Predictions for 2025

Just read last week's Nutgraf edition by The Ken and it enticed me to write my predictions for 2025. Now I could be wrong for a lot of parts here, who knows. But I enjoyed the process of thinking about it.

Grab a tea and enjoy

1. Protein is the next big thing - With the growing awareness about the importance of protein, more and more companies will follow Amul and start writing their protein contents and adding more protein to their ingredients. Protein (just like cholesterol, but in a good way) will become the talk of households and people will start having dining table conversations about it. We will see more and more people talk about both the good and the bad of it. There will soon be a series of influencers talking about the ill effects of proteins and it ll just become a trend to talk about protein. People will start claiming that they lost someone due to excess or lack of proteins and there will be more and more scrutiny in foo products for proteins. 

2. Mental health will decline further

Mental wellbeing and mental wellbeing as an industry will see sharp declines. With everything getting back to pre covid levels and people now finding it hard to find time, for themselves or their families, mental health will suffer and the worst part is they wont realise that the decline in their overall health is due to poor mental health. The mental wellness industry will suffer due to growing belief in people that their phones and google (and AI) can solve everything, while it ll just make it worse. Travel is now accessible to everyone and people will soon realise that its not the answer they had been looking for. People will get tired of validation from their virtual network. And this will not be governed by the golden demand - supply rule of economics. 

3. Zepto 

Now this would have been in most people's prediction. I smell Byju's (and OYO and housing.com http://housing.com/) from the way its growing itself. Keeping the business and its model aside, there are growing trends of its employees complaining about its culture online. The founder's growing negligence towards its employees' satisfaction is a breeding ground for a decline. This is my prediction (and not my hope) that unless something is done about it, which could slow down its growth, the decline is near. What also needs to be considered is the no. of enemies it has made on its way to the top. That will just fuel the fire. 

4. Influencer Economy

There had been constant evolution in the influencer business and its getting concentrated to a few. The gatekeeping is visible now and it will just grow. The sources of revenue for influencers will shrink and brands will now concentrate more on the popular faces. We recently saw a post go viral by some one who tried everything for 3 years but her youtube career just failed. The algo is evolving faster than ever and only strong capital can cope up and hence the brands that were feeding this economy will get safer with their experimentation and will work with known names rather than new influencers. 

Failed youtube career https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/rs-8-lakh-investment-return-rs-0-youtuber-announces-exit-from-content-creation-deletes-250-videos-457784-2024-12-18#:~:text=In%20a%20series%20of%20posts%20on%20X%2C%20Nalini%20detailed%20her,kitchen%20accessories%20and%20studio%20equipment.

5. Traditional education will grow 

We have seen a decline in signups for courses like MBA, CA etc. but it ll start to reverse. Companies are getting very intentional in their hirings and they would not want to risk with less academically qualified people. We have already seen most of the dummy MBA startups die and people have started to realise the value in a course like MBA or CA isn't just in the course in itself but also the ecosystem in which it is built, the network people build there and the way it is structured.

Thanks