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I also think that's not always a dead end. There is also an opportunity to grow. For instance, I know Uber exists, but since I only take taxi occasionally I don

by yeukhon 12y ago

I also think that's not always a dead end. There is also an opportunity to grow. For instance, I know Uber exists, but since I only take taxi occasionally I don't own an Uber account. In NY, the Chinese and the Korean community have their own network knowing how to reach the Chinese/Korean-speaking car service and shuttle service. Uber or alike cannot beat this system. These locale-specific service operate with just telephone. Very school but effective! No app, no Internet access. Pretty reliable and cheap. So all he need to do is to find a community to target at and find drivers willing to join him.

wiseleo 12y ago
Translating their app would allow Uber to encroach on such communities. That is likely already in progress.
- yeukhon 12y ago
  I will just make my raw observation and prediction that the reach into certain community for certain use case is likely to have little success. For example, if you want to travel between Flushing and Chinatown, or between Brooklyn and Chinatown, or between Queens and Chinatown, there are specific "bus station" for people to wait at. For car service it's also a single phone call and you can get a quote within half a minute. There is usually a single number you dial and you can get a quote on the ETA so you can wait at home and go on the shuttle van when the time comes. The reason technology hasn't beaten this old school system is because of the low cost to run and the low entry to barrier for both the business owners and users. Typing can be quit slow and ineffective and sometimes Internet access is just not available. It's basically a community lock-in. So a Uber-like clone will have to break this "monopoly practice" not by just translating the app, but actually knows how the community works.
- jonknee 12y ago
  Uber is translated into a ton of languages already, I see that it gets updated very frequently and often times the only changes are various localizations. Considering you can put your destination address in the app, it should be a huge improvement to anyone who doesn't know the language (or with disabilities).

by yeukhon 12y ago

wiseleo 12y ago

Translating their app would allow Uber to encroach on such communities. That is likely already in progress.

yeukhon 12y ago
I will just make my raw observation and prediction that the reach into certain community for certain use case is likely to have little success. For example, if you want to travel between Flushing and Chinatown, or between Brooklyn and Chinatown, or between Queens and Chinatown, there are specific "bus station" for people to wait at. For car service it's also a single phone call and you can get a quote within half a minute. There is usually a single number you dial and you can get a quote on the ETA so you can wait at home and go on the shuttle van when the time comes. The reason technology hasn't beaten this old school system is because of the low cost to run and the low entry to barrier for both the business owners and users. Typing can be quit slow and ineffective and sometimes Internet access is just not available. It's basically a community lock-in. So a Uber-like clone will have to break this "monopoly practice" not by just translating the app, but actually knows how the community works.
jonknee 12y ago
Uber is translated into a ton of languages already, I see that it gets updated very frequently and often times the only changes are various localizations. Considering you can put your destination address in the app, it should be a huge improvement to anyone who doesn't know the language (or with disabilities).