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These "gig" companies are all unprofitable. Their current business models are consumer-friendly as they try to capture market share, so people mostly love them.
by guelo 7y ago
These "gig" companies are all unprofitable. Their current business models are consumer-friendly as they try to capture market share, so people mostly love them. But they are not sustainable, the prices will eventually have to go up or become a worse deal in some other way. They are just hoping to use all that cash to stumble into some kind of monopoly or lock-in that eventually removes customer choice. They are not good for society overall, we might get a lot of cheap convenient transportation in the short term but eventually we'll all be worse off as they kill off competition. It's basically price dumping, and the sooner they are stopped the better.
- dev_dull 7y agoThe funny thing is that the incumbents have largely enjoyed the monopoly and “lock-in” you described because their position was legislated. Services like Lyft and Uber were just so much better they couldn’t be stopped. Now this is just an attempt to legislate back the status quo.
- pcwalton 7y agoKilling Uber and Lyft outright means bringing back the taxi industry, which isn't better for anyone except the cab companies. The biggest benefit of ride sharing for me isn't that it's cheap: it's that I don't have to awkwardly assert my legal right to use a credit card every single time I ride. I'm fine with paying more to ensure drivers are earning a living wage.
- guelo 7y agoI'm not saying that they are not convenient, I'm saying they're unsustainable. Eventually they either will be more expensive or less convenient. The question is how much they can reconfigure society to their advantage in the meantime. For example, their price dumping is causing some governments to cut mass transit funding which will have long term consequences.