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Tech companies, and startups in particular, are touted as the powerhouses of American innovation and economy. And yet, it seems that the past 5 years of econom

Tech companies, and startups in particular, are touted as the powerhouses of American innovation and economy. And yet, it seems that the past 5 years of economic activity have been illusory. I expect a similar fate of Uber and Airbnb. Once the dust settles only the staid big co's shall remain.

chronic940 9y ago
Do you still take an Uber to the airport?
- exogeny 9y ago
  I bet he does, because Uber subsidizes over 50% of the ride. If they didn't, no one would take Uber. It's not difficult to know how that particular story is going to end.
  - jensvdh 9y ago
    What about Airbnb?
    - ithinkinstereo 9y ago
      I travel frequently, for both business and pleasure. Over 120K miles flown last year; 100+ nights away from home. I've basically stopped using AirBnB entirely unless there is a 2x difference in price between a comparable hotel. AirBnB is suffering the same product issues as Uber. Most of the listings now are from professional hosts with multiple properties. This is especially true in "hot" cities. As a result, quality of rentals have really declined from a few years ago, and anecdotally, the prices have also gone up - with all the various fees, it's really not that much cheaper than a hotel. And worse than a hotel, you have little to no recourse when something goes sideways.
- imdisappoint 9y ago
  I take Uber or Lyft, whichever is cheapest. The ride "sharing" industry is a brilliant innovation, but I seriously doubt it can support Uber's valuation.
  - dang 9y ago
    Would you please not create bulk accounts to post with here? Throwaways are fine if there's some specific purpose, e.g. something personally sensitive, but we ban users who do it routinely. Hacker News is a community. You don't have to use your real name, of course, but users should have some consistent identity that other users can relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be an entirely different forum.
    - imdisappoint 9y ago
      What is a bulk account? I don't see mention of it on the site guidelines or anywhere else. I personally don't want to have an identity on the web. If that's against the rules could you kindly point it out to me? That's definitely something I'd be interested in learning about.
      - dang 9y ago
        By bulk account I mean making numerous accounts, each of which is used for a few comments and then discarded. It's not in the guidelines yet but it will make it in there eventually. In the meantime, it's against the rules in the sense that we don't allow it, and ban accounts that do it, for the reason I explained above.
nikcub 9y ago
Top 5 companies by market cap in 2007: Petro China, Exxon, GE, China Mobile, Industrian and Commercial Bank of China Top 5 companies by market cap in 2017: Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Berkshire That's a hell of an illusion
- myroon5 9y ago
  Adding even further to your point, Facebook is actually #5 over Berkshire.
- imdisappoint 9y ago
  It's a good point. But I'm alluding more to budding companies, not established companies. Granted Facebook didn't IPO until 2012. But, as far as I can tell the software industry has contracted into those big 5 tech firms. The siren call of working at a startup and making it is sounding strident. Knowing what you know now, what startup, if any, would you have joined 5 years ago? Would you join any startup now?
  - discreteevent 9y ago
    Not everyone joins a start-up to make millions. Some will join just to make a living. There are plenty of startups that can provide a living for a few people with the potential for a bit of nest egg later on. That and the sense of involvement/freedom can be more attractive than a job at big co
  - eldavido 9y ago
    I think it's getting harder and harder to justify. Especially given what mid-career devs at these companies are earning. $150-200k base plus 100k/yr or more in stock after a few years, that's far cry from 90k + 0.1% of some junky seed company with about a 1% chance of IPO. If you look at my comment history you'll see I've been saying this for a while and I think it'll only get more true with further industry consolidation, which will make it both harder to displace incumbents product-wise, and harder to compete with them salary-wise.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
nnd 9y ago
What's wrong with Uber and Airbnb?

chronic940 9y ago

Do you still take an Uber to the airport?

exogeny 9y ago
I bet he does, because Uber subsidizes over 50% of the ride. If they didn't, no one would take Uber. It's not difficult to know how that particular story is going to end.
- jensvdh 9y ago
  What about Airbnb?
  - ithinkinstereo 9y ago
    I travel frequently, for both business and pleasure. Over 120K miles flown last year; 100+ nights away from home. I've basically stopped using AirBnB entirely unless there is a 2x difference in price between a comparable hotel. AirBnB is suffering the same product issues as Uber. Most of the listings now are from professional hosts with multiple properties. This is especially true in "hot" cities. As a result, quality of rentals have really declined from a few years ago, and anecdotally, the prices have also gone up - with all the various fees, it's really not that much cheaper than a hotel. And worse than a hotel, you have little to no recourse when something goes sideways.
imdisappoint 9y ago
I take Uber or Lyft, whichever is cheapest. The ride "sharing" industry is a brilliant innovation, but I seriously doubt it can support Uber's valuation.
- dang 9y ago
  Would you please not create bulk accounts to post with here? Throwaways are fine if there's some specific purpose, e.g. something personally sensitive, but we ban users who do it routinely. Hacker News is a community. You don't have to use your real name, of course, but users should have some consistent identity that other users can relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be an entirely different forum.
  - imdisappoint 9y ago
    What is a bulk account? I don't see mention of it on the site guidelines or anywhere else. I personally don't want to have an identity on the web. If that's against the rules could you kindly point it out to me? That's definitely something I'd be interested in learning about.
    - dang 9y ago
      By bulk account I mean making numerous accounts, each of which is used for a few comments and then discarded. It's not in the guidelines yet but it will make it in there eventually. In the meantime, it's against the rules in the sense that we don't allow it, and ban accounts that do it, for the reason I explained above.

nikcub 9y ago

Top 5 companies by market cap in 2007: Petro China, Exxon, GE, China Mobile, Industrian and Commercial Bank of China Top 5 companies by market cap in 2017: Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Berkshire That's a hell of an illusion

myroon5 9y ago
Adding even further to your point, Facebook is actually #5 over Berkshire.
imdisappoint 9y ago
It's a good point. But I'm alluding more to budding companies, not established companies. Granted Facebook didn't IPO until 2012. But, as far as I can tell the software industry has contracted into those big 5 tech firms. The siren call of working at a startup and making it is sounding strident. Knowing what you know now, what startup, if any, would you have joined 5 years ago? Would you join any startup now?
- discreteevent 9y ago
  Not everyone joins a start-up to make millions. Some will join just to make a living. There are plenty of startups that can provide a living for a few people with the potential for a bit of nest egg later on. That and the sense of involvement/freedom can be more attractive than a job at big co
- eldavido 9y ago
  I think it's getting harder and harder to justify. Especially given what mid-career devs at these companies are earning. $150-200k base plus 100k/yr or more in stock after a few years, that's far cry from 90k + 0.1% of some junky seed company with about a 1% chance of IPO. If you look at my comment history you'll see I've been saying this for a while and I think it'll only get more true with further industry consolidation, which will make it both harder to displace incumbents product-wise, and harder to compete with them salary-wise.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

nnd 9y ago

What's wrong with Uber and Airbnb?