Startup puts money on the fact that your marriage will fall apart

“4 weddings and one funeral”

Startup SwanLuv offers newlyweds in the USA an unusual service: the company pays for the wedding (up to $ 10,000), and the money will have to be returned only in case of a divorce. But in this case, you will also have to pay the accumulated interest. In general, the system resembles bookmaker bets in which a startup wins if the couple divorced.

Startup SwanLuv (the name hints at the widespread opinion about the monogamous nature of swans ) tries to convince website visitors that it does not deal with cynical profits on someone else’s mountain. According to their explanations, all the money paid goes to pay for the weddings of the following happy couples. The company even offers free family consultations. Profit is planned to be obtained solely from advertising on the project.

True, purely statistically this offer is almost a win-win - in the United States, about 53% of marriages end in divorce, that is, the company can expect to return half of its investments with interest. A good indicator even for banks issuing loans.


The number of marriages and divorces in the USA

But, for natural reasons, the optimism of grooms and brides (not to mention the love of a freebie) does not allow them to believe in statistics. Startup co-founder Scott Avy told CNBC that the number of pre-registrations (and the site will start tomorrow) has so far exceeded all company expectations that they had to upgrade the servers.

The desire to save some money and risk the possibility of future payments is not surprising: in the USA it is customary to celebrate weddings on a grand scale, in connection with which, in 2014, according to a study by The Knot, the average cost of a wedding was $ 31,213. Weddings make Americans crawl into regular loans.

The irony is that, according to a study by economists at Emory University, organizers of more expensive weddings get divorced more often: the probability of divorcing couples who have spent more than $ 20,000 on a wedding is 3.5 times higher than for couples who fit in $ 10,000.


The percentage of divorces , depending on the number of years lived together

Whether the contract is signed with the company for life, or is it limited to a specific duration, Scott Avi did not specify - however, he promised that after opening the site all conditions will be available in the form of a public offer.

Mendelssohn March, please.