To grasp how the modern technology economy is changing us psychologically, just look at those cases where it’s failed
Have you heard about the hot new startups disrupting the wedding industry? Actually, you probably haven’t – because as US website Vox reported the other day, the wedding industry has proved frustratingly hard to disrupt. At first glance, that’s baffling: how could you not make money from a sector reportedly worth £230bn annually, full of couples in love and feeling free with their cash? Yet there isn’t an “Uber for weddings”. And it’s illuminating to understand why – because there’s no better way to grasp how the modern technology economy is changing us, psychologically speaking, than to look at those cases where it’s failed.
From Silicon Valley’s point of view, there are two big problems with weddings. The first is that they take place in a physical setting. (And people really care about getting that part right: the venue is usually by far the biggest single expense.) So they can’t be fobbed off with some alternative virtual experience, where the profit margins are higher – by contrast to Amazon, say, eliminating the costs of bricks-and-mortar stores. The second, even bigger problem is that most people get married only once, or maybe twice. So there’s no customer retention. As one disillusioned wedding startup founder told Vox: “People forget that their customers leave after a year and they have to get a whole new set of users.”
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