Uber as a Disruptive Technology
The take over of rideshare apps and their benefits
Overview:
In my story map I will discuss why and how the popular ride share app, "Uber" is a disruptive technology. Uber offers a unique rideshare capability that offers enviornmental and social benefits. It also has grown rapidly, created new jobs, is more enviornmentally friendly than private transportation, and more user friendly than other modes of transportation.
Disruptive technology:
The history of Uber
2008
Uber was created in 2008, when Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp could not get a ride on a snowy night in Paris.
2009
Uber was launched by Kalanick and Camp in San Francisco. They developed a smartphone app that allowed users to tap a button to receive a ride.
2010
The first Uber trip was taken in San Francisco
2011
Uber was launched internationally
2014
Uber was used in over 100 cities
2015
Uber Eats, Uber's food deliver service, made its debut. Uber also hit one billion trips.
2016
Uber was used in over 500 cities
2017
Uber Freight was launched, connecting trucking companies and their drivers directly to shippers. Uber also hit 5 billion trips
2018
Uber reached 10 billion trips taken.
Revenue:
In recent years, rideshare apps have gained traction and are widely well known and used as opposed to public transportation, taxi services, and private transportation. In scholarly journal, "Shared ride services in North America: definitions, impacts, and the future of pooling", authors Susan Shaheen and Adam Cohen write, "Some shared ride services, such as carpooling and vanpooling, can provide transportation, infrastructure, environmental, and social benefits"
Consumers:
- The scholarly article, “Delimiting disruption: Why Uber is disruptive, but Airbnb is not '' from the International Journal of Research in Marketing by Eitan Muller explains how and why Uber is a disruptive technology. Highlights on the consumer aspect of the app.
- First, Muller notes that Uber and other ride share apps overtook both taxi services and car rentals at a rapid pace.
- Second, Muller explains how, “the total market for ground transportation in NYC increased dramatically during this period of growth of Uber and Lyft, from 520,000 rides per month in January 2015 to about 947,000 in June of 2019” (Muller).
- Third, he talks about how rapid technological substitution is not only happening in both the business segment and ride-sharing business.
Taxi and ride-hailing trips in New York City (thousand trips per day)
Drivers:
- Uber has the biggest ride share footprint out of all ride-sharing apps, and according to businesswire.com, has created over 20,000 new jobs
- The article, "Why Clayton Christensen Is Wrong About Uber and Disruptive Innovation", by techcrunch.com explains that while taxis are tightly regulated and drivers must meet and follow strict regulations, such as an operator's license and medallion in order to act as a taxi, anyone with a car can become an Uber driver.
Enviornmental Benefits
The article, "The Environmental Benefits of Ridesharing" by Hyrecar.com describes why renting and participating in ride-share programs is more enviornmentally friendly than owning a car. The article explains how the number of cars on the roads keeps increasing, as increasing the amount of pollution emission. It also goes on to explain how ridesharing decreases the use of cars and reduces car congestion:
- For each car-sharing vehicle in use, there are on average 9 to 13 fewer cars on the road
- Using ride share services helps reduce car emissions between 34% and 41% each year
- Ridesharing decretases travel delays cause by traffic congestion, which waste billions of gallons of fuel.
Amount of carbon dioxide emissions per capita per country
- They also reduce the number of cars, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide produced each year
"Disruptive Innovation": Uber Risk?
Works Cited:
Freid, L., Freid, L., 2, amj5583 on O., Zachary Scott Wolford on September 29, 28, sjo5124 on S., & 28, S. D. on S. (2016, September 28). Ist 110: Introduction to information sciences and technology. IST 110 Introduction to Information Sciences and Technology. https://sites.psu.edu/ist110pursel/2016/09/28/is-uber-a-disruptive-innovation/.
Moazed, A., & Johnson, N. L. (2016, February 27). Why Clayton Christensen is wrong about Uber and disruptive innovation. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/27/why-clayton-christensen-is-wrong-about-uber-and-disruptive-innovation/.
Muller, E. (2019, November 8). Delimiting disruption: Why Uber is disruptive, but Airbnb is not. International Journal of Research in Marketing. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167811619300679.
13, S. L. T. J., 28, H. C. J., 26, A. S., 2, S. B. O., 26, O. M. D., 2, aliharim J., 12, A. N., & 2, L. A. F. (2020, April 30). The environmental benefits of ridesharing. HyreCar. https://www.hyrecar.com/blog/environmental-benefits-ridesharing/.
2021 Uber Technologies Inc. (n.d.). Get in the driver's seat and get paid. uber.com. https://www.uber.com.
Keane, S. (2019, November 21). Uber will reportedly let riders have journeys audio-recorded for safety. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/uber-will-reportedly-let-riders-drivers-record-audio-of-trips-for-safety/.
Uber and Lyft to share Banned drivers list. Intelligent Transport. (n.d.). https://www.intelligenttransport.com/transport-news/119113/uber-lyft-deactivated-drivers-list/.
How to identify disruptive technologies: R&d today. R&D Today | RnD Today is the RADMA outreach website to make world-leading knowledge and expertise more widely accessible. (2019, March 5). https://www.rndtoday.co.uk/theme-editor-blog/how-to-identify-disruptive-technologies/.
