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It's well known that they are in the red. The question is, if the entire business model does actually work and the good thing about capitalism is that we will

by kerng 7y ago

It's well known that they are in the red. The question is, if the entire business model does actually work and the good thing about capitalism is that we will see it over next 1-2 years as it's like natural selection. If drivers stick around (or self driving becomes reality), and riders are happy with pricing then both their customer bases are happy and business will flourish. Otherwise, stock will fall and they disappear.

Ididntdothis 7y ago
Something is going wrong if a middlemen takes such a big cut and still can’t make money.
- kerng 7y ago
  The free market will tell us. It works well for companies like Apple, Ticketmaster, etc.. That's what I tried to highlight with my post, which seems very reasonable, so I don't understand the massive downvoting.
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    Looking at Ticketmaster or the Apple app store it seems that a free market will lead to monopoly behavior once players grow beyond a certain size.
    - moate 7y ago
      But that's what the consumers must have wanted. It's "free" market after all. There's no way it can be manipulated. Completely logical, always responds the way it "should" market.
    - kerng 7y ago
      Correct, if a business model works and is successful it can lead to a monopoly. And there are laws that try to tackle that. But its going off topic because Uber and Lyft are far away from that position, they hardly have a functioning business model in the first place.
  - navigatesol 7y ago
    >so I don't understand the massive downvoting I'm curious about this too. Sure, I'm argumentative and sometimes post a bit too aggressively in my tone, but I've had seemingly innocuous posts get down-voted within a minute or two of posting them. Normally I wouldn't care, but it seems like HN has an algorithm that punishes people who are consistently downvoted ("slow down"). It is possible to game that system?
    - kerng 7y ago
      This reflects my experience with this post, it was immediately (within a few minutes) downvoted drastically. Now it has normalized it seems and is neutral.

by kerng 7y ago

Ididntdothis 7y ago

Something is going wrong if a middlemen takes such a big cut and still can’t make money.

kerng 7y ago
The free market will tell us. It works well for companies like Apple, Ticketmaster, etc.. That's what I tried to highlight with my post, which seems very reasonable, so I don't understand the massive downvoting.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  Looking at Ticketmaster or the Apple app store it seems that a free market will lead to monopoly behavior once players grow beyond a certain size.
  - moate 7y ago
    But that's what the consumers must have wanted. It's "free" market after all. There's no way it can be manipulated. Completely logical, always responds the way it "should" market.
  - kerng 7y ago
    Correct, if a business model works and is successful it can lead to a monopoly. And there are laws that try to tackle that. But its going off topic because Uber and Lyft are far away from that position, they hardly have a functioning business model in the first place.
- navigatesol 7y ago
  >so I don't understand the massive downvoting I'm curious about this too. Sure, I'm argumentative and sometimes post a bit too aggressively in my tone, but I've had seemingly innocuous posts get down-voted within a minute or two of posting them. Normally I wouldn't care, but it seems like HN has an algorithm that punishes people who are consistently downvoted ("slow down"). It is possible to game that system?
  - kerng 7y ago
    This reflects my experience with this post, it was immediately (within a few minutes) downvoted drastically. Now it has normalized it seems and is neutral.