BIM, Meet Gertrude!

6

October

2020

Gertrude enjoying a well deserved drink during her performance. 

In August 2020, famous tech entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed his latest technological project: a pig called Gertrude. On first sight, Gertrude looks like an ordinary Pig. She seems healthy, curious, and eager to taste some delicious snacks. When looking at her, it is hard to imagine how she managed to get one of the world’s most radical and well known tech entrepreneurs so excited. Gertrude just seems normal.

This is exactly the point!

ElonMuskGotcha

Elon Musk “Gotcha”

Gertrude is no ordinary pig. She has been surgically implanted with a brain-monitoring chip, Link V0.9, created by one of Elon Musk’s latest start-ups named Neuralink.

Neuralink was founded in 2016, by Elon Musk and several neuroscientists. The short term goal of the company is to create devices to treat serious brain diseases and overcome damaged nervous systems. Our brain is made up of 86 billion neurons: nerve cells which send and receive information through electrical signals. According to Neuralink, your brain is like electric wiring. Rather than having neurons send electrical signals, these signals could be send and received by a wireless Neuralink chip.

To simplify: Link is a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires

The presentation in August was intended to display that the current version of the Link chip works and has no visible side-effects for its user. The user, in this case Gertrude, behaves and acts like she would without it. The chip is designed to be planted directly into the brain by a surgical robot. Getting a Link would be a same day surgery which could take less than an hour. This creates opportunities for Neuralink to go to the next stage: the first human implantation. Elon Musk expressed that the company is preparing for this step, which will take place after further safety testing and receiving the required approvals.

The long term goal of the Neuralink is even more ambitious: human enhancement through merging the human brain with AI. The system could help people store memories, or download their mind into robotic bodies. An almost science-fictional idea, fuelled by Elon Musk’s fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Already in 2014, Musk called AI “the biggest existential threat to humanity”. He fears, that with the current development rate, AI will soon reach the singularity: the point where AI has reached intelligence levels substantially greater than that of the human brain and technological growth has become uncontrollable and irreversible, causing unforeseeable effects to human civilization. Hollywood has given us examples of this with The Matrix and Terminator. With the strategy of “if you cannot beat them, join them”, Elon Musk sees the innovation done by Neuralink as an answer to this (hypothetical) catastrophical point in time. By allowing human brains to merge with AI, Elon Musk wants to vastly increase the capabilities of humankind and prevent human extinction.

Singularity
Man versus Machine

So, will we all soon have Link like chips in our brains while we await the AI-apocalypse?

Probably not. Currently, the Link V0.9 only covers data collected from a small number of neurons in a coin size part of the cortex. With regards to Gertrude, Neuralink’s pig whom we met earlier in this article, this means being able to wirelessly monitor her brain activity in a part of the brain linked to the nerves in her snout. When Gertrude’s snout is touched, the Neuralink system can registers the neural spikes produced by the neurons firing electronical signals. However, in contrast: major human functions typically involve millions of neurons from different parts of the brain. To make the device capable of helping patients with brain diseases or damaged nervous system, it will need to become capable of collecting larger quantities of data from multiple different areas in the brain.

On top of that, brain research has not yet achieved a complete understanding of the human brain. There are many functions and connections that are not yet understood. It appears that the ambitions of both Elon Musk and Neuralink are ahead of current scientific understanding.

So, what next?

Neuralink has received a Breakthrough Device Designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the organisation that regulates the quality of medical products. This means Neuralink has the opportunity to interact with FDA’s experts during the premarket development phase and opens the opportunity towards human testing. The first clinical trials will be done on a small group of patients with severe spinal cord injuries, to see if they can regain motor functions through thoughts alone. For now a medical goal with potentially life changing outcomes, while we wait for science to catch up with Elon Musk’s ambitions.

 Neuralink-Logo

Thank you for reading. Did this article spark your interest?
For more information, I recommend you to check out Neuralink’s website https://neuralink.com/

Curious how Gertrude is doing?
Neuralink often posts updates on their Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/neura.link/?hl=en

Want to read more BIM-articles like this?
Check out relating articles created by other BIM-students in 2020:

Sources used for this article:

4.88/5 (8)

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4.5/5 (8) 50k views and counting, how to get MASSIVE views!!!

9

October

2017

 

 
Hello fellow BIM students,

Some of you might have noticed that certain posts are getting massive amounts of views.

all time high

The first thing that pops into your mind might be that these guys are actively sharing their content on social media. This is unlikely though because getting this many unique views on one post in one day (see images below) is really really hard to accomplish through that method.

13k views one day

13k views one day

The next possibility you might think about is that they are hiring a group of people through some view boosting website like the one below.

viewbotwebsite

However, we are all students, meaning that we have low budgets and would rather spend our money on partying, Netflix/Spotify subscriptions and other more rewarding activities. So I don’t consider this option viable in our situation.

So how do the top posts get their crazy amount of views? Did they press F5 non-stop for a couple of weeks in order to reach the top?

f5 broken

There must be some sort of secret method to their success. In this post, I would like to share my easy method with you guys to help boost YOUR view count up to 5k, 10k or even 50k! Let’s go!

Step 1: Decide the post that you want to boost!

This is obviously a very basic step, in order to get views on a post, you need to have posted at least some content. In this example, I use a very basic article I wrote about IBM’s supercomputer Watson (check it out: http://bit.ly/2y71SxK).

IBM watson article 2

 

Step 2: Download the Opera browser and open the blog post in multiple tabs!

Viewbotting on 5 tabs

Step 3: This is where the magic comes in, download the Super Auto Refresh extension for Opera!

Super Auto Refresh extension Opera

Step 4: Start the Extension and make it run on all tabs at a speed of 30 seconds!

Super refresher extension Opera browser

Why do I give you guys the advice to run it on 5/6 tabs max at a speed of 30 seconds? Because I encountered many many errors on the first days using this method running it at faster speeds. These error messages, see below, cause not only me but every other user trying to access the website to experience problems.

Internal Server Error

Service Unavailable

So if you don’t want a group of angry students chasing you because they couldn’t upload their blog posts please take this advice.

IS blog troubles


Step 5: Get some spare laptops, plug them into their chargers and don’t touch them for a couple of days/weeks!

This will help you feel like a real hacker and boosts the feeling that you can join Anonymous because you know your computer stuff.

3 laptops setup

 

Step 6: Watch your article reach some magic milestones! You are finally reaching the top of the list!
1000 views mark

2000 views mark

9999 views

20000 views

30k views

WAIT FOR IT…. 50k VIEWS WOAH!

50k views

Step 7: Sit back and relax, you did some really awesome hacking and can now enjoy your success for the rest of your life! You will always be remembered as that BIM student that knew how to reach the top!

all time high

As much as I enjoyed abusing the view count system behind https://digitalstrategy.rsm.nl// I would like to give some quick advice to the website admin. As soon as I realized that F5 views were counted as unique views although they came from the same IP-Address I started to look for ways to maximize my view count. I think that this in no way reflects the quality of my blog post and can actually destroy the intention of this web page. So to prevent things like this happening in the future please try to cap the number of views per IP-address or find some other way to achieve this.

Thanks for reading guys and enjoy your road to success!

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Technology of the Week – The Housing Industry

5

October

2017

5/5 (3)

The video below describes how online platforms revolutionized the housing industry and the way in which house owners, house buyers, and tenants connect with each other in the Dutch housing market:

Group 45: Rosanne Baars, 406184 ; Roy Ouwerkerk, 459406 ; Yuxin Sun, 406080 ; Pieter Vreke, 372189

1. History

The first real estate brokers in the Netherlands arose in 1284. They acted as the connecting party between trading partners. They earned money from commissions. In the home-rental industry, homeowners initially connected with tenants via physical notes in public spaces. In the 19th century housing corporations and social housing emerged. Consequently, private homeowners struggled to find tenants and started using the intervention of brokers, who received a fee for every contract signed (Van den Elzen, 2013).

2. Current Situation

Decades later, the rise of two-sided online brokerage platforms completely changed the way in which homeowners and tenants communicate. The emergence of these platforms weakened the role of offline brokers, which has several benefits:

  1. For online brokerage platforms, the physical infrastructure and assets that offline brokers use is no longer needed.
  2. Building and scaling networks became cheaper.
  3. Homeowners have access to a larger customer base.
  4. Tenants have access to a larger number of houses and it is easier for them to compare, due to more transparency.
  5. Transaction costs decreased, since most of the physical communication is replaced by online communication.

These eventually led to a decrease in effort and time needed for the rental process. However, for the process of buying/selling a house, offline brokers still coexisted along with online platforms, because buying a house has a large impact on people’s lives, which increases one’s willingness to pay (Bloomberg, 2013).

3. Platform Properties

Current housing platforms have several properties:

  1. A triangular structure, composed of four parties:
          Demand side users: Tenants or buyers
          Supply side users: Homeowners
          Platform providers: Online platforms/communities
          Platform sponsors: Technology providers
          Platform providers and platform sponsors are mostly employees the same company
          (Eisenmann, Parker, & van Alstyne, 2009)
  2. Strong cross-side network effects. A large number of house-owners offering houses on a website attracts tenants, and vice versa.
  3. Subsidies for either the demand or supply side of the platform, while charging the other side. In this way, more users are attracted and network effects increase. The reason why the same part of the platform is not charged consistently, is that different platforms target different niches with different willingness to pay.
  4. Interoperability; many platforms redirect demand side users to related platforms.
  5. Targeting of niches, who have needs for different features.
  6. Low homing costs. Subscription fees are reasonably priced and currently reducing.

4. Future Expectations

Housing platforms are expected to change in the following way:

  1. The number of housing platforms is expected to keep increasing due to existence of niches and low homing costs niches exist and homing costs are low. At the same time, population growth, internationalization and increasing transparency may lead to an increase in housing rental as opposed to buying property (Independent, 2016).
  2. Platform’s profit margins may increase, since increasing demand and decreasing supply for housing rental might lead to increased willingness to pay of demand side users (De Volkskrant, 2014). However, increasing competition among platforms might drive margins down. These two effects can eventually cancel each other out.
  3. Smart-home devices will increase efficiency for both landlords and tenants (Independent, 2016). This will make property management easier, since it might eliminate physical communication and provides more information.
  4. Increasing use of big data analytics. For example, Housing Anywhere is experimenting with this. (Statsbot, 2017).
  5. Convergence of the house rental and real estate industries, because house buyers might get more comfortable with online approaches (Harvard Business Review, 2016).
  6. Companies from adjacent markets may envelop incumbents.

References

Bloomberg. (2013, March 8). Why Redfin, Zillow, and Trulia Haven’t Killed Off Real Estate Brokers. Retrieved from Bloomberg.com: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-03-07/why-redfin-zillow-and-trulia-havent-killed-off-real-estate-brokers

De Volkskrant. (2014, November 2014). De kloof met de Randstad is niet meer te dichten. Retrieved from De Volkskrant: https://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/de-kloof-met-de-randstad-is-niet-meer-te-dichten~a3780161

Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., & van Alstyne, M.W. (2009). Opening Platforms: How, When and Why? Platforms, Markets and Innovation, Gawer, A. (ed.), Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 131-162.

Harvard Business Review. (2016, November 17). Real (estate) disruption: how technology may change the housing market. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/real-estate-disruption-how-technology-may-change-the-housing-market/

Independent. (2016, August 10). How technology could revolutionise the future of renting. Retrieved from Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/money/how-technology-could-revolutionise-the-future-of-renting-smart-meter-landlord-bills-a7182306.html)

Rabobank. (2017). Rental housing: Rising prices in a high-potential market. Retrieved from Rabobank: https://www.rabobank.nl/bedrijven/cijfers-en-trends/vastgoed/real-estate-report-2017/sub-markets/rental-housing

Statsbot. (2017). Housing Anywhere discovered the best way to share data across a team and help them stay on track with key metrics. Retrieved from Statsbot: https://statsbot.co/customers/housinganywhere

Van den Elzen, W. (2013). The future of the Dutch housing corporations.

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Technology Of The Week – AI In Medical Imaging

22

September

2017

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In recent years, the number of artificial intelligence startups has rapidly increased to a total of 106 (CB Insights Research, 2017), indicating that the role of AI will gain importance in healthcare . AI has especially made a lot of progress in the medical imaging industry. The number of image scan on human body parts has skyrocketed, while the number of radiologists has not significantly increased in the last years (Steve O’Hear, 2017).

Artificial intelligence aims to solve this problem by processing the imaging data in the cloud, using deep learning algorithms which can identify a patient’s potential medical issues, aiding the doctor in patient diagnosis (Fornell, 2017). AI system is able to perform these human tasks by ‘studying’ an excessive database of patient cases. In this way, its deep learning algorithms allow the system to recognize body part anomalies. Study has proven that if an AI system has been given sufficient amounts of data, it can outperform human diagnosis (Fornell, 2017). However, the use of AI does not imply the end of physicians. It simply means that the workflow of physicians changes as they are needed to verify the diagnosis and to devise corresponding treatment plans. This results in increased face-to-face time with patients, and helping more patients in less time. AI will enable cost cuttings up to 50% while improving performance outcomes by 30 to 40% (Frost & Sullivan, 2017).

To analyze how AI is disrupting the medical imaging industry, Porter’s Five Forces model can be applied. Barriers to entry are lower, as the industry is accessible to all who have expertise in AI software. Due to dependency on medical imaging hardware, the bargaining power of buyers, in this case hospitals and clinics, remains unchanged. Bargaining power of suppliers however does increase as AI systems require millions of images to learn before its performance reaches acceptable levels. This data, is usually owned by traditional suppliers such as Philips. Threat of substitutes diminish as medical imaging techniques are becoming more accessible, making the development of other techniques less interesting. As core IT businesses, such as IBM, are applying their AI technologies in healthcare, traditional players will experience increasing industry rivalry.

By 2021, Accenture (2017) expects the AI health market to be worth $6.6 billion which means that its yearly compound growth rate equals 40%. These market predictions demonstrate the continuous investment in AI healthcare technology, which can eventually be integrated in everyday life. If done so, healthcare becomes accessible to anyone, anywhere and anytime. An example of accessible healthcare is the portable 3D-ultrasound device Butterfly Network Inc. is developing. The device creates 3D images of human body parts and sends this data in real-time to the cloud, where it is analyzed and potential anomalies are identified. This device will make medical imaging more accessible, as it allows anyone, anywhere and anytime to create medical images without being dependent on hospital equipment.

In conclusion, the future of AI healthcare is a promising one, but research and development is still required to optimize the technology for everyday use. As Bill Gates assured us “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.”

-Group 16

Please check out our video: https://youtu.be/NnBcmE0mZ2o

 

References

Accenture. (2017). Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare | Accenture. [online] Available at: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-artificial-intelligence-healthcare [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].

CB Insights Research. (2017). From Virtual Nurses To Drug Discovery: 106 Artificial Intelligence Startups In Healthcare. [online] Available at: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/artificial-intelligence-startups-healthcare/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].

Fornell, D. (2017). How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Medical Imaging. [online] Imaging Technology News. Available at: https://www.itnonline.com/article/how-artificial-intelligence-will-change-medical-imaging [Accessed 19 Sep. 2017].

Frost & Sullivan. (2017). From $600 M to $6 Billion, Artificial Intelligence Systems Poised for Dramatic Market Expansion in Healthcare. [online] Available at: https://ww2.frost.com/news/press-releases/600-m-6-billion-artificial-intelligence-systems-poised-dramatic-market-expansion-healthcare [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].

O’Hear, S. (2017). AIDoc Medical raises $7M to bring AI to medical imaging analysis. [online] TechCrunch. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/26/aidoc-medical/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017]

 

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Technology of the Week – Theme: Information Goods – Mobile Payment

9

October

2016

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In this Tech of the Week we have taken a closer look into mobile payment technologies and seen how this information good (mobile device) has innovated the way we pay. First of all we have shown the evolution of payment since the beginning of human existence. And conclude that today’s payment methods exist of either cash, credit or debit card or newly enabled the mobile device.

Paying with your mobile device is highly interesting since our society nowadays is carrying such a device around all day long, therefore it is actually quite straightforward to think of using it as a payment method as well. Recent technology innovations have made it possible to add this feature to your mobile device. With QR-codes and Near Field Communication (NFC) chips your mobile device is ready to exchange information and especially ready to exchange payment informations. In the movie we explain how these two technologies could work in your daily life. The QR-code is a readily available technology as this technology has already been used for more in-depth brand exposure (Soon, 2008). Consumers are directed to webpages, applications or other information-savvy materials. But what if you are in a restaurant, you ask for the bill, you scan the QR-code that is printed on the bill and voila the bill has been paid! No cash, no cards, no wallet needed. Just a mobile device with a camera (and an internet connection) and the transaction is fulfilled.

The NFC chip is probably also familiar, although you might never have heard of the name of the chip. Think of your debit or credit card, nowadays you can just put the card against the pin device and the transaction is completed. These chips are now built into many smartphones available on the market (Harrop, Das and Holland, 2014) making it possible to let your phone do what your credit or debit card can do. To have a transaction fulfilled with the NFC chip, both devices need to be equipped with NFC software and held within a maximum of 10 cm from each other.

In the video we have taken a closer look into both technologies and compared their strengths and weaknesses. We have identified four main areas; user interaction, costs, technology widespread and security.

User Interaction

As explained above, with the QR-code you have to scan the code, with NFC you have to “tap” your device near the NFC receptor. Both technologies work very differently and as from the user interaction it is clearly the NFC tech which is the easiest to use. We therefore attributed the first point to NFC.

Costs

Regarding the costs, the QR-code is clearly the winner. Generating a code requires few resources (a code can even be generated for free through the internet) and can be placed everywhere. As for NFC, a special chip needs to be developed and implemented in two different devices which includes high costs.

Technology widespread

The NFC technology is becoming more and more popular and Samsung or Apple starting to implement the chip in their phones. However, mainly due to the low costs, QR-codes are available everywhere and the technology already exists within all mobile devices with a camera.

Security

This time NFC is the clear winner, to fulfill a transaction the chip has to be brought into the connection range (10cm). While a QR-code as soon as it is generated can be scanned by anyone and thus exposing the customer’s payment details.

From the comparison, a clear winner cannot be found. However, we know now where the strengths and weaknesses of both technologies lie.

One certain conclusion that can be drawn is that cash and payment cards will disappear as these new technologies are taking over their share in the market.  

References

Euromonitor International Blog. 2016. NFC – what is it and how can it help retailers? – Euromonitor International Blog. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.euromonitor.com/2011/04/nfc-what-is-it-and-how-can-it-help-retailers.html. [Accessed 09 October 2016].

Harrop P, Das R, Holland G 2014, IDTechEx. 2016. Near Field Communication (NFC) 2014-2024: IDTechEx. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.idtechex.com/research/reports/near-field-communication-nfc-2014-2024-000363.asp?viewopt=contents. [Accessed 16 September 2016].

Soon T J 2008, “QR code.” Synthesis Journal 2008 (2008): 59-78.

 

Estateqrceodes, 2016 ‘Advantages and disadvantages of QR code’. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.estateqrcodes.com/advantages-disadvantages.html[Accessed 16 September 2016].

 

Abdul, R 2015, ‘QR code advantages and disadvantages’. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.robabdul.com/marketing/qr-code-advantages-and-disadvantages/ [Accessed 16 September 2016].

 

Ideal, 2015, ‘QR code’ [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.ideal.nl/ontvangen/aan-de-slag/qr-code/[Accessed 16 September 2016].

 

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Technology of the week: Industry Disruption of PC Video-game Retailers (Group 4)

3

October

2016

4.67/5 (3)

This week we focussed on Industry Disruption, specifically in the field of PC gaming. To demonstrate the shift from buying your games in brick-and-mortar stores to online platforms we made a short video.

 

New business model

Thanks to the rise of internet, the purchase of videogames has largely shifted from offline to online. From 2009 to 2012 the physical distribution of video games decreased at an annual rate of 13.1%, while digital distribution grew at 12.6% over the same time period worldwide. This industry disruption was led by several new companies, one of them called Steam.

 

To buy a video game you download the Steam software onto your computer and create an account. This enables you access to the platform where gamers and developers interact with each other. The moment you buy a game Steam receives 30% of your purchase.

 

The loooong-tail of Steam

The long-tail theorem allows us to understand why Steam has become so popular. Its digital nature allows Steam to take advantage of the long tail strategy, by providing not only block buster games but also less popular games from unknown developers. These so-called “indie developers” are the ones providing the majority of games.

 

Indie developers helped Steam benefit from another theorem, the newly vulnerable market. By allowing indie developers and corporations to equally compete in its platform, Steam transformed video-game selling dynamics. Lowering entry barriers, the standards of videogame production have risen.

 

Security problems

However, it is not all roses. Steam is facing privacy and security issues. Steam has tried to reduce the risk of account theft by releasing Steam Guard, an additional security measure in the form of a mobile authenticator.

 

The competition
There are other companies trying to attack this new market or trying to protect their previously strong presence. This latter group are not succeeding because they are holding on to their traditional business model and only selling their own games. This includes big, well-known publishers such as EA and Ubisoft.

 

Kinguin

Kinguin is a marketplace where buyers and sellers meet to trade their game keys. Like Steam, Kinguin takes a certain percentage of these sales. But there is already a lot of discussion considering the ethics as not all of the revenue goes to the developers.

 

Humble Bundle

Humble Bundles’ business model is based on a pay-what-you-want system. It provides bundles of games, while helping you on making an educated decision on how much you should pay. Also, the gamer can allocate how much money goes to the publisher, charity and Humble Bundle itself. On the downside Humble Bundle does not provide a community feature or an active gameplay platform. Hence, gamers usually return to Steam.

 

The game player is largely benefited by using online digital game sellers. Lower costs, a larger selection, a strong community, improved gameplay, a user-to-user marketplace and goodwill from directly helping indie developers and charities. Its save to say that we’re experiencing a total industry disruption and the end of an era of brick-and-mortar PC game retailers.

1http://store.steampowered.com/

2https://www.humblebundle.com/gamemaker-bundle

3https://www.kinguin.net/

4https://www.accenture.com/t20150709T093434__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/LandingPage/Documents/3/Accenture-3-LT-10-Pulse-Gaming-Disruption.pdf

5https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/04/16/this-is-why-valves-business-model-is-so-totally-brilliant/

6https://openforum.hbs.org/challenge/understand-digital-transformation-of-business/business-model/humble-bundle-turning-computer-games-and-charity-into-good-business

7http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/9/8006693/the-truth-behind-those-mysteriously-cheap-gray-market-game-codes

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Technology Of The Week (TOTW) Summary – Platform Mediated Networks and the private transportation industry

30

September

2016

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Dear fellow students (and others),

The subject of the week we were assigned to was Platform Mediated Networks. In our video, professor Robo, John and Susan helped explaining this concept in a specific industry we had chosen.

First, we introduced and explained Platform Mediated Networks. Generally speaking, a Platform Mediated Network is comprised of users whose transactions are subject to direct and indirect network effects, along with one or more intermediaries that facilitate users’ transactions. These network effects imply that the more active members a network has, the more value it creates for everybody in the network. We decided to look into this regarding the private transportation industry and we can differentiate between two kinds of vehicle sharing: car sharing and ride sharing. Car sharing means that a car owner lends out his car to somebody who requests it. Ride sharing means that somebody traveling to a certain place, is taking other people along that need to go in the same direction.

After this, we collaborated the main commonalities and differences between the two types of vehicles sharing. To do so, we took two innovative companies to illustrate each type: SnappCar (car sharing) and BlaBlaCar (ride sharing). The main commonalities are that both companies are two-sided platform mediated networks with a mixed structure. They share the same goal of make traveling less expensive, more efficient and less polluting to the environment. Furthermore, the business models of both companies are a mix between an open (everybody can rent (out) a car) and a closed (platform is solely provided by the companies) platform. Therefore, the two can be called proprietary platforms. The value by both companies is increased by two consumer groups (owners and renters). The bigger the groups, the higher the value of the platform. With regard to their revenue model, both companies get their revenue from taking a cut of 15% of the rental price. While at BlaBlaCar the renter only pays a set price for a ride, at SnappCar there are various costs for things such as fuel and insurances.

The main difference between the two business models can be found in the specific market they target. While BlaBlaCar targets customers who simply need transportation from A to B, SnappCar targets customers who are more specific about the means of transportation. This means that while BlaBlaCar is mainly competing with public transportation means like trains and buses, SnappCar is rather in competition with conventional car rental companies.

At last, we gave our prediction for the future. People tend to share their private cars with others, because they, just as the other users, don’t need a car, but a way of getting from A to B. Hence, more and more people may start using car sharing platforms. In addition, for reasons of practicability, efficiency and environmental concerns, access to a car will trump private possession of a car, resulting in less people owning a car. Businesses in the car and ride sharing industry will have to be prepared to adjust to this change. Even though this development will continue to boost growth in the industry in the short term, it will eventually result in less cars available on the supply side of car sharing platforms. Therefore, the private vehicle sharing industry might be only bridging the time between a world with lots of privately owned cars and a world in which privately owned cars have ceased to exist.

That summarizes our completion of the assignment. We hope that with this summary we gave you a better view of Platform Mediated Networks and vehicles sharing, SnappCar and BlaBlaCar.

Kind regards,
Johannes, Bernhard, Lisette & Guy

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Technology of the Week – the real estate Industry

16

September

2016

5/5 (2)

Watch the video here

This week, we had to make a video regarding Industry Disruption. We chose to focus on the real estate industry, as it is often overlooked when thinking about disruption, while there are endless technologies that could disrupt the industry. Real estate plays an important role in everyone’s live, as we all need a place to live. In order to learn more about the industry, we watched several videos and read different articles (which you can find in our reference list, if you are interested).

The real estate industry, as we currently know it, has been stable for a long time. While some processes have been digitized, the majority of the processes is still done offline (for example, visiting a house, meeting with a broker and signing a contract). However, digitization is about to have a huge impact on the retail industry. Currently, the top 50 largest real estate companies own 30% of the market, and rivalry among competitors is high, mainly due to low barriers to entry (if you wanted, you could be a broker tomorrow!). While there are substitutes, production is limited (it takes time, money and material to build a house. The bargaining power of both suppliers and buyers depends largely on their geographical location (for example, finding a house in Amsterdam is way harder than finding one in a small village).

Since classifieds moved online with Craigslist in 1995, real estate has started innovating by advertising online. However, since trust is very important when purchasing a house, it is hard to totally complete the process online. While they are more specialized portals nowadays, such as Zulia or Trillow, a large part of the transaction still takes place offline. However, the platforms offer value-added features, creating a new business model: the online real estate marketplace. These marketplaces are likely to substitute traditional brokers to a large degree and to automate the whole real estate purchase process. These online platforms eliminate the broker, and thus its commission. Online platforms offer numerous options, depending on the willingness to pay for both parties (for example, a buyer can choose between different subscription plans, and a seller can pay to have its listing appear on top).

But what about fraud? This is where the block chain comes in. While it is commonly known as the background technology for Bitcoin, the block chain offers many additional benefits which can be used to optimize the process of buying or renting a house online. The core advantage of block chain lies within its decentralized structure. The block chain is essentially a database that provides cheap, durable, time-stamped and transparent records of all transactions online. However, the security issues that arise, as well as the immense energy costs that go together with the transaction volume and the data storage have prevented the technology from being legalized in the majority of the countries.

We believe the real estate industry will change, based on the Newly Vulnerable Markets Theory. By changing the online real estate market place by implementing block chain, the three conditions for the theory are met: it will become attractive to attack, easy to enter and difficult to defend.

What do you think? How do you believe the retail industry will change?

 

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