I think a relevant paradigm shift partially exists in the form of static typing. Sure, you can still use JSON in a statically typed language, and many do, but

I think a relevant paradigm shift partially exists in the form of static typing. Sure, you can still use JSON in a statically typed language, and many do, but it's more cumbersome than in a dynamic one, while the space efficiency and built-in validation of things like protobuf start to look more appealing. Even on the web, statically typed compile-to-JS languages are rising in popularity, though nobody is using protobuf there... We'll see. I definitely expect JSON to remain popular for many years at the least.