EXPRESS: Global Ride-Hailing Platform Affordances and Developing Market Characteristics

Ride-hailing platforms are expanding globally, making inroads into developing markets. However, the technological affordances of many ride-hailing platforms were built in response to conditions in developed markets. Unlike developed markets, developing markets are characterized by infrastructural deficiencies, informality, and regulatory voids, which influence how consumers in these markets experience and use ride-hailing platforms. How do the affordances of ride-hailing platforms from developed markets shape the platform’s performance when utilized in developing markets? We explore this question using a qualitative ethnographic approach to examine Uber’s operation in Ghana, engaging with drivers, riders, investors, Uber executives, and government officials. We find that Uber’s platform performance in Ghana is shaped by three platform-market interaction outcomes: platform-infrastructural deficiencies, (in)formalization, and affordance-based regulation. These interaction outcomes affect the platform’s performance and manifest platform-market tensions. Market actors respond to the resulting platform performance with acceptance, avoidance, adaptation, substitution, resistance, brand responsibilization, and subversion. These insights contribute to research on the sharing economy, marketing in developing markets, and affordance theory. They also help ride-hailing managers understand how their platforms’ affordances work in other developing markets with similar characteristics, and how they can manage the resulting platform performance and tensions to succeed in these markets.