Gaming: An Underestimated Opportunity
I believe social consumer technologies like gaming are being underestimated by investors. We have reached a maturation with platforms like Facebook and decreasing utilization, and gaming is in its infancy. Investors tend to underestimate gaming because they have not seen huge successes, a petering out of Gaming 1.0 (Zynga), and app store fatigue (most users ~10 apps on their phone).
Infrastructure: I believe we are an inflection point with the rise of technology infrastructure to support new types of experiences. Fortnite and Apex Legends have over 100 million hours watched on Twitch. Leagues are forming for offline experiences, and streaming is becoming universal.
Development: The cost to host games has decreased, but the cost to build and produce has not. That has led to a bifurcation of high-end games (GTA) and repeated games. I believe there will be a way to solve repeatability, as Disney has done.
New Platform: People are willing to pay for gaming, and this may be the way consumer technology can build payment rails in the US. These platforms become immensely more valuable at that point. Microsoft has shown the strength of subscription-based pricing in Xbox, and more is to come in this area.
These are three trends I see in online gaming, and I cannot wait for the next set of entrepreneurs to help define this field.