Uber

              Uber was founded in 2008, and it firstly introduced the concept of peer-to-peer business model in taxicab industry. Since then Uber has become the first mover in ridesharing industry. In the following years, there are several start-ups who have a quite similar concept to Uber established across the world; e.g.  Ola Cabs 2010 (India), GrabTaxi in 2011 (South-East Asia), Lyft in 2012 (United States), and Didi Kuaidi in 2015 (China).

  

              Nowadays It can be seen that Uber enjoys strong first mover advantages according to the theory by Lieberman and Montgomery (1988). The six-year-old start-up has continued to be the leader of ridesharing market as its valued 40 billion dollars in 2014 (Isaac, 2014). Network effects allow Uber to grow bigger, on the other hand, put small companies in danger, as customers tend to choose those with the most providers. However, it is argued that switching benefits are higher than costs as ridesharing companies are offering high incentives to attract customers and drivers. Throwing money benefits customers, however, it shows less chance for companies to differentiate in terms of technology and services (Bercovici, 2014).