Tech Sector Neologisms: Everything You Need to Know

Adtech, Edtech, Cleantech, Femtech, Proptech, PRtech, etc: if you have no idea what it all means, you are not alone. Neologisms in the tech industry are quite difficult to learn and can be extremely “weird” to people who are not in the industry. If you want to know the meanings of these terms that you hear frequently on social media and in the news, read on: below we explain what each means with examples.

Cleantech

First of all, let’s say that “tech” is always an abbreviation of the word “technology”. So, cleantech actually means “clean technology”. This will give you an idea of ​​what it encompasses: cleantech is the common name given to all technologies developed for environmental sustainability. For the same reason, its scope is quite broad: it covers everything from simple activities such as recycling to renewable electric motors. For example, every company that produces renewable energy is a cleantech company. However, technologies that will make “non-clean” companies respectful to the environment are also included in this scope. For example, a new filter that allows a factory chimney to emit less harmful gas is also an investment in cleantech.

Cleantech is expected to be one of the most profitable industries in the near future, as almost every company now has a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) role, and existing laws are updated constantly with new sanctions for environmental protection. In other words, with cleantech, you can protect the environment and make a profit –  a win-win scenario.

Proptech

This is short for “property technology”. It is seen as a sub-branch of real estate technology and is based on the principle of applying platform economics to real estate markets. Sounds complicated? If so, let’s point out that Proptech is simply a technology that makes it easy to search, buy and sell real estate. Every technology used to achieve these goals falls within the scope of Proptech. For example, the “3D view” feature, which you can see on real estate sites, is one of the most widely used examples of Proptech. However, digitizing the documents required in real estate buying and selling (for example, buying a property from your mobile phone and obtaining the title deed in seconds) is among the goals of this technology.

The reason Proptech has grown unexpectedly popular over the past two years is because of the COVID pandemic: the technology has been used extensively to tour the real estate and list their properties. Not as good as other tech industries in terms of profitability but still promising. In particular, US real estate sites plan to completely digitize every stage of the real estate trading process with Proptech.

Femtech

This term is an abbreviation of the word “female technology”, but contrary to popular belief, it does not include products produced for women. Femtech is a term used for technologies that focus on women’s health, and it covers everything from diagnostic software to mobile applications. For example, even a period tracking application is considered Femtech. Likewise, female-specific sexual wellness products and fertility solutions are also covered by Femtech. This term has been used since 2016 and is estimated to reach a size of 41 billion dollars in 2026. However, it is also seen as one of the technologies that violate personal privacy the most because even your periods can be shared with third parties such as Facebook, for example. While it is a high-profit industry, stricter privacy laws may cause it to grow less than predicted.

PRtech

You’ve probably guessed what this is: public relations technology. At first glance, it may be difficult to understand how it works because PR is not a job that can be done with software, it is necessary to establish one-to-one human relations. That’s why PRtech focuses on collecting information, not on this part of the job. In other words, we can say that it consists of information technologies adapted to the PR industry. For example, the PR specialist who needs to prepare a press release can anticipate what will be of the most interest to the public to make this statement more impressive and can make the text more effective. There are not many software companies operating in this industry and for the same reason, profit rates are currently satisfactory. However, since it appeals to a limited audience, profit rates may decrease if the supply increases since the demand is not so high.

Edtech

Another industry booming during the pandemic is education tech (Edtech). Actually, this is not a new sector, educational technologies have been used for a long time. But for the first time, they’ve been truly tested during the pandemic, and they’ve passed the test: millions of students worldwide have taken virtual classes for more than a year. Edtech, of course, offers more than that. For example, even VR glasses developed for disabled students to receive education according to their special conditions are within the scope of this technology. Edtech brings together different concepts such as communication, education, psychology, sociology and artificial intelligence and is expected to reach a size of approximately 100 billion dollars by the end of 2021.

Adtech

Short for “advertising technology”, this industry focuses on developing new ways to deliver advertisements to its target audience. Global advertising is an industry with a size of approximately 635 billion dollars, and every technology that will make it more effective falls within the scope of Adtech. With this technology, you can learn which platform and method would be the more appropriate choice for your ads to reach consumers. It’s widely used by internet stores and companies that develop games for Canada casino online sites or video games to promote their products.  Likewise, you can offer more personalized and creative ads to them: adtech is a broad technology and focuses heavily on mobile users.