This is an era of instant-gratification. An era where if you forgot the name of that-guy-who-starred-in-that-movie-that-one-time, a quick bit of googling on a smartphone will bring results in seconds. No longer than a minute. An era where you can Shazam a song to find out who performed it, who produced it, what year it came out, and more. An era where you have unlimited entertainment with the likes of YouTube and Netflix available on mobile devices.
So it comes to no surprise that, in light of the ever-evolving economy, our economic needs are shifting as well.
For the last year or so, Uber has made titanic waves with how quickly it has grown. In a matter of years, it has become a household name and a frequent topic of choice in the media. When you break it down, Uber is just a souped-up taxi service. And there have been apps that have been made that connect customers to livery services. So why has Uber become such a colossal success?
Need.
Not only is this an era of instant-gratification, it’s an era of need. The best business is one that supplies a demand. The bigger the demand, the greater the need for a supply, and the greater the reward for those who deliver it. We have apps that serve all kinds of purposes, but the ones the services that succeed best are the ones that fit the new paradigms of 21st century living.
Uber’s biggest suggest isn’t just that it supplies quick cab service to customers in need, but that it also supplies jobs to a wide range of laborers looking to survive in what is still a brutal economy.
According to an article from Inc.com, Uber’s largest group of drivers are part-timers, people who are more likely to be seek a flexible earning opportunity. Of this group, 75% of the drivers available use Uber to complement their other jobs, and of all drivers, 71% have dependents at home that need care. So Uber is filling two voids in the economy, allowing everyday schmoes to become contracted drivers who quality and future employment is largely determined by the quality provided to customers.
The benefit of this kind of business is that it could be the best way to solve the issue about our current work situation. Economists and futurists have debated how long our economy can survive the way it is. Things have changed drastically over a relatively short time. What worked for decades prior have had less of a chance of working in the future, especially considering the use of machines and computers to increase efficiency in the workplace even at the cost of jobs. Businesses and whole industries have faced large changes, and some have simply collapsed. So what are people going to do about earning a living when there are no good jobs left? Slumming it at minimum wage in retail or food services for eight hours or more, when you have a master’s degree worth of thousands of dollars in loans and debt, won’t cut it for most individuals in the country.
But with apps that provide services that cater to your various needs, a new economy can arise that allows ordinary people to be Jack-of-all-trades. Malleable workers who can shape their schedule to their needs just like customers sets their preferences to their needs. Gone are the days of a set eight hour shift. Instead, more and more people can become something not unlike freelancers, working on the go on a variety of projects as necessary while earning good pay.
There’s a service called Doordash that employs dashers who can deliver anything ordered within a short time. There’s Blue Apron, which–depending on your choice of meal–delivers the exact amount of ingredients needed so that food is never wasted. There are shave kits that send you exactly the kind of razors you want periodically. There’s Loot Crate, which delivers fun, random geek items to your door once a month. And there’s so much more.
So what if more businesses–especially small personalized services like the ones mentioned above–had this model? A workforce that can interchange on a whim, that can provide quality services at any time of day, that can provide a decent extra wage to people in need? In a society where the likes of driver-less vehicles, drone deliveries of small items and mechanized workers performing industrial duties, it may be the small, personal, creative and unique services that allow the laborers to continue to survive in the economy.