A HEAVENLY OPPORTUNITY WORTH $100 BILLION

The medley of services from astrology to temple tourism - that have been influenced by technology, have created a market for spiritual services estimated at $58.6 billion in 2023. With revolutionary technological innovations like online darshans, this market offers immense potential for startups and could attract enough capital to grow beyond a market size of $127 billion by 2032

- Resham Suhail

IN EVERY HINDU HOUSEHOLD, the christening ceremony of a newborn is a cherished tradition. Families entrust their trusted ‘pandit’ with the task of deciphering the newborn’s janam kundli (horoscope). With the revealing of the ruling nakshatra (constellation) to birth this (the stellar moment of birth), this tradition assures parents of an auspicious life journey of their child. That first encounter with the family astrologer is the beginning of many, when individuals seek guidance for life’s major decisions and predictions about the future.

The most common forms of astrological services are the weekly or monthly predictions in newspapers for the respective zodiac signs. Like everything else in life, this service too went digital in 1997 when Cyber Media started an arm called Cyber Astro. The telecom giant Aircel launched an astrology service called AstroBuddy somewhere in June 2014 which received impressive traction. Subsequently, a slew of competitors including Idea, Vodafone India, Airtel and others swiftly followed suit and introduced dedicated hotline numbers for such astrology consultations at premium recharge points and eventually rolled out the service in various regional dialects too.