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> Uber is a great service for the customer. It made getting places within cities convenient and reliable. I don't think there's anyone who misses calling cab co

by CPLX 5y ago

> Uber is a great service for the customer. It made getting places within cities convenient and reliable. I don't think there's anyone who misses calling cab companies late at night. The ubiquitous smartphone equipped with GPS did this. Once the technology existed it was an inevitability, just like it was for boarding passes and restaurant reservations and everything else. The predatory anti-competitive lawless aspect of the transition to smartphone driven can hailing however was probably optional.

skybrian 5y ago
This is an "invisible hand" argument that ignores the fact that markets consist of people and some business needs to actually do the work. Someone still had to create a popular service to compete with taxis, which wasn't all that easy when it wasn't even clear how to do it legally. It's only with hindsight that it might seem obvious. Yes, maybe some other company would have eventually figured out how to do it a different way, but "eventually" can be a long time and reasoning about counterfactual events isn't as easy as invisible hand arguments make it seem.
- Slartie 5y ago
  Maybe the American taxicab market was especially dysfunctional (the stuff I read about NY taxi medallions suggests that somehow), but in other countries, this "inevitability" came about, largely without Uber's involvement. In Germany for example we can easily hail taxis (actual ones, not private cars) with at least two or three different apps, and this has been a thing for almost a decade now, even though Uber never really got its private-car-based service on track here due to legal problems. I've used Lyft in the US a few times, and the experience with those taxi apps in Germany is very much comparable.
  - skybrian 5y ago
    Yep, local conditions matter a lot, like what the rules are and how well existing companies learn from what's happening elsewhere. Abstract, universal arguments only go so far.
- CPLX 5y ago
  What do you mean some other company would have eventually figured it out? Literally dozens of companies were working on the concept in parallel, not just Lyft, whose existence already undercuts your argument. My friend Christian who eventually got into YC with a different startup entirely had one called CloudCar in Boston, and he was far from the only one. This same argument comes up literally every time obvious anti-competitive practices are mentioned and it’s bullshit. It’s completely and totally reasonable to demand innovation AND ethical business practices coexist and anyone telling you otherwise has an agenda.

by CPLX 5y ago

skybrian 5y ago

This is an "invisible hand" argument that ignores the fact that markets consist of people and some business needs to actually do the work. Someone still had to create a popular service to compete with taxis, which wasn't all that easy when it wasn't even clear how to do it legally. It's only with hindsight that it might seem obvious. Yes, maybe some other company would have eventually figured out how to do it a different way, but "eventually" can be a long time and reasoning about counterfactual events isn't as easy as invisible hand arguments make it seem.

Slartie 5y ago
Maybe the American taxicab market was especially dysfunctional (the stuff I read about NY taxi medallions suggests that somehow), but in other countries, this "inevitability" came about, largely without Uber's involvement. In Germany for example we can easily hail taxis (actual ones, not private cars) with at least two or three different apps, and this has been a thing for almost a decade now, even though Uber never really got its private-car-based service on track here due to legal problems. I've used Lyft in the US a few times, and the experience with those taxi apps in Germany is very much comparable.
- skybrian 5y ago
  Yep, local conditions matter a lot, like what the rules are and how well existing companies learn from what's happening elsewhere. Abstract, universal arguments only go so far.
CPLX 5y ago
What do you mean some other company would have eventually figured it out? Literally dozens of companies were working on the concept in parallel, not just Lyft, whose existence already undercuts your argument. My friend Christian who eventually got into YC with a different startup entirely had one called CloudCar in Boston, and he was far from the only one. This same argument comes up literally every time obvious anti-competitive practices are mentioned and it’s bullshit. It’s completely and totally reasonable to demand innovation AND ethical business practices coexist and anyone telling you otherwise has an agenda.