Can I spot trends like an expert? Yes

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 Can I spot trends like an expert? Yes 

Having been asked a lot about how to build a community or how to build new strategies on the concept of ecosystem, I’ve decided to do a short writing on this. Please bear with me if this article appears too scrappy. Here I shall use gaming as an example.
Ways to think about trends:

 1. Using consolidation of industries to infer insights about the lack of innovation and also the possible reasons behind that. 

Gaming is moving into serious sports worldwide (previously it’s been South Korea, Germany, San Fran, Japan, Shanghai). accelerated by game publishing consolidating and M&A to streamline resources and take a more discipline and scientific approach to making blockbuster games.

 2. Refers to the evolving forms of monetization to infer people’s needs and sense of trust. 

Gaming has grow in revenue due to monetization on the offline gamers behaviours and gaming demographics have expanded (teens, adult, seniors) and with that new forms of monetization take root (previously buying the game itself, to buying the virtual goods, to buying attention via ads, to buying actual merchandise via alternative virtual exchange, to buying serious game coaching).

 3. Seek to use similar introspective issues and solutions to the existing perils of the industry 

Gaming has social and governmental concerns partly because gaming studios and advertisers fail to build corporate social responsible technology (Google and Apple are beginning to develop Ad blockers for chrome and iOS) so we can expect new startups to build limiting application to limit gamers.

 4. Study the evolution of job families to infer the future of the industry. 

Gaming as a professional career is gaining root (previously South Korea to worldwide) but gaming leagues, gaming coaching, gaming analytics, gaming artists agencies are just only beginning to take root.

 5. Look at what has expanded in the industry and what has not. 

Gaming are expanding into more forms (previously video game, to computer games to mobile game, now moving into VR, AR, then… ) but gaming content are just beginning to catch up.

 6. Consider possible pains over populating growth 

The numbers of games are increasing over time and the genres are blurring over time. Yet, there’s a lack of recommendation engine to recommend a pro gamer to decide which game to develop his gaming career on.

 7. Look to new patterns of investments and imagine the possibilities for the existing industry. 

Gaming funds (funds that invest in the development of gaming teams) are coming but there’s a lack of market exchange to enable gaming funds to take roots (in singapore there’s unit trust for shopping mall taking root only in 2000s so gaming funds will come in due time).

By understanding how the moving waves of the ecosystem are moving, leaders can understand the gap between the existing plan to the moving waves. Thereafter, leaders can be agile at re-allocating resources to ride the waves before it’s too late.