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Reminds me of image hosting services and social sites. Oh I'm sure we can make money with all these users. I mean there are so many of them. We just have to wa
by SerLava 10y ago
Reminds me of image hosting services and social sites.
Oh I'm sure we can make money with all these users. I mean there are so many of them. We just have to wait until the incumbent starts collapsing, and burn money until we start collapsing, and someone else figures all those users must be worth something, so they start burning money, and...
- oblio 10y agoThe problem with this comparison is that image hosting services have a really low social and political impact. Ride sharing on the other hand... can't really be a giant Ponzi scheme.
- mulmen 10y agoI'll bite, which ride sharing program isn't running on investment capital and is actually supporting itself? They all look like Ponzi schemes at the moment.
- SerLava 10y agoI think by "can't" he means "shouldn't."
- narrator 10y agoGood old traditional taxi service makes money. They even have apps now.
- qeternity 10y agoRegulated taxis are ponzis alright, it's just rigged by governments and investment is forced upon citizens. Absolutely no reason why an extremely commoditized good like transportation should have fixed rates set by a central planner. Uber/Lyft et al may not be perfect, but we will get there. It's tough to deregulate industries.
- quickben 10y agoBut, your rant does nothing to invalidate his point. Cabbies are in plus money wise. Chances are zero all taxis in the world will vanish, while Uber+lift can't subsidize forever.
- stickfigure 10y agoTaxis are subsidized by artificial scarcity (medallion quotas).
- sangnoir 10y agoOnly in certain jurisdictions
- ams6110 10y agoIs there a major US city where taxis are not regulated and licensed (by medallion or otherwise) creating an artificial scarcity?
- sangnoir 10y agoI'm not familiar enough with the US taxi bylaws to answer that. Is there a particular reason you are restricting scope to only the US? Taxis and "ride sharing" organizations are an international phenomenon: I'd say the majority of jurisdictions do not have medallions. And the upstream point remains - most taxis can now be hailed via mobile apps.