
Gig Economy Workers Buy Like They Work - prostoalex
http://fortune.com/2015/11/24/gig-economy-consumers/
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roymurdock
_[This new gym] is just one more example of companies that are now answering
the call from today’s burgeoning gig economy for products and services that
are stylish and fun but also cheap and focused—and customizable. Used to
working on-demand anywhere and anytime, gig economy freelancers expect the
same kind of flexibility and focus from the vendors who provide the picks and
shovels of their often-blurred personal and professional lives._

Author is confusing the "gig economy" w/ the "as a service" business model.

The "gig economy" refers to changes in the composition of the labor force and
the different types of contracts that are becoming the norm between
employer/employee. Uber treats its drivers as quasi employee contractors who
have more flexible work schedules but do not get the traditional benefits of a
salaried employee, and generally need to provide their own capital (vehicle).

The "as a service" model refers more to the vendor/customer relationship where
customers are coming to expect more flexibility and subscription services
rather than outright purchases of goods and services. You buy a monthly
subscription for server space and compute power rather than a dedicated server
room w/ IT staff & sysadmins. Then you layer on security, analytics, dev
management, mobile, testing tools as needed. In the gym example, you buy the
bare bones subscription package and add towel service, snacks, earbuds, other
privileges as you see fit.

Both buzzwords that do an adequate job of describing new business models, but
the author confuses the concepts and kind of fumbles around, naming different
companies that could be vaguely associated w/ pioneering either one.

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kuschku
The "as a service" model is useful for B2B, but many consumers hate it.

It has additional hidden fees everywhere, and in the overall view it often
turns out to be _more_ expensive than the classical model. From cheap Airlines
(a 1€ flight with 40€ fee for using a credit card, and 5€ fee per kg of body
weight) to "all-inclusive" Hotels (with extra fees per minute spent in the
pool) to the cloud.

For example:

I can get a server with Intel® Xeon® E3-1270 v3, 32GB RAM and 4TB HDD for 70€
a month as dedicated server at Hetzner.

Or I can get a "Quad Core" with 8GB of RAM and 80GB of SSD for the same price
at DigitalOcean.

The pricing of the "as a service" things is insane for the minor benefit in
convenience they provide.

And a lot of the hobby users hate it – be it Adobe’s Creative Cloud (hobby
users used to just buy one version and stick with it for years) – be it
JetBrains new subscription model, etc.

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chrisdbaldwin
This article smells like native advertising.

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billybilly1920
After reading the article I'm still confused what a "gig economy" is.

1) make up terms 2) get click through 3) profit

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pconner
I thought it was "employment" through services like Uber where workers are
independent contractors who set their own hours.

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billybilly1920
I'm pretty sure it's a falumpkin that they ooplunkle through the diplesplit.
I'm currently working on an article on falumpkining that should explain it all
pretty huflinkinlipit.

