Name: Hoang Trung Kien

Student’s ID: 11182455

Chapter 1: Globalization

Closing case: “Uber: Going global from Day one”

1. Companies like Uber, Lyft (one of Uber’s main competitors), and Airbnb (an online
market place that enables to lease or rent short-term lodging) are innovating in fields that
traditionnally have been very complex and regulated. Can Uber’s business model be
applied in other industries globally?

All the companies belong to the sharing economy which is an economic model defined as peer-
to-peer (P2P) based activity of acquiring, providing or sharing access to goods and services that
is often created by a company-based online platform. Now there are many industries can apply
this kind of business such as
- Co-working space: Companies that provide shared open work spaces for freelancers,
entrepreneurs or work-from-home employees in urban areas.
- Fashion: Sites that allow for individuals to sell or rent their clothes.
- Freelancing platform: Sites that offer to match freelancer across a wide spectrum ranging
from traditional work to services traditionally reserved to handymen.

2. Are cities around the world doing a disservice to their citizens or their visitors, or both,
by banning Uber outright from operating in their community?

No, cities around the world are trying to create new laws to control these businesses because it is
the new kind of the economy and cities authorities are trying to go throught with this. In
Vietnam, Grab or Airbnb are allowed to operate in Vietnamese community.

3. Uber’s strategy has been to break these regulations, establishing its services first, and
then fighting attempts by regulators to shut the service down. This goes along with the old
saying that “do first, ask questions later”. Is this business approach viable globally in the
long-run.

Yes, it is. Because with the fast development of society. We need to have solutions to do the easy
tasks in life with short time and all the businesses will help us dealing with this short tasks such
as hotel bookings or trip booking. Moreover, in the long-run there will be many competitors in
this industry and soon this industry will become mature enough to be recognized by all these
people. Moreover, this sharing economy can bring us the clarity in the price of services which no
industries can bring us before.