What is the world’s largest taxi company?
UBER and it owns no vehicles.
What is the world’s most popular media company?
Facebook and it doesn’t create any content.
What about the most valuable retailer?
Ali Baba, the Chinese e-commerce giant which has no inventory.
Similarly Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodations provider which owns no real estate.
Something fascinating is happening.
Back in 2011 Mark Andersen wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal, stating that “software is eating the world”.
We have an unprecedented amount of ubiquitous devices ranging from smartphones to health-oriented trackers. Apple has become the most valuable company in the world, beating even energy companies, followed by Google and Microsoft as trillion dollar companies.
Unicorns, companies valued at more than one billion dollars are emerging in every sector.
There are three major reasons for this.
First, thanks to the cloud computing and software as a service paradigm, costs of setting up a company and its corresponding IT have dropped to an absolute minimum.
Second, according to ABI Research the number of active wireless connected devices exceed sixteen billion in 2015, about twenty percent more than in 2014.
The number of devices will be more than double the current level with 40.9 billion forecasted for 2020.
Finally, a new breed of startups is becoming the major cornerstone of revolution that will change business and software as we know it today. These startups are reckless, brave and unstoppable.
Software architects would be the ones in charge of the digital transformation that every company has to make.