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Lyft says its revenue is growing nearly 3x faster than Uber’s
- ipsum2 9y ago> Lyft provided this stat shot, which also includes some highlight numbers on its performance thus far in 2018. Where's the data for this? > with a particularly strong Q4 during which its revenue outpaced Uber’s by 2.75x How much revenue did Lyft pull in? Or Uber? This article isn't very good.
- hcnews 9y ago+1, was looking for these comparisons. Very vague article.
- Lukeas14 9y agoSounds nice from a PR standpoint but you can't really compare the two companies based on revenue growth. Lyft is still a smaller company so in a global industry it's much easier for it to grow faster on a percentage basis. They're still expanding to cities where Uber already exists. If you started a rideshare company and gave 11 rides this month you'd be growing 10x faster than Lyft.
- juicy-fruit 9y agoI agree. They just recently entered Canada (and it seems only one province), so of course they are going to have bigger revenue growth than Uber as they enter new markets. A stretch: is Lyft going to use these metrics to go public before Uber to hype itself up?
- teej 9y agoThis is an interesting question - who loses by IPOing first? The company who did it first or the company who comes next? It seems like it Lyft has everything to gain and little to lose by building a growth story and rushing out to IPO. They get to set the price, they could be used as an Uber proxy which would increase demand for their stock, and more.
- zukzuk 9y agoIncidentally, my experience with Lyft here in Canada has been pretty dismal. On average pretty terrible drivers. I have a feeling Lyft is getting all the Uber rejects. If that's the case, this is going to derail Lyft's Canadian debut pretty badly. I wonder if this is a common problem when they come into an Uber-dominated market.
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- Moncefmd 9y agoMy experience is with the other end, I have been querying Uber drivers about their feelings about a possible upcoming entry of Lyft in my province's market. So far, on my small sample 10<n<15, it has been unanimous that they would adopt Lyft since they have a reputation among drivers of taking a smaller margin. Some of the drivers also told me that they plan to serve as drivers for both at the same time.
- neom 9y agoI live in NYC, however I'm from Toronto and spent a couple of weeks there last month. I don't use Uber, don't have it on my phone and I was surprised to learn how new lyft is to Canada. The lyft drivers I experienced seemed really good, however, when I asked them about why they downloaded lyft, they consistently said it was because of the 30 day no commission take from lyft, but they had no loyalty to the company. One guy even said he plans to delete it and move back to Uber once the entry offer is expired.
- hn_throwaway_99 9y agoI've seen these anecdotes one way or the other (pro/anti Uber/Lyft/whatever) and I think they're all pretty useless when trying to extrapolate to the broader population. One thing that is abundantly clear, at least in the US city where I live, is that Uber and Lyft are pushing hard for the same pool of drivers; many drivers drive for multiple ride share services. I'm extremely skeptical of "one company's drivers are better" stories given they're all largely the same drivers.
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- kayoone 9y agobut if they are entering markets where Uber already exists, wouldn't there users mainly be ex-uber users ? unlikely that all of them are new users. Unless people user both at the same time, but it could still eat into ubers revenue in those regions.
- zukzuk 9y ago... and ex-Uber drivers — meaning drivers who were kicked off Uber due to poor user ratings. This would explain what's going on with Lyft's intro to Canada right now. Awful customer service every time I've used Lyft.
- suj1th 9y agoA similar situation was seen in India, when Uber entered the market. Most of the then-existing hail-taxi users were users of Ola (the home-grown service). Users here use both apps at the same time (comparing ride prices to make the choice). This meaning Uber and Ola eat into each other's revenues and markets across cities in India.
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- augbog 9y agoIt's funny you mention this. I know Uber has a lot of bad PR but my friend at Lyft was telling me how it's kind of an awkward situation where yeah sure Uber is a competitor for them but they have done so much for paving the way for ride-sharing being allowed in many different places.
- __bee 9y agoThis is how you can lie with statistics.
- chiefalchemist 9y agoClearly, Techcrunch should know better.
- heedlessly2 9y agothey're becoming the "Buzzfeed" of tech
- m3kw9 9y agoAchieving 3x is easy when your revenue was lower to begin with.
- zitterbewegung 9y agoWho cares ? Is it profitable or not ?
- mushbino 9y agoIt's not
- sokoloff 9y agoThat doesn't matter right now. It eventually matters, but when you're in a new category and fighting for marketshare and brand awareness, it's fine to invest in the form of losing money today. Nearly every company more complicated than "selling hours of labor" goes through such a phase. (No doubt that some companies take it much too far, but profits are not critical in this stage of any online/mobile ride-hailing company.)
- ravenstine 9y agoI remember when Uber was clearly dominant. That was over a year go. For the past two conferences I've been to, including the one I'm at now(Ember Conf), EVERYONE has been using Lyft. It really is possible for a company to piss off enough people.
- nikanj 9y agoPissing of people is not a problem. Pissing of _customers_ is a problem, especially customers who have a choice. Contrast e.g. Equifax, Comcast, SAP, etc, who've pissed of plenty of people with little consequences.
- 121789 9y agoAnecdotally I haven't found this HN-wide negative sentiment of Uber (and narrative of its decline) to be shared anywhere else in the US. My extended family in the southeast and northeast US is familiar with Uber (without using it), but they haven't heard of Lyft. When I lived in Chicago, most of my peers had Lyft, but Uber was the always the first choice. Does anyone else see the same trend? The bay area certainly seems to be Lyft-dominant, but I haven't seen that anywhere else.
- unethical_ban 9y agoIf ride availability has anything to say about it, there are plenty of Lyft drivers in San Antonio. I say "take a Lyft" or "Lyft there" when I talk rideshare. I don't preach it or say "Uber sucks" but when I am asked, I mention that Uber had a crummy internal HR program, has committed multiple shady business practices, none of which I can remember, but I can remember disliking.
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- whoisjuan 9y agoWell of course. What a dumb title. Lyft is smaller than Uber (drivers, user base, and operating markets). They have more room to accelerate their revenues because every time they add a market it has a larger impact on their added revenue. The title is just stupid because I can buy a cab tomorrow and also claim that my revenue is growing faster than Uber.
- TallGuyShort 9y agoAgree with all the comments here about how the actual statistic here shouldn't lead one to the conclusion that it may on the surface. But... Every time I've visited a big city of the last few years, "Uber" has been the verb for just grabbing a ride-share. My last 2 visits to a big city over the law few months, "Lyft" has been the go-to that people talk about. I'm pretty sure the tide is shifting in Lyft's favor, this specific statistic and its flaws aside.
- LethargicStud 9y agoThis is very anecdotal. I really wish we had data on market share, costs, revenues, etc. Obviously we won't have even most of the picture until both companies are public, but at this point it seems like all of these articles are just speculation. When I interned at Uber, media estimates were pretty inaccurate.
- sbarre 9y ago> When I interned at Uber, media estimates were pretty inaccurate How confident were you in the accuracy of the internal numbers being shared? ;-) Devil's advocate question for sure, but I've been at companies where real numbers of all kinds were casually inflated internally during communications for morale (or just to flatter management's ego)..
- avar 9y ago[xkcd: Fastest-Growing]: https://xkcd.com/1102/ https://xkcd.com/1102/
- heisnotanalien 9y agoUber could (and eventually will destroy) Lyft in one fell swoop. They're just holding back to appease the government atm.
- bildung 9y ago> They're just holding back to appease the government atm. Perhaps Uber should first try to get profitable.
- rhino369 9y agoI've had difficulty getting Lyft's in DC. They may have to increase prices to encourage more drivers to fill demand.
- hawaiianbrah 9y agoWhere and when in DC? I haven’t had a problem in the least, around DuPont, admo, or even SE, never bothered checking Uber prices/availability.
- neom 9y agoMy gut says Juno is dark horsing and about to make a splash. I have no proof for this outside of my gut, but the way they are laying up reminds me of early day uber. My main point of reference for this feeling is the drivers, if I get a lyft driver with 4.9 or 5.0 rating, they inevitably try to push Juno during the ride, however the value prop to the rider is somewhat compelling: the drivers are compensated to a higher degree (lower fee) however, the must maintain a 4.9 on other apps, and an equivalent on their app, consequently, the caliber of chauffeur on Juno is quite high.
- OiNG 9y agothe last i heard of juno, they were acquired and drivers were upset about being screwed over in the deal (their RSUs were almost worthless). Just googled around and couldn't find any updates, do you know what happened? Are they seen as driver friendly again?
- neom 9y agoI mean I'm seriously not shitting you when I say every single rider I've gotten on lyft in the last few months who have a 4.9 or above and genuinely provided great service (one dude still had candy/water!) has pushed Juno on me. I asked the lady I had yesterday why she isn't using Juno and she said she wants to, they treat the drivers well, she just can't get an interview to be accepted as a driver till.. uh... April?! I was pretty surprised.
- rainbowmverse 9y agoThis is the first I've heard of Juno as something other than a dial-up ISP.
- sokoloff 9y agoI always thought of Juno as an email provider. Looking up your reference, TIL that it was/is both.
- vit05 9y agoUBER has already cemented a path around the world. He is facing legal battles in an attempt to demonstrate that his business is legitimate and beneficial to society. All others will have the facilities to travel in this vacuum. But it will reach a point where the dispute will not be with the old business models related to mobility. And at this point, it will make sense to compare these companies. But at the moment it makes no sense to compare revenue.
- lathiat 9y agoIf you're in the US it's easy to forget that Uber is very world-wide and as a frequent traveller I use it nearly everywhere I go. Lyft is mostly US-only right now. It's much nicer and easier to get an Uber at most airports and know you're not getting screwed, communicate your destination easily when you don't speak the same language and know that they take payment by card -- rather than arriving at the destination, having already asked if they take card payment, they said yes, then suddenly they don't.
- AlexandrB 9y agoI'm not sure what's impressive about growing revenue in an industry that has no obvious economies of scale. This seems like a case of "sure we lose money on every ride, but we'll make it up with volume!" Looking at it another way, given a huge funding pool (say $10B) a modestly competent company could outpace both Uber and Lyft in revenue growth by the end of the year simply by subsidizing rides even more. The initial skepticism towards ride sharing services is gone and there's little keeping customers and drivers loyal to either Uber or Lyft.
- banned1 9y agoI launched my new app last week, calculated the growth rate this week and I am growing INFINITY week over week yoohoo!
- TomK32 9y agoIs INFINITY the new MOON?
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- exabrial 9y agoAfter I rode in an Uber with a self-proclaimed rapist driver, and Uber's response was "we'll consider limiting his access to uber", I uninstalled. Fortunately, the police took the case a little more seriously than Uber did.
- meuk 9y agoNitpicking: Does "3x faster" mean at 300%, or at 400%? I would say 300%, but when you say 50% faster I would interpret it as 150%. It is a expression with no clearly defined meaning, and really shouldn't be used.
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- chiefalchemist 9y agoPardon the micro-rant, but this is yet another great example of fake news. It's everywhere. Factually accurate, but none the less closer to bias / propaganda than truth. Unnecessary and inappropriate. Techcrunch (and all others who choose to deny their journalistic responsibilities) should be embarrassed for being so willing to publish such click bait-y headlines. Perhaps greed isn't so good after all?
- dominotw 9y agoI can improve my running speed 3x than Usain Bolt in next week if I want to.