globalEDGE Blog - By Tag: growing-industries

The beauty and personal care industry has always been a stable and reliable industry, but recently, it has especially been on the rise, generating over $625 billion in revenue across the world in 2023. Furthermore, the industry is expected to reach close to $736 billion in global revenue by 2028.

The popularity of cruises has increased astronomically since the significant dip it took due to COVID-19 in 2020. The global cruise market is estimated to reach 37 billion U.S. dollars by 2028. Currently, the United States is the leading country by far in terms of revenue created by cruises. In 2025, it is estimated that the United States will generate a little under 16 billion dollars of revenue from the cruise industry.

The podcast industry has grown astronomically worldwide over the past couple of years. Its popularity took off during the height of the pandemic, when many people found themselves with lots of free time to listen to and record podcasts, and it has been taking off ever since. The ability to listen to podcasts while doing chores, cooking, and driving creates an immense amount of flexibility for listeners. It can be put on in the background of almost any task, drawing more people in towards audio content.

A recent surge in the popularity of obesity and weight loss drugs in the United States is reshaping Denmark’s pharmaceutical industry.

Almost every person has grocery shopping as a weekly chore. With the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a shift in the way consumers shop for their groceries. Companies like Amazon and Instacart were the only options in the past, yet the competition has been changing rapidly with new opportunities entering the market. First, it is a growing industry, with total sales doubling since the start of the pandemic. Consumers in the United States spent USD 1.7 trillion online between March 2020 and February 2022, which is USD 609 billion more than they did in 2018 and 2019. In 2022, the amount of money spent online was expected to hit USD 1 trillion for the first time, according to Adobe, who anticipates that increase to continue this year.

Almond, coconut, oat, soy, pea, and hemp milk… in an age particularly reliant on Starbucks morning coffee and cycling health trends, the alternative dairy industry is taking the world by storm. 

Water is a necessity for life and is one of the most valuable resources on the planet.  Each year, close to four trillion cubic meters of freshwater is consumed around the world and almost every daily activity or good requires water to use or make.  This fact is often overlooked, as the use of water is typically only thought of in terms of physical consumption and cleaning.  In an exploration of the plethora of ways that society uses water, its role in the wellness industry is rapidly growing.

Most people have a basic knowledge of the types of makeup individual’s use such as lipstick, eyeshadow and bronzer. However, in the past decade, more and more options have been arising for all aspects of enhancing one's natural beauty. Beauty blenders, highlighter, lip plumping kits are just a few of new additions to the makeup industry. Additionally, over the last 14 years, the cosmetic industry has been experiencing a consistent growth as a whole of about four percent annually. In May of 2017, the beauty industry was valued at about $445 billion creating an affluent industry for individuals, mainly women, who want to have big success in a self-starting industry.

Ice cream—the frozen dessert has become somewhat a staple of society’s diet, with countries across the globe indulging on and/or producing the dairy treat.  Ice cream is available for purchase at a wide variety of retailers—spanning from grocery stores to restaurants to street carts—and the variety is expanding each year with the additions of new flavors and consistencies like gelato.  Overall, the market is expected to be worth $97.3 billion by 2023.

A study conducted by the University of Cambridge and Nesta, in partnership with KPMG, recently covered the development of the alternative finance industry in the United Kingdom. In the U.K., the industry expanded by 84% in 2015 £3.2 billion, and equity based crowdfunding was 15.6% of the total amount of seed and venture stage equity investment in the United Kingdom.

Following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014, many had hoped that the leader would speed up market reforms in order to attract foreign capital and grow the economy. However, rampant political and social problems throughout the country have caused these reforms to materialize much more slowly than initially anticipated. Many are additionally uncertain on the state of India’s economy due to modest GDP growth and little manufacturing output. In order to combat these issues, Modi is now beginning to prioritize the modernization of India’s digital infrastructure. A digital revolution in the country could potentially boost education and consumption, and consequently contribute to economic growth.

Earlier this summer, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) announced a $70 million commitment to bring in one billion dollars in public-private investments for developing countries. This plan will take place over the next five years, and the grant money given to Africa is expected to generate $750 million in investments from the private sector. The MCC is heavily investing in the continent’s energy sector, and the ultimate goal is to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, and attract more investors to countries such as Malawi, Benin, Lesotho, Liberia, Tanzania, Ghana, and Morocco. According to Kyeh Kim, the Deputy Vice-President of Compact Operations for the MCC, “these are countries that have a good track record in terms of good governance and democracy, have made strong efforts toward anti-corruption and are investing in their social sectors: education and health, as well as creating an enabling business environment through things like good fiscal policy, trade policy.”

This year, economists expect that Brazil’s economy will shrink by 1% in real terms and by as much as 15% in dollars due to maxed out credit cards, rising inflation, and government increases on prices for fuel, electricity, and transportation. In the last year, consumer spending has stagnated and could even decline by 3% in 2015. However, the Brazilian e-commerce industry seems to be excelling despite all of these indicators. Price savings and the convenience of online shopping caused Brazilians to spend $30 billion online last year, which marks an increase of 9% since 2013.

The “Internet of Things”, or IoT, is defined as the concept of connecting a variety of household devices to the internet. This global IoT market, according to research firm International Data Corp (IDC), is expected to grow from $655.8 billion in 2014 to $1.7 trillion by 2020, an annually compounded growth rate of 16.9%. Growth is likely to be a result of more devices coming online, the growth of platforms and services based around these devices, and declining costs of sensors, connectivity, and data processing power.

With a lot of business areas in developed markets and industries becoming saturated, many companies are starting to look into newer product categories in emerging markets. A key driver in making this transition into emerging markets successful is implementing a diversified strategy. Companies need to be innovative in these new markets, as existing capabilities are not often in line with the wants and needs of the newer prospects.

In the fast paced business world of today, adoption of the latest technological advances is essential for sustainability and growth. One area of technology that more and more businesses are taking advantage of is the cloud, which allows data to be stored remotely on servers across the world. This remote storage has many advantages for businesses, such as allowing companies to rent hardware instead of purchasing the infrastructure themselves - which can be very costly. Cloud storage also gives companies greater flexibility with their data and information, as it can be accessed anywhere and anytime, which can be especially helpful for businesses that operate in many countries.

In some of Thailand’s poor villages, there is a new business arrangement that is becoming ever so popular. People from all over Asia are headed to Thailand to seek out surrogate mothers. These families pay Thai women between $10,000 and $20,000 for successful pregnancies, which equates to a monthly allowance hovering around $450, along with free housing in Bangkok. Thailand has publicized itself as a medical tourist destination, providing cheaper options for people all over the world. Thailand is quickly racing up to take the place of the United States as the world’s largest paid surrogacy destination.

Now that 2013 is wrapping up people are interested in predictions for 2014. Two important predictions to look at are the global economy and global business. These two factors usually go hand in hand; if the global economy is looking brighter it may be due to the fact that global business is increasing. Since a large plummet in 2011, global business and the global economy have slowly been increasing and there is more confidence on what the future holds.

The Baltic countries are known as some of the most ambitious and educated countries in the world, and they also consist of some of the most liberal policies for trade and investment. Their drive for success has been a critical factor in their success after the financial crisis plagued the European Union. The Baltic countries were a hot spot for investment before the crisis, with all of their intelligence and FDI flowing in. Possessing all of these incredible characteristics and policies would allow one to assume that they would be a good match against a global financial crisis, but that person would be wrong.

When travelers make their way to the airports this holiday season, they may begin to notice a major change in the infrastructure of the airline industry. The continual addition of ancillary fees, or fees incurred outside of ticket costs, is becoming a larger component revenue for major airlines. Due to the highly concentrated industry, George Hobica, founder of airfarewatchdog.com stated that airlines “have to differentiate themselves to compete.”

Brazil, a nation with incredible amounts of fertile land, is currently undergoing an economic boom in the agricultural industry. However, there is one problem. Two different people claim they own the land. The natives want their ancestral rights to the land, while the settlers who have been farming on them and boosting the Brazilian economy. There are 428 Indian land tracts fully registered and 178 that are in the process, but not registered yet. While the government decides what belongs to the natives and what doesn’t, there has been plenty of tension on the ground. At risk is the $124 billion industry (2011), one-fifth of the entire Brazilian economy.

The Easter holiday has passed, and as always, with its passing comes a lot of chocolate. The holidays are a great time for candy products to increase sales by offering limited edition holiday goodies. Most candy companies incorporate Easter into their products around this time of year, with the most prevalent being the bunny. What if a company could take the idea of the chocolate bunny and restrict other companies from selling it to increase their sales? For over twelve years, Swiss premium chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli has been trying to trademark these gold-wrapped chocolate bunnies with many court cases involving different European Union members.

After last year’s scare in China with the manufacturing industry taking a step backwards with a year of contraction, it has rebounded and returned to positive growth for four straight months. However, February was China’s lowest month of positive growth since November after posting record growth in January. February’s growth was 50.4, while in January it was 52.3. On the scale, readings above 50 indicate expansion, while below 50 indicates contraction.

Iceland’s application to join the European Union is being threatened by new quotas involving Iceland’s largest industry, the fishing industry. The new fish that is booming the industry in Iceland is the mackerel, and Ireland, Norway, and other European members are debating over how much mackerel Iceland should be able to fish. Scientists believe that mackerel are migrating to Icelandic waters in greater numbers, and since fishing accounts for forty percent of Iceland’s exports, the mackerel are now a vital part of Iceland’s economy. These fish led to the rebound from the crisis Iceland was going through, and if the stock allowed is increased, they will be able to lift the economy further.

A recent report by the Consumer Electronics Association has projected that global gadget spending on electronics will surpass $1.1 trillion in 2013. This study comes days before the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), one of the world’s largest technology-related trade shows. What new innovations will the CES 2013 reveal and how will it impact the global economy?

With people finally returning to North Africa and increasing destination trips to Eastern Europe, international tourism worldwide grew four percent in the first half of the year. Over 705 million tourists traveled abroad in this period, and if accomplished it will be the first time that over one billion people have traveled internationally. Areas such as Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Central America had the highest growth in tourism. Egypt had a large increase after the social problems were solved, and Japan also did after the nuclear contamination concerns were solved. Interestingly enough, countries such as Sweden, South Africa, and South Korea had increases on a smaller scale, but saw the income from tourism increase by over twenty-five percent.

Without government involvement, Indonesia is experiencing good times with one of the highest economic growth rates in the world. Needless to say, things could have been even better if the government provided assistance to help the economy and take Southeast Asia’s largest economy to a whole new level. It has been estimated that if Indonesia made certain changes to its economy, each citizen would be more than forty percent wealthier by 2030. Also by this time, if it has the right reforms and remains on this path, it would be the world’s sixth largest economy. The main areas of renovation would be the outdated infrastructure along with the increase in bureaucrats.

Did you just say human hair? Usually you only think of growth with hair while it's on your head, but now this industry is starting to boom. So what exactly can you do with this hair? Well, fashion designers are creating clothes from it that go for up to 30,000 U.S. dollars. Hairdressers will charge up to $3,500 for extensions, which normally will go for around $1,000 dollars a pop. The amino acids in hair can be used as a food additive. Hair is actually very useful for mopping up crude oil.