Bill Gates predicted 6 things that happened 20 years ago

Created: 11/14/2022, 12:32 p.m

By: Sina Alonso Garcia

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is considered a genius of our time.

As early as 1999, the entrepreneur with foresight made some predictions in a book that have come true.

Seattle – US entrepreneur Bill Gates is currently the fourth richest person in the world (as of July 2022).

The Microsoft founder is considered a genius of our time and never ceases to amaze with accurate predictions about world events.

He has been warning of the "deadliest animal in the world" for years.

He also predicted the pandemic in 2015.

As early as 1999, Gates published some predictions in his book "Business at the Speed ​​of Thought" that have now - more than 20 years later - come true.

In the book he dealt with the question of what the technology of the future could look like.

6 things Bill Gates predicted 20 years ago - and which have come true

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1. Social Media

Microsoft founder Bill Gates made predictions in a book in 1999 that have all come true to this day.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

Gates predicted the triumph of social media early on.

He wrote in 1999: "Private websites will be established that will allow your friends and families to chat with one another and plan events." Just four years later, the Myspace, LinkedIn and WordPress projects were launched.

Facebook started in 2004, initially for students.

Today, social media are omnipresent and shape the everyday life of many people.

2. Smart phones

"People will carry small devices with them that will allow them to keep in touch with each other and do business electronically from anywhere," Gates wrote in his book.

“They will be able to follow the news, see flights they have booked, get information from the financial markets and do everything else on these devices.” Given the ubiquity of smartphones in our society, you can too Consider prediction 100 percent confirmed.

3. Price comparison portals

As early as 1999, Gates suspected that comparison portals would be ubiquitous. “Automated price comparison services will be developed that allow users to view prices from many sites, so that it is effortless to find the cheapest product for all sectors,” was his prediction at the time.

In the same year of its prognosis, the company Check 24 went online with one of the first comparison portals in Germany - at that time still for motor vehicle insurance.

Today there are countless such portals on the Internet.

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4. Personalized Advertising

Another of Gates' predictions that has now been confirmed is: “Devices will have intelligent advertising.

They will know your purchasing preferences and will place ads tailored to your preferences.” In 1999, such advertising offensives were still a long way off.

At the end of the 1990s, companies could initially only place their advertisements on newspaper websites.

5. Online job placement

Gates predicted in 1999: "Similarly, job seekers may be able to find jobs online by specifying their interests, needs, and special skills." And here, too, the Microsoft founder was right:

and

(both founded in 2003 ) are essential for most job seekers today when researching potential employers and job offers.

6. Smart home

Gates also saw the coming of technology in his own home early on.

"Constant video surveillance of your home will become widespread and will notify you if someone visits you while you are away," he wrote in 1999. He also predicted that "personal assistants will be developed that will connect and sync all your devices, regardless of whether they are at home or at work, so that data can be exchanged between them.”