Digital disruption

Disruption is the phenomenon when a new (typically digital) solution fundamentally changes the operating and/or business model of a sector or submarket.

Disruption is often associated with a specific solution, product, or the name of the company launching it, but this is not legal. The iPhone1, which is known today, was a disruptive product when it was introduced in 2007 smartphones can be evaluated as a prototype. Today we know that it has transformed not only the mobile services market, but essentially the entire digital ecosystem as well. 

At the turn of the millennium, industrial companies, banks, commercial chains and one or two technology companies (IBM, HP, Microsoft) were on the list of the world's largest companies. Today, the kings of technology companies (Apple, Google's parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook) are at the top of the list. 

It's full of tech giants that have reshaped the world in one way or another. Many times it's just Big Tech this group is referred to as companies. Microsoft is the computer technology, Google is the global online advertising market, Facebook revolutionized our media consumption habits, Amazon revolutionized shopping, and Apple gave us usable mobile internet. 

These once in part as a startup Companies that started in 1950 and have now grown into giants changed the rules of the game in each market with their appearance. They concentrated a significant part of the sector's sales in their own hands, and then became a dominant player in their field. Their common feature is that they have seen something of the needs of the future and a digitalisation, using the development of technology, they tried to create a new, innovative to serve with tools. 

New technologies and companies that overturn the usual business models are called disruptive technologies and companies. They occur in a particularly high proportion in a sharing economy, whose essential element is disruption. 

Such a disruptive idea and company is, for example Airbnb, which created the short-term property rental platform. With this, he not only created a new segment in the accommodation service, but also expanded the world of international tourism. In the field of passenger transport, many sharing-based companies are also trying something similar (such as UBER and BlaBlaCar).

But not all disruptive solutions lead to measurable success in corporate profits, and not all disruptions can be linked to a specific solution or company. Napster transformed the entire music market with music sharing, but it failed copyright problems. Thus, the power of the big record labels was finally broken by other solutions, iTunes or Spotify.