I think that the profitability in mature markets has a lot to do with how sane existing taxi regulations are. Even with the subsidized prices in Berlin, taxis t

I think that the profitability in mature markets has a lot to do with how sane existing taxi regulations are. Even with the subsidized prices in Berlin, taxis there are so plentiful and relatively affordable that aside from heavily subsidized rides Uber didn't have a huge edge over the taxi+mytaxi combo. It was never really faster to get a car via Uber than with MyTaxi, or more often than not, just walking to the street and waiting 1-2 minutes. They've never had close to the same participation from Taxi drivers as MyTaxi and others have had. Incidentally, most Berlin Taxis are independent and pay only a small fee to get licensed. They must carry commercial insurance, but almost no one thinks that is unreasonable. It's ironic because if the cities where Uber is madly profitable actually responded to their criticisms and reformed their protectionist taxi regulations, Uber would lose much of their pricing edge to competition.