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Lyft "lost $127 million in the first half of 2015 on $46.7 million in revenue, according to the documents. Lyft said last month that it has gained market share

Lyft "lost $127 million in the first half of 2015 on $46.7 million in revenue, according to the documents. Lyft said last month that it has gained market share in key markets, such as San Francisco, and has a gross revenue “run rate” of $1 billion." I had no idea lyft was losing 3x the their revenue. That is crazy.

jscottmiller 11y ago
Anecdotal evidence, but I've hardly paid for a Lyft ride (aside from driver tips) for the last few months. This thanks to a long-running 50% off promotion in my area (Austin, TX, USA) and a pile of promotional credit added to my account. I wonder how much of this loss is due to these marketing efforts. Now that the promotion is over and credit depleted, my default ride app is back to Uber.
- dopamean 11y ago
  I'm in Austin and basically did the exact same thing.
  - xur17 11y ago
    I did the same thing as well. They kept claiming the promotion was about to expire, and then just created a new one. I'm waiting for another one to show up. I am curious how the promotion will work out for them long term - I'm sure some people continue using the app after signing up (stickiness), but a lot of people likely switch back to Uber since it's cheaper.
- frakkingcylons 11y ago
  Not to mention that for a long time, you could exploit a bug in the ride-splitting feature that allowed you to get free rides during the 50% off promotion. They applied the promotion as a credit and calculated the credit before the fare split.
rdtsc 11y ago
Because most people Uber...? It became a "verb" and well, here we know what that means: "xerox that paper", "google this term"... Nobody is Lyft-ing and everyone is Uber-ing. Once it's verbified, it's hard for competitors to overcome it. I, for one, have used neither. But I have friends and family who travel a lot. Some are in their 20s, 30s, and some in the 60s and they all say they Uber places vs taking a taxi. They don't know about Lyft-ing. Now what is the underlying reason for that. Maybe luck, maybe time to market, maybe pricing, I can't tell you.
- ethanbond 11y ago
  - Early Uber branding beat the hell out of early Lyft branding - Uber has no moral compass That's pretty much it.
- tedmiston 11y ago
  Disagree that "most people Uber" is the reason Lyft is losing so much money. I'm not exactly sure when Lyft stopped focusing on international markets to double down on the U.S., but I feel like much of the losses are from "failed" international experimentation. With my experience in Ohio, I use both preferring whichever can reach me quickest (a 15-20 minute wait here is not abnormal).
  - rdtsc 11y ago
    Yeah I went by most people I know (some from Ohio too! btw, but they use Uber when traveling only to other cities) and extrapolated to "most" just by them being average Americans -- non techies, various ages,... Most tech people I know have both apps installed and use both, like you do. But I don't think that's representative of the general population.
- colmvp 11y ago
  There's something to be said about the advantages of rapid expansion and being the first-mover. It might be a shit show internally as any growth spurt might have but by the time Lyft tries to enter some of these cities (and that's an if) Uber will have already captured the entire market and it might be a very steep uphill battle to try and gain market share.
argonaut 11y ago
You realize that Uber loses even more money per year, right?

jscottmiller 11y ago

Anecdotal evidence, but I've hardly paid for a Lyft ride (aside from driver tips) for the last few months. This thanks to a long-running 50% off promotion in my area (Austin, TX, USA) and a pile of promotional credit added to my account. I wonder how much of this loss is due to these marketing efforts. Now that the promotion is over and credit depleted, my default ride app is back to Uber.

dopamean 11y ago
I'm in Austin and basically did the exact same thing.
- xur17 11y ago
  I did the same thing as well. They kept claiming the promotion was about to expire, and then just created a new one. I'm waiting for another one to show up. I am curious how the promotion will work out for them long term - I'm sure some people continue using the app after signing up (stickiness), but a lot of people likely switch back to Uber since it's cheaper.
frakkingcylons 11y ago
Not to mention that for a long time, you could exploit a bug in the ride-splitting feature that allowed you to get free rides during the 50% off promotion. They applied the promotion as a credit and calculated the credit before the fare split.

rdtsc 11y ago

Because most people Uber...? It became a "verb" and well, here we know what that means: "xerox that paper", "google this term"... Nobody is Lyft-ing and everyone is Uber-ing. Once it's verbified, it's hard for competitors to overcome it. I, for one, have used neither. But I have friends and family who travel a lot. Some are in their 20s, 30s, and some in the 60s and they all say they Uber places vs taking a taxi. They don't know about Lyft-ing. Now what is the underlying reason for that. Maybe luck, maybe time to market, maybe pricing, I can't tell you.

ethanbond 11y ago
- Early Uber branding beat the hell out of early Lyft branding - Uber has no moral compass That's pretty much it.
tedmiston 11y ago
Disagree that "most people Uber" is the reason Lyft is losing so much money. I'm not exactly sure when Lyft stopped focusing on international markets to double down on the U.S., but I feel like much of the losses are from "failed" international experimentation. With my experience in Ohio, I use both preferring whichever can reach me quickest (a 15-20 minute wait here is not abnormal).
- rdtsc 11y ago
  Yeah I went by most people I know (some from Ohio too! btw, but they use Uber when traveling only to other cities) and extrapolated to "most" just by them being average Americans -- non techies, various ages,... Most tech people I know have both apps installed and use both, like you do. But I don't think that's representative of the general population.
colmvp 11y ago
There's something to be said about the advantages of rapid expansion and being the first-mover. It might be a shit show internally as any growth spurt might have but by the time Lyft tries to enter some of these cities (and that's an if) Uber will have already captured the entire market and it might be a very steep uphill battle to try and gain market share.

argonaut 11y ago

You realize that Uber loses even more money per year, right?