Latest emerging trends: New-age sports, Google for podcasts, and Accessible Martech

Exploding Topics scours the internet to find emerging trends before they take off.

Here are four of the latest developments, along with some insights and analysis to help you take advantage.

1. Foil wing

Foil wing, wing surfer, surf wing, wing foil. These are all different names for the same piece of sports equipment.

Wing foiling as a sport consists of standing on a paddleboard that uses a hydrofoil. And at the same time holding a wing to catch the wind.

The world’s first wing foiling competition only took place last year.

Yet searches for “foil wing” have already started to take off, with 376% growth over the last 24 months.

What’s next:

Foil wings fall under the “new-age sports” meta trend.

Other examples of sports quickly taking off as part of this meta trend include:

Teqball: Ping pong meets soccer on a warped table.

Pickleball: A badminton-tennis-ping pong hybrid.

Padel: Mini-tennis played within glass walls.

Carveboarding: Skateboarding on a wooden board akin to surfing.

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2. Listen Notes

Listen Notes is Google for podcasts.

Overall, the platform has 2.4M podcasts and 105M episodes in its index.

Listen Notes also allows streaming shows directly on the platform, curation of podcast playlists and the creation of short shareable clips from episodes.

And a premium membership lets users “super search” for more advanced results. As well as get alerts for any podcast mentions of specific keywords or brand names.

Along with a podcast database API for developers to connect to external applications.

What’s Next:

The global podcasting market size is $9.3B and forecast to grow at a CAGR of 27.5% from 2020 to 2027 (Grand View Research).

Listen Notes is just one example of the “podcast accessibility” meta trend that is going to help make podcast content accessible to a broader audience.

Which is why software that makes podcasts more convenient to create, or to consume, is finding traction.

Descript, for example, allows both automated and human-powered transcription. So users can search across spoken content within episodes.

And all-in-one podcast platforms like Simplecast and Podcast.co, to more easily create, analyze and distribute podcasts.

3. Wheat straw plates

Wheat straw is a byproduct of wheat grain production. It’s often destroyed in many parts of the world.

But this byproduct is increasingly being used as a premium food grade material.

And for good reason. Once broken down with bacteria and mixed with sugar, the material has several properties that make it ideal for modern-day consumer products.

Wheat straw is biodegradable, microwave and freezer safe, lightweight, sturdy, and FDA approved.

Which makes wheat straw the perfect eco-friendly alternative to plastic plates and utensils.

What’s next:

Wheat straw plates are the latest item in the Plastic Alternatives meta trend.

According to National Geographic, plastic trash flow into the ocean every year is forecast to 3x by 2040. It’s a big problem that’s getting worse.

And 57% of Generation Z in the US prefer to purchase environmentally sustainable products (Statista).

In fact, Unilever’s most eco-friendly brands have grown 46% faster than their other products.

Other fast growing products in the category include bamboo cutlery, silicone straws, and beeswax wrap.

4. VEED

The startup VEED went from 0 to $1M ARR in just 12 months. And last month, they generated $417K in revenue.

VEED is a SaaS app for simple online video editing.

Their product marketing strategy includes a freemium tier, no account required to get started, and related free tools for content creators.

What’s next:

VEED is another startup riding the “accessible martech” meta trend.

This is affordable marketing software that is accessible to bootstrappers, solopreneurs and small businesses.

And martech in the content creation space is growing especially quickly:

Startups that enable anyone without technical or design knowledge to create content such as VEED, Kapwing and Wavve are growing rapidly.

As have tools that allow businesses to share this content more effectively like Hypefury, Later and SocialPilot.

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