New tech industries start small but can grow into permanent, billion dollar slices of infrastructure. Sometimes that seems to happen overnight — like with smartphones.
And sometimes it takes years — like with the dumb phones that grew like mold from the mid-1990s through the late 2000s.
And now, for example, the prevalence of smart mobile devices has spurred the mobile app industry, an entirely new piece of infrastructure which supports thousands of companies and billions of dollars in sales.
There is a discussion going on over at Quora about which industries are poised to gain the next $1 billion.
We pulled out a few of the most interesting and explored why they're set to explode.
Mobile Payment Services are poised to bring thousands of businesses into the 21st century.
Mobile payment services like Square, Intuit's Go Payment and PayPal Here allow users to accept payments virtually anywhere that there is a cell signal.
As of late 2012, Square was valued at roughly $3 billion.
The industry is still in its infancy but as time goes on we expect this to become one of the next biggest markets.
Near Field Communication promises frictionless information sharing.
NFC allows smartphones and other mobile devices to exchange information by passing them close together, typically in a sales transaction scan.
But the technology (which uses a wireless or Bluetooth connection) could be used to exchange any amount or type of data between individuals who need to meet face to face and transfer information assets, for instance in video games or in social media.
Social E-Commerce is changing the shopping landscape.
Social e-commerce is a budding industry that stands to make tons of cash. Consumers love online shopping and when coupled with a recommendation from friends or followers shopping becomes less of a transactional experience and feels more personal.
Companies like Pinterest and The Fancy are changing how users purchase products and services with well-designed and easy to use experiences.
As of February 2013, Pinterest is valued at $2.5 billion.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider