“We’re likely going to see emerging markets companies move from copycats to true innovators,” Thomsen said. “We used to refer to companies like Alibaba as the ‘the Amazon of China’ or Baidu as the ‘Google of China’, but these companies have really developed and localized their technology, while accelerating their growth in ways different from the U.S.”
Successful new entrants may scale more quickly than older companies. “Consider Pinduoduo, which is an e-commerce company in China that is less than 10 years old but has already surpassed a US$100 billion market cap. Likewise, the US$150 billion multi-service platform Meituan has over 450 million active users. There are going to be a lot more of these cropping up across industries.”
4. The prognosis looks good for a cancer cure
A cure for cancer? Really? According to Frank, this is closer than you think thanks to breakthroughs in gene therapy and new applications of artificial intelligence, which are accelerating drug development.
She said: “I believe some cancers will be functionally cured with cell therapy between now and 2030. New, reliable tests should enable very early detection of cancer formation and location. Beyond 2030, cancer could be largely eradicated as a major cause of death through early diagnosis.”
