Category: Sharing Economy

80: War, Famine, or Revolution

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An economist in 1798 theorized that a population and culture wold continue to grow until stopped by war, famine or revolution. Well, we got two out of the three.

When I look at just the famine piece and put the systematic deep racism aside for a moment. That seems to be all about income inequality. That’s hardly a hot take. It still baffles me that no Democratic platform has an answer for how to fix it. Better taxes helps a little bit as does universal healthcare but that still doesn’t make it possible for an Amazon delivery driver to buy a home and join the middle class.

When I look at why we are where we are, the inequality has been drastically escalated over the past 60 days. All the businesses that have failed are local and retail, and all the ones that are succeeding are upper class tech jobs. Shit, Amazon went from 18% of the retail market to 28% in 60 days. It was previously growing 1% a year. That can’t be good for the middle and lower class.

America doesn’t work for half the country and we need to figure out a ways for it to do so. I‘m open to ideas but think a good start would be a $20 minimum wage. That seems logical. Can someone tell me why we shouldn’t do that? Continue reading “80: War, Famine, or Revolution” →

Uber Eats is Crushing

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From those I know who work at GrubHub and other delivery companies, they all claim that UberEats is doing incredibly well. As Uber eyes the IPO next year, I can imagine this being a secret weapon that pushes their valuation higher than most would expect.

There was a good article in this week’s Business Week about how Uber is helping create “virtual restaurants” that have no in-person customers but exist only to deliver on Uber Eats. Uber brings some unique insight into the demand for existing restaurants.

Marketplaces have the best business model

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I’ve been hearing frequently that the best business model you can have is to be a marketplace.  I heard it on this podcast from a16z “The Marketplace Rules” and again today when i read the HBS article called “What Airbnb, Uber, and Alibaba Have in Common“

The article states that there are 4 types of businesses in the world: 

  • Asset Builders: These companies build, develop, and lease physical assets to make, market, distribute, and sell physical things. Examples include Ford, Wal-Mart, and FedEx.
  • Service Providers: These companies hire employees who provide services to customers or produce billable hours for which they charge. Examples include United Healthcare, Accenture, and JP Morgan.
  • Technology Creators: These companies develop and sell intellectual property such as software, analytics, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. Examples include Microsoft, Oracle, and Amgen.
  • Network Orchestrators. These companies create a network of peers in which the participants interact and share in the value creation. They may sell products or services, build relationships, share advice, give reviews, collaborate, co-create and more. Examples include eBay, Red Hat, and Visa, Uber, Tripadvisor, and Alibaba.

And of those four, the Network Orchestrators are rewarded the most in the market: 

Because they actually generate better business numbers:

 

It makes sense as these businesses can scale faster and more efficiently than any traditional business.  I’m always a bit amazed that eBay isn’t more recognized as the leader and pioneer in this category.  What they did 15 years ago is what many of the marketplaces are trying to replicate today.  Kudos to them. 

That’s it.  Just wanted to share the article…