Once upon a time, there was a girl named Alice. She wanted to bake a cute strawberry cake for her mother. But, to her disappointment, she was left with no eggs and very little milk. Under normal circumstances, she would have panicked and rushed to the nearby 7Eleven. But, instead, she grabbed her smartphone, and used an amazing on demand app to order a dozen of eggs and couple of other things. She got them delivered in less than 30 minutes and baked a delicious heart-shaped cake with strawberries and lots of love.

Nowadays, Instant Gratification is not just a psychological concept but a psychological necessity. Customers need everything now or never. Because time is a luxury and waiting for something is a sheer waste of it. On the other hand, glutting suppliers are crowding the market with closely competing services and resulting in excess capacity. Also, they are unable to maintain and grow proper customer base for their offerings. Hence, there is clearly a need to link both the consumers as well as the suppliers through a seamless knot for the smooth working of the marketplace.

Introducing Mobile Apps for On-Demand Service – concept in which a service request (demand) is received in a smartphone through a mobile application, and delivered in an offline environment. It has been termed as ‘Uber for X’, as Uber was the first company to address the taxi booking problem in United States and turn the situation in it’s favor. Today, it is worth $18.4 billion. Uber delivery service is spreading itself around the world. All thanks to the three steps of identifying the untapped opportunity in taxi service industry, recruiting licensed drivers and creating a mobile app to facilitate the liaison between drivers and passengers.

To make a successful ‘Uber for X’ mobile application, also referred as Uber ‘on demand apps’, one needs to include the following features: a visibly big ‘Request for the service’ button; an in-built GPS to track the service provider and calculate the distance covered; easy and quick receipt generation, and cashless payment system; and reviewing and rating option of service provider as well as customer, which will be visible in their respective profiles.

It’s interesting to note that, even though the reach of Uber is spreading like wildfire, it will always face intense competition at the micro level. This is because a local service provider will be able to offer customized services and prices to the customers, and reach them in minutes. Hence, the concept of Uber for X can be highly effective at the local level.

We have assembled five distinct service industries that are growing with the on demand service app concept, to give you an idea on how Uber-ization is the next best alternative to grow your business or give wings to your startup idea.