Rapidly Trending Topics, Insights, and Analysis Update on May 31, 2022

Nomad Visa

A nomad visa refers to a specific type of visa designed to attract remote workers.

There are currently an estimated 35 million digital nomads worldwide (a 2x increase over the last 24 months).

And the number of countries offering digital nomad visas is also increasing.

In fact, there are now 46 countries that offer nomad visa programs (and more than 20 of these countries started these programs in the last two years).

What’s next

Searches for “digital nomad” have grown by 376% over the last 2 years.

This influx of new digital nomads has created demand for platforms specific to this group.

For example, RemoteOK is a job board for remote-focused job opportunities. Over 2 million workers are registered on the platform.

And World Nomads is a content platform specifically catered to nomads.

Because Animals

Because Animals is a DTC startup that sells cultured meat-based pet food. The startup also uses compostable packaging for its products.

Because Animals currently sells four core SKUs.

The startup last raised a seed round of $3.72M in May 2021.

What’s next

Because Animals is part of the Sustainable Pet Food meta trend.

91% of pet food industry professionals forecast growth in sustainable pet food in the coming years.

And 18-to-44-year-olds are set to be the main demographic driving this growth.

A survey of 750 people showed that 54% of people consider sustainability when purchasing pet food.

Another industry study revealed that 28% of people would like to see more sustainably sourced pet food options.

NFT Exhibition

An NFT exhibition are NFT galleries that can be in-person or virtual.

Searches for this concept are growing mainly due to an increasing number of NFT exhibitions.

The reason for more NFT exhibitions? NFTs with exhibitions tend to fetch significantly higher prices. For instance, the price of the “Portrait of an Era” NFT exhibition increased 3X during the exhibition.

And the Tezos NFT exhibition showed at the influential Art Basel Miami Beach Show last December.

What’s next

NFT exhibitions are part of the NFT 2.0 meta trend.

NFT 2.0 is the second wave of interest in NFTs due to increasing NFT applications and use cases.

For example, searches for “utility NFT” have increased by 2.4x over the last year.

Statement Candle

Statement candles are purely decorative candles that aren’t meant to be burned.

This product category initially gained traction during the pandemic. Today, due to their high price tag of $50-$100, statement candles are trending largely because they’ve become Instagram and TikTok status symbols.

In fact, statement candles are forecasted to be the main driving factor of the candle industry through 2028.

Examples of trending statement candles include the female body candle, the cube candle and the bendy candle.

What’s next

Statement Candles are part of the Statement Home Decor meta trend.

Statement home decor pieces are items that are designed to be one of the first things that catch someone’s eye when entering a room.

According to Furniture Today, Millennials and Generation X consider home décor more important than baby boomers do.

Moon phase mirrors, elephant figurines and wood beads are examples of trending statement home décor products.

Neckband Speaker

Neckband speakers are speakers that can be worn around the neck (their shape and size are similar to travel pillows).

While the product has technically existed for a while, the product category is currently surging due to the fact that a growing number of electronics brands plan to launch their own versions.

For example, Sony recently launched their own neckband speaker, which racked up quite a bit of buzz on Twitter and TikTok.

What’s next

Neckband speakers are part of the Wearable Speakers meta trend.

The demand for wearable speakers is driven mainly by the need for a more “ear-friendly” speaker system.

Earphones and headphones deliver great immersive sounds. But their potentially harmful effects on ear health are starting to deter people from using them.

And wearable speakers like neckband speakers, speaker bracelets or speaker rings serve as ear health-friendly alternatives to traditional headphones.

This is why the market for wireless wearable speakers is estimated to double by 2025.

EstateGuru

EstateGuru is a marketplace for facilitating property-backed loans.

Specifically, the marketplace focuses specifically on loans for SMEs in the EU.

According to the startup, their platform has been used to lend over 569M Euros via 3,659 funded loans.

What’s next

EstateGuru is part of the Real Estate FinTech meta trend.

FinTech is branching out from banks and starting to reduce inefficiencies in the real estate market.

This is why demand for FinTech applications in real estate has been growing to the point that many analysts predict that FinTech will be “the future of real estate”.

Conreit, AlphaFlow and Yourkeys are examples of trending real estate fintech startups.

Rytr

Rytr is an AI-powered writing assistant.

Besides proofreading and plagiarism checking, like many AI writing assistants, Rytr can create content based on a few descriptive sentences.

According to Rytr, their solution can “increase writing efficiency by 10x”.

The tool has over 1.25M users and supports 30 languages, as well as more than 20 writing tones.

What’s next

Rytr is part of the Next-Gen AI Writing meta trend.

Searches for “AI writing tool” have increased by 2400% in the last 24 months.

And this trend is likely to see even more growth when the highly-anticipated GPT-4 model becomes available.

GPT-4 is forecasted to have around 100 trillion parameters (parameters are to the GPT model what neurons are to the human brain), a 500X increase over GPT-3.

Scalp Serum

Scalp serums are conditioners designed to prevent hair damage, promote scalp skin health, and prevent dandruff.

The serum is also known for its relaxation properties.

One popular scalp serum generates approximately $11.2K/month on Amazon.

What’s next

Scalp serums are part of the Scalp Detox meta trend.

Searches for “scalp detox” have increased by 373% in the last 5 years.

A scalp detox refers to the process of using cleansers, moisturizers, and other products to clean the scalp.

Forbes projects scalp care to be one of the biggest emerging trends in the beauty market over the next few years.

In fact, scalp cleansing videos on TikTok have already racked up 1.6 billion views.

Chunky Gold

Chunky gold refers to very thick jewelry made from gold or gold plating. This category comes in many forms, such as chunky gold earrings, chunky gold necklaces and chunky gold bracelets. These products are currently trending largely due to TikTok. In fact, the #chunkyrings hashtag has over 33 million views on the platform.

What’s next

Chunky gold is part of the TikTok Products meta trend. We’re seeing a growing number of niche products start to trend thanks to exposure on TikTok.

Examples of trending TikTok products include:

• The curling headband is a fashion item that also curls. One video featuring the product has over 334K likes.
• The skin therapy wand is trending largely because of NuDerma, a skin wand brand. The #nuderma hashtag has over 5.7 million views.
• The eye brightener search keyword has multiple videos with over 1 million views on TikTok.

uMobix

uMobix is a parental content control software made specifically for tablets and smartphones. uMobix monitors more than 30 popular social media platforms and other popular apps. The solution’s “stealth mode” makes it popular among parents that don’t want their children to know that they are being monitored.

What’s next

uMobix is part of the Smart Social Media Controls meta trend. 86% of parents actively try to limit their kids’ social media usage. Typically, parents either ban or restrict the time spent on devices. But, as the New York Times reports, the rise of remote schooling has acted as a “gateway drug” to social media for many children. Which is why parents are increasingly turning to monitoring software.

Date Syrup

Date syrup is a sweet syrup extracted by boiling dates. The product, popular in Middle Eastern cuisine, is rich in zinc, magnesium, and calcium. And date syrup has gained recent traction as a healthier alternative to sugar. For example, a highly rated date syrup brings in an estimated $23K/month on Amazon.

What’s next

Date syrup is part of the Organic Sugar Substitute meta trend. Use of many traditional sugar alternatives, such as agave syrup and artificial sweeteners, is rapidly declining. This has left a vacuum of demand for natural, organic and relatively healthy sugar alternatives. Palmyra blossom nectar and yacon syrup are two examples of trending sugar alternatives.

FlutterFire

FlutterFire is a set of plugins that allow Flutter apps to use Firebase services. These plugins allow Flutter apps to use the Firebase UI toolkit faster. The service currently offers 14 Flutter plugins. And are Beta testing several other plugins. FlutterFire has over 6,500 stars on GitHub.

What’s next

FlutterFire is part of the Open-Source UI Toolkits meta trend. Open-source UI toolkits are forecasted to grow faster than traditional UI services. Examples of trending open-source UI toolkits include:

Cefpython provides Python bindings for the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF). The project has over 2,600 stars on GitHub.

Walk UI is a GUI toolkit specifically for Go. Walk UI is one of the most popular open-source UI projects and has over 6,000 stars on GitHub.

Nana GUI is a GUI library for C++. The project has over 2,000 Github stars.

Weighted Eye Mask

Weighted eye masks are a cross between sleep masks and weighted blankets. Like all eye masks, a primary function is to block out light. But weighted masks also offer the potential to help with stress relief. Like weighted blankets, this relies on the action of deep pressure stimulation. While there has been very limited research into weighted eye masks specifically, one study using blankets found that 63% of users reported reduced anxiety. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that weighted masks can help with headaches and migraines.

What’s next

Weighted eye masks are part of the sleep optimization products meta trend. 28% of people worldwide suffer from insomnia. And the “sleep economy” is worth an estimated $488B. That’s forecast to rise to $585B by 2024.

Sleep gummies are an extremely fast-growing product category in this space (searches are up 1820% over the last 5 years). Other topics in the meta trend showing strong growth include sleep coaches, valerian root and Neorhythm (a headband that emits electro-magnetic pulses).

Leadership Coach

Searches for “leadership coaches” are up 76% over the last two years. In the US, working professionals spend $166B on leadership development each year. And a recent survey of industry professionals found that leadership coaching is the most prominent trend within the field of executive coaching. 89% of both internal and external coaches cited “leadership development programs with additional coaching” as a likely or highly likely trend through the end of this year.

What’s next

Leadership coaches are part of the business coaching meta trend. There are an estimated 50K+ professional executive coaches worldwide. And one study found that executive coaching produces a 788% ROI. Startups riding this wave include ThePowerMBA, BetterU and SkiIIUp.

Biddr

Biddr is an online auction platform for numismatic (hard currency) items. What makes Biddr unique is that, besides organizing online auctions, they also aggregate information about auctions happening on other platforms. Specifically, the platform aggregates data from over 50 different auction houses.

What’s next

Biddr is part of the Specialty Online Auction meta trend. We’re seeing a growing number of startups launching platforms focused on auctioning off niche items, like pokemon collectibles and decorative art. Examples of trending online platforms offering auctions on specialty items include Hibid, Proxibid and Heritage Auctions.

Tretinoin

Tretinoin is a Vitamin A derivative most commonly applied as a gel or cream. Its antioxidant capabilities are partly why tretinoin is used to treat acne and sun-damaged skin. A popular tretinoin-based acne treatment gel generates an estimated $20K/day on Amazon.

What’s next

Tretinoin is part of the Antioxidant Skincare meta trend. The anti-aging ingredient market is estimated to be $1.14B in 2020. By 2027, this market will reach $1.5B (CAGR of 7.5%). And antioxidant ingredients account for the largest share of the market (around 34%). Whereas the cosmetic antioxidants market is projected to reach $158M by 2025 (5.9% CAGR). Notably, growth in North America will be driven largely by the rising demand for cosmetic and grooming products for men.

Magnesium L-threonate

Magnesium L-threonate is the combination of threonic acid and magnesium. Studies suggest that nearly half of people in the United States are not meeting their daily magnesium needs. While some take the product in order to get enough magnesium, a big part of why Magnesium L-threonate is trending is because it’s considered one of the most effective magnesium supplements for brain health.

What’s next

Magnesium L-threonate is part of the Cognitive Enhancement Supplements meta trend. The global market for brain health supplements is estimated to grow by 8% annually through 2028. Supplements made from herbal extracts will see the fastest growth during this period (CAGR of 9.2%). For example, one popular cognitive enhancement supplement brings in an estimated $18K/day on Amazon.

YOLOv5

Searches for “YOLOv5” have increased 99X+ over the past two years. And by 151% over the last 12 months. YOLO, an acronym for “You Only Look Once,” is a framework for facilitating real-time object detection. The framework is popular in autonomous driving software because it can detect people, animals, traffic signals and more in real-time.

YOLOv5 is the fifth and newest version of the YOLO framework. At only 27 MB, YOLOv5 is approximately 88% smaller in size than YOLOv4. This is significant as YOLOv5 can detect objects at 140 FPS, compared to YOLOv4’s max capability of 50 FPS.

What’s next

YOLOv5 is part of the ML-Assisted Image Classification meta trend. Image classification is the process of using ML algorithms to understand what images represent, which is an essential part of computer vision technology. Last year, VC funding in image classification startups grew by 3x.

• Sky Engine is a machine learning training platform. The tool trains AI algorithms to understand images and detect objects.
• SigAi provides object detection and image classification services for enterprises.
• OneView is a geospatial data platform designed to train ML algorithms to perform object detection and image classification on satellite data. The startup has raised a total of $3.3M in funding to date.

Snipfeed

Snipfeed is a platform that allows creators to develop custom storefronts on social media. According to the startup, user growth has increased significantly over the last 12 months (5x increase in their user base). The platform is free to set up, however, they charge 15% of all transactions that go through their platform. The startup has raised a total of $6.4M in funding over four rounds.

What’s next

Snipfeed is part of the Link-in-Bio Commerce meta trend. Link-in-bio commerce refers to platforms that allow creators to advertise their services and products in a single link. An example is Beacons, which already has more than 300,000 users and is reportedly growing by 3,000 new users every day. In fact, the trend is growing so fast that even TikTok is looking at offering their own link-in-bio commerce solution.

Seat Gap Filler

A seat gap filler is designed to fill the gaps on the sides of the car seat. They usually come in the form of organizers that give drivers and passengers extra space for their belongings. One of the most popular seat gap fillers is made by Drop Stop. Their product generates an estimated $299K/month on Amazon (AMZscout). Drop Stop has raised $300K in funding. Another popular seat gap filler brings in around $103K/month on Amazon.

What’s next

Seat gap fillers are part of the Car Consoles and Organizers meta trend. Examples of trending car consoles and organizers include:

• Car mask holders work similarly to tissue boxes. They are boxes filled with masks that are usually mounted on car visors. A trending car mask holder generates approximately $30K/month on Amazon.
• Car hooks, as the name suggests, are hooks specifically for cars. One set of car hooks brings in around $4.6K/day on Amazon.
• A backseat net is a net mounted between the back of the driver and passenger seats. It is often used as a way to stop kids or pets from moving to the front of the vehicle.