Innovation Tactics

Develop innovation ideas you can be proud of

Business Model Canvas Uber

Uber is one of the most prominent platform businesses. They are admired by innovators & entrepreneurs (and not so much by some others).

And Uber is a great example of what I have been saying for a long time: that the most successful Apps are not (just) Apps. They are the front-end to a great business model!

This is an MBA-level article for Startups & entrepreneurs on how to create a successful App and its business model.

People who don’t realise that the best apps are underpinned by a great business model run the risk of wasting years developing an App that has no chance to succeed. Others compile pitch decks that have little chances to be rewarded if there is no backing data on the business model

This is must-know knowledge for entrepreneurs and Startups.

Sharing Platform Business Model Value Chain [Updated]

Airbnb and Uber are the two most prominent examples of how to apply the platform business model to the sharing economy. But there are countless other sharing economy platform businesses as you have seen last time in the explanation of types and examples.

The sharing economy is one of the most significant socio-economic trends of the last decade. For innovators, it is still early days with countless ideas and opportunities to be discovered.

But how do we innovate within a large trend? One of the most important aspects is to understand which business models are suitable to bring the strength of the trend to light.

And that’s exactly what we are going to look at today: I am explaining the sharing platform business model using the value chain strategy tool!

The single biggest risks to Airbnb, Uber and your sharing platform idea

The biggest risks to Uber, Airbnb and sharing economy platform business models doesn’t come from technical or commercial dimensions but from their social impacts, yet these are being largely ignored.

The large for-profit sharing economy platforms, such as Uber and Airbnb, come with social risks and opportunities and I will give a balanced overview over both. The critics see them as leading to a “dystopia, with increasingly powerful platforms facing disempowered workers” [“that deliver a latte in a rainstorm to the more fortunate ones”]. Optimistic observers spot utopian possibilities of a crowd- and trust-based economic system and the emergence of a “networked society of micro‐entrepreneurs”

With a number of recent blows to both Uber and Airbnb in the US social and regulatory risks become crucial … understand what’s going on and how it may affect your ideas!

Can Uber, Airbnb and sharing platforms self-regulate?

The sharing economy is a fast-growing innovation opportunity. PricewaterhouseCoopers projects a 20-fold increase between 2016 and 2025 – reaching €570 billion ($674 billion). Its best know representatives are Uber and Airbnb. But there are many other wonderful examples and types of sharing economy platform business models.

It is common understanding that the role of the innovator is to introduce new methods, ideas, products/services or business models. But does it end there?

The answer is a resounding “no”. After having built one of the highest valued start-ups (by market capitalisation), Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick had to step down as top executive. The reason were not a lack of growth or bad financial results. It was due to the poor management of negative impacts of the platform. At the same time, Airbnb is awaiting dozens of regulatory decisions all over the world that can wipe off a considerable amount of their housing stock in the affected cities.

Innovators have to understand and manage the implications of their ideas to participants and non-participants before a negative public opinion forms which would  put pressure on regulators to introduce heavy-handed, innovation-stifling measures in place.

Today we will look how innovators can help manage the foot print of their companies, the public discourse and regulations in a positive way using innovative ideas.

Business model comparison: Uber vs Zipcar

We are comparing the business models of Zipcar (as a representative of on-demand or pay-per-use business models) and Uber (as representative of platform business models) to each other

Focus areas

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