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Living in the 21st century means having to experience the rapid production and proliferation of technologies around us. In the past couple of years, we have first-handedly witnessed and experienced changes in our daily lives that are ushered by technologies – performing certain tasks more efficiently and effectively. One example being the upgrade from telephones to cell phones, and currently, to smartphones in which numerous tasks can be performed, most of which used to require additional resources, infrastructures, energy, time, and many more. Moreover, it is not only our individual personal lives that are being affected, but industries as well, such as businesses. Technologies now assist, support, and mediate businesses in their day-to-day operations to which it has become a necessary aspect; inability to catch up with the constantly-evolving technology may cause consequences that are destructive (Melo, 2018; Da Costa, 2021).
In relation, businesses find opportunities in technologies – most of the successful ones tend to alter consumer consumption, business operations, and the industry in general. These are called Disruptive Technologies. In 1997, Clayton Christensen, in his work The Innovator’s Dilemma, coined and popularized the said term which meant a new, simple, affordable, and convenient product that appeals to non-mainstream, and/or less-demanding market that established businesses often overlook (DeVries, 2020). The “disruptive” aspect comes into play if it was able to supersede an older product or company by creating their own market. According to Smith (2020), an established company may be disrupted if it fails in terms of flexibility to adapt to emerging threats wherein if overlooked, disruptive technologies can take advantage of. From there, it works its way up to be the superior product or company as it crushes its incumbents (Christensen, 2014).
As for Christensen, Raynor, and McDonald (2015) the term disruptive technology has been widely misused and misunderstood ever since it became popular. As for this matter, it is important to know the main characteristics of a disruptive technology before considering a certain product as one. First, “disruptive” has a negative ring to it wherein people might assume that when a technology is disruptive, it negatively affects the user or the society. Disruption, from Christensen himself, happens when “a smaller company with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge established incumbent businesses” which is through creating a market of their own by targeting the overlooked market segment by these large businesses. The product could also be the following (based on Christensen, 2014):
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New – Disruptive technologies do not provide the same product, for it targets a new set of customers. Hence, selling the same product would not create a new nor different market, but target the same people as those established businesses. (Example: E-mails were new when the in-real-life mailing industry was disrupted)
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Simple – Customers usually resort to less-complicated options, particularly products that are effective without having to spend more time performing tasks. (Example: The Grab App allows users to book a ride through a few taps).
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Convenient – Customers prefer products that do not provide inconveniencies, regardless of frequency and gravity whereas they would rather choose a product that provides additional benefits. (Example: Through Facebook, a user can call, message, post, sell, join groups, follow pages, etc. unlike e-mail and telephone calls).
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Affordable – Customers would choose to pay less or none than to pay a high price for a service or product. (Example: For 149 pesos, a user can already watch unlimited movies and shows on Netflix as compared to going to the cinemas which is twice the price for one sitting).
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Unrefined – Disruptive technologies offer imperfect products at first to the consumers, and then incremental improvements take place to move upmarket where profitability is higher than the first targeted market. (Example: Apple’s first iPad had limited features unlike how it is now which can be compared to Laptops and PCs).
All of these primary characteristics create a disruptive technology, like web and video conferencing applications. These applications allow long distance or international audio and video communication with built-in features like text chatting, screen recording, and screen sharing. Other additional features are scheduling, presentations, document sharing, and many more (G2, 2021). Web and video conferencing applications are considered to be disruptive, for it has changed the game for established applications and industries.
Before proceeding to the status report on the affected industries, it is important to point out the characteristics of a disruptive technology in web and video conferencing applications. First, it has challenged existing applications and industries, such as telecommunication, co-working spaces, flight and lodging, education, entertainment, and more (Dai, 2020). It has built a new market consisting of users who value collaboration and productivity rather than communication alone which large companies often aim for. Second and third, it is **new **and convenient; it is not the same as merely e-mailing, regular two-way or group texting and calling – it is all combined into one. Fourth, it is easy to operate with its simple user interface (Mclaughlin & Brame, 2021) that even the youngest students or technologically-inept can use it effectively. Fifth, most video and web conferencing applications are available for free. Payment is only required for Internet subscription and premium or additional features. Lastly, it is unrefined; the said applications are constantly improving on its features, security, and user experience in general. Taking all into consideration web and video conferencing applications are disruptive technologies.
Christensen, C. (2014, January 1). Disruptive innovation. The Interaction Design Foundation. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/disruptive-innovation.
Christensen, C., Raynor, M., & McDonald, R. (2015, December). What is disruptive innovation? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation.
Da Costa, C. (2021, April 5). How technology will change the way business is run in 2021. Forbes. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/celinnedacosta/2021/04/04/how-technology-will-change-the-way-business-is-run-in-2021/?sh=5a18d9cc4c96.
Dai, B. (2020, May 14). Zoom: A story of disruptive innovation. LinkedIn. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/zoom-story-disruptive-innovation-benjamin.
DeVries, T. (2020, August 15). The innovator's dilemma by Clayton Christensen - Book Summary. Tyler DeVries. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://tylerdevries.com/book-summaries/the-innovators-dilemma/.
G2. (2021). Best free web and video conferencing software in 2021 - G2. G2. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.g2.com/categories/video-conferencing/free.
Mclaughlin, M., & Brame, D. (2021, November 11). The Best Video Conferencing Software for 2021. PCMag Asia. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://sea.pcmag.com/videoconferencing/4839/the-best-video-conferencing-software-for-2020.