3 ms·
It is in the article: "Uber and Lyft have been a crude proposition all along: Subsidize unprofitable taxi rides with venture capital money, claw for market shar
by MegaDeKay 4y ago
It is in the article: "Uber and Lyft have been a crude proposition all along: Subsidize unprofitable taxi rides with venture capital money, claw for market share, and eventually figure something out that will make such taxi rides profitable despite the huge corporate structure of well-paid executives and engineers, a thing traditional taxi companies with already razor-thin margins didn’t have."
- karaterobot 4y agoI read the article, but that's not the level of explanation I want. I want to know how, for example, at the scale Uber and Lyft are operating at, the salaries of executives and engineers are more than the efficiencies it seems like they would gain. On paper, you shouldn't need to add a linear amount of overhead every time move into a new city: with taxi companies, you have to add physical buildings, admin, dispatchers, service personnel, and a bunch of other costs every time. You'd think Uber and Lyft could be a lot leaner than taxi companies, even though engineers make more than dispatchers: why not?