THE BIGGEST LOSERS

Disruption is a great thing for consumers and the founders of innovative businesses — but what about the industries thrown into turmoil by the arrival of these disruptive usurpers? We examine some of the biggest extinctions in recent history.

FILM PHOTOGRAPHY

Providing instant gratification and — by eliminating processing — significant cost savings, when digital cameras made their debut, it was shutters for the century-old film photography industry. Take the case of Kodak: In the 1990s, the company was doing around US$15 billion per annum in sales (much of that revenue derived from photo developing) and in 2000, the business generated US$1.4 billion in profit. Little more than a decade later, in 2012, the iconic film brand filed for bankruptcy. How’s that for a snap development?

GUANO

Popular as a fertiliser and also used to make matches and gunpowder, nitrogen-, phosphate- and potassium-rich guano — the more palatable name given to accumulated seabird and bat excrement — was the source of many a vast fortune in the 18th and 19th centuries. But when cheaper, easily sourced synthetic fertilisers were created by a German chemist in 1913, the oncebooming guano business was well and truly pooped.

SINGLES’ CLUBS

Before the advent of smartphones, lonely hearts seeking company had little alternative but to venture into the night and, as Bryan Ferry so memorably sang, stake their place at the singles’ bar. The recent arrival of dating and hook-up apps like Tinder, Grindr and Bumble transformed once bustling (and in the 1970s, do-the-hustling) singles clubs into ghost towns faster than you could say ‘swipe right.’ While dating app entrepreneurs like Whitney Wolfe Herd made enormous fortunes, singles’ bar owners suddenly felt distinctly unloved.

VIDEO RENTAL

Cut! And that’s a wrap… Video rental shops, once a weekend mecca in every neighbourhood, were struck by several stages of digital disruption. First, inexpensive and easilystored DVDS came along, replacing bulky VHS tapes and making it possible to create a compact movie library at home — avoiding rental fees and late return fines. Then streaming arrived, allowing us to watch the latest films at the convenience of a click. Blockbuster went bust, while Netflix chilled with billions.

WHALING

We can’t say we’re sorry to have seen this one go. A cruel trade, the whaling industry once brought in serious lucre, with the keratin of these magnificent creatures used to make skirt hoops and corsets, and the oil taken to fuel lamps and lubricate machinery, amongst other archaic applications. When it was discovered that petroleum oil and natural gas, comparatively easily pumped from underground, could fulfill many of the same needs, whales received a reprieve and the fortunes of whaling towns such as Nantucket kicked the bucket.

PRINT MEDIA

While there are still a few newspaper tycoons in existence, gone are the days when the likes of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer amassed huge fortunes and boundless influence astride mighty mastheads. Similarly, the limitless budgets splashed about by glossy magazine editors such as Anna Wintour and Tina Brown in the 1990s are a thing of the past. Today, the dollars have shifted to digital — online (mostly search and social) reaps two thirds of total global ad spending, while magazines and papers limp along with a mere five percent. Thanks for sticking with us, dear reader — the fact you’re perusing this carefully crafted magazine means the world.