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There's a distinct difference between those "marketplaces" and Uber, and that's that Uber sets the price, not the member. When I Ebay something, I set the price
by jdmichal 11y ago
There's a distinct difference between those "marketplaces" and Uber, and that's that Uber sets the price, not the member. When I Ebay something, I set the price. If I request a HIT on MTurk, I set the price. If I put up a room on Airbnb, I set the price. If I hop in my car and turn on Uber, I don't set the price. Uber does. I would think that setting my own price is a significant test for being a "marketplace".
- amyjess 11y agoAlso, allowing customers to choose who to go with. Uber doesn't allow customers to choose a driver; the system assigns one to you. On the other hand, an eBay customer bids on whatever auctions they want to bid on, and they know the seller's identity beforehand. With eBay, you can go "I had a bad experience with this guy before, so I'll look and see if anyone else is selling this item so I don't have to deal with this person again". With Uber/Lyft, you're stuck with "ugh, the system matched me with this guy, guess I'm going to have to constantly cancel and re-request until I'm matched with someone else" (for the record, I've only had to do this twice in the almost two years I've been using Lyft).