Nostradamus, what do you see in 2017?

On your bike, Bong

Prediction: A cooler investment climate triggers consolidation among Internet start-ups in high-growth areas. Investors become more cautious, reducing funds available to the plethora of companies chasing similar business opportunities. This concentrates focus on a few established names in fields such as ride-sharing, property rental and delivery services.

Wood: “Especially in the IoT sector. There isn’t enough money to go round for these sharing me-too sharing services, and we’re expecting a squeeze.”

Apple and Facebook go shopping for rights

Prediction(s): Apple invests heavily in rights for sports content in 2017 and beyond. As the company seeks to reduce its dependence on hardware revenue, it looks to extend its content assets by investing in rights to high-profile sporting events as they become available ... In 2017, Facebook launches its own video channels with professionally produced content.

Wood: “For both it’s about diversifying and maintaining growth. Apple is like Hotel California, it’s hard to leave, but the gains are now marginal. The big story with Apple is that if with hardware it is not possible to sustain its incredible year-on-year growth, then it needs to do something, and services is an obvious move. Apple has so much money it could secure a huge number of fantastic content assets. For example, Premier League football. It can bundle everything up as an annual Apple subscription: Apple as a service!

“We’ve already seen Twitter buying sports rights; Facebook does not have the problem Apple has of a smaller installed base, which may make a rightsholder reluctant to sell them their rights: everyone is on Facebook. But Apple has an affluent user base.”

So how did CCS do in 2016? Well, Xiaomi was the great flop – everyone predicted they had the potential to do a Samsung, but that bubble has burst. And if only the prediction “We’ll stop referring to the Internet of Things” had come true. That’s another bubble that will burst, CCS reckons. ®