Welcome to the January 2021 edition of Top Conversations in Technology, where we break down which topics are leading, rising and falling each month to help technology marketers maximize relevance and adapt to changing market dynamics. In this month’s analysis, we focus on variations in news and blog citation volumes month-over-month (versus December 2020) and year-over-year (versus January 2020).
To kick off 2021, we added 17 topics and removed five. More on that in a bit. So, what were people talking most about in January? Bitcoin (301K mentions), Cryptocurrencies (277K) and Smartphones (197K) topped the list, followed by E-commerce (131K) and Misinformation (125K). Considering January included a cyber-trading frenzy, Capitol insurrection and the first virtual Consumer Electronics Show, that sounds about right.
All of the top five topics except E-commerce (down 1%) showed increased volume from December. Most notably, Misinformation citations were up 42%. Disinformation (#15) likewise showed a substantial increase, up 50%.
Of others in the top 10, Drones (#8, up 24%) and 5G (#9,up 2%) showed gains, while Supply Chain (#6, down 3%), Video Conferencing (#7, down 5%) and Contact Tracing (#10, down 22%) posted declines. Of other topics that have flirted with the Top 10, Layoffs (#11, up 1%) and Wi-Fi (#14, up 4%) showed minor gains, while Cybersecurity (#12, down 29%) and Artificial Intelligence (#13, down 11%) declined.
Beyond the top 10, the biggest mover was #157 Humane Technology, which spiked 277% on the “The New Possible” book launch, including an essay from Tristan Harris, founder of the Center for Humane Technology. #18 Content Management also showed a big jump (up 93%), as did #64 Consumer Technology (+78%). Other topics that showed substantial growth included Misinformation (#5, up 42%), Disinformation (#15, up 50%) and Blockchain (#16, up 40%). Nearly all other topics showing big gains ranked lower than #50.
Top decliners in January were mostly lower–volume topics. Infrastructure Security (#69, down 75%) showed the biggest month-to-month drop, followed by Thermal Monitoring (#187, down 54%) and Serverless Platform (#183, down 50%). Cybersecurity (#12, down 29%) was the highest ranked topic with a notable loss. Other security topics on the top decliners list include Encryption Keys (down 50%), Supply Chain Security (down 33%), Zero Trust (down 29%) and Election Security (down 27%).
About the topic changes: We occasionally add or remove topics, but we did a more thorough update at the end of 2020. New topics include Asynchronous Video, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, Decentralized Trials, Digital Health, Digital Media, Digital Payment, Digital Wallet, Electronic Medical Records, Enterprise Video, InfoSec, Multimedia, Property Tech, Real Estate Tech, Semiconductors, Smartphones and Video Messaging. We also removed five topics that were really sub-topics (E-Commerce/Online Shopping Fraud, E-Commerce/Online Shopping Trends, Supply Chain Trends, Video Conferencing Best Practices, and Video Conferencing Security/Privacy). Rankings are updated in the new infographics, and future posts will reflect adjusted rankings for prior years.
Questions? Comments? See a topic we are not tracking? Please share below, and we will address in future installments.
