4 ms·
Uber wins through three things. one, the convenience of the app model. two, subsidizing rides to flood the market with drivers. three, offloading risks like
by dbt00 8y ago
Uber wins through three things.
one, the convenience of the app model.
two, subsidizing rides to flood the market with drivers.
three, offloading risks like employment law and fleet management onto drivers.
None of the stuff you said about traffic routing is currently true nor is it likely to be relevant. Taxi and Uber drivers do the same thing -- show up where and when there are predictable flows of people. They do this using human intelligence. It is unlikely that all the crazy big data analytics is going to do significantly better than this.
Occasionally they work off hours and pick up a few people that need rides.
That's it.
- hakfoo 8y ago1 and 3 are undefensible territory. 2 is selling dollar notes for 90 cents; eventually you're going to have to convert to something more cash-flow positive. Their only realistic "exit as a world champion" play was to get to self-driving and own a fleet themselves (being able to create economies of scale on vehicle purchase and maintenance that would beat local taxis). That dream ended when they ran over a woman in Tempe. Their best hope now is to be one of several large commodity players-- modest margins, some limited ability to spread fixed costs like software engineering over large volume.