Insightful article, but a bit hard to distill the distinct points. From my own experience at an Uber for X, there is one overarching theme that dictates the whole dynamic that I think isn't addressed. The article makes the following points.<p>1. "The more skilled the service, the harder is to gain traction, because quality in service isn't
reliable." This is true to some extent, but there is a bigger underlying dynamic, namely that the fewer people can offer that service, the harder it is to gain traction, because it takes longer to get that service on demand (e.g. 20 mins instead of 1 min), which decreases the user experience.<p>2. "There are services that require more time for
for scheduling and some require less." The article doesn't really say which one is better, but the latter is better, because it makes it more spontaneous, people can make the decision to demand the service easier and do it
more often.<p>3. "Maximizing conversion through services where no sales pitch is required, because quality is almost always the same (taxi)." This goes back into point 1, where low skill all have the same
quality. It adds the factor that when quality is the same, people are less picky and make more
purchases.<p>4." Maximizing profits through retention to get repeat customers." I didn't understand this point, since critique for Uber for X is that repeat customers would bypass Uber for X, in order to avoid fees, such as it happened with Homejoy, Plumbers etc. This can be prevented through making ratings valuable, i.e. giving pros incentives to not bypass the platform.<p>The overarching themse is critical mass. All of the mentioned points explain what factors prevent critical mass form being accomplished. Summing up these are<p>1. The more skill you need, the less service providers you can get per square mile, the longer it takes to fulfill a service, the harder this makes it to get traction.<p>2. The shorter it takes to schedule the service, the more people will make the decision and book the service.<p>3. The less the quality is a factor, the less people will worry about making the purchase.<p>4. Repeat customers is where the money is. Make it easy for the consumer and pro to maintain these relationships, BUT, keep them on the platform.<p>5. This point I add myself, it is locality and it is the most important point. It means that you have to figure out a way to get traction in a new city in a scalable way, because you can get traction in SF with masseurs and clients, but you need to do it all over again in Fresno, Seattle, London, etc. There is some traction that comes from other cities, but it is little. For some services, traction in a handful city is enough and you cna be a $100m company, but for most, you need to be able to get traction in several dozens of cities quickly.