Have you ever heard of the term silver economy?
What do you think it means?
Think about an economic model that’s serving someone with silver hair – or white hair.
Here’s another clue: in 2015, in the European Union, the silver economy was estimated at 3.7 trillion euros (source).
Silver economy refers to products and services that are bought by older adults (people over the age of 65 years old), who are now the fastest growing demographic group in the world.
In mature economies, such as Europe and North America, these people also have disposable income. Disposable income refers to money that you have left over after you pay all your bills and other basic needs. It’s money that you can spend on whatever you want, especially on leisurely activities or products. So if you have disposable income, you could even say that you have money to burn… but not literally.
Agetech is an emerging and fast-growing startup niche which focuses on technology and innovation that helps improve the lives of older adults.
But who buys age tech?
Well, it could be older adults themselves, or the younger generation – their children or grandchildren; or it could also be healthcare providers or senior living providers, such as retirement homes and retirement communities.
Some age tech relies on a B2B model – business-to-business – while other startups rely on a direct-to-consumer model. So selling directly to the end consumer. We can also call this a B2C model, as in business-to-consumer.
For the sake of simplifying, we can divide age tech into two categories: care tech and recreational tech. We talk about both of these categories and give you examples of agetech products in Episode 29 of the Smart Startup English podcast.
Here are a few of the expressions we talk about in this lesson:
- aging in place
- savvy
- to be geared towards
Here’s the episode audio.
If you want to learn more about the business model of the agetech startups that we mention about in this episode, here’s where you can find them:
Birdie – homecare software solution for older adults aging in place
No Isolation – a startup with the mission to end social isolation for older adults
Uniper – a recreation-focused platform which offers live and pre-recorded activities, access to healthcare experts, and interactive wellness programs.
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