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> A rival service, Spain's Cabify, has followed Uber's example. This is what happened here in Oslo, Norway. Basically Uber left after a lot of difficulty, and

> A rival service, Spain's Cabify, has followed Uber's example. This is what happened here in Oslo, Norway. Basically Uber left after a lot of difficulty, and the local cab company created it's own app that does what Uber's app mostly does. I think the greatest gift Uber will have given us is getting the Cab companies to join the modern era. Honestly it was only a few years ago when you would have to make a phone call to order a cab, OR be within visual proximity of an available cab.

dominicr 8y ago
I would say that what enabled this in Oslo and similar local apps was a (relatively) respectable taxi industry. Taxi drivers had to agree to be honest about pricing and practices to standardize on an app and there are still plenty of places where they're more interested in profiteering from bad practices than being honest competitors. I used to spend time in the south of France for work and the taxi drivers there were awful rip-off artists. They'd try to scam tourists for over twice the standard price. We used other known taxi firms and Uber moved in to save the tourists. The taxi drivers went on strike and rioted but being honest would have been better. Uber is a distributed & centralized taxi company with software that isn't overly complex to copy on a local level. It had first mover advantage but is very susceptible to local competition, especially when local laws come into play (even if they're not obvious anti-competition laws). In the end the main aim should be the drivers earning a decent wage, which is something Uber hasn't always been good at.
- intothemild 8y ago
  > I would say that what enabled this in Oslo and similar local apps was a (relatively) respectable taxi industry. Yes.. absolutely that is a factor.
collyw 8y ago
> Honestly it was only a few years ago when you would have to make a phone call to order a cab, OR be within visual proximity of an available cab. Is using an app really that much of an improvement?

dominicr 8y ago

I would say that what enabled this in Oslo and similar local apps was a (relatively) respectable taxi industry. Taxi drivers had to agree to be honest about pricing and practices to standardize on an app and there are still plenty of places where they're more interested in profiteering from bad practices than being honest competitors. I used to spend time in the south of France for work and the taxi drivers there were awful rip-off artists. They'd try to scam tourists for over twice the standard price. We used other known taxi firms and Uber moved in to save the tourists. The taxi drivers went on strike and rioted but being honest would have been better. Uber is a distributed & centralized taxi company with software that isn't overly complex to copy on a local level. It had first mover advantage but is very susceptible to local competition, especially when local laws come into play (even if they're not obvious anti-competition laws). In the end the main aim should be the drivers earning a decent wage, which is something Uber hasn't always been good at.

intothemild 8y ago
> I would say that what enabled this in Oslo and similar local apps was a (relatively) respectable taxi industry. Yes.. absolutely that is a factor.

collyw 8y ago

> Honestly it was only a few years ago when you would have to make a phone call to order a cab, OR be within visual proximity of an available cab. Is using an app really that much of an improvement?