Author: Robin Chu
How Uber made taxis attractive again and how it will tap into the sharing economy – Business model revolution
Uber’s growth history In 2009, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp founded Uber, the app that has revolutionized the taxi and personal mobility industry. Uber is currently active in 68 countries and is planning further global expansion (Uber, 2015). Uber’s value proposition has hit the traditional taxi industry at its core. On Christmas Eve in 2015, …
How Alibaba is able to capture nearly all Chinese shoppers
Alibaba’s growth history Alibaba Group was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, a former English teacher from Hangzhou (China), and started out as an online marketplace enabling small enterprises to compete on a national and global scale (Alibaba group, 2015). Through Alibaba.com, companies seeking products are enabled to connect with manufacturers all over the world …
How Spotify surfed the disruptive waves in the music industry
Spotify’s growth history From 1973 until 1981, music on vinyl dominated the market in terms of revenues (see figure 1). From the 80s on, the cassette soon took over as the key choice of format for music but was soon overtaken by compact discs in 1990. With these three media carriers, the music industry boomed …
Fascinating graphics show who owns all the major brands in the world
Why so many corporate innovations fail
The era of wearables is afoot with introduction of many wearable devices like Apple’s iWatch. However, there are countless innovations that never see the light of day or never hit their stride in the market. Inventor’s dilemma: Go-to-market strategy lessons learned from a rendezvous with a designer Hong Kong 2007 – Product designers setup their …
How Airbnb is disrupting the hotel industry
Airbnb’s growth history Airbnb was conceived in 2007 when founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia found themselves unable to afford rent (Crook & Escher, 2015). They decided to set up three airbeds to rent out to lodgers (thus the original name of the company, Airbed and Breakfast). After significant struggles to raise funds, Airbnb grew …
Why so many corporate innovations fail
The era of wearables is afoot with introduction of many wearable devices like Apple’s iWatch. However, there are countless innovations that never see the light of day or never hit their stride in the market. Inventor’s dilemma: Go-to-market strategy lessons learned from a rendezvous with a designer Hong Kong 2007 – Product designers setup their …
Why Apple offers 300% ‘more’ iPhone for only 12,5% higher price
With each introduction of new iPhones, loyal Apple users pack their sleeping bags, and ready themselves to attend the annual storefront line-up in order to get their hands on the new phones. Regardless of what you may think of the quality of the iPhone, Apple has always been remarkable in their clarity of pricing. Notice …
Why IKEA’s breakfast is so cheap
A croissant, a bun, cheese, ham, boiled egg, marmalade and a coffee for just € 1. This almost audaciously low price for breakfast has caused traffic jams at the highway exit for an IKEA outlet in the Netherlands. Some may argue that some of these meal prices are below cost price, thus IKEA might be …