The Arrow of Digital Disruption

In the fall of 2014, just after UberX launched in Toronto, I asked a cab driver what he thought of the on-demand ride-sharing service. Mishearing “Uber” he asked: “Super? What’s that?”

Fast forward to March 2016, and a different cab but the same question. This time, there was no mistaking Uber for anything else and my driver had plenty to say about it and why the city’s mayor was not stopping the company from destroying his livelihood: “John Tory’s wife owns shares in Uber, I’ve heard. That’s why he’s not doing anything to help us, the bastard!”

Conspiracy theories aside (Uber is not currently a publicly traded company), my cabbie’s anger is understandable. In the space of just 18 months, a new digital product had upended a well–established business and the regulatory regime on which it was based, and was now threatening the incomes of thousands of people, including him.

UberX is just one recent example of the changes in business models...