Will the share increase in Japan?

Will the share increase in Japan?

Even from a global perspective, Japan is a country whose market share is not widespread. Will it spread in Japan in the future? I would like to pay attention

It's not because of the root cause "nationality" that the share business doesn't spread as much as expected in Japan

Share business is expanding all over the world. However, the movement is slow in Japan. The share business from Japan is also sluggish. Where is the problem? Rikkyo with the publication of "WILD RIDE, the story of the success and failure of the mad dog Karanick who created Uber" (Toyokan Publishing Co., Ltd.), which follows the half-life of Uber's founder Travis Kalanick (hereinafter, Karanick). I asked Mr. Michiaki Tanaka, a professor at a university business school.

Why "Uber" was not supported in Japan

——Uber was born in California. Following that, ride-sharing companies are being born one after another in the world. On the other hand, there are still no ride-sharing companies in Japan.

[Tanaka] First, let's think about why we were born in the United States. Rideshare has provided customers with unprecedented value. In the United States, it used to take 10 minutes to call a taxi, but Uber takes 3 minutes to call it with the app. The reason is that Uber has a huge amount of driving data and AI predicts where people will gather in 3 minutes. Aside from the back side of Uber's business, it's very convenient to call and the customer experience has won consumer support.

So why was Uber not supported in Japan? First of all, Japan is not as difficult to catch a taxi as the United States, and the service level is not bad. Also, the taxi industry strongly opposed to protect vested interests. Ride sharing and white taku are essentially different things. However, the industry has succeeded in making rideshare look like a white tuck, and consumers have begun to see rideshare in that image.

There was also Uber's strategic mistake here. As I just pointed out, the essence of a ride-sharing company is a "big data x AI" company. In other words, ride-sharing companies are not just transportation companies, but technology companies. Therefore, there is no need to be particular about ride sharing itself, and it was okay to work with a taxi company to promote it as a taxi app. That way, it wouldn't have been hostile to industry groups. In fact, China's DiDi (Didi-Greater China) is expanding into Japan in partnership with Softbank. This is a wise choice.

On the other hand, when Uber first appeared in Japan, it tried to break through in an outlaw-like way as usual, and suffered a strong backlash. If I had teamed up somewhere or had a friendly approach, the results would probably have been different. Ride sharing itself is a service with high social value, so that's a shame.