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I'm really not. "Economies of scale" isn't a magical spell. There has to be a function by which a large companies turns its scale into an economy. Walmart an

I'm really not. "Economies of scale" isn't a magical spell. There has to be a function by which a large companies turns its scale into an economy. Walmart and Costco both negotiate much more attractive deals with their suppliers than their competitors can, because they can place larger orders with those suppliers, due to their scale. Because Uber connects one rider with one driver (or one meal-eater with one driver for Eats), its ability to create a useful economy of scale is sharply limited. Uber has some mild advantages against an up-and-coming rival in terms of constancy of demand, but since drivers will happily turn on multiple gig services at a time, that's not a very big deal for it. Things like Uber Pool are an attempt to turn its scale into an economy, but (predictably) not enough people actually want a ride service that puts them in close proximity with strangers and also takes a vastly unknown amount of time to finish the ride to make Uber Pool a major differentiator. Things like Uber's car loans problem comes face to face with the fact that there it's competing against other, larger entities that have better scale (like, you know, actual banks).

jiggawatts 4y ago
Ironically, Uber Pool is the only reason I kept using Uber, but their scale wasn't big enough for it to work properly. In peak hour to or from the central business district it was great. Anywhere else it was hit and miss. I noticed that in the past, you'd get the pool discount even if you travelled by yourself. They've changed the terms to "up to 30% discount if someone rides with you". As a customer, the benefit of using Uber was that they would absorb the risks, spreading it out across millions of customers. Now, I have to individually wear the risk of a pool trip not having multiple customers, while simultaneously being enormously disadvantaged in my ability to estimate the chances of other people joining. Uber has billions of times more information at hand for their estimates than me as an individual. When I saw this change, I realised that it's a sign of the beginning of the end...

jiggawatts 4y ago

Ironically, Uber Pool is the only reason I kept using Uber, but their scale wasn't big enough for it to work properly. In peak hour to or from the central business district it was great. Anywhere else it was hit and miss. I noticed that in the past, you'd get the pool discount even if you travelled by yourself. They've changed the terms to "up to 30% discount if someone rides with you". As a customer, the benefit of using Uber was that they would absorb the risks, spreading it out across millions of customers. Now, I have to individually wear the risk of a pool trip not having multiple customers, while simultaneously being enormously disadvantaged in my ability to estimate the chances of other people joining. Uber has billions of times more information at hand for their estimates than me as an individual. When I saw this change, I realised that it's a sign of the beginning of the end...