3. TIL In 2014, black taxi cab drivers brought parts of London to a standstill, pro...

TIL In 2014, black taxi cab drivers brought parts of London to a standstill, protesting against Uber. This led to an 850% increase in downloads of Uber.

Most of these businesses success are due to skirting around laws that were written decades before. It really doesn't have much to do with innovation at all.

Uber vs. Cabbies: the Cabbies have way more regulations and upfront costs.

AirBnB vs. Hotels: Hotels have way more regulations, taxes, etc.

Netflix vs Blockbuster: Netflix is considered distinct from regular TV and Film so they were able (and still are) to get away with paying less for things. This is what the WGA strike back in the late 2000s was all about. Even today the rates are different despite Netflix et al creating insane amounts of content. This isn't so much a legal different as it is a union rate one, so far as I know anyway.

Napster same shit with paying artists.

Let's flip this. Most "disruptors" are just skirting the law in the some kind of way. But let's consider two that aren't: Wal-Mart and Amazon. The core innovation there was throwing all your shit in a regions warehouses and then having a strong logistical network to keep stores stocked and prices low.

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