Currently I am studying Data Science at Exeter University:

which covers many subject areas incorporating things like artificial intelligence and Big Data. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to study a module in Digital Business models which has been particularly insightful. It covers many of the same subjects but from a more real-world, front-end and business perspective, which is lacking heavily in my other modules.

So What did I do in Digital Business models?

• 

I made this image by web-scraping text from the module content, people’s comments and sites to which the module leader left links. A word’s size is proportional to its frequency of occurrence. It gives a rough insight to some of the themes that were discussed.

Compare this with the video that I made beforehand. Are there similarities and overlaps?

As you may have been able to tell from the video, one thing that resonated with me in particular was the iPolice article by Giles O’Halloran. It suggested that technologies such as AI could be used to augment people’s abilities rather than replace them. As I will likely be working in AI in the future, perhaps this will lead me along a path I would otherwise not have chosen.

Favorite Assignment

The assignment I enjoyed most involved evaluating the ways an organizations business model contributed to its success. I had the opportunity to talk about a company I find interesting which was Valve. I thought they would be a good fit for the assignment… feel free to check it out here. The number of comments I got was amazing. People raised some really good points, which were often things that I had not even considered myself. For example, Loïc Kwan asked whether I could see cloud gaming as a threat to Valve in the future. This was an extremely good point and very much in the spirit of current modern trends and the course material.

Enrichment of Learning Through Interaction

Blog Post Comments

Some of the things I have learned I would not have without the interaction of my fellow students. Some other examples are:

Sandor, who wrote a very informative post about a traditional bank, Lloyds, who despite having a substantial digital platform, still focus heavily on traditional physical banks in order to appeal to the older generation.

Ash’s post on Deliveroo was insightful because, not only did it detail how the company effectively uses data to capture value, it is written from an insider perspective. Ash actually worked there. I may never have had this opportunity to see from his perspective otherwise.

Another interesting blog post on the banking sector was this one by a student called Chen. His article focussed more on the success that could be attributed to HSBC’s digital services. We had an interesting conversation about the fact that about 50 % of the world are still without internet.

Fellow student Vincent wrote this interesting blog post on the clothing brand Burberry. My interaction with Vincent yielded a detailed comment about what challenges Burberry may face in the future and how they may be tackled.

A Creative Description of My Journey

Well human, it has been fun But I must go back to my own world now. Farewell 🙂

References

[1]          alex12345photoshop. URL= https://pixabay.com/photos/monkey-laptop-computer-technology-4042658/.

[2]          Ally, N. The litter problem on the coast of Guyana, 2010. licence= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode (unmodified). URL= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution#/media/File:Litter.JPG.

[3]          Beckett, C. 2012. Banksy Juggling Image. licence= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode (unmodified). URL= https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjohnbeckett/6904321356.

[4]          CBINSIGHTS. Retail Bankcruptcies Timeline. 2018. URL= https://s3.amazonaws.com/cbi-research-portal-uploads/2018/04/06164114/Retail-Apocalypse-Timeline-3.19.18.png.

[5]          Chen, Y. 2019. Digitalized banking service in HSBC. URL= https://chen.travel.blog/2019/03/03/digitalized-banking-service-in-hsbc/#comments.

[6]          Cozart, J. licence= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode (unmodified). URL= https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Belz_Factory_Outlet_Mall_in_Allen,_Texas_(Winston%27s)_crop.jpg.

[7]          cpmacdonald. 2016. Dystopia Image. URL= https://pixabay.com/illustrations/building-ruins-old-industry-1647925/

[8]          Davenport T, Patil, D. Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century. URL= https://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century.

[9]          Except. 2010. Vertical farms around couryard – Shanghai Sustainable Masterplan – Central Courtyard. licence= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode. URL= https://www.flickr.com/photos/34167678@N00/4589482898.

[10]        Fox. 2012. Simpsons Image. Them, Robot. URL= https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Them,_Robot?file=Simp_Homer_With_Robot_01142118.jpg.

[11]        Iskandar, V. 2019. How Far Digital Business Model Has Contributed to Burberry Success?. URL= https://vinceecmm129.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/how-far-digital-business-model-has-contributed-to-burberry-success/.

[12]        Lamiot. Pollution Image. GNU Free. URL= https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WaterPollutionDeule2006_02_24_4.jpg.

[13]        Marisa04. Isolation Image. Pixabay. URL= https://pixabay.com/photos/isolation-isolate-lonely-loneliness-3155603/.

[14]        Meredith S. Here’s everything you need to know about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. URL= https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/facebook-cambridge-analytica-scandal-everything-you-need-to-know.html.

[15]        O’Halloran, G. 2018. The iPolice – Intelligence Augmented vs. Artificial Intelligence. URL= https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ipolice-intelligence-augmented-vs-artificial-giles-o-halloran/.

[16]        Phazed. Rainbow Alien GIF. URL= https://giphy.com/gifs/trippy-psychedelic-psychedelia-uN9J8gNSFXA9a.

[17]        Picpedia. Unemployed Sign. licence= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode (unmodified). URL= http://www.picpedia.org/highway-signs/u/unemployment.html.

[18]        Pixabay. Apocalypse image. Creative commons 0. URL= https://www.pexels.com/photo/apocalypse-apocalyptic-armageddon-building-462175/.

[19]        rawpixel.com. Smiling Woman Wearing Black Virtual Reality Headset. URL= https://www.pexels.com/photo/smiling-woman-wearing-black-virtual-reality-headset-1619840/.

[20]        Rept0n1x. Blockbuster Image. licence= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode (unmodified). URL= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode.

[21]        Roser, C. AllAboutLean.com. Wikimedia Commons. URL= https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Industry_4.0.png.

[22]        sandorpakozdi7. 2019. Post 2: Lloyds Bank – Banking online and at a branch. URL= https://bemm129.wordpress.com/2019/02/10/post-2-lloyds-bank-banking-online-and-at-a-branch/comment-page-1/?unapproved=7&moderation-hash=d8bc84f57866b85b3e7a96f0d484fe94#comment-7.

[23]        Tucker, S. 2019. From Developer to Distributor – The Story of Valve. URL= https://innovation.tech.blog/2019/03/03/from-developer-to-distributor-the-story-of-valve/.

[24]        Warner, M. Gig Economy Graphic. licence= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode. URL= https://www.flickr.com/photos/senatormarkwarner/18868427396.

[25]        Woolf, A. 2019. Deliveroo: redefining the food delivery landscape (again)!. URL= https://ashwoolf.wordpress.com/2019/02/10/deliveroo-redefining-the-food-delivery-landscape-again/#comments.

Press Start

Valve are a video games developer that was founded in 1996 by two former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. In 1998 they released, arguably, one of the most influential first-person shooters, known as Half-Life. If you were a teenage boy back then and were lucky enough to have a PC in your house, chances are that you knew this game. Although, other than the completely innovative way the game changed how developers thought about storytelling, A.I. and physics, Valve also was leading the way in how developers interacted with their fans. Many of Valve’s fans tinkered with the game, making new levels, models and entirely new games altogether. This was encouraged by Valve, packaging the game with certain developer tools to make it easy for their fans. Some of the better projects, Valve helped to develop into full products, of which there are more modern incarnations still played today i.e. Team Fortress and Counter Strike Go. But how Valve is probably better known is through its digital media distribution service, Steam.

Level 1

Steam originally started in 2003 as a way for Valve to automatically distribute updates for its online games, and counter piracy and cheating. However, the release of Half-Life 2 saw Steam used as a channel of sale, players had to sign up to Steam to purchase and play the game. By 2005 Valve had negotiated contracts with other developers to sell their games through Steam. An easy way to describe what Steam is today, is to say that Steam is to the PC gaming industry, what Spotify is to the music industry. Although, that may be an over generalization, as Steam has many more features on offer. Steam is not only a channel of sale, but a hub; offering digital rights management, matchmaking servers, video streaming, social networking, developer tools and cloud storage. Valve’s customers are no longer just the players, but also the developers and in the same spirit as the early days, it offers small independent developers a community and a route into the market.

1 Up

With the success of Steam, Valve’s revenue stream has changed considerably, and it has essentially become at least as much of, if not more of, a distributor rather than a developer. This has enabled a somewhat passive way of generating value as other developers make many of the games that they sell. Valve takes approximately 30 % of sales generated on its platform from games made by other developers. The vast majority of PC games are sold through Steam and we have reached a point where developers are actually taking a huge risk not to release through Steam.

A large contributor to the success of Valve’s business model is how they exploit customer interaction and cultivate a community. As discussed earlier they have encouraged a rich independent developer and modding community. Until recently, when they realized they had to reduce the immense number of games flooding Steam, gamers could vote on which games would come on to the platform. Furthermore, there is a customer review system. The community also has minimum entry requirements, for example a popular revenue model on Steam is the free-to-play, or freemium model where by a game is offered for free but in-game transactions may unlock further features. Many of the most played games on Steam, such as Dota 2, Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike Go (mentioned earlier) use such a model. This is successful as it removes the initial price barrier that may prevent people from trying the game and thus reduces the barrier on to Steam. People are therefore more likely to join the community. Additionally, these games use very clever mechanics to entice the players to spend money i.e. they may unlock more levels, items or gain some kind of advantage. It also makes piracy pointless, and has enabled developers to earn revenue from countries where the game would normally have only been pirated. Another interesting revenue model that is used through Steam is called Early Access. This allows developers to ‘open the doors’ early on a game in development. This means players can start enjoying the game and developers can start earning money before it is even completed. The main idea behind this is that it enables more adventurous projects to achieve realization. Projects which otherwise may not have obtained full funding can receive funding through sales whilst still in development.

Final Boss

Worryingly, there appears to be a trend in that the middle ground in the gaming industry is disappearing and the landscape is often dominated by a few very successful titles with the rest being relatively small projects. This has the effect that over half the revenue earned through Steam was generated by a small handful of games, the majority of which were not developed by Valve. Furthermore, these triple-A games are just the type of games that probably could successfully launch without Steam, as they would attract players regardless of which platform they are on. This could potentially mean Valve may be in precarious position in the future. Is Valve’s current business model robust enough and able to adapt if the other big developers decide to jump ship? Although, Valve has been reducing the cut it takes and making entry onto the platform easier for developers. Things in the future may change dramatically and Valve will need to evolve.

Continue?

It’s hard to deny that Valves success has been largely due to Steam and their subsequent digital business model. In fact, many fans of Valves games are somewhat bitter at Valve as their games development has slowed considerably as they seem to be paying more attention to Steam. Where the hell is Half-Life 3?! Although, I would wager they would have been successful even if they were just developing games still. In fact, the 3 of the most popular games we mentioned earlier, were all developed by Valve. Their games have been some of the most innovative in the industry. I imagine that even if developers decide not to release through Steam in the future, Valve and its platform will live on for a long time and it will be interesting to see what they do.

References

[1]          Valve Logo. June 2015. Valve [Public domain]. [Accessed 26 Feb 2019]. URL= https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Valve-logo.jpg.

[2]          Dunn, J. 2013. Full Steam ahead: The History of Valve. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/history-of-valve/.

[3]          Ahoy. 2014. RetroAhoy: Half-Life. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp5vOgz8vyI&.

[4]          Seal, E. 2016. The Little Steam Engines That Could: Fan-Made Mods That Made It Big with Valve. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= http://www.nitwitty.net/for-the-fans/valve-fan-made-mods/.

[5]          Logo of Steam. [Public Domain]. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steam_logo.svg.

[6]          Sayer, M. Tyler, W. 2018. The 15-year evolution of Steam. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/steam-versions/.

[7]          wikipedia. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(software).

[8]          Statt, N. 2018. The Verge. Valve’s new Steam revenue agreement gives more money to game developers. [Accessed 26 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/30/18120577/valve-steam-game-marketplace-revenue-split-new-rules-competition.

[9]          Grubb, J. 2017. Valve won’t manually curate Steam because it dominates PC gaming. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://venturebeat.com/2017/02/13/valve-wont-manually-curate-steam-because-it-dominates-pc-gaming/.

[10]        Kuchera, B. 2018. Steam remains comfortably dominant, but the competitive threats are gathering. [Accessed 26 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/27/17785946/steam-usage-fallout-fortnite-amazon.

[11]        Steam. 2018. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://store.steampowered.com/about/communitymods/.

[12]        Sarkar, S. 2017. Valve shuts down Steam Greenlight, replacing it next week. [Accessed 01 Mar 2019]. URL= https://www.polygon.com/2017/6/6/15749692/steam-direct-launch-date-valve-greenlight.

[13]        Plunkett, L. 2018. Big Study Of 10 Million Steam Reviews Is Absolutely Fascinating. [Accessed 01 Mar 2019]. URL= https://kotaku.com/deep-study-of-10-million-steam-reviews-is-absolutely-fa-1825908713.

[14]        Soomro, .D. 2018. 15 Best Free Steam Games You Should Definitely Play. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019].  URL= https://beebom.com/best-free-steam-games/.

[15]        Steam. [Accessed 29 Feb 2019]. URL= https://steamcharts.com/.

[16]        Pearson, D. 2012. Guillemot: As many PC players pay for F2P as boxed product. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-08-22-guillemot-as-many-pc-players-pay-for-f2p-as-boxed-product.

[17]        Green, H. 2016. Gamasutra. 7 successful Early Access games that all developers should study. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/275719/7_successful_Early_Access_games_that_all_developers_should_study.php.

[18]        Hruska, J. 2018. Steam Earned an Estimated $4.3B in 2017, but Benefits Flow to Handful of Titles. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/266323-steam-earned-estimated-4-3b-2017-benefits-flow-handful-titles.

[19]        Kuchera, B. 2018. Valve now rewards successful games with a larger cut of Steam revenue. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/3/18123649/valve-steam-revenue-sharing.

[20]        Ravenscraft, E. 2018. What the Hell Does Valve Even Do Anymore (Besides Take Our Money). [Accessed 26 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.howtogeek.com/360177/what-the-hell-does-valve-even-do-anymore-besides-take-our-money/.

[21]        Soper, T. 2013. GeekWire. Valve’s Gabe Newell to receive British gaming award for “exceptional contribution”. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.geekwire.com/2013/valves-gabe-newell-receive-british-gaming-award-exceptional-contribution/.

[22]        Fahey, R. 2005. Half-Life 2 named game of the year in AIAS Awards. [Accessed 28 Feb 2019]. URL= https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/half-life-2-named-game-of-the-year-in-aias-awards.

Amazon already has a strong and well established presence in the digital realm, however, it is making steps to also develop a strong physical presence.

What opportunities and challenges lie before Amazon?

It’s a much larger market

Physical store sales still account for 90 % of all retail purchases in the U.S. and 82 % in the U.K (seen above). The much larger physical market is a huge opportunity for a digital retailer if they can transfer their digital success into physical success. Furthermore, Amazon’s growth has slowed recently suggesting it is a big fish outgrowing its small online pond. Amazon is moving into the physical space in a number of different formats which seems to be so that it can experiment and learn a lot very quickly. This is a good strategy when you have a large search space and know how to use data effectively.

Customers value experiences

Retailers such as Amazon are realizing that customers in physical stores place significant value on experiences rather than just purchasing objects. This Forbes article describes how companies are creating stores which contain no inventory for sale but rather, act as experiences for the customer. The sleepy high street retailers may be under threat from an online retailer who can offer more than a square room filled with shelved products. Additionally, the future main consumers, generation Z, are less concerned about being able to touch and try products but particularly value innovation over other generations.

Amazon Books stores offer a more modern feel by emulating aspects of their online store; books are displayed so that customers can see the cover rather than the spine and below each is a review. It’s as much about the experience of a book store as it is about purchases. Another Smart Retailing idea the company has implemented is the utilization of data collected from its Kindle product to decide which books to display.

A similar idea is being used in Amazons new 4 Star store where the inventory is determined by Amazon’s online customer review system. Only items which have a 4 star rating or above are available to purchase.

The future of retail is omni-channel

Retailers such as Amazon are identifying some of the frictions which interfere with the path to purchase. Some of these are from poor integration of digital and physical parts of the business; for example, if there are pricing inconsistencies, no ability to purchase online and take from the shelf. Furthermore, from the checkout process with queue times etc… Omni-channel retail is used to describe the integration of all channels of sale such as online store, bricks-and-mortar, social media etc… this could be by integration of stock management, payment systems, pricing. This is a concept of Smart Retailing which comes from the concept of Smart Cities.

Amazon approaches this with its Amazon Books and Amazon 4 Star stores which both offer the customer the ability to purchase items in the store using their app. Amazon Go on the other hand, is probably the closest thing to a Smart shop that exists. The customer scans their smart device on entry into the shop. This connects their in-store presence to their amazon account. Purchases don’t even require the use of an app or a cashier. The customer can just pick up anything they want to buy and walk out of the store with it. Amazon autonomously charges their card by using Smart technologies. They are creating a seamless online/offline environment which gives the customer many paths-to-purchase with minimum friction.

This video is a great demonstration of how Amazon Go works and highlights nicely the curiosity that customers will have towards these new innovations:

Data collection

In 2017 Amazon acquired Whole Foods and the main reason for this seems to be data. Groceries and consumables are an area in which Amazon does not have a lot of experience. Acquiring Whole Foods has allowed them the opportunity to better understand and learn people’s grocery buying habits. Which has been an especially good feed for the company which is well known for having an appetite for customer data. This means eventually we could see Amazon being able to predict when you are about to run out of toilet paper and thus target you with toilet paper offers for example.

Grow your own ecosystem

Amazon leverages its Prime service to further sew together the vast ecosystem it is creating. The physical stores and digital services all offer added benefits to people with Prime membership. Eventually, being a Prime member could give you benefits in many aspects of your life. And when you consider people may have Amazon’s Alexa in their home too Amazon seems inescapable. It’s not just that they are making it easier to go the Amazon way. They are trying to make it hard not to. One day Amazon may be everywhere and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

 

References

[1]     Amazon. 2019. Not Everything Makes the Cut – Amazon Super Bowl LIII Commercial. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y-1h_C8ad8&t=11s.

[2]       Chow, B. 2016. Flickr. (Unmodified). URL= https://www.flickr.com/photos/free-stuff/25849350202/in/photostream/. CC= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode.

[3]       CNBC. 2018. Inside Amazon’s New 4-Star Store. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lqjxVO4u5M.

[4]       Coombs, C. 2018. Tour Amazon’s evolving collection of physical retail experiments (Photos). URL= https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2018/10/03/inside-amazon-physical-stores-go-books-4-star.html.

[5]       Greg,. P. 2017. Forbes. Amazon’s Acquisition Of Whole Foods Is About Two Things: Data And Product. URL= https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2017/08/02/amazons-acquisition-of-whole-foods-is-about-two-things-data-and-product/#3e01dfafa808.

[6]       Hassan, M. URL= https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1446677.

[7]       Hegedus-Garcia, I. 2013. Flickr. New Whole Foods Market – North Miami. (Unmodified). URL= https://www.flickr.com/photos/miamism/8707879659. CC= https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode.

[8]       Inside Amazon Videos. 2018. Amazon Books. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLBxC8uGPu4.

[9]        Linus Tech Tips. 2018. We Stole Tampons from the Cashier-less Amazon Go Store. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vorkmWa7He8.

[10]     Mannino, S. 2018. Forbes. Online Retailers: Why Physical Retail Should Be Your Next Move. URL= https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesnycouncil/2018/04/11/online-retailers-why-physical-retail-should-be-your-next-move/#70c0d27b7f4d.

[11]     Mroz, B. 2018. Ecommerce Magazine. Friction-Free Commerce: Meet the Retailers Doing it Right. URL= https://www.ecommerce-mag.com/friction-free-commerce-meet-the-retailers-doing-it-right.

[12]     Neely, A. 2017. DMN. Clicks to Bricks: Why Online Retailers are Opening Physical Stores. URL= https://www.dmnews.com/customer-experience/article/13035306/clicks-to-bricks-why-online-retailers-are-opening-physical-stores.

[13]     Office for National Statistics. 2018. Comparing “bricks and mortar” store sales with online retail sales: August 2018. URL= https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/articles/comparingbricksandmortarstoresalestoonlineretailsales/august2018.

[14]     PYMNTS. 2018. The Evolution Of The Amazon Prime Ecosystem. URL= https://www.pymnts.com/amazon-loyalty/2018/prime-ecosystem-free-shipping-delivery-subscription-benefits-whole-foods/.

[15]     Rigby, D. 2014. Harvard Business Review. URL= https://hbr.org/2014/09/digital-physical-mashups.

[16]      Statt, N. 2018. The Verge. Why Amazon’s future depends on moving from the internet to the physical world. URL= https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/2/18049672/amazon-go-offline-retail-future-competition-walmart-food-drink-grocery-sales.

[17]     Stern, N. 2018. Forbes. Amazon 4 Star: Maybe Brick-And-Mortar Retail Isn’t So Easy After All. URL= https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilstern/2018/12/10/amazon-4-star-maybe-brick-and-mortar-retail-isnt-so-easy-after-all/.

[18]     Wallace, T. 2018. The 2018 Omni-Channel Retail Report: Generational Consumer Shopping Behavior Comes Into Focus. URL= https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/blog/omni-channel-retail/.

[19]     Wikipedia. List of Amazon products and services. URL= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon_products_and_services.

[20]     Wills, J. 2018. Investopedia. 7 Ways Amazon Uses Big Data to Stalk You (AMZN). URL= https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/090716/7-ways-amazon-uses-big-data-stalk-you-amzn.asp.

[21]     Youngson, N. URL= http://www.picpedia.org/highway-signs/a/amazon.html.

[22]     PANTANO, E. and TIMMERMANS, H., 2014. What is Smart for Retailing? Procedia Environmental Sciences 22(2014/01/01/), 101-107. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2014.11.010.

[23]     PRIPORAS, C.-V., STYLOS, N., and FOTIADIS, A.K., 2017. Generation Z consumers’ expectations of interactions in smart retailing: A future agenda. Computers in Human Behavior 77(2017/12/01/), 374-381. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.01.058.

[24]     WILLEMS, K., SMOLDERS, A., BRENGMAN, M., LUYTEN, K., and SCHÖNING, J., 2017. The path-to-purchase is paved with digital opportunities: An inventory of shopper-oriented retail technologies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 124(2017/11/01/), 228-242. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.10.066.

From the horse drawn carriage, to international airlines, to Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop [1], it is apparent that transport is a rapidly evolving industry.

In the digital economy, technologies such as mobile phones, the internet, apps, and global positioning systems have had a huge trans-formative impact for taxi drivers. With customers having the ability to hail a taxi from almost anywhere whilst on the go, taxi companies can maximize business. Global positioning systems have allowed more efficient navigation and the coupling with real time traffic updates further utilizes this technology. Payment methods such as London’s Oyster card and contactless bank cards allow customers to benefit from a hassle free payments that are accepted on multiple forms of transport [2; 3]. They increase efficiency for the business and increase the user experience for the customer. Companies that make effective use of ‘frontier technology’ can have a strong competitive edge.

The digital economy is changing how companies operate. Uber and similar businesses are a new beast on the scene. They can be described as a transportation network company (TNC) and embody the sharing economy. Ubers use of modern technology, including artificial intelligence [4] may allow their drivers to earn more due to higher capacity utilization [5]. Drivers which work with Uber may have a competitive edge through frontier technology. Although, there is also research that contradicts this showing that TNCs have had a depressive effect on the taxi industry due to higher competition [6]. It could also be argued that part of Uber’s advantage is that their business model has allowed them to circumvent certain legislations/regulations and insurances to which ‘traditional’ transport companies have to adhere [7; 8]. Taxi drivers may be more vulnerable under this type of business model.

So what could the future of taxi transport look like?

Companies that have Uber’s ‘man-in-the-middle’ business model may be replaced by new emerging technologies such as blockchain [9].

The general idea is that, what Uber does could be done by an automated system, which is not controlled or owned by anybody. This could reduce costs which could be passed on to the taxi drivers and customers.

Self driving cars may also be a thing one day. Google’s self driving car is actually safer than a human driver [11]. A future taxi driver may not look like something we would recognize today.

Taking these things into account, it is quite possible in the future we may see a completely autonomous transport system. Self-driving cars which are controlled by an autonomous decentralized system.

So how has being a taxi driver changed in the digital economy? Rapidly and fueled by frontier technology. Taxi drivers are having to adapt to a shared economy and internet orientated landscape. Future employers may come in a form we have not even imagined yet and taxi drivers need to be vigilante and be able to adapt quickly to survive. There may be competition from autonomy.

References

[1]          The B1M. Hyperloop Explained. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcikLQZI5wQ.

[2]          Transport for Londona. 2013. TfL’s famous Oyster card celebrates ten successful years making journeys easier for customers. URL= https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2013/July/tfls-famous-oyster-card-celebrates-ten-successful-years-making-journeys-easier-for-customers.

[3]          Edwards, T. 2015. Contactless payment continues to grow in London. URL= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31925605.

[4]          Koestier, J. Uber Might Be The First AI-First Company, Which Is Why They ‘Don’t Even Think About It Anymore. URL= https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2018/08/22/uber-might-be-the-first-ai-first-company-which-is-why-they-dont-even-think-about-it-anymore/#13fc45945b62.

[5]          Berger, T., Chen, C., and Carl Benedikt, F., 2018. Drivers of Disruption? Estimating the Uber Effect. European Economic Review 110(C), 197-210. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2018.05.006.

[6]          Jiang, W. and Zhang, L., 2018. The Impact of the Transportation Network Companies on the Taxi Industry: Evidence from Beijing’s GPS Taxi Trajectory Data. IEEE Access 6, 12438-12450. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2810140.

[7]          Facts in Motion. Why Uber Failed in Germany. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KXsMiOKXAA.

[8]          Taylor, K. 2017. 40 of the Biggest Scandals in Uber’s History. URL= https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-company-scandals-and-controversies-2017-11?r=US&IR=T#october-2010-ubercab-receives-its-first-cease-and-desist-1.

[9]          Marr, B., 2018. Why Blockchain Could Kill Uber. Forbes, URL= https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/02/09/why-blockchain-could-kill-uber/#69e189924179.

[10]        Altcointradingsignal. UNDERSTANDING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY: FOR DUMMIES (2019 INFOGRAPHIC). URL= https://www.altcointradingsignal.com/understanding-blockchain-technology-2018-infographic/.

[11]        TheAnarchast. Arcade City: The Decentralized, Blockchain Based Uber Killer. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6dxHU3pvGE.

[12]        Teoh, E.R. and Kidd, D.G., 2017. Rage against the machine? Google’s self-driving cars versus human drivers. Journal of Safety Research 63(2017/12/01/), 57-60. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2017.08.008.

[13]        Eduard BP. Self Driving Cars Explained – Animated Infographic. URL= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWqDzoQH1yw.