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Circa 2015, Uber charged roughly $30 USD for a trip to the airport from my house. Now it is usually between $60 and $70. There has been significant inflation, b
by SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
Circa 2015, Uber charged roughly $30 USD for a trip to the airport from my house. Now it is usually between $60 and $70. There has been significant inflation, but $30 in 2015 is only worth about $38 today.
- jeffbee 3y agoThe source of Uber's dumping wasn't chiefly VC funds, though. Uber's ability to price below market was mostly funded by the residual value of their drivers' vehicles.
- mrguyorama 3y agoUber was charging riders less than they paid drivers for a long time. That's not "residual in the drivers car", that's subsidizing their drivers
- dboreham 3y agoIt's both because they also weren't paying drivers enough to cover their (actual) costs.
- winphone1974 3y agoThat doesn't make sense. If the drivers were operating at a loss they were subsidizing Uber, not the other way around.
- ninkendo 3y agoNo, these can both be true. Uber can charge users less than they pay the drivers (losing money on rides) while still paying drivers less than the drivers' total costs. Like if I take an Uber somewhere, Uber charges me $10, pays the driver $15, and the driver's actual costs are $20 (gas, wear/tear, whatever.) Not saying whether or not this actually happened, only that it's mathematically totally possible.
- tshaddox 3y agoEh, the money is fungible though. It’s still VC funding the massive growth of the company in order to “disrupt” (which actually means “extract value as fast as possible from drivers’ vehicles, insurance impropriety, etc.”).