Uber

Disrupting the business of…breakups?

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Via: Forbes

Some of the fastest growing tech companies these days, the ones that have become darlings of Wall Street, are known as ‘disruptors’. What exactly does that mean, though?

It’s pretty straightforward, actually. When a company is commonly referred to as a disruptor, they are, quite literally, disrupting the industry in which they reside. For instance, Air BnB is a disruptor within the hospitality industry, flipping the traditional hotel business model on its head (although there is now speculation that that company will affect online travel booking sites like Travelocity more than it will hotels). Another disruptor example, and perhaps the best known? Uber. While that company has been criticized recently by some well-known investors as little more than an overvalued app, it is inarguable that Uber has had a huge effect on, has ‘disrupted’, if you will, the taxi cab industry. The sheer amount of resistance those companies receive from lobbyists and governments at both the local and more national levels is evidence enough of their disruptor status.

However, a new company, the aptly named ‘The Breakup Shop’, is looking to disrupt an entirely new, previously untapped industry; the break up.

A new ad from The Break Up Shop (Via Newser)

While the idea might seem silly, or even somewhat mean-spirited at first glance, there might be some substance there, some are now saying. Certainly, break ups are a wide reaching problem. And further more, there must be a portion of the population who finds the whole situation so uncomfortable, so unpleasant; that they might forsake good manners, societal norms, and invoke the chagrin of their friends and family to employ this company that will end their whole relationship situation for them.

In fact, the site’s potential appeal goes even further than that. In a recent round of marketing, they raised the question of what’s worse than being dumped via a brief call, or even worse, a text? Well, The Break Up shop offers multiple levels of courtesy when they do the breaking up for you. A slight price increase over their base break up model includes a nice card, and even pricier versions include coping mechanisms like a copy of the Notebook or Call of Duty.

And while we’re not the first site to reach this conclusion, it is a logical one; The Breakup Shop is hardly the first enterprise seeking to profit off of heartbreak. And you need look no further than Taylor Swift’s career for an example of that. Perhaps the business of heartbreak is an industry ready for some disruption, after all.

What is the ‘Sharing Economy’- and how will it affect industry, workers?

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Via: Source

Hilary Clinton made waves on Monday morning when she effectively called out the major players in the ‘sharing economy’; a new business model that uses contract labor, instead of traditional employees, to fulfill their services. The implications of this seemingly small legal distinction can be massive. The classic examples of the new ‘sharing economy’ companies are Uber and Air Bnb. In light of the varying press the undoubtedly massive, innovative companies have been amassing in recent days and weeks; we wanted to take a look at what this trend could mean on a macro level as we head into the future.

Uber and Air Bnb are fascinating companies for a number of reasons. Globally speaking, Uber is now one of the largest, private transportation companies that there is. But they own not a single car. And similarly, thousands of people now book rooms and houses across the globe via the Air Bnb app, yet they own not a single piece of property. And that distinction is far from the only one differentiating them from conventional companies.

They both use contract labor forces outside of their corporate headquarters. I.e., the Uber driver that picks you up is not a benefitted employee who works exclusively for Uber, as a cab driver for a traditional cab company would be. That Uber driver is a contract-employee, only working when they want to, but also not receiving any benefits that a traditional employee earns, like healthcare or retirement savings. Now, if you’re a college kid looking to earn a little extra money by renting out your room, or by driving people around in your car, this arrangement is perfectly fine.

Where it theoretically becomes dangerous is if these companies serve as a kind of starting point; rolling the metaphorical snowball down the hill towards a point where we are ALL contract employees, responsible for our own healthcare and retirement savings. This would represent a potentially dangerous step if it became the norm. What do you think? Is the sharing economy a slippery slope? Or is a it a non-issue, being used by politicians to garner attention for themselves? Let us know in the comments.