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</conjecture> Lyft just isn't a real competitor outside of major American cities right now. Go to a city without an international airport and see how many lyft

</conjecture> Lyft just isn't a real competitor outside of major American cities right now. Go to a city without an international airport and see how many lyft drivers there are.

untog 9y ago
Oh, for sure. But being spread thinly over dozens of small markets isn't necessarily a better idea than concentrating on a few large ones.
- rtx 9y ago
  Counter example India, Lyft can now never come here. Soon it will be one of Uber's biggest market.
  - zda 9y ago
    Why not?
    - rtx 9y ago
      We had a local competitior backed by soft bank. They are in bad shape. All because of execution. I don't see any other company able to match that ruthlessness.
      - marcosdumay 9y ago
        So, Uber will be able to take the entire market as long as they don't make it lucrative? That seems to be Uber's plan everywhere, and they look quite successful at it.
  - vr3690 9y ago
    Ola seems to be doing fine and I think they've some sort of partnership with lyft where at some point in time you'll be able to use the lyft app and hail ola rides. This hasn't happened yet, though.
beager 9y ago
I believe that Lyft doesn't have to compete globally with Uber to be a successful business in its own right. I also believe that Uber isn't immune from being crippled by competitors that operate in a very small but key subset of Uber's markets. There is very little network effect with Uber. Sure, you can hop off a plane anywhere in the world and open Uber to get a car, but that is a very small number of people overall. I would contend that most people use whichever ride-sharing service is available and most economical in their own city, and if that same service is available on the rare occasion that they travel, then bonus. Of course, if Uber beats everyone else to the punch with proprietary self-driving cars and undercuts prices profitably, they win. There seem to be some very large issues with that, however.
- jpatokal 9y ago
  You're ignoring that businessmen who travel all the time are very heavy users of Uber and similar services. I'm not even a frequent flyer, but I'd estimate that a good 80-90% of my Uber usage is travel-related. At home, I have tons of other options to get around, but on a tight schedule in an unfamiliar city, I basically default to Uber all the time, because I rarely have the time or risk tolerance explore alternatives. One of the things I love about Uber is that I can use it in SF, Singapore, Manila, Helsinki, wherever. It also works sufficiently well that I have near-zero incentive to try out Lyft/Grab/Ola/whatever, particularly since this usually involves yet another tedious sign-up process of entering credit cards and PIN confirmations and yadda yadda.
  - Bakary 9y ago
    I think their point was that well-off people who travel all the time are still a tiny portion of the population.
    - jpatokal 9y ago
      Sure, but that tiny portion still supports the bulk of the airline and hotel industry, and (I suspect) a very disproportionate share of Uber's business.

</conjecture> Lyft just isn't a real competitor outside of major American cities right now. Go to a city without an international airport and see how many lyft drivers there are.

untog 9y ago

Oh, for sure. But being spread thinly over dozens of small markets isn't necessarily a better idea than concentrating on a few large ones.

rtx 9y ago
Counter example India, Lyft can now never come here. Soon it will be one of Uber's biggest market.
- zda 9y ago
  Why not?
  - rtx 9y ago
    We had a local competitior backed by soft bank. They are in bad shape. All because of execution. I don't see any other company able to match that ruthlessness.
    - marcosdumay 9y ago
      So, Uber will be able to take the entire market as long as they don't make it lucrative? That seems to be Uber's plan everywhere, and they look quite successful at it.
- vr3690 9y ago
  Ola seems to be doing fine and I think they've some sort of partnership with lyft where at some point in time you'll be able to use the lyft app and hail ola rides. This hasn't happened yet, though.

beager 9y ago

I believe that Lyft doesn't have to compete globally with Uber to be a successful business in its own right. I also believe that Uber isn't immune from being crippled by competitors that operate in a very small but key subset of Uber's markets. There is very little network effect with Uber. Sure, you can hop off a plane anywhere in the world and open Uber to get a car, but that is a very small number of people overall. I would contend that most people use whichever ride-sharing service is available and most economical in their own city, and if that same service is available on the rare occasion that they travel, then bonus. Of course, if Uber beats everyone else to the punch with proprietary self-driving cars and undercuts prices profitably, they win. There seem to be some very large issues with that, however.

jpatokal 9y ago
You're ignoring that businessmen who travel all the time are very heavy users of Uber and similar services. I'm not even a frequent flyer, but I'd estimate that a good 80-90% of my Uber usage is travel-related. At home, I have tons of other options to get around, but on a tight schedule in an unfamiliar city, I basically default to Uber all the time, because I rarely have the time or risk tolerance explore alternatives. One of the things I love about Uber is that I can use it in SF, Singapore, Manila, Helsinki, wherever. It also works sufficiently well that I have near-zero incentive to try out Lyft/Grab/Ola/whatever, particularly since this usually involves yet another tedious sign-up process of entering credit cards and PIN confirmations and yadda yadda.
- Bakary 9y ago
  I think their point was that well-off people who travel all the time are still a tiny portion of the population.
  - jpatokal 9y ago
    Sure, but that tiny portion still supports the bulk of the airline and hotel industry, and (I suspect) a very disproportionate share of Uber's business.