What Is Ian King’s “Digitarium” Stock Pick? (Revealed)

Are you wondering what Ian King’s new “Digitarium” prediction is all about?

If so, you’re in the right place.

I discovered Ian’s digitarium presentation on the Banyan Hill website and wanted to know what it was all about, so I did some digging, and in this post, I’ll show you exactly what I found.

I’ll break down what digitarium is, what his prediction is all about, and reveal my guess of the “small California-based company” that he says is “at the center of it all.”

I’ll also give you the heads up on who Ian King is and what his Strategic Fortunes service is all about, the one he’s pitching as part of the presentation.

So with that being said, let’s get started.

Overview of Ian King’s Digitarium Presentation

The presentation we’ll be discussing today is located on the Banyan Hill Publishing website and is titled “The Technology Inside This Tiny Disk Could Ignite the Next Trillion-Dollar Industry…”

Ian King, the man in the presentation, is a former hedge fund manager and well-known in the investment advisory space. This isn’t the first time I’ve come across his work, either.

For example, another presentation we’ve covered on this site had to do with fluorescent sand, and that was a pitch for his old service, Automatic Fortunes.

In any case, this time, he’s talking about what he calls “digitarium.”

He starts by holding up a “tiny disk” no bigger than a quarter and says, “the company that dominates the technology inside it could control the global economy.”

He says companies are spending billions to “stake their claim” in this technology, that it could create 11 million jobs, be worth $3 trillion to the economy. He even says it could help save 10 million lives per year.

These are some bold claims, for sure.

But he doesn’t stop there.

Ian says that it could be more disruptive to 5G, blockchain, and artificial intelligence combined. And be more revolutionary than electric vehicles, crypto, and the Internet of Things.

Why? Because, according to Ian, it holds the key to unlocking the potential of all of these technologies.

… digitarium is the key to unlocking the full potential of all these technologies.

Source: pro.banyanhill.com/p/WMC-IKADIGITARIUM-001/EIKAXA25/Full

He then talks about how some of the most highly secure locations in the world aren’t things like banks or federal buildings. Instead, he says they are buildings dedicated to storing “digitarium.”

Which is why it might not surprise you to learn that some of the most highly secure locations in the world are not necessarily banks, federal buildings or even military bases…

But warehouses dedicated to storing digitarium.

And he provides examples of large companies supposedly acquiring and protecting digitarium are Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

According to Ian King, “the world’s elite” are doing everything they can to get more digitarium and protect it as best they can.

It’s clear that the world’s elite are doing everything they can to acquire large amounts of digitarium … and protect it by any means necessary.

Cool story, but what is “digitarium?”

Digitarium is a term Ian King uses to describe big data. This is the technology inside the disk he’s holding up at the beginning of the presentation.

What is big data?

It’s a field related to analyzing and making use of large sets of data.

Here’s how Wikipedia describes big data:

Big data is a field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software

Ian King describes big data a little differently. He says it’s the “catchall phrase given to the volume, velocity and the variety of ALL the information generated daily.”

Why does he call it “digitarium” instead of what it is – big data?

Because, according to Ian King, data is nothing more than digits:

That’s why I call it “digitarium” — because all this data is nothing more than the trillions, and trillions, of “digits” out there in cyberspace.

However, I believe there may be another reason, too.

As I explain in an article about the hidden truths of stock advisories, most gurus in this space come up with catchy names for existing technologies because it makes the story they’re telling more interesting. And this, in turn, helps them sell more newsletters.

In other words, it’s a marketing angle.

And it’s pretty clever.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the “tiny disk” he’s holding up looks similar to the memory storage device discussed in this ZME Science article (dubbed the “Superman memory crystal”).

However, to be clear, this device is not what Ian King’s “digitarium” thesis revolves around. It’s more just a way to illustrate the advancements being made in the data storage industry.

For example, he talks about how it once took six floppy disks to store one copy of the Bible and how you can now store 48 million copies of it on a “tiny crystal disk” like the one he holds up.

Anyway, if it’s not about the device, what is his “digitarium prediction” about?

In short, his thesis revolves around the refinement and analysis of “unstructured data.” He points out that there’s so much data in the world and a huge need to make sense of it all.

Simply put, data has become huge.

Yet the opportunity here is not about the amount of data being generated … and it’s not really about these crystal disks.

It’s about the refining and analysis of all the data on these disks.

Ian points out that there’s a massive amount of data in cyberspace, and it’s only growing. As such, he says the most exciting opportunity will be in refining this data and making it actionable.

And he likens it to the sort of opportunity that existed back in the mid-1800s before John D. Rockefeller caught onto the oil refinement business, and oil became the world’s most valuable resource for 150 years.

In other words, he suggests that big data is like modern-day oil and that data analysis and refinement could hold the key to making it profitable.

And of course, he says he knows the one company at the “center of it all.”

What company is he teasing?

Read on.

What Is Ian King’s “Digitarium” Stock Pick?

Ian King doesn’t reveal his exact pick within the presentation. However, as usual, my curiosity got the better of me. So I decided to dig into the clues he left to see if I could figure it out.

Here’s a breakdown of the main clues he leaves in the presentation (in no particular order):

This small California-based company at the center of it all stands to capture the a large portion of this $3 trillion industry.

It already has 600 patents … giving it a firm grip on the most important technology in history.

Coca-Cola, Comcast, Groupon, Domino’s are all clients.

Tech titans like Amazon, Google and IBM are beating this company’s door down.

And 92 of the Fortune 100 companies — the biggest companies in the world — are all relying on this California firm to refine their data being generated every day.

It’s not surprising that over the last five years, this company’s annual revenue has soared 135%.

This company’s leadership hails from top tech firms like Cisco, Amazon, Microsoft, Autodesk, Twitter and more.

No company refines unstructured data into valuable information better than the one I’m talking about today.

Based on these clues and some of the other points we’ve discussed, I believe the “digitarium” company Ian King is teasing is Splunk (ticker SPLK).

Here’s a breakdown of why I believe this is the company:

• Splunk is a California-based company that creates software to help turn data into actionable insight. On their website, the company describes itself as “the world’s first Data-to-Everything™ Platform designed to remove the barriers between data and action, so that everyone thrives in the Data Age.” In other words, it pioneers making “unstructured data” useful.
• The company has 600 patents and from what I can see, no other company in this industry even comes close to this.
• Coca-Cola, Comcast, Groupon, and Domino’s are all clients. And according to the company website, they are “trusted by 91 out of the Fortune 100” companies. The Fortune 100 is the top 100 companies within Fortune magazine’s Fortune 500 list, which is made up of America’s largest public and private companies. Ian said 92, but one may have been taken off the list since he made the presentation or the comapny site hasn’t been updated. Either way, I consider that a match.
• Its revenue has increased by about 135% over the past five years. You can dig through the annual reports but macrotrends.net shows that Splunk’s annual revenue went from about $944 million in 2017 to aproximately $2.229 billion in January of 2021.
• Splunk’s CEO, Doug Merritt, worked for Cisco Systems. And several other key leaders in the company have worked for Amazon and/or Microsoft prior to working for Splunk.

Based on Ian King’s clues in the presentation, I’m confident that Splunk is the company he’s talking about. Of course, I can’t be 100% certain, but that’s my best guess.

To find out for sure, you’d need to join his advisory service, Strategic Fortunes. And the reason is that if you join Strategic Fortunes through the presentation, you get access to some bonus reports. And one of those reports details the company he’s bullish on.

Specifically, the report titled “The Next Google: The Tiny Company Powering the 5,000% Big Data Mega Trend.”

Splunk or not, is the company he’s teasing really “the next Google?” Is big data set to become a 5,000% megatrend? And is Strategic Fortunes worth joining?

Let’s take a closer look…

Digitarium: 5,000% “Mega Trend” or Hype?

During the presentation, Ian King says that investing in “digitarium” (which we’ve identified as “big data”) could be like investing in Google before it went public.

Because investing in digitarium now could be like investing in Google when it first went public…

Considering how successful Google has been since it first went public in 2004, that’s quite a bold statement. To me, he’s suggesting that “digitarium” could be a life-changing investment.

He also says it’s estimated to be a $3 trillion industry that could “surge 5,000% by 2027.”

Is any of this true?

For the most part, yes.

Technically speaking, I haven’t found him to be lying about anything. However, at the same time, there is some nuance around some of his claims.

Let’s start with what he says about digitarium being a $3 trillion industry:

The World Economic Forum estimates the true value of digitarium at a massive $3 trillion.

To be clear, he’s not saying this is the current market value of digitarium (big data). Instead, he’s saying this is what its “true value” is estimated to be by the World Economic Forum.

And according to a 2017 article on the World Economic Forum website, the “global data economy is pegged at $3 trillion.”

So that part checks out.

What about his claim that digitarium could “surge 5,000% by 2027?”

Here’s exactly what he says in the presentation:

To put its growth in perspective…

Just four years ago, digitarium was valued at $8.5 billion.

But it’s growing exponentially.

Projections show it surging to a $420 billion valuation over the next six years.

That’s an estimated 4,853% growth.

Does this add up?

Well, according to a Frost & Sullivan study, the “Big data analytics market size accounted for $8.5 billion in 2017.” So the part about digitarium being “valued at $8.5 billion” four years ago checks out.

And according to Allied Market Research, the “global big data and business analytics market is estimated to reach $420.98 billion by 2027.” So the second part of what he said checks out, too.

He then shows a chart of digitarium growing 4,853% in the ten years between 2017 to 2027:

So, technically, everything he says checks out.

At least, from what I can see.

However, I don’t know about you, but the headline of the presentation led me to believe that the “digitarium” market could “surge 5,000%” between now (2021) and 2027.

And while I guess anything’s possible, that’s not what the estimates are based on.

What’s a more realistic estimate of the growth of the “digitarium” (big data) market between now and 2027?

According to this report on The Business Research Company website, the “global big data and business analytics market” is estimated to reach $135.37 billion in 2021.

And the difference between $135.37 billion (2021 growth estimate) and the $420.98 billion (2027 growth estimate) is roughly 210%.

So, unless I’m missing something, or unless you’re a time traveler, 210% seems to be a more realistic estimate of potential market growth than 5,000% between now and 2027.

Either way, big data is an exciting industry that’s full of growth potential. And it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it blew past all current predictions. I’m just pointing out what the data shows.

As for Splunk, I am not certain that this is the company Ian King is teasing. Nor can I advise you on whether or not it’s a worthwhile investment. Only you can decide that. However, there are some useful articles and insights about Splunk on the Motley Fool website that you might find helpful.

In any case, if you want to see what company Ian King is bullish on for sure and why you’ll need to check out his Strategic Fortunes service. So in the next section, I’ll show you what it’s about.

What Is Strategic Fortunes?

I recommend checking out my full review of Strategic Fortunes to get all the details.

However, in short, Strategic Fortunes is a stock advisory service published by Banyan Hill and edited by Ian King that’s centered around emerging technologies. For example, 5G, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Each month, for 12 months, subscribers of the service receive a new issue that details Ian’s latest stock pick and the full details behind why he’s recommending it.

He breaks down the industry, the company, why he’s bullish, and so on.

You also get access to the model portfolio, which contains all of Ian’s latest stock recommendations, trade alerts, weekly updates, and some bonus reports.

Here are the bonus reports you get if you join through the “digitarium” presentation:

• The Next Google: The Tiny Company Powering the 5,000% Big Data Mega Trend
• How to Make a Fintech Fortune
• The Company Leading the $12 Trillion 5G Revolution

The first report is where he details his digitarium stock pick, and the other two relate to other technology-related stocks he’s interested in.

How much does it cost to join?

If you join through the presentation, the cost to join Strategic Fortunes is $79. And according to the Banyan Hill website, it comes with a 365-day money-back guarantee.

How has the service performed over the years?

Ian King has recommended some great stocks over the years.

For example, according to the presentation, he recommended Tesla in August 2019 for a 735% gain in just over a year. He recommended a company called Generac for 300% gains in 18 months. And he recommended SunPower on June 25, 2020, for a 780% gain in six months.

And there are many more examples like this.

That said, as Ian himself points out, not everything he recommends works out.

This is true for anyone in the stock advisory space, though. And according to Ian King, his average closed recommendation has “tripled the market with an average gain of over 172% since inception.” So, even taking into account losing trades, that’s an impressive track record.

Who Is Ian King?

Ian King is a former hedge fund manager whose trading career began in 2002.

According to the Banyan Hill Publishing website, he started at Salomon Brothers working in the mortgage bond trading department before moving on to Citigroup and Peahi Capital.

These days, he’s best known for his work in the financial education space. And his most popular advisory service is Strategic Fortunes (once called Automatic Fortunes).

However, he also heads up two other services – New Era Fortunes (see review) and Next Wave Crypto Fortunes. The former focuses on small-cap tech companies, and the latter focuses on the world of alternative cryptocurrencies (i.e., altcoins).

Bottom Line

Ian King’s “digitarium” presentation was an interesting one. From the get-go, I was curious to know what he was talking about and whether or not his prediction was worthwhile.

To recap, here’s what I learned:

• Ian King says that “digitarium” will be more disruptive and revolutionary than many emerging technologies in the world today (like 5G, AI, electric vehicles etc.). And likens investing in digitarium to investing in Google in the early days.
• Digitarium is a term Ian uses to describe “big data” and the “tiny disk” he was holding up at the start was an innovative memory storage device.
• However, the focus of his presentation was not about the device, it was about the opportunity behind analysing and refining the ever-expanding supply of “unstructured data” in the world.
• Based on my research, I believe the company he’s teasing is Splunk. But to find out for sure, and get Ian King’s research on his top digitarium pick, you must join Strategic Fortunes for $79.

Here are my concluding thoughts on the presentation…

Overall, I think Ian makes some great points about the potential opportunity surrounding big data and how it could benefit society. For example, he talks about how it could bring jobs, save the health care sector billions of dollars, and make agriculture more efficient.

And it seems like most, if not all, of what he said is grounded in truth.

On the flip side, the part about how digitarium could “surge 5,000%” is overhyped, in my opinion.

Why? Because that figure is based on the estimated growth of the “global big data and business analytics market” between 2017 and 2027. And from where I’m sitting, it’s 2021.

So I don’t see why anyone would highlight that 5,000% figure?

In any case, the bottom line is… take the marketing with a pinch of salt.

What about Strategic Fortunes? Is it worth joining?

Strategic Fortunes is a legitimate service. For $79, you get monthly research and stock picks from Ian King, who has a great track record, especially in the emerging tech space.

So it’s not a scam.

And it could be worth joining, especially if you’re interested in investing in tech stocks.

If you are considering joining, my main suggestion would be to not rush in expecting to get rich overnight. Because regardless of Ian’s track record, there are risks involved, and there’s no guarantee you’ll make money. But if you play the long game, it could be worthwhile.

In any case, with all that said, I hope you found this post helpful. And if you’d like to share your thoughts on “digitarium,” feel free to leave a comment below.