Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic Trend: The U.S. GDP grew 3.9%

• https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-gdp-current-statistics-3305731
• An opportunity might exist since the economy is growing in the U.S. Employment will rise, but inflation will not occur since the growth is not extremely rapid. It is proven that with a rise in GDP, comes a higher employment rate if the growth does not result in inflation to occur. 
• The prototypical customers are those who might be unemployed and with the growth in the economy recently, they have the potential for employment. The opportunity is relatively easy to exploit, being that the economy is growing at a steady rate. 
• I saw this opportunity because there is such a focus on economic growth in America, that when it occurs, it is considered a huge deal in the political and economic spheres. 

Economic Trend: America's Humongous Wealth Gap is Widening Further

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/pedrodacosta/2019/05/29/americas-humungous-wealth-gap-is-widening-further/#7c7ea3942ee1https://www.forbes.com/sites/pedrodacosta/2019/05/29/americas-humungous-wealth-gap-is-widening-further/#7c7ea3942ee1
• An opportunity might exist here because of the large percentage of people in America who are living below the poverty line is extremely disproportionate with the small percentage of hugely wealthy people. Financial struggles are something that most Americans are forced to deal with while there are individuals holding onto $30 Billion in assets. 
• The customers of this opportunity are prototypical Americans, and this opportunity is easily exploited due to the obviously and embarrassingly huge gap in wealth. 
• I saw this opportunity because it is becoming more and more apparent that it is unacceptable that people are sleeping in the streets while Jeff Bezos walks around with billions in his bank account. 

Regulatory Changes: An opportunity for NYC's online and urban growth

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2019/05/28/ikeas-new-manhattan-planning-studio-spells-growth-and-potentially-missed-opportunities/#506091ef640e
• An opportunity might exist here since IKEA opened up a panning Studio, a smaller format than its traditional stores, tailored to city centers on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. This could be an opportunity advantage for other large retailers to do that same. 
• The customer for this opportunity is prototypical, or anyone who resides in a large city and finds it difficult to have a personal experience when shopping. This is an easy opportunity because of the number of cities in the world and the number of people wanting to shop. 
• I saw this opportunity because I personally love shopping and thought this would be good for me to utilize in the future. 

Regulatory Changes: An opportunity to delete fake or unused social media accounts

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/05/24/facebook-deleted-more-than-2-billion-fake-accounts-in-the-first-quarter-of-the-year-infographic/#6b6a588d67e3
• An opportunity to expand on the fact that there are so many fake or unused accounts on Facebook and Instagram exists here. There are so many spam accounts that aren't even run by real people, there isn't a point to them. You can't interact with them so it defeats the point of social media and contributes to the fact that it is a toxic environment.
• The customer is anyone who uses social media and gets frustrated with bot accounts liking or commenting on their pictures. It is an easy opportunity to exploit because mostly everyone with an Instagram account deals with this. 
• I saw this opportunity because I deal with it daily. Robots or fake accounts commenting on my pictures is uncomfortable and makes the internet feel like an unsafe environment.