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Business Cards Give Way To Bump
How much longer will we need to carry around business cards?
The weak economy has been a factor in recent years. But analysts said printed business cards, like newspapers, books and magazines, are fast giving way to digital alternatives. Smartphones, tablets and social media are helping people connect more quickly and seamlessly than ever before.
Among the digital alternatives to business cards is the Bump app; 77 million people have downloaded it. And 85 million people use LinkedIn to manage their business contacts and information.
U.S. sales of business cards have been falling since the late 1990s, according to IBISWorld Inc., an Australian business data company with offices in Santa Monica whose data go back to 1997. The slide appears to be accelerating. Last year printers posted revenue of $211.1 million from the segment. That's down 13% from 2006.
(Using Bump app)
Fans of Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash are probably thinking of the hypercard virtual business card:
The hypercard is an avatar of sorts. It is used in the Metaverse to represent a chunk of data. It might be text, audio, video, a still image, or any other information that can be represented digitally...If Hiro reaches out and takes the card, the information will be transferred from [the other] guy's system into Hiro's computer.
Via LA Times.
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