Technology is playing an increasingly important role in the commoditisation of products and services.
The phenomenon dubbed “digital commoditisation” has led to products such as music and social media being made freely available to the public, and in future it will significantly lower the cost of electricity.
This was the word from John Sanei, author, trend specialist, Singularity University faculty member and global keynote speaker, speaking to ITWeb on the side-lines of the ITWeb Cloud and Data Centre Summit 2022 held this week in Johannesburg.
According to Sanei, the innovative use of technology by organisations across the globe is creating new channels of access to markets and this, in turn, leads to rising competition among service providers – and a significant drop in prices.
Since the dawn of the digital age, technology has been evolving to a point where it is playing an important role in the commoditisation of products and services being made freely available to the public. This includes free music through platforms like YouTube, free education through online courses, and free entertainment services in the form of e-books, audiobooks and online games, etc.
According to Small Business Chron, commoditisation can be defined as the process by which a product or service that was unique or innovative becomes generic and widely available at lower costs than before.
Sanei is of the view that the commoditisation of products and services around the world is slowly leading to the implosion of structures that held up capitalism over the last 200 years, as businesses apply a different ideology to the commercialisation of products.
As independent power producers increasingly offer similar greener products and services, consumers will choose the lowest price tag – a phenomenon that will lead to freely available electricity over the next five years, he predicts.
“Technology has an incredible way of making everything it touches free, from communication, to photos to music, to entertainment, to videos. Many of these services have become free over the last few years, and energy will become free in the next five years.
“Around the world we have a surplus society of clever people working with similar companies to create similar products and services for the world, and so everything seems to be commoditised because of the ubiquitous access to information.”
Sanei emphasised the importance of businesses stepping out of the cycle of “being in competition with rivals”, for the sole purpose of wealth creation, and firms focusing on their contribution to society by following their own uniqueness and creativity, which he referred to as the “currency of the future”.
He referenced Zap Energy, an American company that aims to commercialise fusion power through the use of sheared-flow-stabilised Z-pinch to offer low-cost carbon-free power.Fusion power is a form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions.
In future, the company says it is hoping to provide on-demand, nearly limitless, clean energy at negligible fuel costs.
“So we need to apply the same ideology here as WhatsApp, which is a free service. There are many companies around the world that are creating nuclear fusion cylinders, and there are now going to be many nuclear fusion cylinders which are going to be put into our homes and create endless energy for us to have access to, at low costs.”
When asked how the companies will make profit if they offer free or low-cost products,Sanei pointed out the concept of business being focused on meeting ambitious profit targets is steadily changing.
“You've got to understand that making money will change in the future, and the currency of the future will start to change because when you have access to everything for free, why do you need money?
“Even the concept of business will start to change because when everything is accessible for free, it will no longer be about holding money but rather about expressing creativity. Your currency will become creativity and not absolute outcomes,” he concluded.
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