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Grab is acquiring Uber's SE Asia business
- Pyxl101 9y agoFYI: Grab is the company that Steve Yegge moved to. He wrote about leaving his last company for it in a recent blog post: https://medium.com/@steve.yegge/why-i-left-google-to-join-grab-86dfffc0be84 https://medium.com/@steve.yegge/why-i-left-google-to-join-gr...
- quadrature 9y ago> Another takeaway is that Uber can be beaten, when a few years ago they seemed unbeatable. Frankly I personally think Uber is gonna lose SEA as well. I wonder if he was privy to this deal while writing this post.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bogomipz 9y agoI'm interested in why that is relevant to the story? Also can you please explain to me why Steve Yegge is so important? You obviously felt this point was important enough to mention.
- endlessvoid94 9y agoHe's a well-known technology blogger who went to work for the company mentioned in the headline.
- bogomipz 9y agoA well known-technology blogger a decade ago? I see 3 blog post in the last 10 years. https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/ https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/
- jsmeaton 9y agoAnd I recommend you go read everything he’s written.
- bogomipz 9y agoAnd yet you can't say why. I just should because its "Yegge." It's fascinating to me the cargo-culting of this person on HN. It's funny that the even questioning this person on HN invites immediate ire and downvotes. At one point I did go read a handful of articles and I found none of them remarkable. I just found them self-indulgent.
- rrdharan 9y agoSo you do know who he is then? You’re being downvoted since you are obviously trying to make a different point - that Yegge is overrated / overhyped / whatever - than what you led with, I.e. pretending to not know who he is and questioning why even mentioning him would be relevant.
- jsmeaton 9y agoOf course I can say why, but you didn’t ask that question. His posts are thoroughly entertaining and well written. They’re long, but true to the title of “blog rants”. You might end up disagreeing with some of his opinions but that’s ok. And if you’ve read some, and they’re not for you, that’s ok. But no need to shit on other people for enjoying them and claiming we’re in some kind of cult. At the time they were written, his blog was one of the best in my opinion.
- ProAm 9y agoHe's an interesting outspoken programmer that a lot of people respect his opinions.
- bogomipz 9y agoDid you read that blog he wrote about Grab? I am curious if you respect his opinions in that. Most of it is pretty cringe-worthy not least of which of are his neo-colonial claims and stereotyping. Some highlights from the blog post include: "I’m getting myself involved in a land war in Asia." " ... because — as any Asian person will happily tell you — they love their food more than you do" "Southeast Asians use smartphones possibly more than anyone else in the world."
- jdminhbg 9y ago> "I’m getting myself involved in a land war in Asia." This is a humorous reference to the movie "Princess Bride," not a call to arms for neo-colonialism.
- bogomipz 9y agoAnd you realize that that's a reference to General Montgomery right?
- ProAm 9y agoIve been reading his blog posts for years, if you are going to form an opinion over one post Im not sure what to say to you.
- geofft 9y agoIt seems relevant to HN's discussion of the story, because his blog post about leaving Google for Grab got 311 points + 182 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16220666 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16220666 , and a mainstream media article about that blog post got another 180 points + 89 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16226439 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16226439 . (It looks like you commented on both threads.) I don't read the comment above is a reflection of Steve Yegge's importance in general, just as a useful piece of information linking this news to something HN previously thought was important (his move to Grab).
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoIt's also likely that many others here, like me, only heard of Grab in the first place, because of the Yegge post.
- hitekker 9y ago> It looks like you commented on both threads The GP's history is rife with directionless rage. This is just his latest lashing-out.
- bogomipz 9y ago>"Yeah, the GP's history is rife with directionless rage. This is just his latest lashing-out" Whoa. Wait, thinking critically and questioning things amounts to "directionless rage" and "lashing out"? I find both your dismissiveness and judgmental nature very alarming. Since when is HN a place for that? I am many things but angry is not one of them. There wasn't anything even remotely uncivil in my comment. I enjoy HN and an generally make a point to be civil and polite. There's a great deal of irony in the presumptuousness and arrogance of your own comment. But thank you for validating my original suspicion.
- pedanticpolice 9y agoEven an unknown engineers blog about Grab would be relevant in a post about (get this) Grab acquiring Uber SEA. Sounds like you just don't like Steve Yegge.. regardless of your opinion of him, its certainly not irrelevant to point to his post. Go away.
- pfarnsworth 9y agoHis post was very self-righteous, as if Grab had some level of moral superiority over Uber. Once he awakens to the fact that Grab is just as "immoral" as Uber, I hope he writes another post eating humble pie. All the ridesharing companies behave exactly the same, especially the ones in Asia that can escape from the biased views of American reporters.
- sithadmin 9y agoYikes. Not really looking forward to this. I've always found Grab to be pretty sketchy and unreliable compared to Uber when traveling in SE Asia.
- gok 9y agoSo Uber gets 30% of a monopoly instead of 100% of a business in a competitive market? Good trade.
- aetherson 9y ago20%, not 30%. As always, for Uber, you have to understand their moves in the context of their valuation. Uber has raised money at a $70B valuation (although their most recent fundraising was at a mere $50B). They did that on the promise that they would get big, somehow raise unit margin, and become a business that would eventually turn not just profits, but profits commensurate with their valuation. Profits commensurate with their valuation are probably somewhere in the $5B to $10B per year range, once they're no longer growing that much. If all of SE Asia contributes only a couple hundred million to those profits -- even if those profits are nearly risk-free -- then that's not wonderful for Uber (or at least to Uber's investors). And more so, signals that say "We will not be able to establish stable high market share alongside stable high profit in many markets" are really bad for Uber's prospects for raising money.
- moltar 9y agoTerrible news. From my experience Grab’s UX and driver ed was much worse than Uber’s.
- cheriot 9y agoDividing up the world into monopolies that's vaguely reminiscent of the Merchant Kings[1]. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Kings-Companies-Ruled-1600-1900/dp/0312616112 https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Kings-Companies-Ruled-1600-1...
- Roedou 9y agoI was in Manila last month, and mostly took Uber; the experience was exactly like using it in the US. I took one Grab ride, and the experience couldn't have been more different. I booked the ride on Grab, and saw the car coming towards me on the map. Just as it arrived, the driver waved to me out of his car, and then canceled the ride in the app. The car & licence plate were completely different to the one shown in the app. Next to the driver was sat his friend, who talked to me throughout the 10 minute ride, and gave me his cards in case I needed to book a hotel or ride on my next visit. When we arrived, I gave cash to the driver (the amount that the app had priced it at originally) and bolted. I couldn't leave any feedback in the app, because the canceled ride had disappeared. It's hard to tell if this is a one-off weird experience, or a typical Grab ride. Either way, it made me unlikely to want to use it again, and I was planning to go back to Uber on my next trip to SE Asia.
- yladiz 9y agoIt might have been a Manila thing, but when I was in Bangkok I used Grab pretty often (maybe 5 times per week for a month) and I never had an experience like that. I had some experiences where drivers would only go to a certain part of the street, but in general it felt like Uber or Lyft in the states, plus I enjoy the UX a little better than Uber.
- sdm 9y agoYes, my experience is the same. Grab is my go to "taxi" app when I'm in SEA. I've always found it's drivers to be more reliable and more professional than Uber's. And the app is no where as confusing as Uber's. The big problem with Uber is that it's all tied to your phone number. But the first thing you do when travelling is pick up a SIM card for the country you're in. Grab is tied to either FB or Google login so you can just easily log in and update your phone number. (I haven't been to Manila, so I'm not sure what it's like there.)
- raihansaputra 9y agoThat's a 'one off' thing; fraud is pretty prevalent in rideshare applications in SEA (Uber included).