Find growth companies from best-selling rankings
This is Fujinoi. When you search “Which home electronics products are best-sellers?” on Rakuten Ichiba, items likely used by women such as hot irons, facial care products, and air purifiers dominate the top 10.
When I was a student, it was common to constantly see Sony Walkmans, cassette decks, and stereos—things related to music—ranking in the charts.
Now, when I filter for audio products and search popular rankings, top spots are held by high-performance earphones, desktop speakers, and the increasingly popular smart speakers, and home audio devices for music playback no longer appear in the top ten.
This is because the way people enjoy music has changed dramatically, such as loading music onto smartphones and using monthly subscription services for unlimited listening.
When people think of Sony, its high performance once drew global attention to radios, and there was a time when it became the world’s top TV manufacturer with Trinitron.
Like GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) driving the current US stock market, in the 1980s Sony and Nintendo were leading stocks in Japan’s market.
Today, Sony has separated its flagship television business and has shifted to a model that earns revenue across multiple areas beyond electronics—game, music, and financial services such as banking and life and non-life insurance.
Fuji Film HD (4901) transformed from a declining photographic film business into health care, regenerative medicine, and electronic materials, boosting its performance, and TDk (6762) also grew significantly by moving away from cassette tapes to car electronics and precision components like capacitors.
Indeed, the transformative turnaround from existential crisis is a result of managerial skill and solid financial foundations. As times change, companies that adopt new businesses while growing tend to have investor favor for their stock prices.
However, once a company settles into protecting the status quo, many decline over time. This is evident from the decline of textile companies like Shōdō (鐘紡) in Japan and once-dominant firms like Sanyo Electric and Pioneer.
Not only in home electronics but in various popular rankings, companies with strong consumer support have the potential to grow even further.
Chasing the cutting edge of trends and uncovering listed companies that are likely to grow in the future makes stock investing exceptionally appealing.
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