Innovation plays a crucial role in economic growth, and entrepreneurship is the means for introducing new technologies to increase a company’s productivity and profitability. Many companies that have leveraged innovation have seen immense growth as they have managed to increase their customer base and profits (Hill, 2021). Uber is a perfect example of a company that has leveraged innovation and entrepreneurship to expand its customer base, thus, creating a competitive edge. Uber’s strategy of allowing people to order cabs using a smartphone application can be considered innovative as it was the first company to venture into online delivery and pickup in the transportation mobility industry.
Uber Technologies, Inc. devised a means to maximize efficiency and enrich the travel experience for its customers. Consequently, this American company has changed the transportation industry entirely. Beginning as a dominant force in the taxi industry, Uber has now expanded into food delivery, small-scale transportation networks, and ride-sharing (Li et al., 2022). According to a poll conducted between 2017 and 2020, Uber has a massive user base of more than 93 million monthly active users (Statista Research Department, 2021). With consumers’ regular travel demands in mind, the business developed a product that would make their trips more productive, comfortable, and accessible. Due to its increasing popularity, it has become the go-to option for many commuters.
To improve Uber’s operations, one particular innovation I would suggest is Uber for school kids. A subset of the conventional Uber service would be a program that allows parents to select time windows during which a driver will pick up their child from school. This would be a branch off of the typical Uber service. In the same vein as the normal Uber app, the Uber for Kids app will allow parents to view photographs of the drivers’ faces and access their contact information. To reduce the likelihood of the child experiencing any issues, the parents will have the ability to pay for the services in advance. This will mostly be for metropolitan areas, while it will also be offered for suburban locations. It would be a good step toward offering services that are accessible to everyone if the younger population, defined as people younger than 18 years old, could use this app.
The international impact of my proposal for Uber to introduce Uber for Kids is that it would introduce a new revenue source from a neglected market segment. With the Uber for Kids subset, customers would benefit through increased safety and conscience for their children. Uber could classify this pickup option as specialized, hence finding a way to match its price with its status. Uber for Kids would imply that the driver would play the role of a caretaker to the child, hence would justify charging a premium for this ride.
Uber’s indulgence in innovation and entrepreneurship has seen it grow incredibly to become one of the top companies in transportation mobility as a service. While the transportation mobility industry has had new entrants such as Bolt, Uber still maintains a competitive advantage. Even though Uber has consistently shown its interest in innovation, it is yet to fully meet its objectives of providing the most efficient transportation mobility services. Nonetheless, Uber’s idea of using smartphones to order rides remains significant innovation, which other companies have also built on to realize growth.
References
Hill, C. W. L., (2021). International business: Competing in the global marketplace, (13th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Ho, C. Q., Hensher, D. A., Mulley, C., & Wong, Y. Z. (2018). Potential uptake and willingness-to-pay for Mobility as a Service (MaaS): A stated choice study. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 117, 302-318.
Li, W., Shibasaki, R., Zhang, H., & Chen, J. (2022). MaaS system development and APPs. In Big data and mobility as a service, 1-24. Elsevier.
Statista Research Department (2021) Monthly users of Uber’s ride-sharing app worldwide 2017-2020. Statista. Web.