The Big Business of Consumer Drones Add consumer drones to the ever-growing list of technological revolutions set to make big bucks. Due to the various new applications of drones in a wide range of industries, sales are flying sky high. As the infographic states, the drone market will be worth a whopping $140 billion by the end of the decade. However, with this rapid expansion of drones, there is also controversy that follows....
The Changing Anatomy of U.S. Oil Imports In 10 short years, Canada has replaced the once mighty OPEC The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. OPEC was once a name that made world leaders shake in their boots. In the early 1970s, the infamous oil cartel controlled more than 50% of global market share. The power of the cartel was also clear – in response to the Yom Kippur War of 1973, many OPEC countries (that were a part of OAPEC – the Organization for Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) initiated production cuts and an oil embargo against Western countries....
Because of this, automakers are always looking for clever ways to improve gas mileage in their cars. Beating the competition by even the slimmest of margins can give valuable bragging rights within a segment. In this infographic, we’ve used data from the EPA’s 2022 Automotive Trends Report to list off the most fuel efficient cars from 1975 to today. Editor’s note: This is from a U.S. government agency, so the data shown skews towards cars sold in North America....
As the NHL playoffs heat up, we bring you the inside scoop on Lord Stanley’s coveted Stanley Cup. The good lord decided to take matters into his own hands when there was no clear championship back in 1892. Now, after 122 years, it is one of the most coveted trophies to win in professional sports. The original cup was decommissioned in 1963 after it was starting to wear thin and deemed too fragile to put in the hands of rough hockey players....
Using data from the United Nations, this unconventional map reveals the comparative size of China’s population next to a multitude of other countries. Note: To keep the visualization easy to read, we’ve simplified the shapes representing countries. For example, although we’ve included Alaska and Hawaii in U.S. population totals, the U.S. is represented by the contiguous states map only. A Historical Perspective Looking at history, the population of China has more than doubled since the 1950s....
The gist of it is: by working hard outside the traditional hours of a 9-to-5, a side hustle allows you to build a business around what you are truly passionate about. And if that endeavor is successful, it can also help you make the full transition into permanent entrepreneurship later on. Enter the Side Hustle Economy Today’s practical infographic from Quid Corner highlights 25 different ways to dip your toes into the side hustle economy....
2015 Silver Series Part 4: Making The Case For Silver In the previous parts of The Silver Series, we’ve shown that silver has a rich and multi-faceted history with applications in money, health, and technology. We’ve covered the metal’s supply and geological origins, as well as the growing demand stemming from industry, investment, and other areas. However, the real question for investors boils down to this: is it worth it to hold silver bullion or equities in a portfolio?...
Everything connected to the internet takes bandwidth to view. When you look at something on your smartphone—whether it’s a new message on Instagram or the next few seconds of a YouTube video—your device is downloading the data in the background. And the bigger the files, the more bandwidth is utilized. In this chart, we break down of the most used apps by category, using Sandvine’s global mobile traffic report for 2021 Q1....
Video: The Story Behind Oil’s Plunge In the financial markets, everything makes sense in hindsight. While the narrative had continued since the 2008 Financial Crisis that energy prices were rising and there was nothing to slow them down, it only took a small crack in the armour to send oil tumbling down by about 50% since the 2014 summer peak. This infographic video from CNN Money helps put the sudden and inevitable oil plunge in perspective....
This graphic from The LEAF Coalition looks at the state of global deforestation and compares how much climate funding it receives relative to its global CO2 emissions. Deforestation’s Role in Global Emissions Protecting our forests and protecting the climate are one in the same. In fact, the data reveals that tropical deforestation accounts for 10% of global CO2 emissions. What’s more, these levels of emissions exceed that of all individual countries except for the U....
Wealthy countries consume massive amounts of natural resources per capita, and the United States is no exception. According to data from the National Mining Association, each American needs more than 39,000 pounds (17,700 kg) of minerals and fossil fuels annually to maintain their standard of living. Materials We Need to Build Every building around us and every sidewalk we walk on is made of sand, steel, and cement. As a result, these materials lead consumption per capita in the United States....
It’s inevitable that every company must be out there battling for market share, but you don’t really want to be in a situation where the competition is so stiff that any potential upside is eroded away in the process—―a scenario known as perfect competition in economics. To avoid perfect competition, companies must strive to build an economic moat that gives them a sustainable competitive advantage over time. While these protective moats can arise from a number of different sources, in today’s information economy they most often arise from the power of innovation....
Geothermal is a lesser-known type of renewable energy that uses heat from the Earth’s molten core to produce electricity. While this unique feature gives it key benefits over solar and wind, it also suffers from high costs and geographic restrictions. Because of this, few countries have managed to produce geothermal energy at scale. In this infographic, we’ve used a combination of diagrams and charts to give you a high level overview of this sustainable energy source....
Many farm operators are significantly under capitalized, offering excellent and overlooked investment opportunities. Agricultural streaming, borrowing from the streaming business model of energy and metals companies, takes advantage of this opportunity by bridging the gap in funding needed for farm working capital. on Similar to the the precedent set by the music industry, many news outlets have also been figuring out how to transition into a paid digital monetization model....
Our fundamental understanding of the periodic table has allowed us to: build rockets that can withstand scorching temperatures; harness permanent magnets that can help us generate electricity; erect ultra strong and tall skyscrapers; and discover compounds that can eradicate disease around the world. But while we take this elemental knowledge for granted today, there was a time not too long ago when the periodic table was mostly empty. The Elemental Dark Age Today’s animation comes to us from materials scientist Dr....
However, it seems the phrase was coined a little early, as now it seems even more ominous. The “Lost Decade” has turned into the “Lost Two Decades”, and many of the same economic problems continue to plague the nation today. The most recent data from Japan’s Cabinet Office pegged Japan’s GDP growth in Q4 of 2015 at -0.3% compared with the previous three months. That’s now two negative quarters out of the four in 2015....
Do You Want Fries With That? [Chart] Over half of U.S. jobs created this year are in Food or Retail The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Employment Situation report, summing up the most recent government figures on employment in the United States. Investors use this information to gauge the health of the domestic economy, paying close attention to the unemployment rate, nonfarm payrolls, labor force participation, and wage growth....
The market for industrial robot installations has been on a skyward trend since 2009, and it is not expected to slow down any time soon. According to the World Robotics 2015 report, the market for industrial robots was approximated at $32 billion in 2014, and in the coming years it is expected to continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of at least 15%. That means between 2015 and 2018, it’s anticipated that 1....
The Most Violent Cities in the World Brazil has been in crisis for some time now. The country’s economy shrunk -3.8% last year, and its President, Dilma Rousseff, is holding on for dear life. Once chairman of Petrobras, the state-run oil giant currently engulfed in a colossal political scandal, she is now being threatened with impeachment just 15 months into her second four-year yerm. Her approval remains at an all-time low of just 11%....
Can money buy you happiness? It’s a longstanding question that has many different answers, depending on who you ask. Today’s chart approaches this fundamental question from a data-driven perspective, and it provides one potential solution: money does buy some happiness, but only to a limited extent. Money and Happiness First, a thinking exercise. Let’s say you have two hypothetical people: one of them is named Beff Jezos and he’s a billionaire, and the other is named Jill Smith and she has a more average net worth....
