I’m not a fan of the buzzword “disruption”. Or, to be more accurate, I am no longer a fan. I am of the opinion that it has been overused of late to the point of becoming largely meaningless. In the last few years, it seems that everything and anything has been declared disruptive by an overzealous marketing copywriter somewhere.
That’s not to say that I reject the concept (more below). Of course not. But when you start to talk about disrupting your own business before you are disrupted, we may have reached peak disruption saturation. Nonetheless, and against my better judgment, I am going to spend the next few paragraphs talking about disrupting the disrupters, and using the word far, far too often.
The disrupters interrupt, intrude or upset something such as a business model or sector. Their interjection shakes things up, destabilising and sometimes eclipsing the more established players. So, the now-classic example is “Uber disrupts the taxi industry”. Taxi companies were going about their business, doing the things they always did — to varying degrees of success — and suddenly there was Uber, with its newfangled technology and its jaunty little app that messed everything up. It offered a solution when most taxi operators didn’t even know there was a problem, which left old school providers yelling “you children get off my lawn” at the back of a swiftly disappearing Prius.
Now there are many debates we can have about Uber; there are controversies over its treatment of contractors, its legality in various countries, the notion of the gig economy and its effect on the labour landscape, and so on. But putting that aside for a moment, it is clearly a big winner in the disruption game. So much so that — such as Google and others before it — the company’s name has taken on a meaning of its own. It’s a brand, yes, but also a word. Unfortunately for the likes of Bolt and Lyft, we are pretty comfortable saying “I’ll Uber home afterwards”, no matter which service you’re actually using. And we quite happily talk about the “Uberisation” of the hospitality industry by Airbnb.
But the disrupter is not immune to becoming a disruptee. Skype shook up the telecom space back in its day. Remember when “skyping” basically meant voice and video calling? I suspect that in a post-corona world we’ll all be promising to “zoom” with grandma on Sunday instead. And, as we have vividly seen in 2020, disruption isn’t the sole domain of smart start-ups and innovative technology. In the past few months, Uber has seen a marked and rapid decline because everyone’s hiding from “The Rona”. Last month, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told investors that in some locations Uber saw a 60%-70% decrease in volume of rides. The share price fell (and then recovered a bit), and there has been talk of the need to make potentially huge job cuts in the company.
The world is suddenly a lot less keen on shared rides, public spaces and close quarters, and we’re all a little concerned with the unknown sticking power of a determined little virus on surfaces such as door handles and car leather. And with global tourism deflating like a balloon as a result of the pandemic, Airbnb is also licking its wounds — CNBC and The Information report that the company may have to sack some 1,900 employees, 25% of its workforce.
Will these companies survive coronavirus? Probably. They’re already at pains to calm investors and map a route to recovery. I hope so, for their direct employees’ sake and for all those that use these platforms to make a living. But it is fascinating to see them, to chart the volatility, and to consider that these companies that have been held up as the iconic form of disrupters suddenly find themselves sidelined and sharing a bench with oil in a move that no-one saw coming.
Postscript: Though we’re in the midst of this particular virus-induced crisis, and the ramifications thereof are just beginning to be quantified and understood, it might be heartening to note that this kind of profound strife is often the seed of innovation, the necessary conditions for revolution and evolution. Airbnb and Uber are two of those that saw their start in the wake of 2007/2008 financial crisis; Venmo too, and Pinterest, Whatsapp and Instagram.
• Thompson Ferreira is a freelance journalist, impactAFRICA fellow, and WanaData member.
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