4 ms·

Because the scooters are commodities and extremely cheap, it's hard to see the economics of these companies as strong, contrary to Ben's assertion. Much of the

Because the scooters are commodities and extremely cheap, it's hard to see the economics of these companies as strong, contrary to Ben's assertion. Much of the demand comes from the novelty factor. (Cars are boring, especially the Prius, yet Uber was a winner from day one!) When the novelty factor wears off, consumers will "get real" about their last-mile transpo options, and either there will be so many scooter services that the price is $0.25 + $0.50/min (Bird economics broken) OR you will buy your own scooter to have forever for $300 (Bird economics broken).

RandallBrown 8y ago
Having your own scooter is a crappy option. Then I have to store it (both at home and at my destination), maintain it, and charge it. Right now the scooter businesses handling all of that is the only reason I would ever take a scooter somewhere. If there are multiple services, likely one of them can hang on long enough to take over the market as the others fail. If not, someone else can start a new one when all others fail and have gotten tired of the idea.