All Hail Uberization!

The Uberization of everything is coming.

The Uber CEO finally quit this week. Now the board of directors is frantically trying to replace him and add more senior management. An article highlighted the irony of it all. Uber has been trying very hard to use technology to replace humans, aiming to move to driverless cars as the next quantum leap. As it had grown exponentially over the last few years, it had also accomplished it with a minimal of senior management positions, hence they are now scrambling to hire key positions to create a semblance of a normal well staffed senior management team. I guess Uber had already preferred a top light management team under the old CEO.

We can clearly see that the tech firms are coming into non-efficient sectors that have fat margins to eat their lunch. This has caused prices to fall, benefiting consumers. Driverless cars will be the next big thing that will wipe out a whole industry of truckers and cab drivers.

Look at AirBnB. People don’t want to stay at hotels anymore and hotels have to cut prices just to entice vacationers to book accommodations. We bought a week in Marriott Vacations in 2006 and now have decided to sell it at a loss as it is not viable to pay high yearly charges and limit our vacation options when we can have the world of unlimited quality choices at a cheaper price.

One cannot imagine what it was like before Uber/Grab came into our lives. The days of a cab driver having the upper hand are over. Cab booking centers? Dead. Taxi uncles who don’t use these apps? Losing business Big time. We have seen the future and will never want to go back to the past. Same for social media. Being so connected to the world nowadays provide an adrenaline rush that is unmatched in the pre-internet days. Once you have tasted the manna, you don’t every want to go back to the prehistoric ways of the dinosaur anymore.

Uberisation – Wikipedia