1. TV & Home Theatre Installation Services.
This industry is highly fragmented and has a very low level of capital intensity, affording firms with transportation and proper tools good opportunity. About 98 percent of today’s households have at least one TV, 84 percent have a DVD player or recorder, and 25 percent have a home theater, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. Revenue is growing an annualized 4.1 percent to £8 billion over the five years to 2013. But cable subscriptions are falling – one report says paid subscriptions will be down 6% by 2017. To succeed, start-ups must keep up with the rapid pace of technology.
2. Cloud Services
Also called “virtual data rooms,” cloud services are growing quickly, with industry revenue expected to hit £500M this year, a 16-percent increase from 2012. The industry has seen an annualized growth rate of 15.8 percent since 2008. Fueling the growth is the global push toward online services. The growth of access-limited document sharing infrastructures – and programmers – has enabled the industry to flourish without huge investments.
3. Online Travel Agencies
Overall, the travel agency industry hasn’t fared well during the recession, however revenue among online agencies grew at an average rate of 3.9 percent over the past five years, and expects revenue to grow another 6.1 percent in 2013. Storefront travel agencies are being replaced by online services, which offer a relatively high-profit, low-cost way to handle transactions.
But major operators have been acquiring global, regional and local websites to improve revenue and capture a larger market share, which presents both a risk and an opportunity for start-ups. As major operators grow through economies of scale, competition and barriers to entry in the industry increase. On the other hand, new entrants that have a successful site can leverage their success to secure an attractive deal with a larger firm.
4. Social Network Game Development
This industry has grown 184.3 percent per year on average over the past 5 years, driven by internet traffic and social networks, especially Facebook As broadband-enabled smart phones and tablets have proliferated, consumers have also increasingly been able to access social networks 24/7, placing gaming within reach for most computer users. Revenue is expected to grow 31.9 percent to £4 billion in 2013 .
5. IT Security Consulting
With data security breaches in the headlines, this industry is on steroids. In the past five years, revenue in this industry increased at an annualized rate of 9.8 percent to £3.8B and projects it will grow 8 percent each year over the next 5 years.
6. Online Shoe Sales
This industry has grown 16.2 percent over five-years to £5.5 B in 2013. Each year, more than 20 million Brits buy goods from the online retail marketplace, and clothing, accessories and shoes are the second largest category of items after books. industry revenue will increase at an average 10.2 percent over five years.
7. Digital Forensic Services
If your IT security fails, a digital forensics service comes in to investigate. These services help solve crimes committed with or on computers, such as phishing, bank fraud, and money laundering. In the last five years, revenue for this industry increased at an annualized rate of 11.9 percent to £630M. As consumers spend more time online, the amount of electronically stored information (ESI) will rise exponentially.
There are obstacles. Capital intensity and the rate of technological change are high, so prospective firms have to secure substantial backing to enter successfully. Industry participants will be challenged by the expansion of cloud computing, which allows information to be manipulated, stored and processed from multiple computers. Still, revenue is likely to continue to climb at the rate of 9.1 percent over the next five years.
8. Translation Services
The growth of the global market has benefited this industry. Industry revenue has increased at a rate of 2.4 percent in the past five years to £2 billion in 2013. The internet has been instrumental in increasing demand for translators as businesses expand into new countries and require services to adapt websites and marketing materials to the new region. Industry revenue may increase 3.4 percent in 2013. Translation services remain relatively labor intensive, and some competition exists through software programs and free internet websites (though most fail to provide cultural context).