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1.) Create incredibly useful company that the public mass adopts and uses. 2.) Fuel adoption by running in the red, subsidising consumer costs to keep prices l
by Workaccount2 4y ago
1.) Create incredibly useful company that the public mass adopts and uses.
2.) Fuel adoption by running in the red, subsidising consumer costs to keep prices low and fuel adoption.
3.) IPO and sucker all those consumers into buying shares in a company they know and love.
4.) Cash out and let the new shareholders figure out that the company isn't at all sustainable.
- TheRealDunkirk 4y agoAnd the worst part is that business world has watched Uber (and WeWork, et. al.), and have tried to emulate the model with every new company created since.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoJack Welch meets Silicon Valley.
- Aperocky 4y agoWhen money is free, this is what people will do, because it makes them money. It's interesting to see things crash and burn though now feds raised rates.
- sschueller 4y agoYou forgot: ignore laws, lie and steal.
- JohnTHaller 4y agoDon't forget to raise rates far above the modes of transportation they were meant to replace. It's not unusual for Uber to cost triple what a cab would here in NYC for a trip home after working at night.
- colinmhayes 4y agoWhat’s wrong with that? Uber provides more value than cabs so people pay more.
- JohnTHaller 4y agoUber provides far less value than it used to since they stopped burning through VC funds as much to keep their prices artificially low. One advantage was you got a single price without needing to tip. Now tipping is similar to a cab. Another was that you can use an app to get one. Now you can use the Curb app to hire a cab. Another was that you could always pay with a card saved on your phone. Now you can use the Curb app to do this whether you hail with Curb or hail on the street. You type in the pairing code in the Curb app and you're set. Curb is a bit more expensive than a street hail but generally less than Uber due to a lack of surge pricing. When it's raining, Uber is about 2x the price of a cab. When it's busy after an event at Madison Square Garden, Uber is about 3x the price of a cab. On a recent Friday evening, Uber was showing $105 for a 25 minute ride with a relatively long wait. I hailed a cab and it was $28 for the same ride. Both prices exclude tip. Note, of course, that this is my own personal experience in NYC over the last year and will not apply to all cities or even all locations in NYC.