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> Every Uber driver is dependent on rides being funneled to them through the Uber platform. A driver can easily switch to Lyft (many already drive for both Ub
by greenyoda 7y ago
> Every Uber driver is dependent on rides being funneled to them through the Uber platform.
A driver can easily switch to Lyft (many already drive for both Uber and Lyft), or to whatever new platform comes along tomorrow and offers better terms to the driver than Uber does.
- CydeWeys 7y agoLyft owns and controls access to their own platform in precisely the same way that Uber does theirs. The "means of production" here are never owned by the actual drivers, but rather, by the companies that own and operate the platforms.
- hakfoo 7y agoThe platform is not hard, at least from a software standpoint. Moreover, they can take advantage of several years of the market leaders having done a lot of the UX refinement work and making mistakes. Realistically, I could see a MVP-grade ordering/dispatch/registration/billing/accounting platform costing well less than a million dollars. Hell, open source it and each community's drivers can spin up its own locally-owned Lyft/Uber clone. It makes sense as a geographical natural monopoly, and building at that level may avoid some scale-to-infinity technical problems. The New York co-op can build clever features and share them with Chicago without worrying that undermines their viability.