The report found that a combination of driver incentives, flexible working hours and new business models will draw in more drivers for these companies.
Whilst Uber has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China, largely due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi, Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new markets.
Research author Lauren Foye added, “Uber has reportedly spent $1bn per year on expansion in China alone. In addition, it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand, displaying willingness and drive to aggressively obtain market share.”
Uber’s February announcement that it is to launch its UberMOTO service in India, opens it to an enormous potential market - the city of Bangalore alone has 3.5 million registered motorbikes and India already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states.
Additionally, the research found that the sharing economy is set to branch into more markets and industries, with the most notable instance being the impact on manufacturing. Shared services in this industry will aid in drawing manufacturing back to western economies; that typically outsource such operations to the Far East and Asia Pacific.
Shared manufacturing, through the concept of collaborative innovation, alongside technologically advanced workshops such as ‘TechShop’, has the potential to reduce production times for prototypes and concepts, whilst aiding in the scaling-up of production projects designed by young start-up businesses.
The whitepaper, ‘Sharing Economy ~ Uber Disruptive’, is available to download from the Juniper Research website together with details of the new research and interactive dataset.
