I don’t think we need to overanalyse Uber and why it worked. It basically is a highly successful raid on the owners of taxi medallions. In the markets where Ube

I don’t think we need to overanalyse Uber and why it worked. It basically is a highly successful raid on the owners of taxi medallions. In the markets where Uber is doing well the medallion owners cartel allowed their share of the taxi revenue get too high. This resulted in the price of medallions reaching astronomical prices - for example NYC medallions reaching over a million dollars [1]. Since Uber and Lyft entered the picture the price of these has fallen to $400,000 [2]. Most (all) other "Uber for X” businesses don’t have such an asset to raid. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/upshot/under-pressure-from-uber-taxi-medallion-prices-are-plummeting.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/upshot/under-pressure-from... 2. http://nycitycab.com/business/taximedallionlist.aspx http://nycitycab.com/business/taximedallionlist.aspx