Digital tech, Biotech and Other-tech
Followers of global start-up ecosystems wouldn’t have failed to notice of the emergence of numerous categories of technology start-ups: MediaTech, FinTech, AdTech and AgriTech. Is this just a passing fad used to generate excitement around specific companies and sectors or is there more to it than meets the eye? An exploration of the origins and evolution of the word “Technology” and the current “X” + Tech variants suggests that there may be an underlying rationale behind this phenomenon.
While the word technology itself has entered the public arena within the last 50 years, its origins go way back to ancient Greece. Greeks used “tekne” as a term to refer “arts, crafts and cunning of hand”. Credit for its introduction into the modern, industrial world goes to Johann Beckmann who coined the word “teknologie” in 18th century Germany. Beckmann was the first to teach technology formally and write about it as an academic subject.
Considered the first reliable historian of inventions and father of the study of History of Technology, Beckmann believed that the rapid advancements in a number of areas in the emerging industrial world were all interconnected and hence had to be studied with a robust, systematic and integrated approach. He also published a textbook, “Guide to Teknologie” that brought the word into popular consciousness and usage.
More recently, technology used to predominantly refer to computers, telecommunications and consumer devices like phones — the adoption of digital technology in its diverse forms. In parallel, technology evolution has also manifested in other areas, such as biotechnology, that are very different from digital technology.
Kevin Kelly, noted thinker and writer on technology topics, refers to technology as a set of specific methods and gear related to a particular field or industry and uses this description to distinguish between biotechnology and digital technology. Using this lens, we can clearly identify several specific new methods and devices that have emerged in biotechnology such as sequencing methods and instruments and monoclonal antibody-based treatments.
What we are seeing now with the emergence of a host of “X”+Techs where “X” represents a well established industry sector such as Media, Financial Services and Banking, Advertising and Agriculture. Even though their emergence seems to indicate several new developments across multiple industry sectors, in essence are all underpinned by developments in digital technologies. So, how many of those truly satisfy the sector-specific technology criteria by having their own unique methods and gear?
FinTech while predominantly the deep deployment of digital technologies across all aspects of banking and financial services, it demonstrates some unique new methods such as crypto-currencies and block-chain that are revolutionising several aspects of the industry. MediaTech and AdTech have new methods for audience engagement and measurement and delivery and monetization of content. In AgriTech, new approaches to integrate existing farm practices with new data and devices such as drones is creating exciting new possibilities for better farming and crop management.
On balance, it appears that companies in the “X”+Tech space are indeed developing new methods and in some cases even unique hardware and devices specific to their industries and applications. However, this trend needs to be sustained and the approaches and gear need to be adopted as industry standard generating serious returns within the respective industries before they can match up to the Biotech sector.
Up next, LegalTech, PharmaTech, EventTech anyone?
