The Uber-all economy of the future

The poster child for the economy of the future is Uber, the much ballyhooed (and much booed) on-demand mobile service for transportation. It’s more than transportation, though. Every nook and cranny of the consumer economy is being “Uberized” by a business model that twins personal services with technology. Not only does this business model fit the competitive opportunities of today’s marketplace, but it also dovetails seamlessly with the larger dynamics shaping tomorrow’s marketplace. What’s ahead is a shift in the dominant business model, one in which all consumer goods will be available as a service and all consumer services will be available on demand. This is the Uber-All Economy of the future. As on-demand mobile services become the dominant business model, a number of other things will spin out of this transformation. Investors and entrepreneurs will focus more attention on existing assets and infrastructure. Owners of existing assets will benefit from new income streams, but less in the form of traditional rents and more in the form of shared profits from greater utilization.