by Kerry Williams
She tells stories about her time at Facebook that correlate closely with the Facebook movie: that it all started with a bunch of guys in a house working on their passion and of all night ‘hackathons’ where staff were challenged to build something new in 24 hours. She recounts her experiences witnessing global events unfold on Facebook newsfeeds - countless global elections, 2 Olympic Games and many disaster relief efforts - and lists receiving a call from the White House during a US Presidential Election as the highlight of her career so far.
These experiences have led her to distill a list of the ‘Top 10 Trends in Silicone Valley Today’. What do you think?
1. Luxury on Demand
Every day consumers want little pieces of luxury in their lives and they’re willing to splurge to pay for them.
www.renttherunway.com – Premier designer dress rental
www.uber.com – Everyone’s Private Driver
www.jetsuite.com – Private air travel for everyone
2. Mobile Everywhere
From mobile payments to home security systems and baby monitors, we’re all acutely aware of this trend. Randi Zuckerberg’s advice: focus on one mobile use case and make it awesome.
www.squareup.com – mobile payments
www.dropcam.com – baby monitor
www.runpee.com – best times to run and pee during a movie
3. Rise of the Entre-Employee
Big companies are starting entrepreneurial tracks inside their organizations to hold-on to their best talent.
4. Big Data
The whole point of big data is extreme personalization. The more data there is in the system about you the better the personalization becomes.
Pandora
Yelp
www.waze.com – Social GPS
5. The cloud has replaced our memory
We panic about losing our phones not because we can’t communicate but because it means we’ve lost our memories.
www.evernote.com – Remember Everything
6. Cars are the new mobiles
Developers are now focusing their attention on cars. Next generation cars will have native apps built in for things like shopping and the weather and it won’t be long before we all have self-driving cars.
7. Gamification of everything
Game mechanics are being applied to everything to make life fun and increase adoption.
Snooze App – donate money every time you hit the snooze button
Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale – scale that tweets your weight
www.nikeplus.nike.com - social running app
www.runforyourlives.com – zombies chase you while you run
8. Everyone can have a second job
The collaborative economy is here - if you have a job you need done you can outsource it.
www.liftshare.com – car sharing
www.taskrabbit.com - personal assistant
www.porky.com – crowd sourced new product development
www.etsy.com – arts and craft market place
www.99designs.com.sg – crowd sourced design
9. Brands are now media companies
Today, companies not only have to create new products but they also have to entertain customers.
Red Bull astronaut
Oreo 2013 Super Bowl
Diane Von Furstenburg + Google Glass runway show
10. It’s time for a digital detox
People crave a chance to be unplugged. 70% of Americans don’t go to sleep without checking their email and it’s now become socially acceptable not to give someone your full attention and use your phone whilst talking with them. New products are being developed to allow people to ‘unplug’ from it all.
www.drivesafe.ly – the app to stop distracted driving
Full Contact – a company paying employees a $7500 bonus if they disconnect their work email whilst on holiday
Kerry Williams is a native Australian and is currently an Associate Director with a leading telecommunications company in Singapore.
