How Are Customer-Oriented Business Models Transforming the Global Economy?

Modern business models are determined by customers’ desire to satisfy their needs as quickly as possible. In this regard, digital platforms are becoming the driving force of new business models, allowing them to quickly transform to meet the rapidly changing needs of customers. Transitions in the service economy is the main topic of the new issue of trendletters, produced as part of a joint project of the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center and the UNESCO Futures Studies Chair (UNESCO Futures Literacy Chairs network).

©istock

For reference: This series of trendletters continues the practice of publishing reviews of global technological trends since 2014 and presents a unique database of global trends and challenges in the field of human development. This research of the HSE ISSEK is based on the results of iFORA Big Data System, the Delphi survey (with the participation of more than 400 leading foreign and Russian scientists), expert sessions and interviews.

Digital platforms have become the driving force behind new business models. By bringing supply and demand together, they provide a platform for finding clients, customers and performers, thereby creating a network of interacting players. Five of the world's ten largest market capitalization companies (as of June 2022), namely Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta (Facebook), are platforms; about 70% of the 200 unicorns (with a market capitalization greater than US$1 billion) use a platform business model.

The service economy assumes that consumers receive not just a product, but a solution to their problem ("product as a service"). This concept illustrates the transition from an assetowning economy to a result-driven one. This trend is changing the structure of the global production system, the labor market and business models.

Services and sharing economies are becoming increasingly popular. This is due to factors such as growing income stratification, overcrowding in large cities and overproduction. The shared mobility industry is expected to reach $500 billion in gross bookings by 2040.

The economy of impressions will be replaced by a transformational economy, when purchasing a product will imply not just experiencing new emotions, but changing the consumer, providing him with new knowledge and skills, and promoting his self-improvement. In this context, the consumer himself becomes a brand, and products and services turn into tools for maintaining the brand.

The new issue of trendletter is available at the link.

Previous issues of trendletters can be found here.