3 ms·

> It's trivial to create these "automate contract labour" apps Just another HN Tuesday I see. It’s so easy that it’s still duopoly in US since the inception of

by mi_lk 3y ago

> It's trivial to create these "automate contract labour" apps Just another HN Tuesday I see. It’s so easy that it’s still duopoly in US since the inception of the market.

larksimian 3y ago
It's so easy that there's like 5 or 6 of them that I know of in Romania alone and drivers will swap between 2-3 of them every day. So yeah, it's pretty trivial. While there's no reason to start one if you can't undercut Uber or whoever's already cutrate prices, that doesn't mean Uber has a lot of room to increase prices/profits.
jeltz 3y ago
It is pretty peak HN to assume the world is only the US. Outside the US there are plenty of taxi apps. So, yes, we know from evidence that they are easy to build. The trick is getting customers and drivers for your app.
- relativ575 3y ago
  Do this exercise. Pick any country. See how many taxi apps available. They may not be called Uber and Lyft, but I bet there are only a handful at best, anywhere you pick (see Careem). That's the nature of the business.
tzs 3y ago
It's not easy if you want one app that deals with a market containing many different legal jurisdictions with widely varying tax and safety and labor and consumer protection requirements. Plus different countries might need different payment system and need localization to different languages. But if the market you want to deal with is just one city or metro area or similar then it is not a difficult app.
- disgruntledphd2 3y ago
  There's not a huge network effect between cities though and there's high fixed costs for each one so it's not a great technology business.
JeremyNT 3y ago
> Just another HN Tuesday I see. It’s so easy that it’s still duopoly in US since the inception of the market. I'd suggest that this is not necessarily related to how hard the tech side is. Both major incumbents have (until now!) been throwing away VC money without any clear path to profitability, so there hasn't exactly been much of an incentive to build yet another money pit.

by mi_lk 3y ago

> It's trivial to create these "automate contract labour" apps Just another HN Tuesday I see. It’s so easy that it’s still duopoly in US since the inception of the market.

larksimian 3y ago

It's so easy that there's like 5 or 6 of them that I know of in Romania alone and drivers will swap between 2-3 of them every day. So yeah, it's pretty trivial. While there's no reason to start one if you can't undercut Uber or whoever's already cutrate prices, that doesn't mean Uber has a lot of room to increase prices/profits.

jeltz 3y ago

It is pretty peak HN to assume the world is only the US. Outside the US there are plenty of taxi apps. So, yes, we know from evidence that they are easy to build. The trick is getting customers and drivers for your app.

relativ575 3y ago
Do this exercise. Pick any country. See how many taxi apps available. They may not be called Uber and Lyft, but I bet there are only a handful at best, anywhere you pick (see Careem). That's the nature of the business.

tzs 3y ago

It's not easy if you want one app that deals with a market containing many different legal jurisdictions with widely varying tax and safety and labor and consumer protection requirements. Plus different countries might need different payment system and need localization to different languages. But if the market you want to deal with is just one city or metro area or similar then it is not a difficult app.

disgruntledphd2 3y ago
There's not a huge network effect between cities though and there's high fixed costs for each one so it's not a great technology business.

JeremyNT 3y ago

> Just another HN Tuesday I see. It’s so easy that it’s still duopoly in US since the inception of the market. I'd suggest that this is not necessarily related to how hard the tech side is. Both major incumbents have (until now!) been throwing away VC money without any clear path to profitability, so there hasn't exactly been much of an incentive to build yet another money pit.