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Uber got lucky - they banked on millenials being so self-centred, and so naive and myopic on the long-term costs of their actions, that they used them to basica

Uber got lucky - they banked on millenials being so self-centred, and so naive and myopic on the long-term costs of their actions, that they used them to basically use VC cash (like a billion a year in China alone) to basically buy the cabbie business. Once uber are the only players in town for a cab, and the fares go north, the service drops even further, regulation ignored even more so, those same selfish millenials will be the first to moan (aren't they always...).

wc- 11y ago
Uber has lots of non-millenial users. Millenials do make up a large percentage of the userbase, but I would argue that has more to do with the age breakdown of urban workforce populations. There are larger forces at play here: younger workforce is moving to urban areas, not suburbs, and this is impacting car ownership because cars are not needed in many urban environments. For reference, here is a breakdown of Uber's customer base in the US: http://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/the-demographics-of-ubers-us-users http://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/the-demographics-of-ubers... I'm having a hard time justifying the effort spent to respond to this comment, it seems very low quality...
sushid 11y ago
So self-centered and naive? What's wrong with paying $5 for an UberPool vs $2 for SF's subpar metro system? It's called paying a slight premium for convenience. Not every millennial is running around massively in student debt, documenting their $30 brunch on Insta/Snap while complaining about boomers and the global economy.
Grishnakh 11y ago
I have to agree with the other responder: this is a low-quality comment. The big thing you're missing with your idea about running the cabs out of business is that Uber is not a monopoly; they have a direct competitor in Lyft. Before those two came along, cabs were not cheap at all, and they had terrible quality (crappy, dirty vehicles; rude drivers; taking 60 minutes to show up when you call). Just ask anyone in SanFran about how cabs were before Uber showed up. As long as there's competition, prices will naturally stay low. As for "regulation", are you kidding? How did the "regulation" help anything? All it did was artificially restrict competition, while not providing any value for the customer. Cabs are nasty, drivers are rude, they drive in circles to increase the fares, etc. Regulation never helped with any of that. Uber's reputation system did. Honestly, you sound like a disgruntled taxi driver, mad that you can't get paid to abuse customers any more. Too bad, so sad.

wc- 11y ago

Uber has lots of non-millenial users. Millenials do make up a large percentage of the userbase, but I would argue that has more to do with the age breakdown of urban workforce populations. There are larger forces at play here: younger workforce is moving to urban areas, not suburbs, and this is impacting car ownership because cars are not needed in many urban environments. For reference, here is a breakdown of Uber's customer base in the US: http://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/the-demographics-of-ubers-us-users http://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/the-demographics-of-ubers... I'm having a hard time justifying the effort spent to respond to this comment, it seems very low quality...

sushid 11y ago

So self-centered and naive? What's wrong with paying $5 for an UberPool vs $2 for SF's subpar metro system? It's called paying a slight premium for convenience. Not every millennial is running around massively in student debt, documenting their $30 brunch on Insta/Snap while complaining about boomers and the global economy.

Grishnakh 11y ago

I have to agree with the other responder: this is a low-quality comment. The big thing you're missing with your idea about running the cabs out of business is that Uber is not a monopoly; they have a direct competitor in Lyft. Before those two came along, cabs were not cheap at all, and they had terrible quality (crappy, dirty vehicles; rude drivers; taking 60 minutes to show up when you call). Just ask anyone in SanFran about how cabs were before Uber showed up. As long as there's competition, prices will naturally stay low. As for "regulation", are you kidding? How did the "regulation" help anything? All it did was artificially restrict competition, while not providing any value for the customer. Cabs are nasty, drivers are rude, they drive in circles to increase the fares, etc. Regulation never helped with any of that. Uber's reputation system did. Honestly, you sound like a disgruntled taxi driver, mad that you can't get paid to abuse customers any more. Too bad, so sad.