The business environment is slowly shifting; those who dared to come up with something new, something that never existed on the market before, something that is considered disruptive because it triggers massive changes, seems to be able to win the big prize. Because we are talking about “Uberization,” let us see where it all started.

You probably heard about Uber, the company that completely changed the way people get transportation around a city. The company’s idea became so popular that many people stopped using regular transportation, such as taxis. Why did this happen? Uber has come up with a solution to a critical issue in the transportation business. It provides available transport whenever and wherever a client needs it, using a mobile app.

While a taxi company may have a limited number of vehicles and have difficulties meeting the demand, especially during peak hours, Uber does not have this problem due to its extensive network of available drivers. Availability was the crucial aspect that this innovative company solved.

Still, what is Uber? What was the thing that brought innovation to this particular business niche? You see, Uber did not create a new product. It did not call a taxi company proposing a new app they could use in collaboration. No, Uber completely changed the business models used until that point. While it is true that clients still pay for the service from start to end, this part is the same as in any other case when transportation is involved, in some cases, Uber clients are even willing to pay bigger amounts than usual to make sure that they will have a car booked during peak hours, something else changed.

The client’s experience was the one that suffered the most significant change. Uber came up with a business innovation that made getting a ride something straightforward, available, and accessible. While the process is rather complex, involving geo-location through a person’s mobile phone, mobile payment solutions, driver management, booking, distribution, and others, all of these were made to fit one single and simple app that anyone can easily use. Thus, with just a few swipes over your smartphone’s screen, you can get a ride whenever you desire, hustle and headache-free.

It appears that the sharing economy was the answer to models of consumption and distribution that no longer meet the market’s changing demands. Clients are tired of paying intermediaries to get what they need. So, when the occasion arose for them to get the required product or service straight from the provider, with no intermediaries in between, enjoying availability around the clock, consumers did not hesitate to pay the price.

If we look at Uberization, we could contour a definition that includes a brand-new business model, top-notch technology, and a lack of intermediaries. It means to know your customer niche very well so that you notice their needs and requirements and what they wish to get shortly, and not be afraid to think outside the box to develop an innovative solution. Uberization means anticipating a disruption before it becomes disruptive and your business falls one step behind the competition. We need to look at what Uber brought to the current market, how customer experience changed, and learn from it.

The Uber business model involves others besides innovation and making changes in the used technology to make sure that distribution and consumption take place according to the latest standards. It also involves transparency. Both the client and driver can see the entire process on their side. The client can see the route track it, and find out the ETA or estimated arrival time. In turn, the driver can see the rating he or she receives through the app based on the services provided.

Also, let us not forget that the driver can give feedback concerning the client, encouraging both sides to adopt an ideal behavior for future collaborations through Uber. Another advantage of the business model adopted by Uber is that the drivers are not full-time employees, like in the case of a taxi company. They are their bosses and the only ones entitled to create a working schedule. Thus, the driver enjoys great flexibility, choosing when to work and how much time and effort he will invest in this activity. Of course, the earnings are proportional to the amount of time spent working, so it depends on each person’s personal goals and preferences.

The online marketplace also plays a vital role in this world that is already managed to such a great degree by technology. If your business is not part of it, being a noticeable presence, it would be like it never existed. As business owners, we must embrace the fact that almost everything occurs online first. People use their mobile devices to search for products and services they might be interested in, so you need to be there to make an adequate offer if you want your business to succeed.

Concerning how you can best do that, you have a wide range of tools and strategies that will help you leverage technology and the online environment in the favor of your business. Getting back to Uberization, let us see just how far it can go and how it can shift the present economy. Well, since it is a new word derived from the Uber business model, it is easy to tell that this new wave is not about to stop now. An Uber-style disruption is expected to change the entire market and economy, stimulated by the revolutionary ideas that propelled Uber from a start-up to a worldwide network and brand in the blink of an eye.

We may soon witness the Uberization of freight, where intermediaries disappear, allowing the end consumer to contact the leading provider to get the desired products. This is already happening if we think about it, as the Internet and technology raised the boundaries of trading, customers being able to purchase products from around the world, straight from the manufacturers and even custom-made according to their specific requirements.

Will it be possible to see the Uberization of healthcare? We are not that far from it either, as healthcare services become increasingly available anytime people need them and wherever they may be, without the need to leave home late at night and skip work and face infernal traffic to reach a doctor’s office. The Uberization of the workforce is another aspect that is becoming increasingly prominent in the market. Many companies realized that it is more cost and time-efficient to outsource, hire freelancers, or collaborate with various companies and agencies worldwide based on specific projects, paying only for the work they need to get done. Practically, a company can hire the talent it needs, when it needs it, for the particular task it needs, and within a budget that is considered appropriate. It is much better than having a full-time employee in such cases.

How about the Uberization of payments? It appears that in-app payments, which mean that you pay for the desired services and products with the help of an app, are much more secure than card-present payments because it is much more difficult to fraud such a transaction. Mobile wallets and apps that allow making payments are on the rise, and some of the most well-known companies worldwide are already launching such options for their clients. It is much more convenient to pay this way rather than to carry cash or a card on you, risking becoming the victim of a pocket picker or card fraud.

What if you could take care of your bank-related issues using your smartphone? Uberization of banking will cover this aspect shortly, becoming more focused on customer needs and utilizing technology to reach clients and answer their requests. No one wishes to be called by a bank representative anymore to find out about the latest banking services or sit in offices to hear someone blabbering about financial services. These two scenarios don’t fit today’s reality and will cause banks to lose clients if they don’t change their tactics.

Understanding that change is a positive aspect and looking closely at the present trends will show that a new direction is slowly shaping the modern economy. Banks will have to be able to deliver solutions and financial services at the mere touch of a smartphone whenever the client requests them. Many banks are becoming aware of this and exploiting this new trend, slowly moving from the traditional bank image to a bank more equipped to meet the future.

We do not want to lie to you; once Uberization bursts into society, we have to think that all the technical advantages you get will have to be paid for in another way. The are controversy about what happens with the workers rights, in other words, if we achieve technology solutions that do better choices than the traditional ones, someone in the middle has to lose something.

It is demonstrated that the more a new economic paradigm grows, the less labor equality happens. More than labor equality, here we are talking about the amount of payment received in equal conditions. Uber, Deliveroo, and so on drastically reduce the salary of the “collaborators” to achieve their low-cost strategies.

For the time being, these new actors represent a small percentage of the gross domestic product in the real economy. More than the actual impact, we have to look for the trend. The fact is that this kind of service is growing exponentially instead of linearly. 

We face a future where we need to think about the Universal Income, the same technologies that cut of prices and salaries at the same time, has to provide a guarantee wellness for every citizen. The reality is that we are living through transformational changes that will shape future economies.

Concerning the “Uberization” of banking, we have to look back and think that for the past ten years we have been thinking about the role of technology in global and local economies towards what is emerging as a new digital economy.

Prior, the banking system was born to intermediate between the money an individual lends to the bank and the individual requesting a loan to finance a company. The reality is far from the first principle of organization. You create money out of thin air, lend it to high interests, and increase the market price. This system is called FIAT Money and the origin of the eleventh century in China, which is based largely on fossil fuel, which is not only limited to contaminates but also accumulating debt as a livelihood.

We do not want to convey a message that can be interpreted contrary to what we call “system”; if not, what this article pretends to analyze is the current system without labeling it old labels on capitalism, socialism, communism, etc. The aim is to be pro-system, trying to interpret current socio-economic policies about new socio-technological trends. See the point of connection between present and future and understand that more than policies or systems, the truly interesting of these new times are the new ways of organizing among people, using technology as a tool and people.

The classical economy (late eighteenth and early nineteenth century) can be considered a good system of organization in a market free of opportunities, in which the individual’s personal autonomy acquires more value than intervention in the state. Combined with the new technologies, you can reach an unprecedented level of global wealth, where your resources will be the cornerstone, rather than de-economizing the resources you do not have.

The latest digital banking products and services that look modern are based on classic economics principles. The so-called digital transformation, which means a full-fledged revolution, recovers the fundamental values ?? of the classical economic school.

Starting from a blocking situation in which cash does not circulate and the level of indebtedness equals or exceeds GDP in most cases and in which Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and so on. Generate “wealth” through fictitious products that generate a toxic, unpredictable, deregulated and chaotic value, the most sensible would be to lay the foundations of a new economy based on the resources available on the planet, coupled with a digitization process. The Internet of Things can significantly help estimate what you have and optimize what you consume.

The map below shows the debt-to-GDP (GDP) ratio. In this new digital environment, we would ask whether GDP could be considered a valid indicator.

The mistake comes when we think we are in a capitalist economic system that does not exist as such. We are in a hybrid between a system of Plutocratic government in which an oligarchy is created favorable to 1% of the world population, combined with a socialist system in which the banks are rescued by the governments that represent the societies and in which they apply downward their interpretation of what should not be a favorable capitalism over resources that do not have and applying interest on an unreal debt.

This gift is wrapped in what was 100 years ago the great novelty of the neoliberal economic current, in which all power and economic regularization were ceded to the centralized state.

Against this background, the new digital native companies and citizens are having “techno-logical” reactions that mix classic economic and sociological behaviors with unprecedented technical, decentralized capacity and connectivity and solve fundamental issues that the current model should cover.

In the new digital ecosystem we move to P2P lending structures, online investment systems, crowfounding, payments and digital transactions, personalized banking, data analysis, etc. New options based on mobility and agility. The table below shows a summary of the latest market players.

The objective is clear: This new economy tries to avoid unnecessary intermediaries that inflate prices or, rather, to change old intermediaries, reducing commissions and increasing profit interest rates. Streamlining cash flow and constituting new ways of organization for the distribution of capital and wealth, it focuses on democratizing investment access by working the micro account model.

To sum up, improving and updating the traditional banking model with its products and services, which has not been renewed in centuries, looks sideways, suspicious, and late to unprecedented technological and exponential developments that create a new economic world connected and endless possibilities.

The new investment models follow or replicate technical patterns on which the Internet has been built but at another conceptual level and with other applications, free open source platforms, P2P (peer to peer), and, ultimately, the rupture of structures vertical, fixed, and centralized models to decentralized and distributed horizontal, multinode models.

The proliferation of the sharing economy is positioning new economies based on B2B (business to business) such as Salesforce and P2P (peer to peer) such as BlaBlaCar or Airbnb, it could happen that capital investments will be generated between these models. That one company invests in another is not new, and that one individual invests in another. This is how the Chinese work, they do not ask for loans to banks, they ask for credits among themselves.

That is, your bank savings fall within a circuit of the stock market, in which the bank invests for you at a minimum profitability. If you take control and risk in the stock market, you can get more profitability or ruin traditional markets, but there are already implanted P2P models in which individual people invest directly in people, with an intermediary website, increasing the return on investment and minimizing the risk.