Have you wondered how the future of the job market will be like in the coming years? This is arguably one of the most important subject for university students who will enter the job market in the coming year. This article aims to provide you with more insights into the future and better prepare you for the currently dynamic and fast transforming global job market.

Speed of change

One thing you not know is that our current job market is changing at the fastest rate ever since the second and third industrial revolution. Driven by technical advances, the occupation industry faces significant job creation to job losses. Many currents most in-demand occupations simply did not exist five years ago. 65% of children currently studying in primary school will end up working for job types which don’t exist yet in our society.

Drivers of change

In our current information age, technology and information sharing is the biggest driver our change in the job market. Sectors in artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, genetics and biotechnology all require close collaboration and knowledge sharing across these sectors. The breakthrough in one sector could positively benefit the other. Another driver is in the rise of smart systems such as smart homes, factories, or entire cities. This utilisation of Internet of Things could not only help us tackle climate change but also contribute significantly to the occupation transformation process.

Employment trend

Between the period 2016-2020, it is projective that over 5.1 million jobs will be lost due to disruptive technology. Another 7.1 million jobs in the current white collar functions will also be lost, these functions including office and administrative roles as well as manufacturing and production roles across varies sectors and industries. Estimated 2 million jobs will be created in the computer, mathematical, architecture and engineering related fields.

New emerging roles

Two type of jobs stand out as the most vital emerging roles across emerging job categories. First type is data analyst which are used by companies to gain insights from the vast amount of data in the current digital environment. Second is specialised sales representatives, as every industry will need to improve and transform its current commercial and sales strategy and channels.

Reference:

World Economic Forum . (2016). The future of jobs. WEF.

Today, We will discuss the development towards universal service platforms in the current platform landscape. First you might wonder, what is a platform? A platform is products and services that bring groups of users together in two-sided networks, which provide infrastructure and rules to facilitate the two groups’ transactions.

Universal Service Platform

Do you think it is possible to fit an entire nation’s economy into a single smartphone application? In the economic giant china, this is soon becoming the case. The Chinese app WeChat is such as your Facebook, Skype, Uber, Paypal, and Tinder. It is the world’s first truly universal service platform.

Since its launch in January 2011, WeChat has acquired 700 million users, the equivalent of twice the population of the US. Following the success of WeChat, other western platforms started to mimic its features, and started to offer more and more functions via its original purpose. WeChat has been the leader and trendsetter of universal service platforms since 2011.

Facebook as a Universal Service Platform?

Since its launch in 2007, the Facebook platform’s initial aim at providing the framework for social networking services has changed and evolved over the years.

David Marcus (VP of Facebook messenger) recently has openly expressed his envy for WeChat by calling it simply ‘inspiring‘ and at the same time announced his plans to ‘transform messenger into a platform where people can communicate with business and buy things’. By early 2016, more than 700 apps have been plugged into Facebook messenger.

Will WeChat expand their market?

WeChat has only invested small efforts to expand beyond their primary market. What will happen if WeChat decides to increase their expansion? Does WeChat pose a credible threat to other players in markets outside China as for example the United States or Europe?

While there is no definite answer to that question, there are several points that speak for or against envelopment:

WeChat has gathered a lot of experience. This knowledge certainly gives them an advantage over most of the other platform providers, who are more experts in one particular functionality.

On the other hand, the app ecosystem in the West is already advanced. WeChat’s success in China can largely be attributed to the dispersed and less-advanced app landscape that allowed them to emerge as the dominant player. As a new market entrant to the Western market, WeChat would need to overcome the strong network effects, which all the dominant players exhibit in their respective fields.

So?

If we take a look at the current developments of some big platforms, there is clear evidence that the trend goes towards universal service platforms. The more services and functionalities are offered by the same platform, the more benefits users can extract from it. This goes without incurring extra switching costs while changing between multiple platforms. Also from the provider side, offering a new feature is likely to complement an already existing feature, for example the ability to pay with an app.

It will be interesting to see if, sooner or later, WeChat will increase their expansion in the West and how the other players will respond. For now, Facebook and Co. still have a long road ahead from becoming a true universal service platform.

References:

Constine, J. (2015, March 25). Facebook Finds Strength As A Family, Not An App . Retrieved September 23, 2016, from Techcrunch.com: https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/25/safety-in-numbers/

Eisenmann, T. P. (2009). Opening Platforms: How, When and Why? In A. Gawer, Platforms, Markets and Innovation (pp. 131-162). Northampton: Edward Elgar.

Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., & Van Alstyne, M. W. (2006). Strategies for Two-Sided Markets. Harvard Business Review , 84 (10), 92-101.

Lanman, S., & Smith, K. (2016, September 15). The App That Runs China’s Economy. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-15/the-app-that-runs-china-s-economy

Schultz, S. (2016, September 23). Chinesischer IT-Riese will Apples App Store überflüssig machen. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from Spiegel Online: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/wechat-will-apples-app-store-ueberfluessig-machen-a-1113540.html

Seetharaman, D., & Osawa, J. (2016, January 4). The Future of Mobile Chatting: Commerce. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from The Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-texting-e-commerce-1451951064

The Economist – Shanghai. (2016, August 6). WeChat’s world. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21703428-chinas-wechat-shows-way-social-medias-future-wechats-world

Wang, H. H. (2016, August 11). It’s Time For Facebook To Copy WeChat . Retrieved September 22, 2016, from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2016/08/11/its-time-for-facebook-to-copy-wechat/#6c98f7a27a40

Wang, H. H. (2016, August 11). It’s Time For Facebook To Copy WeChat. Retrieved September 28, 2016, from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2016/08/11/its-time-for-facebook-to-copy-wechat/#72c4d22d27a4