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Wow, I wonder how do they manage to cover the expenses of running a tech startup? We know that software business is capital and intellectual property heavy. How
by christiansakai 6y ago
Wow, I wonder how do they manage to cover the expenses of running a tech startup? We know that software business is capital and intellectual property heavy. How do these people do it?
- bertjk 6y agoSome things should be cheaper, due to the work already done by existing competitors. They don't need to spend marketing dollars on educating people on ride-hailing in general, do not need to buy lobbyists to make amenable laws, their initial app can be merely a clone of the competitors'. Now that driver and rider expectations around the service have solidified somewhat the backend systems can be simpler too. There are many benefits to being a fast follower.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Ekaros 6y agoTaxi apps really aren't very complex and expensive pieces of work. The unicorn start-up scaling up model is just what makes them so. There are already plenty of examples of pretty okay taxi-apps. And the industry itself is much more capital-to-revenue intensive and tech...
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoI would argue that it's Uber's marketing costs that make their business much less profitable than it could be.
- cycomanic 6y agoThis is such an odd comment. What industries/businesses are you comparing with? Software is one of the least capital intensive industry I can think of. Similar for intellectual property, I mean what important IP is in building a website or a mobile app? That's why the industry is so focused on growing as quick as possible IMO, because everyone could essentially build your service, it's all about building so much momentum/user base that it becomes difficult for anyone to compete.
- gher-shyu3i 6y ago> Software is one of the least capital intensive industry I can think of Software runs on hardware, and it's not cheap.
- foepys 6y agoEverytime I hear this, I have to laugh. Setting up a car workshop, carpenter workshop, a bakery, a hair salon etc. will set you back a few ten if not hundred thousand dollars for equipment and/or inventory alone. Meanwhile you can rent servers for low double digits dollars a month and a decent laptop costs $2,000. The only thing expensive about software development is labor cost. Hardware is ridiculously cheap compared to any other profession.
- Miner49er 6y agoFor programming one can do fine with much cheaper then a $2k laptop.
- gher-shyu3i 6y agoWe're talking about infrastructure costs to run a platform like Uber or Lyft. Do you think that's cheap?
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoIt's a hell of a lot cheaper than serving the same number of customers with physical products.
- foepys 6y agoYes. Compare it to having to buy/lease all cars first like a traditional taxi service.
- Draiken 6y agoCompared to what? Cheap is not an absolute term. I agree with another comment here, it's absurdly cheap compared to almost anything else.
- cwyers 6y agoIt seems like this only works in New York, which is probably a much smaller scale than Uber has to serve.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoWhich is fine, they could probably franchise the tech out to other cities. In fact, this is how Hailo (an Uber like service headquartered in the UK) used to work, until they were driven out of business by VC backed competitors.
- chobeat 6y agoit's also how CoopCycle works throughout Europe