Thanks Charles for mailing me a great read that should shock all businesses into using social media for advertising.
From the words of MD of Daimler Benz, Jonathan Brathwaite, come some harsh realities of how life is now with software set to disrupt most traditional industries in the next five to 10 years.
No good sticking your head in the sand lest you want your business buried.
Technology has already completely turned traditional journalism on its head. Every person with a cell phone is now a journalist, sans necessary ethics or even having heard of a Press Code. Smart cell phones with decent cameras have already turned every Joe Blog into a professional behind the lens.
As an industry we have been compelled to adapt, embrace social media, use it for the benefit of our readers - and now also for our advertising clients.
Uber is just a software tool, they don't own cars, but now they are the biggest taxi company in the world.
Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, but they don't own properties.
Brathwaite points out that with artificial intelligence a computer beat the best GO player in the world 10 years earlier than expected.
In the USA, young lawyers don't get jobs because you can get legal advice online.
Nowadays there are online doctors.
I am constantly amazed that Google knows everything from why I might have a headache, to millions of recipes from around the globe. Google making hummus, which I did recently, and see how many recipes pop up.
Medicine, vitamins, symptoms of diseases, you name it Google will have a very respectable choice of opinions.
My kitten recently took to chocolate and if but for Google, or a damned expensive vet's bill, Google [a choice of articles on the topic] told me that chocolate can be fatal for cats because of an ingredient called theobromine.
Brathwaite maintains - and I hope this is far fetched neurosis because the thought terrifies me - there will be self-driving cars soon and by 2020 people won't want to own cars. You will call a car with your phone, it will duly arrive on time and drive you to your destination. You will not even need to park it, just pay for it.
This could be good and bad. Kids won't need drivers licences or to afford cars (after they have practised by bashing up their parents' vehicles).It is not clear who will pay the speeding fines or is the car clever enough to spot a cop or read the speed limit?
Car companies, who are petrified of Tesla, which is already punting freaky electric, computer savvy cars online, should wet themselves.
Tech companies like Tesla, Apple and Google will take a revolutionary approach and build computers on wheels - accessed online.
Already real estate has changed. Gone are the days you trawl from house to house with a good old-fashioned agent. You can find your dream pad online now.
What about 3D printing - the cheapest 3D printer has come down from US$18 000 to $400 in 10 years and major shoe companies are using this technique.
It is said that by the end of this year, new smart phones will have 3D scanning functions which means you can scan your feet and print your perfect shoe at home?
This bends my brain because I simply cannot imagine this or understand it...how on earth will you feed your printer leather for your shoes and rubber for heels, not to mention the ingredients needed to make a Glock?
Braithwaite says by 2020, only two years away, 70% of all humans on the planet will own a smart phone - giving everyone the same access to education and information.
Bottom line is software will only get smarter so the choice is to either evolve with it, use it (in advertising your business, for example) or become a dodo.
