MIS500 - Report: Analyzing the Next Uber/Taxi Paradigm Shift

This report critically analyzes the impact of disruptive companies like Uber, Lyft, and Ola on the taxi industry, focusing on the emergence of new business models driven by information systems. The essay examines the shift in consumer behavior, the significance of mobile applications, and the challenges and opportunities presented by these changes. It discusses how the private taxi services have impacted both the public taxi services and the mobile device and application development industries. The report highlights the importance of adapting to the needs of diverse customer demographics, including those with older mobile devices and slower internet connections, and the development of solutions like Uber Lite and Ola Lite. The essay also explores the concept of a 'paradigm' in the context of business, demonstrating how these companies have reshaped the industry and influenced other sectors, particularly software development. It concludes by emphasizing the broader implications of these developments, underscoring the need for continuous innovation to meet evolving market demands.

Running head: ESSAY
Topic 2 - What is the next Uber/Taxi paradigm?
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ESSAY
Introduction
The taxi market all over the world has changed ever since the inclusion of the private
taxi services with software applications and online facilities have emerged atop the public
taxi services. The convenience, safety and real time support that these private taxi services
like Ola, Uber and others have been promoting and providing the people all around the world
has separated the consumer markets into two distinct groups (Heikkilä & Heikkilä, 2019).
These would be the one group that consists of the millennials and has a solid proficiency over
the utilization of the mobile devices and the other has been the group that is not that expert
for using the mobile applications. This is why, it can easily be said that the features and
amenities that the private taxi services like Ola, Uber and others have been providing, is not
only impacting upon just the public taxi service industry but also the mobile device and
application development industry (Kashyap & Bhatia, 2018). The manufacturing of mobile
phones and the impact of taxi services like Ola, Uber and others would be critically evaluated
with evidence-based discussions and knowledge understanding of the key concepts, based on
the development of this essay.
Evidence based discussion and critical analysis
The different areas of mobile device manufacturing have seen the evidences based
upon the boost in the market and the necessities of the people. The customers and their
requirements have been increasing rapidly and even changing rapidly at every instance, while
boosting the necessity of the mobile device manufacturers to randomly enhance the features
in the previous devices and be up to date with the necessary requirements of the customers
along with the technological advancements (Dawes, 2016). Contrary to that, there has been
another set of customer base with is not technology savvy enough but due to the peer
environment and necessities all around, have become susceptible to the use of mobile

2ESSAY
devices. These set of customers and consumers understand the favourable conditions that the
public taxi services put use for them, but they are not technologically aided for utilizing the
full activities of these services (Guo et al., 2019). This is because, the complex structure of
the applications, owing to the technological advancements and the enhanced features have
been barring them from using the applications for their own use.
This is why, the software application development for the mobile device
manufacturing are thinking about the latest paradigm that can be brought about for these
applications, keeping in mind about the customer base. The statistical data about Uber clearly
specifies that it has already become a giant organization where the entire world contributes to
almost 75 million rides within a month (Hazelbaker, 2018). However, the demographic has
been representing the fact that the total utilization of the Uber apps is mostly being used by
the millennial generation.
The trends in the mobile device market has specifically noticed that the mobile
manufacturing market is randomly bringing in new devices on to the market and the people
around the world, mostly the millennial generation, are buying them. The needs of the
customers for having a technologically advanced mobile device is making such random
changes in the market. However, the older generation are not found to be much keen on
replacing older mobile devices with new ones as they are reportedly too complex for their
use. This stunts the developmental growth of the organization and this is why, they are tyring
to put on their new paradigm about rethinking the application device to be working on oldest
mobile devices with the age-old 2G or 3G connectivity to the internet.
As per the reports, the head of rider experience in Uber, Mr. Peter Deng and his team
has implemented the utility of survey for collecting information about what people of all ages
have been thinking about the utility of the mobile applications (Barbour & Luiz, 2019). To

3ESSAY
this, the users, mostly the people with older mobile devices and slower connections have
reported their difficulties on using the application feasibly on these devices. Thus, the next
Uber paradigm began with Uber Lite, such has been the paradigm for Ola represented
through Ola Lite. This android application for Uber takes about 5 megabytes of the total
device space and has a response time of about 300 milliseconds (Kashyap & Bhatia, 2018).
The response time works even for 2G network with sluggish connections. One the contrary,
that of Ola is just 1 megabyte. The full potential of these applications would be justified with
this paradigm, when people from all demographics would be able to access the application, at
the same time impacting upon the IT industry for software development.
The Google PlayStore developers have already claimed that the launch of both these
applications have already had numerous downloads already surpassing millions of users. The
IT industry have been hugely benefitted by this paradigm.
Knowledge and understanding of key concepts
The first and foremost understanding was about the concept of a paradigm. As per the
literal meaning of the term, it is a pattern. However, the business paradigm elaborates how
the private taxi services of Ola, Uber and others have designed new models impacting on
their own business and the other industries (Chakravorti, 2018). The key concept that
emerges out of this understanding is about how a business paradigm has infiltrations or inputs
from other industries and how with these concepts impact on these industries too.
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion, it can be said that other than the current known paradigm
about the private taxi services of Uber, Ola and other available organizations have already
impacted upon the public taxi services, the services have also impacted well on the software
development industry. The complexity of the software was previously halting the

4ESSAY
development of the organization because of the people with old mobile devices and slow
internet connectivity. However, now the paradigm to develop the Uber and Ola Lite
applications with minimum space and the ability to be accessed with older devices and slow
internet connectivity makes the paradigm impact well of the software developers as well as
market gathering at the same time.

5ESSAY
References
Barbour, O., & Luiz, J. (2019). Embracing Solutions-Driven Innovation to Address
Institutional Voids: The Case of Uber and the Middle of the Pyramid. California
Management Review, 62(1), 31-52.
Chakravorti, S. (2018, June). Start-ups–Founders Cardinal Rules. In International
Conference on Smart Electric Drives and Power System was held on (Vol. 12, p. 13).
Dawes, M. (2016). Perspectives on the Ridesourcing Revolution: Surveying individual
attitudes toward Uber and Lyft to inform urban transportation
policymaking (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Guo, P., Tang, C. S., Tang, Y., & Wang, Y. (2018). Gender-based operational issues arising
from on-demand ride-hailing platforms: Safety concerns, service systems, and pricing
and wage policy. Service Systems, and Pricing and Wage Policy (September 28,
2018).
Hazelbaker, J. (2018). Global Technology Powered by Real People in Local
Communities. Harvard International Review, 39(4), 22-25.
Heikkilä, J., & Heikkilä, M. (2019). Global service platforms in local markets: case taxi
services.
Kashyap, R., & Bhatia, A. (2018). Taxi drivers and taxidars: a case study of Uber and Ola in
Delhi. Journal of Developing Societies, 34(2), 169-194.