Rakuten
This is the attempt of an addendum to Pete's idea: For years, everyone “knew” that audiovisual content would, over time, replace the written word as the most used way of receiving information. My son (13) uses YouTube as his preferred way to learn. The only books he touches are the ones he needs to use for school. Recently, I introduced Alexa (an echo dot) to the family and watched, how everyone interacts. The speed of adoption was astounding. One future scenario: virtual assistants might obviate the need to read or write within the next decade and the next generation may become one of "functional illiterates", except for an “academic elite” (i.e. back to medieval times). The business challenge: the density of information that can be transmitted in a voice-centric environment is massively lower than in a visual environment. How can current ecommerce and advertising firms prepare for this future scenario?