Being familiar with modern technologies, you must have heard of Uberisation, a transition to an operational model where economic agents exchange under-utilised capacity of existing assets or human resources (typically through a website or software platform) while incurring only low transaction costs.

The term was introduced in 2014 by Nassim Taleb, a famous economist and stock trader who defined a new trend and gave it a short but very accurate definition – the elimination of intermediaries.

Eliminating Intermediaries

The idea of eliminating intermediaries from the process of communication between the buyer and the seller has acquired a new meaning in the era of information technologies.

Mobile devices along with universal accessibility of the Mobile Internet and cloud technologies make it possible to significantly improve the efficiency of work, largely by an increase in search and involvement of free performers or goods.

The main features of urbanization are:

• The absence of usual workers.
• Provision of services right in the client’s location and at convenient
• Involving non-professionals and freelancers.
• Socialization of services (ratings and assessments for employees and customers).

For sure, Uber is the most known and expensive among start-ups valued over $1 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal, the price of the company founded in 2009 is now over $50 billion. The model is simple and lies in establishing a connection between clients and free drivers.

How to Make an Uber Analog?

The infrastructure of Uber can be compared with Facebook or Google, meaning large data, dispatching systems, dynamic pricing, maps, routes and many other subsystems providing the delivery of the automobile at the right time and in the right place are standing behind a visual simplicity of the application.

Creating an Uber-like application is a very tough task, but it’s still possible. Let’s outline the basic must-haves to create a service connecting clients and customers.

• The system of data storage and processing (Uber operates on a free Hadoop platform, which ensures the application’s operation in real time). In it, you will store information about orders, users, performers, accounts, and everything that you need. The data is valuable by itself because it allows you to build models and forecasts.
  • Uber drivers continue to bring profit to the company even when they do not take the fare. The data that they transmit to the central platform allows you to understand the traffic patterns and therefore build algorithms for balancing supply and demand.
• Payment system. The simplest way to make money in an “uberized” economy is to earn on transactions between the buyer and the seller, and that’s why it is necessary that payments pass through you.
• Machine learning system for price management. As an owner of the platform, you will sooner or later face the need of flexible regulation of supply, demand, and prices. Uber changes prices in real time, attracting more drivers during peak hours and allowing them to rest during idle time.
• CRM-platform based on machine learning. There’ll always be dissatisfied customers, drivers, and fraud. Your platform should identify problems one they appear, as well as reveal the most problematic areas and report them before they grow into big problems. If the user is unhappy, he will never return! Involvement is the key to a successful and profitable future for any company.
• Mobile applications. In the world of mobile first, one can’t survive, having nothing except a mobile-friendly website, especially when it comes to a company that should work “here and now.”
• Cartography. Many of the features that made Uber so reliable, affordable and convenient are based on maps. “With the acquisition of deCarta, we will continue to sharpen our products and services and improve Uber for our users.”
• Machine vision system. You may not need to evaluate the quality of car washing or the presence of damage, but, most likely, you’ll want show users those photos that they like, like in Airbnb. That’s why you must understand what is depicted in the photos, as well as their quality and the reasons why some images are better than others.

We’ve touched only a small part of what you’ll need in your work and what is to be created. Fortunately, most of the platforms are open and delivered free of charge. You can also use third-party SaaS-systems, collecting your Uber from services as from cubes. In any case, you’ll need programmers and system operators to make the system work and teach it to do what you need.

Uber has done a great job over the last 3 years: the number of engineers increased in 30 times, from 40 to 1200! We can safely say that one of the leading IT companies in the world is focused on a simple idea of taking a client from point A to point B.

The post What One Should Know to Launch the Next Uber appeared first on Takis Athanassiou | Leadership Initiative.