Generally speaking, with on-demand self-service, customers are free to decide which services to use or subscribe to and how much to invest in using them. Everything is available at the swipe of a credit card or through an online payment system.

Companies like Uber or Netflix connect people who want goods (e.g., a meal from a restaurant) or services (e.g., video streaming) with people who can provide them with what they are looking for for a certain price.

Usually, on-demand service apps focus on a single domain area like Airbnb that helps people find housing, Lyft that provides transportation, and GrubHub that allows ordering meals. Sometimes such specialization results in one company launching and running multiple businesses across different domains, as it happened with Uber and Uber Eats becoming two separate applications. This way, it remains relatively easy for consumers to navigate through a segmented service marketplace. They always know which app to open when searching for a particular thing they want, be it food, taxi, housing, or entertainment.

An on-demand service business model is also characterized by immense delay sensitivity and high agent independence. In other words, users expect goods and services to be delivered immediately. On the other hand, agents (service providers) serve as independent contractors in the sense that they decide whether and when to work and receive payments from the platform for each service completion.

An on-demand model enables access to a larger pool of service providers and customers and is meant to drive a better customer experience. Therefore, on-demand service platforms are usually developed in the form of both a mobile app and a web app for users to get to what they want faster and more easily. These apps are, in turn, managed through the admin dashboard that allows you to watch over every single ongoing and completed operation.