Meaning & use
uberisation
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Meanings
noununcountable
The process by which an app-based service lets independent workers sell their labor directly to customers, replacing regular paid jobs.
Grammar: Uncountable: talk about the uberisation of an industry, never 'an uberisation' or 'uberisations'.
Patterns
- the uberisation of something
- uberisation in an industry
The uberisation of delivery work has left many couriers without sick pay or a fixed wage.
Economists disagree about whether the uberisation of transport has created more jobs than it destroyed.
Her book examines the uberisation of care work, where apps now match nurses with families.
noununcountablebusiness
The spread of a business model in which a dominant platform undercuts established firms and reshapes a whole market.
Grammar: Also uncountable; often followed by 'of' plus the industry being changed.
Patterns
- the uberisation of a market
- lead to the uberisation of something
The uberisation of banking has forced traditional lenders to cut their fees.
Analysts say the uberisation of retail is squeezing small shops in city centers.
Common combinations
- the uberisation of work
- Debate about the uberisation of work often turns on who pays for insurance.
- the uberisation of an industry
- The uberisation of the taxi industry happened faster than regulators expected.
- drive uberisation
- Cheap smartphones helped drive uberisation across the service sector.
- resist uberisation
- Some European cities have tried to resist uberisation through licensing rules.
Synonyms and how they differ
- gigification
- Very close in meaning, but it stresses the growth of short-term gigs rather than the role of a single dominant app.
- platformization
- Broader and more neutral: it covers any shift to platform-based business, not only the labor changes uberisation implies.
- disruption
- Used in business writing for any new model that upsets an old market; it is vaguer and not limited to app-based work.
Word family
- uberize verb
- to change an industry in this app-based way
- uberized adjective
- describing a market or job that has been changed in this way
Commonly confused: uberisation or urbanization?
uberisation vs urbanization
Sounds similar but means the growth of towns and cities, not a change in how work is organized.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'uberisation' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Uberisation' is an uncountable noun meaning a process, so it fits after 'the ... of' as in option 0. Option 2 treats it as a verb, option 3 uses a plural that does not exist, and option 1 adds a plural count form that the word never takes.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “uberisation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.