6 ms·

If I am flying to Austin I am not going to bother with "local competitors". I just want to know whether "Uber is in Austin" or "Uber is in Russia". Yes? I will

by diebir 9y ago

If I am flying to Austin I am not going to bother with "local competitors". I just want to know whether "Uber is in Austin" or "Uber is in Russia". Yes? I will factor this into my travel plans. No? Not going to even bother. The barrier of entry for an app to MY iPhone device is very high. The barrier of my trust into a company is even higher. However much somebody might like to hate Uber, it is irreplaceable, precisely because they are manically expanded into everywhere in the world.

ghaff 9y ago
Or I'll just grab a cab at the airport like I always have. Same with many other cities. [ADDED: Of course, I don't get the VC subsidies that way. But, in general, cab into city from airport hasn't been a particularly broken system relative to getting cabs in other places.]
- xyzzy_plugh 9y ago
  At least in my experience getting a cab at the airport is at least 4-10x the cost of a ride sharing company. The cities I travel to frequently have fixed-rate rides out of the airport, and they are heinous.
sqeaky 9y ago
Its only been around a few years. If they fail and everyone is talking about some other transport service you will eventually consider the others or start walking. What process led to "trust" Uber can be duplicated. And many people don't have the same attitude as you. Some with avoid uber because of ethical concerns, some will install every rideshare app and carefully consider prices before getting a ride and others will just install whatever and do whatever else.
subpixel 9y ago
I understand the 'I don't want to install a new App' concern, but I suspect that will be obviated when you can hail a car using competing services' PWA (or whatever comes next). At that point there really is no moat to protect Uber's business from competitors of all sizes. And until then, I think most of us will gladly take 30s to install a new app for a better fare.
- phil21 9y ago
  > I think most of us will gladly take 30s to install a new app for a better fare. And then spend 20 minutes signing up with a username/password, storing it to your password manager, adding credit card details, adding customer information to the app, setting privacy settings, etc. etc. No thanks. I'm with OP here. It is a huge barrier of entry for me to install an app. Mostly because exceedingly few apps should actually be apps (this is why we invented web browsers, but it seems everyone lost their collective minds lately) and I don't need a 50MB thing to invade my privacy to display what effectively is a web application written in html5 and javascript. Uber is one of those apps that makes it onto my phone solely because it's universal. I have less than zero interest in installing a few dozen apps on my phone for my travels - how the hell would you even know which to use where? Yet another "30s" google?
  - subpixel 9y ago
    > this is why we invented web browsers Amen!
petraeus 9y ago
Its that old adage, what did children do before smart-phones? How did people live before flushing toilets? I guess we will never know because life is uber. If uber doesnt provide it it must be impossible.

by diebir 9y ago

ghaff 9y ago

Or I'll just grab a cab at the airport like I always have. Same with many other cities. [ADDED: Of course, I don't get the VC subsidies that way. But, in general, cab into city from airport hasn't been a particularly broken system relative to getting cabs in other places.]

xyzzy_plugh 9y ago
At least in my experience getting a cab at the airport is at least 4-10x the cost of a ride sharing company. The cities I travel to frequently have fixed-rate rides out of the airport, and they are heinous.

sqeaky 9y ago

Its only been around a few years. If they fail and everyone is talking about some other transport service you will eventually consider the others or start walking. What process led to "trust" Uber can be duplicated. And many people don't have the same attitude as you. Some with avoid uber because of ethical concerns, some will install every rideshare app and carefully consider prices before getting a ride and others will just install whatever and do whatever else.

subpixel 9y ago

I understand the 'I don't want to install a new App' concern, but I suspect that will be obviated when you can hail a car using competing services' PWA (or whatever comes next). At that point there really is no moat to protect Uber's business from competitors of all sizes. And until then, I think most of us will gladly take 30s to install a new app for a better fare.

phil21 9y ago
> I think most of us will gladly take 30s to install a new app for a better fare. And then spend 20 minutes signing up with a username/password, storing it to your password manager, adding credit card details, adding customer information to the app, setting privacy settings, etc. etc. No thanks. I'm with OP here. It is a huge barrier of entry for me to install an app. Mostly because exceedingly few apps should actually be apps (this is why we invented web browsers, but it seems everyone lost their collective minds lately) and I don't need a 50MB thing to invade my privacy to display what effectively is a web application written in html5 and javascript. Uber is one of those apps that makes it onto my phone solely because it's universal. I have less than zero interest in installing a few dozen apps on my phone for my travels - how the hell would you even know which to use where? Yet another "30s" google?
- subpixel 9y ago
  > this is why we invented web browsers Amen!

petraeus 9y ago

Its that old adage, what did children do before smart-phones? How did people live before flushing toilets? I guess we will never know because life is uber. If uber doesnt provide it it must be impossible.