Travel agencies have been pronounced dead for decades - yet they still survive, and many thrive, an illustration of how much consumers still value the human touch in their travel planning.
But we now enter a new era of technology-led services, many of which are predicted to fundamentally change how society and we as people behave.
About five years ago, Marc Andreessen, creator of Netscape and a serial investor in platforms such as Pinterest, Foursquare and Business Insider, declared the future of offline retail to be dead.
During this half a decade, we saw Netflix put offline box-office DVD rental giant Blockbuster out of business, a massive growth of e-commerce and a gradual phasing out of the physical stores in businesses such as travel agencies, recharge and utility payment options etc.
Yet, 90% of retail sales are still carried through offline stores. E-commerce, after all, does not work when you need a last minute item.