Digital Winners and Losers

September 13, 2015

Read The Full Prompt

The basic thesis of our course is that digital technologies are upending many industries and companies. Think about Uber’s impact on the taxi business or Spotify’s impact on music downloads and the record industry.

For this module, we would like you to identify companies/organizations that you think are winning or losing. Just work on either winners or losers. Please focus on just one organization. Tell us why they are a winner or loser. Discuss elements of how they create and/or capture value that is leading you to call them a winner or loser.

Create an approximately 500-750 word post to make your contribution. Please create appropriate tags for your post including if it is a “winner” or “loser” Please also respond to and comment on three other posts per module. Feel free to use graphics, data, videos and links to other sites to corroborate your points.

Selected posts will be discussed in class and also featured on the HBS Digital Initiative website.

Submitted (145)

Go Craig Go – Craigslist is a winner
Christine
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 2:07 pm
Craigslist became a winner and created a loser at the same time
Adios, Therese – the death of the retail travel agent
LC
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Brick-and mortar travel agents are dead. How did the decline happen in one of the first industries to be digitalized?
Tinder Is Crushing It (imho)
ecashman
Last modified on September 14, 2015 at 9:43 pm
regarding the love-making with the Tinder.
Telemedicine: Who will come out on top?
KMY
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Actually, before we can address “Who will win the Telemedicine arms race?” we must establish whether it is a race worth winning in the first place.   A true adoption of telemedicine practices requires a complete change in patient behavior, [...]
Epic Systems – Too Big to Crush?
s
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Epic Systems, a leader in health care information technology, has set established itself as a giant in the HCIT industry. Their strategic choices have almost guaranteed that their dominance will be preserved for the next several years, leaving smaller players [...]
TED leads in a winner-take-all world of conferences
Jason Preston
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 9:17 am
How TED became a household name, transformed itself into a media company, and upended the conference business by giving away its product for free.
Weight Watchers: The Real Biggest Loser?
RFD123
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 9:49 pm
Weight Watchers is the biggest loser in the ever-increasing digitization of the weight-loss and personal fitness industries.
Red Bull: Soaring into Pop Culture
ahc
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 11:44 pm
How Red Bull's combination of a singular product focus and an expansive media strategy has allowed it to maintain its leadership position in the category it created.
OnePlus One, Redefining the Math of Smartphones
Noam
Last modified on September 12, 2015 at 8:11 pm
OnePlus is changing the game in the smartphone market with a "flagship killer" priced at half of its competitors' products. The question is whether OnePlus will be able to capture enough value to ensure its long-term viability.
Digital Innovation in Online & Mobile Banking at J.P. Morgan Chase
Mike Maley
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 3:58 pm
The evolution of online and mobile banking has transformed an industry - and Chase has been at the forefront for some time. But with the rise of companies like Venmo, what's next?
New Tech vs Old Industrials: who will win the “Industrial Internet” race?
H Li
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 11:28 pm
Analyzing how New Techs and Old Industrials create and capture value in the Industrial Internet
Kodak: The fall of a giant
GA
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 9:42 am
Who doesn’t remember going on vacations and having to pack tons of little film rolls along with your camera? (which, as a kid, I opened and unrolled several times to see how pictures look like in there, ruining them!) Or [...]
Pogoseat: The New Era of Seats for Fans
DIGITite
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 11:58 pm
Ever wish you could upgrade your seats to see Stephen Curry or Kobe Bryant make history yet again? See some seats courtside or in the first row that have yet to be taken? Do you hate the obnoxious people behind [...]
Songkick: A winner in exploiting streaming behavior to maximize revenues to the music industry
Andrea MF
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Concert discovery app Songkick is helping improve monetization of the offline side of the music business, by leveraging information from the fans online behavior.
Cool to be fit? Another Hipster trend monetized.
Angela
Last modified on September 12, 2015 at 8:21 am
Putting the consumers' health and wellbeing back in control of the person through the use of Fitbit.
Minerva Schools – Reimaging Higher Education
CX
Last modified on September 11, 2015 at 1:59 pm
Imagine a college experience where you would have the opportunity to live in seven different countries in their campuses across the world, learn with interactive seminars designed to keep you actively learning, and only pay a third of the cost [...]
MetroMile – Why pay for something you don’t use?
LMT
Last modified on September 15, 2015 at 2:18 am
Today, Personal lines insurance is being disrupted by new, telematic-enabled products whereby customers are willing to give over their data in search for fairer-priced products.[i] MetroMile, first launched in Oregon in 2012, is seeking to capture a share of the [...]
Yu’E Bao turned 185M e-commerce customers into financial investors
Emilie Valentova
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
The mighty Alibaba ecosystem managed to scale up internet finance while driving core e-commerce growth.
Curriculum Associates: a digital winner disrupting education publishing
Jennifer B.
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 3:01 pm
A print publisher disrupts public education with its transition to digital
The Struggle of a Retail Giant: From Catalog to Clicks.
David
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Among all industries transformed by the digitization of our economy, the retail industry has been among the first and most heavily affected markets during the last decade. The Information Age spawned many new powerful retailers like Amazon – and caused [...]
Niche: Winning the Race to Become a Digital Advertising Marketplace for Social Media Stars
jeffzeller
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 10:24 pm
How digital and social media have spawned a new generation of advertising agencies, and why companies like Niche have been able to capitalize.
The demise of the land lines and the future of the phone service industry
Gonzalo
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 4:03 pm
The telephone service industry has evolved and will continue to do so in a world were consumers' conception of value constantly changes.
New York Times: Winning with Leaky Paywall
BrittW
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 5:42 pm
The New York Times is an example of a digital “winner” amidst rapid declines in revenue and circulation for most in the newspaper industry. In 2011, The New York Times effectively introduced a paywall and in 4 years has signed [...]
Coupang – Changing the face of retail and distribution
Cal K
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 11:07 pm
Korean e-commerce winner Coupang : analysis
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