Sense and logic prevails
I am getting a bit fed up with what I tend to see as "tech washing" or "app dazzle".
If you are using online technology to simply streamline an existing business and shake up an established market without really providing anything new, it is not a new business.
Other than a change of medium of communication and payment, I don't really see any difference between booking through an app with GPS location, using a phone and a radio cab office or using a telegram, a carrier pigeon and a chequebook and quill for payment. You don't get to just not be regulated because you're an app-based service.
I am also getting a bit sick of this 'gig economy' thing. It's piece work / freelance work and it's incredibly bad for society to start dismantling regular employment, deconstructing what it is and turning people over to what are effectively even worse than zero-hour contracts. The cab business has generally always been a bit like that, but I see other online companies pushing it out in other sectors.
There are tech companies out there who've pioneered entirely new business niches that haven't existed before, but there are plenty that are just shaking up existing markets with an app / website.
People need to start looking beyond the hype and finding the radical innovators that are really creating new markets.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
