Horizons newsletter – Week 22 // 2018
Horizons is a bi-monthly Dasym Research initiative to show you how the Dasym themes have been in the news. We publish the Horizons on our website and as an email newsletter. If you wish to receive the email, please contact Investor Relations.
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Urbanization 3.0
The first modern urbanization wave originated in Western Europe and was driven by the industrialization process of the late 18th century. Since the 1960s, the urbanization trend accelerated in emerging markets, especially in China where more than 675 million people migrated from villages into cities between 1960 and 2016. The current, third wave will largely be driven by countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which will add 850 and 620 million urban dwellers respectively up to 2050, a combined annual population migration that is roughly the current size of Spain. As a result, new megacities will rapidly emerge in these regions, exemplified by the U.N.’s forecast that New Delhi will already overtake Tokyo as the world’s most populous city within a decade. Whereas the first wave of urbanization was taking place gradually and spread over multiple centuries, the second was centrally planned and orchestrated. The upcoming third wave will be much bigger and uncontrolled, giving an impetus to efficient urban planning programs and new methods to cope with surging populations in Africa´s and Asia´s urban jungles.
The changing face of the Chinese tourist
The enormous growth in the number of Chinese travelers has been going on for some time. Today, they form the largest group of tourists worldwide. Most Chinese tourists prefer domestic travelling to avoid any language or culture problems and the world’s top five fastest growing tourist cities are all in China. However, the more affluent Chinese traveler is looking for increasingly far-flung locations. Also, he is no longer per se a group tourist, since the segment of individual adventure seekers is growing rapidly. Research shows that when considering overseas travel destinations, Chinese tourists consider cost less important than experience, which is visible in their preference for natural scenery and theme parks. With this upcoming Chinese tourist type, we might see new unexpected travel destinations arising. For example, as many Chinese are drawn to its natural beauty, Africa is growing in popularity and is becoming a favorite destination among more adventurous Chinese travelers. Especially Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Namibia, Madagascar, and Tanzania stand to benefit from this trend.
Based on a podcast story
Google’s announcement to incorporate podcasts in its search results, is an acknowledgement of the value of podcasts and will bring the medium closer to mainstream adoption. Since 2016, major news outlets have been adopting the format, with NYT’s The Daily already reaching 4.5 million unique listeners every month. In addition, radio channels are making their content available on-demand, TV programs are offering extended and more in-depth podcast content, and live events are using podcasts for promotion. Podcasters have proved themselves by attracting a dedicated and highly engaged listener base. As a result, podcast-originals are being adapted for other types of formats. HBO and Sky announced to turn podcast-hit Serial into a docu-series, LA Times’ Dirty John is set to become a TV series and The Daily is aired by public radio. The question is whether the intimate relationship between the podcast and its listeners remains intact when converting the format. Instead of just copying it, the data generated from the podcast’s established listener base can be used to fine-tune the format for other media.
