Porter's Five Forces
The Porter's Five Forces tool is a tool for understanding where power lies in a business situation.
The model assumes that there are five important forces that determine competitive power in a business situation: supplier power, buyer power, competitive rivalry, threat of substitution and threat of new entry.
Threat of Substitutes
Medium: Existing skill exchange initiatives overlap with our app but tend to focus on other interests like language. These could however also expand to arts, especially if they are or reach a well-established status.
Industry Rivalry
High: There will have to be clear advantages to our app to be able to lure people away from more well-established arts courses as offered by adult education centres and academies. Focus will have to lie on our points of difference, such as the more flexible hours and the more custom skills.
Supplier Power
Buyer Power
High: Just like any platform that focuses on interaction between people, Switch needs enough engaged participants in order for the app to be functional. A lack of people means the collapse of exchange possibilities both in geographical range as well as in the variety of art skills on offer.
Threat of Mobility
Low: The Switch app is all digital and in general independent when it comes to everything IT-related. When it comes to our partnerships with DIY shops we also have enough stores to choose from so as to ensure continuity.
High: Since the usage of mobile apps, the interest in artistic hobbies & DIY and the acceptance of sharing economy initiatives are all growing or already at a high level, start-ups similar to ours will eventually pop up.