Digitalization

• [New] Digital currency bitcoin has emerged as a rival to gold and could trade as high as US$146,000 (C$185,223) if it becomes established as a safe-haven asset.
• [New] Digital transformation - Shaping the future of European healthcare, Europe is expected to be short of 4.1 million healthcare workers by 2030.
• [New] - after a year of more affordable ad prices compared to years past - customer acquisition costs on Facebook and Google will once again rise in the second quarter of 2022, as more corporations once again start to ramp up their digital marketing.
• [New] 40% of the expected synergies form the merger - projected at more than 5 billion euros, will come from convergence of platforms and powertrains and from optimizing R&D investments.
• [New] Going forward, digital lenders will forge deeper partnerships with big tech companies and banks by co-developing products or literally combining through M&A deals as we have already seen this past year such as the Lending Club acquisition of Radius Bank or Metro Bank acquisition of RateSetter.
• [New] Budget allocations to cloud security will grow from single-digit to double as companies look to protect 2020 cloud buildouts in the year ahead.
• [New] The total transaction value of digital payments is expected to reach nearly $4.8 trillion, and in fewer than five years, half the world's population will be armed with a digital wallet.
• [New] The coming year will be a big year for AI growth, and that many AI applications will take off, truly delivering insights, efficiencies, and cost savings for the digital marketplace.
• [New] European tech companies have already seen an increase in the level of investment they receive from US firms in recent years, and we expect trend to increase in 2021.
• [New] India's mutual fund industry is likely to grow in double digits, and the asset under management is expected to cross Rs50 lakh crore mark over the five years through 2025.
• Global spending on AI will double in the next four years, reaching $110 billion in 2024, as companies see an opportunity to boost innovation, improve customer service and automate routine tasks so their employees can focus on more strategic work.
• The digital world has created new channels and opportunities for fraudsters to target banks - and for every dollar of fraud lost in 2020, banks and financial service providers just in the US incurred $3.78 in related costs!
• Marg ERP plans to add 100 additional channel partners to its platform in 2020 in a bid to strengthen its position with small businesses in India and 26 other countries.
• Global spending on digital transformation technologies and services such as artificial intelligence and machine learning is forecast to grow an annual 10.4% to $1.3 trillion in 2020.
• In 2021, regulatory developments will be the biggest catalyst of growth for Africa's digital currency industry.
• Some onlookers even expect the US and China to lock horns in a digital currency war, as the US Congress has been pushing for a digital dollar in 2020, fueled by competition with Beijing.
• In India, 6,660 crore transactions worth $270.7 billion are expected to shift from cash to cards and digital payments by 2023 - and increase to $856.6 billion by 2030.
• The latest Global Interconnection Index study estimates that digital service providers - such as telecommunications, cloud and IT services, and content, digital media, and technology providers - will increase bandwidth five-fold by 2023.
• At the dawn of 2021, all across the world, compressed digital transformation is accelerating cloud adoption, digital commerce, cyber security, automation and AI.
• Facebook Protect, a security monitoring platform offered to political officials during the 2020 US elections, will be offered to more people in 2021.
• Prescriptive analytics will be a key component for digital transformation success: Advanced analytics are becoming mainstreamed as businesses increasingly collect and analyze data across their organizations, with 35% of U.S. manufacturers deploying advanced analytics in the past three years.

Last updated: 10 January 2021