8 ms·

A few observations: Softbank has stakes in Didi, Didi has stakes in Uber, Uber has stakes in Didi, with this Softbank got stakes in Uber. Uber is mostly succe

• seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  But Uber isn’t limited to the USA and Canada. At least, not like how Didi is limited to china: https://www.uber.com/country-list/ https://www.uber.com/country-list/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)#Legal_status_by_country https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)#Legal_status_...
  • msoad 9y ago
    Yes, but scale of countries like Bahrain doesn't make a dent. Also, in each of those countries Uber has a competition that is usually more successful than Uber. That's not true in Brazil and Mexico and that's why Didi is rushing there!
    • trophycase 9y ago
      In my experience, the Didi app is inferior to Uber's. Not sure how they would manage to outcompete.
      • seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        It might not be a fair comparison since didi never had an English interface.
        • michaelwu 9y ago
          They have an English UI now :)
      • cfelix 9y ago
        Price is the by far the biggest factor. My friends (here in Brazil) have two or three apps installed and always compare price before making a choice.
    • rtx 9y ago
      Uber has around 50% market share in India. That alone is the third biggest market in the future.
      • KeepTalking 9y ago
        Uber's main competitor in India is OLA cabs. India is ripe for Ride sharing cabs. In major metros, OLA (specifically OLA Select) is the ride of choice for middle class youth. With free wifi and one hour work commutes common, the ola ride becomes time to get emails and secretarial work taken care of.
        • rtx 9y ago
          As some one living in one of those metros. I have never used Ola. They always seem to have less cabs.
    • KeepTalking 9y ago
      IMHO - Brazil and Mexico are dominated by Cabify and EasyTaxi.
      • anodari 9y ago
        Uber is strong here too.
    • seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Didi isn’t in South, Central, or North America yet, so talking about how successful they are doing there isn’t very meaningful. Didi will also face competition in those countries as well when and if they decide to enter those markets, not to mention they’ll have to aggressively rebrand (even their name might have to change).
• alextheparrot 9y ago
  This seems kinda odd, because one of the main plus points for me is that Uber worked somewhat internationally. I use Lyft only, but that was a key differentiator for me actually. As a more interesting question, is there any difference between saying SoftBank is competing with Uber and that SoftBank has hedged against an Uber investment? I feel like the latter may be more the framing of these investments.
  • gst 9y ago
    Same here. In the States I mostly use Lyft, but internationally it's easier to just use the Uber app instead of first figuring out which other options are available. In many cases installing the local apps doesn't even work because they are limited to their own local app stores. One of the next steps for those companies is probably to get roaming agreements with each other: When I'm in a country where, e.g., Uber doesn't operate I'd still like to be able to use the Uber app to order cars from whatever local companies Uber has an agreement with.
    • kurthr 9y ago
      The problem with Uber/Didi in China is that the driver will Always call to discuss your pickup location in Mandarin, which can be difficult enough face-face. The further complication is that Didi only accepts patent through a China bank account. As a result, you usually need a local friend to book your ride, even if you pay cash.
      • michaelwu 9y ago
        Didi has been accepting payment via credit card for at least a few months now. It can be a pain to set up and doesn't always work but at least it's possible now.
    • unreal37 9y ago
      Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany. Was surprising that Uber didn't work there. Uber "seems" everywhere, but is largely North American.
• chx 9y ago
  > If Uber is limited to US and Canada I fervently hope it's the US only. I will talk to my MLA and show him a nice collection of news about Uber in hope they will not allow them to operate their scam in Vancouver.
  • unethical_ban 9y ago
    Is Uber a scam, or is ride share, in your opinion? Ride share is a great servicce for people and increases safety in many areas.
    • alphaalpha101 9y ago
      Uber is (in my opinion) a scam, and (objectively) not ride sharing. 'Ride sharing' does not even begin to describe Uber. There is no sharing going on whatsoever. It's a taxi company that just ignores the law on principle to gain an advantage, while also spending VC money like crazy in a very illegally anticompetitive manner.
      • perl4ever 9y ago
        I don't see the VC money and avoiding regulation to be essential parts of the business though. I very rarely take a cab, and am not price sensitive. I tried Lyft, albeit not Uber, and like people repeatedly say, the good things about it are (a) you get fast response and a direct way to contact the driver, (b) you see how close they are to you on a moving map, (c) you get an up front estimate, and (d) they don't demand cash. While it might slow them down if they weren't subsidizing drivers, or drivers weren't subsidizing them, it wouldn't change the fact that the things they do are actually worth more than a regular cab, so they could charge more and not less, as far as I'm concerned. If Uber and Lyft are "just taxi companies" then why don't all the other taxi companies just make a similar app and then promote the idea their upstart competitors are regulation-avoiding scum? It ought to be more effective than ignoring why people use them.
        • alphaalpha101 9y ago
• shubhamjain 9y ago
  This makes sense. I don't think Uber would survive without scaling down its ambitions. Sooner or later, they have to exit unprofitable cities and leave those markets for smaller players. Uber isn't in the same league of business as Google is. It can't scale without bringing range of issues while profitability still remaining out of sight. If that holds true, Softbank has managed to have a stake in every major app-based-taxi company of the future.
• kurthr 9y ago
  The success of Didi in China has been interesting. They have largely co-opted the taxi pools in Beijing/Shanghai/Shenzhen by allowing you to bid/pay the driver to pick up riders. It has changed dramatically in only a few years. Although locals tell me it is illegal you can wait over an hour and a hundred green-lit taxis before one will stop to pick-up someone without an app that is willing to bid a few yuan. Train stations and airports have cues where you can still get a ride, but don't count on hailing a car in the evening even in a busy downtown district. As a result they control all of the taxi business and all of the ride-shares. I must say not having to transact in cash is nice.
  • Tiktaalik 9y ago
    This highlights why many governments dislike ride hailing services. As riding hailing becomes dominant (with their rise only being enabled by being able to skirt regulations) it creates a transportation system where one needs a mobile phone to participate. This excludes low income persons and persons with low technical literacy. The way that ride hailing slices away only part of the population and ignores the rest is highly undesirable for governments which are required to provide transportation solutions for all persons.
    • jazzkingrt 9y ago
      In my city low income people are technologically literate enough to have smartphones. The poor are excluded from traditional taxis as well, whereas at least ride-hailing can pool people together to lower prices. In the future we might see larger van formats operating like buses with ad-hoc routing. I personally favor subsidized public transit options, and don't think ride hailing apps discourage that any more than taxis. If anything, ride hailing apps help transition people away from car ownership and into mixed use transit.
    • ohhnoodont 9y ago
      In the extreme situation that these services somehow killed traditional public transit, we'd figure it out. This is not a hard problem to solve. Imagine an iPad inside a bus stop.
• u320 9y ago
  Uber's relative failure in the highly deregulated Swedish taxi market to me indicates that their competitive advantage is avoiding regulations. So it's not clear why "to much regulations" would be a problem for them.
  • vasilipupkin 9y ago
    Failure ? I remember taking Uber everywhere in Stockholm
• StreamBright 9y ago
  Europe has Taxify that has Chinese investors as well.
  • paganel 9y ago
    It's the same Chinese company Didi (https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/01/chinas-didi-invests-in-taxify/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/01/chinas-didi-invests-in-tax...). Over-here in Romania Uber is also scoring it big in cities like Bucharest or Cluj, almost all of the middle-class people between 20 and 40 years of age now use it, they've almost all stopped taking taxis (seen as too dirty). I'm one of the few exceptions in my circle of friends (I'm in my late 30s) who still uses taxis taken directly off the street or by actually calling a phone number, because I don't want another company tracking my every move (it's enough that Apple and most probably Google are doing it).