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I’m shocked, SHOCKED that using VC money to dump scooters in random cities and then pay people to run around and pick them up in trucks to charge them is not a
by MBCook 4y ago
I’m shocked, SHOCKED that using VC money to dump scooters in random cities and then pay people to run around and pick them up in trucks to charge them is not a sound business practice.
- milesvp 4y agoI agree it seemed like a dumb business model. What I find interesting was an article I saw recently that suggested cities that banned these rentable scooters saw an increase in average commute time. I would not have guessed enough people used these things to have any measurable difference in commutes.
- Karrot_Kream 4y agoUnit economics aside, a lot of people use them out here and they made a big enough impact that several people purchased their own after trying them. They probably get the most usage around concerts and conventions. Of course the economics do drive the sustainability of the business.
- jhp123 4y agoI'd be interested to see a cost breakdown. I found the scooters useful at $5-$10 a ride, which certainly covers the cost of a scooter, electricity, and a guy to drive around in a van. My first guess would be that theft and vandalism made the system fail, at least in major American cities.
- aurareturn 4y ago
- slavik81 4y agoI never got over the fact that a scooter rental was about the same price as a car rental. Though, perhaps that's why Car2Go didn't survive.
- UncleMeat 4y agoDoes it? If you aren't getting a bunch of scooters at once, the cost of the driver and the van adds up. And these companies have a bunch of expensive software engineers that need to be paid too. The company my dad worked for once ran a program enabling temporary bike access during the London Olympics. They underestimated the cost of getting the bikes to the places they needed to be to maximize utilization and ended up losing a bunch on the contract.