Five-O App Rates PD
http://tech.co/teens-create-app-rate-police-brutality-2014-10
Spurred by recent cases of police brutality in Ferguson and other towns, a group of teens from Decatur, Georgia created a Yelp-like app for rating local law enforcement called Five-O. Caleb, Ima, and Asha Christian created a system where users can submit their interactions with police officers and rate the encounter. Using skills learned from Codeacademy and other online programs, they are pursuing placing more power into citizens’ hands. They included a “know your rights” section in the app including information from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Like other rating systems, Five-O is subject to network effects. The usefulness of the app depends on having many users submit their experiences, enough so that new users looking for information on their local police department will be able to find a review. The larger the user base, the more comprehensive the app will become, making it more useful and appealing to users.
This app benefits from being new and not having much competition to pull away from its user base. Yelp, the food/restaurant rating app, has been around for quite a while, with similar apps trying grab a share of the restaurant finding/rating market. However, it’s hard for apps trying to gain a share of Yelp’s market because Yelp already has such a large user base; it benefits from having so many different users making reviews that new users will more likely choose Yelp because they trust it will have reviews for the restaurant they are looking for.