When home service startup UrbanClap added astrologers to their list of service providers, the idea was to give a wholesome experience to those seeking wedding-related services.
However, contrary to the expectation that the service would mostly be sought by an elderly audience, requests have been pouring in from youngsters seeking the astrologer’s help for everything from climbing the career ladder to making a trip abroad. Experts say the demand for astrology and palmistry services via apps hints that the youth have not completely dismissed the ‘conventional wisdom’ of the country.
From consulting the astrologer for ‘kundli’ matching to booking tarot card readers for parties, the millenials are utilising the possibilities it offers in traditional as well as modern ways. “India is a very different market and a very different economy culturally,” said Siddharth Dalal, CEO of hyperlocal aggregator BookMeIn.
The ‘spiritual and healing’ category of the platform that includes services like astrology, palmistry and Vastu draws around 30% of the demand from youngsters in the age group of 15-35 years.
“The demand has been growing steadily. When we launched the service six months back it was four-five requests per week for the category. Today it has gone up to 50-60 per week with Vastu, Reiki and Tarot card reading finding maximum demand,” said Dalal. The startup has currently tied up with around 500 experts for the same.
Deepak Ravindran, CEO of messaging app LookUp, which recently launched a ‘palm reading via chat’ feature, believes that playing the ABCD card — astrology, Bollywood, cricket and devotional — would help the company “to penetrate deeper into India and to take everything local to the next level using chat.”
Source: Economic Times
