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Uber loses ground in US as rival Lyft accelerates
- pdeva1 9y agopaywalled...
- ams6110 9y agoIf you're posting a paywalled article it would be considerate to post some excerpts of the main thesis and argument.
- tyingq 9y agoThe web link at the top of HN works, but the chart in the article tells most of the story: https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/http%3A%2F%2Fcom.ft.imagepublish.prod-us.s3.amazonaws.com%2F50d74d98-52d9-11e7-bfb8-997009366969?source=next&fit=scale-down&width=600 https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/htt...
- swampthinker 9y agoI'm actually shocked that #deleteuber had that large of an impact. Maybe this is the cynic inside me, but I feel like social media campaigns like those didn't have much impact. Guess I was wrong.
- erdle 9y agoat the end of the day it's just an app... there is no Uber infrastructure such as a bus stop... very few real assets... and not a ton of IP if every car company, Google, and others are competing. they had a great brand and the only thing they had to do was not fuck it up before they reached the next level. and instead they spent most of their cash on fighting rivals, built a culture that is eroding the brand and behind on the next thing in transportation.
- valuearb 9y agoGetting your app on someones phone is a substantial, lasting competitive advantage. Getting them to use it regularly is even more of one.
- valuearb 9y agoIt looks like it barely had any effect. Lyft has been far behind but slowly gaining mark share for years. The chart looks like they briefly accelerating that gain rate, then returned to normal.
- ars 9y agoIt didn't. Draw a straight line from early 2015 to present. Notice the trendline, and how late 2016 was above the line, then the correction, and back to trendline.
- adventurer 9y agoWas the correction you mentioned not caused by #deleteuber? It seems like the impact was a huge correction.
- jseliger 9y agoNot clear that it has. From FTA: Uber’s global sales are still growing, with first-quarter revenues surging to $3.4bn, triple the levels of the previous year. However, its growth rate in the US is slowing and investors have become concerned after a period of crisis has left its top ranks in disarray. In other words... the company is still growing massively, from a large base. It's just not growing as fast as it once did. As happens too often, the headline doesn't match the data.
- sergers 9y agoAMP non paywalled link Edit: amp link is paywalled too
- tyingq 9y agoPaywalled for me, though it works via the HN web link / Google search path.
- aceperry 9y agoWhat's the HN web link/google search path? edit: nevermind, figured it out. Just search the title in Google, which gives you a link to the article.
- tyingq 9y agoScroll to the top of the page, click the link labeled web. It runs a Google search that should put the article near the top. Useful because many paywalls make an exception for traffic that comes in that way.
- sergers 9y agoThe company I work for, only has Lyft as approved service for travel and expenses. Everyone used Uber mostly, and then they announced Lyft is the only approved one. Not sure why that decision was specifically made when majority were expensing Uber trips
- computerex 9y agoMaybe because the company you work for doesn't want to support Uber given their shady tendencies.
- supercoder 9y agoVery much doubt the company has any opinion on the way Uber operates it's business.
- haukilup 9y agoWhy? Do you know the company? There are plenty of companies that would be willing to have such a policy, even if it's not considered a common practice.
- hammock 9y agoFinance (or maybe HR if it's an after-hours perk or something) gets incentives/kickbacks? Can anyone that works in this area confirm?
- HelloMcFly 9y agoI have never heard of anything remotely like that from the HR side.
- jessaustin 9y agoAre you the same person as GP? Because that's not the same username... Perhaps you're speaking more generally, and saying that you've never heard of shady decisions made by HR dudes? Well, I have heard of such decisions, and I doubt I'm alone.
- ars 9y agoI know plenty of people who say "I'm getting an Uber", while using the Lyft app. So Uber has definitely won in that department - all they have to do is not screw it up (any worse than they already did). People will forget, and over time that name recognition will give them back the market share.
- crisdux 9y agoThere are plenty of examples of trademarks that became generic terms for product or services where the initial trademark owner did not dominate in that market very long. Heck I could argue a genericized trademark may be a bad thing and signify the lack of uniqueness in the service Uber provides if all other competitors are described using the same term.
- largehotcoffee 9y ago>There are plenty of examples Name five?
- lukewrites 9y agoTo the other examples add Velcro (R).
- jeffmould 9y ago1) Kleenex 2) Google 3) Aspirin 4) Band-Aid 5) Jacuzzi 6) Post-It 7) Q-Tip 8) Sharpie 9) Taser 10) Xerox
- delecti 9y agoI would argue that at least half of those don't qualify. Kleenex, Google, Band-Aid, Post-It, Q-Tip, and Sharpie are all in a dominant position in their respective product categories. Off-brand examples of all of them exist, but all of my Sharpies are Sharpie brand, I use Q-Tip brand Q-Tips, I only Google with Yahoo or Bing when Google itself is down, and My Band-Aids are Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ravenstine 9y agoHN link is still paywalled for me, so here's the archived version of it that's not paywalled: https://archive.fo/Q0gkJ https://archive.fo/Q0gkJ
- cavisne 9y ago"Lyft, which completed a $600m fundraising in April, has expanded into 150 new cities this year " seems like this would skew the numbers a bit. Uber is already everywhere it needs to be in the US. Lyft is irrelevant until they prove they can compete internationally imo, they are way behind uber here
- boulos 9y agoIrrelevant is a strong term. I agree that I still have Uber installed precisely because I travel internationally, but for my use here in the US I've switched entirely to Lyft (and been pleasantly surprised! Though I'm still waiting for them to make it easier to switch between the different levels of service to compare rates).
- bsder 9y ago> Lyft is irrelevant until they prove they can compete internationally imo, they are way behind uber here Why should they compete internationally? From what I can see, international competition is wildly unprofitable, subject to the whims and vicissitudes of local politicians, and subject to local competition who understand their market far better than any foreign firm.
- aianus 9y agoInternational travel is a major use case for these apps. When I'm traveling I don't have my car with me and my usage of Uber skyrockets.
- laretluval 9y agoI'm looking forward to the tell-all about Lyft's PR black ops against Uber.
- RSZC 9y agoI've got a buddy who works for (possibly one of multiple?) Lyft's PR firm, and has worked on that account. You don't need any sort of 'black ops' when your competitor is busy generating their own bad headlines. Instead you just call up your journalist connections every time Uber does something stupid to make sure they saw it.
- sillysaurus3 9y agoI don't know. It's very convenient that Lyft is seen as the do-no-wrong Uber alternative. Once the dust settles, it will be interesting to see whether Lyft is as innocent as everyone presumes.
- woodandsteel 9y agoGiven how Uber operates, if Lyft is doing anything wrong, I would expect Uber would already be publicizing it, and indeed be trying to make it look a good deal worse than it really is.
- fencepost 9y ago"PR black ops" against Uber would probably consist of "smack down any Lyft people who approach 10% of Uber's public idiocy quotient," plus finding some charities to support, maybe something involving kittens and puppies.
- davidgerard 9y agoStanding back and pointing would do it. "Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- throwaway232432 9y agoMarc Andreessen and A16Z deserve scrutiny here. The most critical outlets are those with one of those two as investors. Pando Daily: Andreessen has 8% ownership https://pando.com/about/ https://pando.com/about/ Buzzfeed: A16Z invested $50m in Buzzfeed https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/10/buzzfeed-raises-50-million-dollars-from-andreessen-horowitz/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/10/buzzfeed-raises-50-million... Business Insider: Andreessen participated in the Venture Series, Series B and Series D https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/business-insider#/entity https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/business-insider#/en... More neutral/balanced outlets like Recode and TechCrunch don't have either as investors. Recode for example was the only media company that mentioned the death of Travis' mother as a primary motivation for taking leave of absence. The less balanced sources above barely mentioned that "detail" at the bottom of the articles on that matter. A16Z did Lyft's $60m Series C: https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-round/3b6daa9a-7bb9-d7de-2c91-89f207680e9d https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-round/3b6daa9a-7bb9-d7de-...
- bspn 9y agoI don't know if it's because I've been under a rock, but I noticed Uber advertising on TV for the first time this weekend with a "everyone needs a side-hustle" tagline. I noticed it because it's always a little jarring when SV technology companies turn to traditional media advertising (I still remember the Google SB ad), but I took it as a sign that Uber's organic driver growth has taken a real hit recently and they're now having to actively work to attract drivers.
- ribosometronome 9y agoUber has been doing a bunch of product placement before this. They've had some relatively forced mentions on shows like SNL.
- ams6110 9y agoI've heard a lot of Uber ads on the radio this year, seeking drivers.
- dannylandau 9y agoBased on the chart below, Uber still owns 80% of the market. So, still in a very dominant position. I wonder why Gett is not figured in there. https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/http%3A%2F%2Fcom.ft.imagepublish.prod-us.s3.amazonaws.com%2F50d74d98-52d9-11e7-bfb8-997009366969?source=next&fit=scale-down&width=600 https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/htt...
- joatmon-snoo 9y agoGett doesn't exist out of NY. Lyft does.
- throwaway-1209 9y ago100% fake news. There's no way they actually have any ride data from either company to back up this claim. In fact there's another bit of equally fake news posted to HN right now that says that recent events have failed to put a dent into Uber marketshare. "Journalists" should stop making shit up, and instead stick to reporting facts.
- ojbyrne 9y ago"...according to data from Second Measure, a research firm that uses anonymised credit card data" Perhaps not 100% accurate, but not 100% fake either.
- throwaway-1209 9y agoSecond Measure relies on undisclosed data sources of unknown accuracy. So this is very much like those reports from "anonymous sources familiar with Comey's thinking" (an actual quote).
- simonh 9y agofake news is flat out making stuff up, whereas this is simply reporting from a named and referenced source. How is that fake news? That term is bandied about incorrectly as a smoke screen enough already without people wilfully abusing it here as well.
- chairmanwow 9y agoThis article really fails to make a compelling case for Lyft other than the switches coming from the #DeleteUber campaign. While I agree these market share grabs from the underdog are huge, I feel like the author is overstepping the wait of the data. Relying really heavily on narrative.
- werber 9y agoAnecdotal, but Uber has a social stigma with a lot of my left-er friends.
- myth_buster 9y agoIf you could see only one chart then I would say this is the one [0]. I was under the impression that Lyft & Uber were on quite even footing. > The reports of Uber's impending death are greatly exaggerated. - Mark Twain [0] https://archive.fo/Q0gkJ/595ad70474d05aa1f7b15600fe5ccec2f257e9b6.png https://archive.fo/Q0gkJ/595ad70474d05aa1f7b15600fe5ccec2f25...
- SilasX 9y agoBut that's just the aggregate US figure, right? Individual cities, especially "bellwether" ones, might show Lyft past the tipping point.
- twelve40 9y agoNo, it's not past the tipping point, the article shows graphs with 60-80% for NY, SF and Boston.
- BoiledCabbage 9y agoIt's interesting, while I don't live in one of those cities, I've been meaning to drop Uber over all of their apparent complete lack of ethics. I hadn't done so yet, but this article has reminded me of it and I'm installing Lyft now. As much as we hate to think it, both awareness and social proof in decision making matter. And while I wouldn't have admitted it, part of it was thinking in the back of my head that quitting wouldn't make a difference. Seeing the graph showing the real impact of the #quituber campaign was both surprising and to be perfectly honest a bit motivating to me to keep to my word to use Lyft. Maybe not a full quit, but at least a 50/50.
- nilkn 9y agoFor what it's worth, Lyft wasn't even available in my city until very recently (Houston). I've been using Lyft recently now because I have fewer doubts about the ethics of the company. As a customer, it's extremely easy to switch from one to the other. As far as I can tell Uber has exactly zero selling points over Lyft for a regular customer like me.
- revmoo 9y agoI give all my money to Lyft literally because they aren't Uber.
- kennydude 9y agoWould love Lyft over in the UK. Uber is the only taxi company (they are a taxi company if they like it or not) with an app which doesn't crash on launch