Although the three businesses (Angie’s List, Venmo, and Lyft) are dissimilar in terms of the offered services, they share one common trait due to being considered transformational. Speaking about Angie’s List, the idea is similar to that of yellow pages – telephone address books that provide information about businesses in some geographic areas and organize it into categories. The similarities between the two ideas include giving people instant access to contact numbers of companies so that they can make informed choices if they need specific services. However, the main difference is that Angie’s List further developed the idea and started evaluating companies’ business reputations and publishing ratings based on customer feedback. Directories with customer reviews transform people’s decision-making, and this is why I would give Angie’s List 4 in terms of newness.
Venmo was preceded by Western Union, and the former also implemented a number of innovations. It is different from Western Union since Venmo provides instant cash transfers and utilizes social networking services. Venmo users can communicate and exchange messages to explain the purpose of payments. Among the fundamental similarities between the two businesses is the idea to facilitate financial transactions between different parties and profit from it. Using modern technology, Venmo adds a few important functions and technological solutions without changing the core idea, and this is why it can be rated 4 in newness.
Lyft, a transportation company based in the United States, was preceded by taxi cabs. Among the similarities between them is the provision of transportation services to save clients’ time. However, there are multiple differences since Lyft provides a few types of rides and enables people to collaborate using an online application. Moreover, clients and riders can share their personal information (tastes in music, etc.) and rate each other, which allows the prevention of future conflicts. Since it has changed the principles of cooperation between drivers and their clients, its degree of newness is 3.