10 Business Trends that Defined the 2010s

As this decade draws to a close, it’s natural to look ahead and wonder what the future holds however it’s also worth looking back and seeing how much things have changed in the decade just gone. 

Ten years ago you had never heard of Ed Sheran, held an iPad, caught an Uber or read a book by Daniel Priestley. Obama was President, Boris was Mayor of London and meeting a romantic partner through work was considered fairly normal.

Little did you know it, the world was about to change in many ways - especially in business. As I looked back on the 2010s there were 10 big business trends that defined the decade:

1. The explosive growth of big tech  

As it stands, the world now has a hand-full of massive technology companies that each has the kind of wealth and power previously associated with governments. These include Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. The advent of scalable digital products, a growing global population of middle-class consumers and unlimited capital has fuelled these companies into the stratosphere in the 2010s. Here’s some statistics that paint the picture:

Daily Google Searches: 

Oct 2009: 1 billion each day

Oct 2019: 5.8 billion each day

Microsoft Market Capitalisation 

2010: $250Billion

2019: $1.1Trillion

Amazon’s revenue each hour

2009: $2.5 million per hour

2019:   $32 million per hour

Apple Q4 revenue: 

2009: $12.2B

2019: $64B

2. Smartphones, Apps and Internet Everywhere 

The iPhone was launched in 2007 and in 2010 the roll-out of 4G networks began in most countries. The result has been an advanced computer in almost pocket in every city. This computer has a GPS, media capability, access to cloud computing, vitally unlimited storage and an endless stream of new apps to solve almost any problem imaginable. The saturation of connected smartphones gave rise to radically new capability and new disruptive approaches to business. The power of knowing who someone is, where they are, what they want to do and how they might pay for it has created new business models and dozens of new multi-billion dollar mobile apps have emerged. New transport, dating and social media apps could not be possible without everyone being armed with a smartphone connected to 4G. 

Smartphone Usage:

Developed world

2009: 65%

2019: 85%

Developing world

2009: 20%

2019: 45%

Android devices in use:

2010: 33M

2019: 2.5 billion

Billion Dollar Apps launched after 2010:

Instagram (2010)

Uber (2010)

Stripe (2010)

Pintrest (2010) 

SnapChat (2011) 

Tinder (2012) 

Deliveroo (2013)

Slack (2013) 

TikTok (2016)

3. New Ways of Working

Gone are the days where people expect to get a good job and stay with a company for life. In the 2010s people change jobs, start companies and participate in flexible working arrangements more than ever. Technology has made it possible to start businesses with little more than a laptop and an idea. It’s also made it possible to work in the gig economy, picking up work as an when you want it. The number of businesses in the UK grew by over 1.3M in the 2010s however the number of businesses that employ people fell considerably. Another huge trend facilitated by cloud computing and fast internet is remote working - many teams that work together every day might not have ever been in the same room together. 

Gig Economy Businesses

Task Rabbit - has 60K+ registered workers with over 70% holding a bachelors degree. 

Upwork - 116K businesses used an UpWork worker in Q2 2019

Uber - 3.9M drivers completing 14M trips per day

Deliveroo - over 35K couriers globally. 

UK Businesses

2010: 4.4M 

2019: 5.7M

UK Businesses that employ at least one person:

2010: 27% 

2019: 24%

LinkedIn Users Globally

2009: 50M

2019: 650M

Dropbox Users

2010: 4M

2019: 500M users (13.6M Paid)

Workplace collaboration software daily users 2019:

Slack: 12M

Microsoft Teams: 13M 

4. Emerging Middle-Classes in Asia 

In countries like the UK and the USA middle class families have seen almost stagnant wage growth this decade however the opposite is true in Asia. Wages in China, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia grew considerably. In 2011 the number of middle class people in Asia overtook that of Europe and as we close the decade over 1.5B people in Asia are considered to be in that bracket. It’s expected that 88% of the people who join the middle class in the 2020s will be Asian. 

Average income per capita in China

2010: CHY37,150

2019: CHY86,100

Thailand GDP

2009: US$285B

2019: US$555B 

Percentage of people in South Asia living in poverty (-$1.90 per day)

2010: 24.6%

2019: 9%

People aged 15+ with a bank account in South Asia:

2010: 32%

2019: 72%

5. Populism and Nationalism Re-emerge 

In 2010 most people considered the world to be evolving towards being a global village and the idea of being a "citizen of the world" was taken for granted by millions of big city dwellers. Today there’s a huge swing towards nationalism, defence spending and border protection. Political parties that are explicitly anti-immigration with authoritarian leaders have risen to power at a level not seen since World War 2. 

Support for Populist Parties Globally

2010: 15%

2019: 25% 

Far-Right/Nationalist Party Voter Percentage

Austria: 26%

Denmark: 21%

Sweden: 18% 

Switzerland: 29%

6. Female Business Leaders

The year 2018 marked one hundred years since the suffrage movement succeeded in securing votes for women in the UK however it’s taken this long to see a boom in women in leadership roles in business. Women are leading businesses at unprecedented level in the 2010s. In the decade just gone, women on FTSE100 boards and the VC capital allocated to female founders more than doubled. 

Percentage of Women on FTSE100 Boards 

2010: 12.5% 

2019: 29%

VC deals with female lead companies:

2010: 7%

2019: 17%

VC funding to women as a percentage of funds :

2010: 2%

2019: 10%

7. Falling prices of high-tech hardware (solar, computing, biomedical)  

The costs of sophisticated consumer and commercial equipment has dropped dramatically in 3 years. Whether you want to set up a solar system, 3D print objects, get an MRI scan, tool-up a factory of robots or play antra-realistic computer games, the cost of the hardware to do it has more probably halved in the last 10 years. 

Average cost of solar installation UK

2010: ￡13K (2.6KW system)

2019: ￡6.6K (4KW system)

Top iPad Specs

2010: Memory 256MB, 64GB storage ($699)

2019: Memory 3GB, 128GB storage ($429) 

Cost of a lithium-ion battery:

2010: US$1,700/kwh

2019: US$250/kwh

8. SaaS/subscription business models  

With fast internet and cloud computing infrastructure it has become obvious for many businesses to make software available on recurring-revenue licensing models with constant improvements updating automatically. This business model has impacted consumer markets such as music, movies and gaming as well as commercial applications like databases, office applications and learning management systems all hosted in the cloud. 

Netflix subscribers: 

2010: 20M

2019: 160M

Spotify users 

2010: 600K

2019: 248M (113M paid)

Office365 monthly users 

2011: Initial release

2015: 60M

2019: 200M 

Global Cloud SaaS Revenue

2010: $18B

2019: $120B

9. USA Energy Independence

At the beginning of the 2010s the USA imported oil however as we enter the 2020s it will be looking to export it. Thanks to the shale gas revolution, the USA no longer needs to police the world, control the Middle East or patrol the oceans in order to keep the lights on. The USA has so much natural gas that they often burn off the excess that they can’t store. The USA in the 2020s will have all their energy needs in-house and could potentially cut themselves off from the world without noticing too many downsides. This will fundamentally change the geopolitical landscape and challenge many assumptions we take for granted about how the world works.

USA Net Petroleum/Oil Product Imports: 

2010: 10M Barrels per day

2019: 750K Barrels per day. 

USA defense spending as a percentage of GDP

2010: 4.8%

2019: 3.2%

10. Cheap capital 

After the global financial crisis of 2007/08 the major economies began printing money and dumping it into the economy pushing interest rates to almost zero. Add to that the ageing demographics of most western countries and you have billions and billions of funds searching for a yield producing asset. Those with a strong credit rating who already owned assets going into the 2010s were given a massive boost in wealth thanks to these economic factors, while younger generations hoping to buy homes were suddenly priced out of the markets. Cheap capital has given rise to Private Equity megafunds that can operate massive businesses without taking them public. 

Average cost of a home in London:

Detached 2010: ￡525K

Detached 2019: ￡908K

Flat 2010: ￡250K

Flat 2019: ￡408K

Average mortgage rate:

Pre-GFC 2007: 6.3%

2019: 3.6%

Bitcoin High-price: 

2010: $0.08

2019: $10,080

Living through a decade, it’s easy to take for granted how much things can change in a relatively short space of time. Hopefully, these comparisons from 2010 to 2019 have highlighted what a revolutionary decade it has been. The 2020s are shaping up to be even more disruptive. I imagine there will be massive breakthroughs in medicine, machine-learning and transportation. We will also see a total transformation of the way the world trades and how people live and work. Hopefully in 2029, I will also be able to say that the planet achieved the Sustainable Development Goals, eradicated poverty, addressed the environment and maximised human potential in ways we have not even thought of today.