How Business Cards Survive in the Age of LinkedIn

A product of French ingenuity during the reign of Louis XIV, the humble business card should be among the dead and buried in this era of social media and cloud computing. Mo Koyfman, a principal at the venture fund Spark Capital, captured the prevailing mindset of many forward thinkers when he recently declared, “I despise business cards. Using them feels so horse-and-carriage.”

Koyfman is not alone. Search for “business card is dead” and you will discover an avalanche of obituaries. But reports of the 3 ½-by-2-inch business staple’s death appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Despise and deride it all you like, but the business card remains a growth market. How has this 17th century technology not just survived but continued to flourish?