Over the past few decades, several industries have experienced leaps and bounds due to technological breakthroughs and business model innovations. This article will start from the fields of e-commerce, consumer electronics, semiconductors, audio-visual entertainment, Internet services, and biopharmaceuticals, and discuss how they can achieve rapid market expansion and business value reconstruction through continuous investment.
E-commerce: From a supplement to a retail channel to a mainstream model
With the proliferation of PCs, smart mobile devices, and the web, e-commerce has transformed from a periphery supplement to a mainstream sales channel. Online shopping has gradually replaced traditional brick-and-mortar consumption, driving a structural transformation of the entire retail industry. In order to improve delivery efficiency and customer experience, e-commerce platforms have increased investment in logistics networks and attracted more consumers through large-scale marketing campaigns. This large-scale operation also enhances the platform's bargaining power in supply chain negotiations.
For platform-centric e-commerce companies, the network effect of the two-sided market is more significant: the more merchants on the platform, the richer the choices consumers get; The increase in users will in turn attract more merchants to settle in, forming a positive cycle. This "flywheel effect" is an important strategy for the success of giants such as Amazon. According to the data, the total size of the U.S. retail market has increased from $1.2 trillion in 2005 to $2.5 trillion in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of about 5%; During the same period, the e-commerce market soared from $15 billion to $890 billion, with an annual growth rate of 31%, and the share of e-commerce in total retail sales increased from 2.5% to 15%.
Consumer electronics: Smartphones promote the reshaping of the industrial ecosystem
The evolution from feature phones to smartphones is not only a leap in product form, but also a comprehensive embodiment of technological integration capabilities. The integration of chips, high-definition displays, camera modules, battery technology and operating systems makes mobile phones a multi-functional device integrating communication, entertainment and office. The resulting app store and software ecosystem is also driving the transformation of business models.
Apple launched the App Store in 2008 and Google launched Google Play in 2012, both of which have strengthened user stickiness through continuous R&D investment and brand marketing. Samsung, for example, grew from $3 billion in 2005 to $9.7 billion in 2020, accounting for 4.8% of total revenue. At the same time, major manufacturers continue to increase the development of operating systems, which not only promotes the prosperity of the developer ecosystem, but also enhances the network effect of the platform. Data shows that the proportion of the world's population with a mobile phone jumped from 34% in 2005 to 67% in 2020, and the global population has grown by about 20% over the same period.
Semiconductors: Advancing innovation at the technology node
The progress of the semiconductor industry is mainly reflected in the continuous advancement of the technology curve, especially the continuous shrinking of process nodes. Whether it's a foundry or an integrated design manufacturer, it's important to continue to invest in each generation of process nodes to stay ahead of the curve. At the same time, equipment manufacturers are advancing key manufacturing technologies, such as extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), which have been developed over a multi-billion dollar period of several decades.
Fabless chip companies are also increasing their R&D efforts in product design, pursuing continuous innovation to remain competitive in the market. From 2005 to 2020, the global semiconductor industry's revenue increased from $194 billion to $574 billion, an almost threefold increase, mainly due to the rapid rise in demand for computing equipment (such as PCs, servers) and mobile terminals.
Figure: Semiconductors: Advancing innovation in technology nodes
Audio and video entertainment: Streaming media disrupts traditional content distribution
The on-demand streaming service for video and audio content breaks the time and space constraints of traditional media, greatly improving the convenience of users' content acquisition. The rise of this model has triggered a boom in investment in copyright procurement and original content production by content platforms. Large-scale platforms have also increased their bargaining power in content procurement.
In addition, the platform continues to invest in technology research and development, using user data to optimize recommendation algorithms and improve user satisfaction and retention rates. Against the backdrop of continued growth in content consumption, digital entertainment has emerged as a major driver. The industry's global revenue more than tripled from $135 billion in 2005 to $407 billion in 2020.
Consumer Internet: Dual Evolution of Advertising Model and User Growth
With the acceleration of Internet popularization and digitalization, consumer Internet services (such as social media and search engines) are gradually emerging. Unlike the membership-based Internet services that were still dominant in 2005, the new generation of Internet platforms quickly attracted a large number of users through free services and monetized through advertising.
These platforms have introduced a cost-per-click (CPC) advertising model, breaking through the traditional media exposure-based charging logic and achieving more refined user-targeted marketing through big data. In order to expand the scale of users, each platform continues to increase its investment in marketing and uses network effects to achieve value superposition among users: the more users, the greater the value of platform content and interaction, thereby attracting more new users and forming a virtuous circle.
Biopharmaceuticals: Technology platforms drive breakthroughs in new drug development
The emergence of recombinant DNA technology, gene sequencing and other technology platforms has opened a new path for the research and development of new drugs. These new technologies enable drugs to be more precisely targeted at specific diseases, improve treatment outcomes, and speed up the development process. In order to seize the opportunities brought by the technology curve, biopharmaceutical companies continue to increase R&D investment, especially in areas such as AI-assisted drug screening, and have achieved higher success rates and return on investment.
Many therapeutic-focused biotech companies saw faster growth between 2005 and 2020 compared to the in-house R&D model of traditional pharmaceutical giants. The global pharmaceutical market has expanded from US$601 billion to US$1.3 trillion, and the proportion of biopharmaceuticals has increased from 20% to 50%, marking that this segment has been deeply integrated with traditional pharmaceutical companies and has become the core force driving the growth of the industry. Its average annual growth rate is 13%.
Through the development paths of the above six industries, it can be seen that whether it is technological innovation or business model evolution, "scale, network effect and continuous investment" have become the core driving force for enterprise growth and industry change. In the future, these trends will continue to deepen digitalization and technology, and will affect the restructuring and upgrading of more industries.
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