism, museum tours, country tours, and other tourist attractions.
- Physical training.
In several years, cordless VR helmets can assist us in learning how to weld metal constructions, having remote fitness sessions with the best global coaches or seeing the most distant parts of the world with your own eyes without leaving your room. Your startup can contribute to making this future come true a little sooner.
It is difficult to make accurate predictions regarding the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic at the moment. Since the scope of the problem surpasses most of the global crises encountered during the previous several decades, it is clear that its adverse effects will be extremely severe. To thrive during this global crisis, try to select the niche providing for the greatest degree of sustainability and focus on the long-term perspective. This will allow you to steadily develop a unique value offering and make your startup 100% future-proof.
Laura Butler is co-owner at Outreach Lab, who specializes in providing content writing and SEO services to businesses around the world. Having worked in multiple start-ups over the years, she has experience in building businesses from the ground up. Laura enjoys writing content on a variety of topics, from business strategy to marketing, SEO, and sustainability.
Startups stock photo by Khakimullin Aleksandr/Shutterstock
