Thematic Reads: Week of January 20, 2020
Each week Team Tematica consumes a voracious amount of content as we look to stay on top of the latest data and mine it for tailwind and headwind signals for our 10 investment themes.
Aging of the Population
The global demographic shift towards a more senior population
- The Senior Factor In Smart Home Innovation (PYMNTS)
- An Aging Population Is a Bigger National Security Threat to Japan Than China Is (The National Interest)
Cleaner Living
Growing demand for items that claim to be better for you and the planet:
- Starbucks unveils new sustainability goals, including plans for more plant-based options (Mashable)
- China has announced a new plan to crack down on most single-use plastics by 2025 (CNN Business)
- Most EV buyers have no regrets about going electric, AAA survey says (Digital Trends)
Digital Infrastructure
The Buildout and upgrading of our Networks, Data Storage Facilities, and Equipment
- 5G hits the mainstream in 2020—will it live up to the hype? (Fortune)
- Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg: You will start to see the impact of 5G in 2021 (Yahoo! Finance)
Disruptive Innovators
Business models designed to transform an entire industry and leap-frog over incumbents.
- GM’s Cruise rolls out Origin, an autonomous electric vehicle with no steering wheel (Venture Beat)
- Bank Of America’s Erica Surpasses 10M User Mark (PYMNTS)
- Cash, Plastic or Hand? Amazon Envisions Paying With a Wave (The Wall Street Journal)
- Airbus releases photos of automatic takeoffs (CNBC)
Digital Lifestyle
The increasingly digital landscape that now underpins the entire consumer experience.
- Ikea, Subway cash in on digital stickers for Venmo (Mobile Marketer)
- Bose to close all of its U.S. retail stores in pivot to online shopping (Digital Trends)
- Campbell tests new shoppable ads to boost e-commerce (Mobile Marketer)
The products and services people will consume no matter the economic environment.
- Alcohol consumption is on the rise in the USA (MercatorNet)
- Moderate Wine Consumption Linked to Greater Life Expectancy (Wine Spectator)
Those things that bridge the gap between want and ability at every socioeconomic level.
- Vogue, enticed by Singapore’s fashion and luxury demand, to launch local edition (Luxury Daily)
- Rich People Don’t Just Live Longer. They Also Get More Healthy Years (The New York Times)
Consumers trading down when and where possible or looking to stretch the disposable dollars they do have.
- China’s middle class frets the ‘good times’ are over amid sliding house prices, stagnant wages (South China Morning Post)
- Student debt is over $1.6 trillion and hardly anyone is paying down their loans (CNBC)
Areas around the world where rising disposable incomes are driving demand for a host of products and services.
- China’s middle class frets the ‘good times’ are over amid sliding house prices, stagnant wages (South China Morning Post)
- India’s Modi Faces New Challenge: A Slowing Economy (The Wall Street Journal)
Reflecting the evolving needs across individual, cyber, corporate and homeland security.
- This iPhone case doubles as a stun gun (C|Net)
- What will it take for the government to protect your privacy? (USA Today)
- Google Maps keeps a detailed record of everywhere you go — here’s how to stop it (CNBC)
- The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It (The New York Times)
What Else We Are Loving
Other reads, experiences, products, services and the like that we enjoyed so much this past week we just had to share
- After the 2019 year-end holidays, Tematica’s Lenore Hawkins decided to get herself a late Christmas present of the reMarkable tablet, and to put it mildly, she is loving it!. As an avid notetaker and a chronic traveler, this device is utterly perfect. First off, the sensation really is as close to writing on paper as possible, but it is even a wee bit better as rather than using an eraser when my handwriting inexplicably goes off the rails, a simple tap on “undo” and that wayward writing never even happened. Notes can be organized into notebooks and folders, all are synced in the cloud, and for those who are so inclined, it can translate written notes into typed text. The wonderful device allows the obsessive note-taker to have all their notes with them, wherever they go, while only taking along one very light device. It also allows for annotation of PDF documents, what more could one want? Lenore sums it up this way, “This one is definitely a winner for me.”.
