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Tech's Fiercest Rivalry: Uber vs. Lyft
- caycep 12y agoThe Fiercest? Not Apple vs. IBM? Apple vs. Microsoft? Samsung vs. Apple? Google vs. Oracle?
- rottencupcakes 12y agoIt's the fiercest at the moment! Lyft and Uber are engaged in an epic price war, where each of them is subsidizing the cost of rides while trying to expand as quickly as possible to new cities to best the other. In about a year, this competition has halved the cost of getting between any two places in San Francisco. It's quite thrilling.
- viscanti 12y agoAccording to the infographic, it doesn't look like much of a rivalry. It's a bit embarrassing for Lyft to not be anywhere internationally.
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- joelrunyon 12y ago> According to an email Uber sent to drivers in May that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the company offers $250 for referring a new driver to its service; $500 for referring a Lyft driver; and $1,000 for signing up a Lyft "mentor," an experienced Lyft contractor who helps train new drivers. This sounds scarily like MLM to me. Anyone else?
- smeyer 12y agoNot really. It just sounds like a referral bonus. They're shipping a real service and offering bonuses to get other employees. The main way to make money as an uber driver seems to still be driving, not referring other drivers. I'm a software engineer and I got well over $1,000 for referring a friend to my company, but I don't think that makes us an MLM scheme.
- njohnw 12y agoThis is Uber creating incentives aimed at growing its base of drivers while also weakening the Lyft driver network.
- nlh 12y agoNo - this is just referral fees (which are normal) and is missing the "ML" in MLM. That would look something like "$250 for new drivers, and $50 for each driver that your referrals refer". THAT would be MLM, literally.
- alialkhatib 12y ago(like caycep said,) from everything I've read, the venom spat back and forth between Microsoft and Apple sounds a lot fiercer than this. This is probably the fiercest rivalry in recent history, and I may be remembering history with more exaggerated brushstrokes, but I don't think this is the fiercest. I will grant that the "battle lines" seem to be drawn a lot less clearly now than they were back then. Again, that might just be the effect of remembering history after the "fog of war" has settled.
- cwyers 12y agoMicrosoft and Apple have been in bed with each other WAY too many times to qualify as the fiercest rivalry.
- differentView 12y agoSome of the worst fights are between those with closest ties. Civil wars, sibling rivalries, divorces, etc...
- ForHackernews 12y agoI don't know if other people feel this way, but I feel like Lyft has created a much more positive brand identity. Lyft seems fun and friendly, where Uber is like a cold, ruthlessly Randian organization. I've never taken a ride from either car service, but I'm rooting for Lyft.
- tylermac1 12y agoI've used both and definitely favor Lyft. Every driver I've had has been super friendly and personable. Makes me want to start driving for them on weekends.
- jbwyme 12y agoIt's just personal preference. I really dislike the lyft product because I don't want the driver to treat me like I'm his friend (fist bumping and what not). It feels fake, forced, and awkward. I much prefer the general experience in an Uber black where the driver asks me where I'm going, makes sure I'm comfortable (a/c, water, music) and then let's me be. The irrelevant small talk just annoys me at best. P.s. I also dislike the pink mustaches. So gimmicky.
- cheepin 12y agoLyft tends to annoy me because people keep spamming their referrals all over social media.
- cylinder 12y agoWhy would I want my ride in a car to be fun? Safety, cleanliness, professionalism are all much higher concerns.
- ForHackernews 12y agoIf you value those three things, probably better off going with a real, licensed limo service than a fly-by-night app, anyway.
- cylinder 12y ago
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- johnvschmitt 12y agoToo many times, I've seen people call ugly, immoral tactics like this as "growth hacking", which is polluting an otherwise positive culture. Yes, it may be legal. Yes, it may grow your company. Yes, you may not have to pay any consequences until you're big enough to pay it off as a "tax". But, no, it's not ethical, and yes, your investors will worry that you'll shamelessly cheat them at the first opportunity.
- ameister14 12y agoJust because something directly harms the competition doesn't mean it's unethical or immoral. If it doesn't harm the stakeholders, it's fine with me. This isn't pouring waste into a river. This is going in and poaching the opponent's resources. I also don't think it's inherently dishonest to do things like offer referral bonuses for getting the competition's drivers to join your service. Were I an investor, where would I get the impression that they would shamelessly cheat me at the first opportunity? All they've done is improve the likelihood that the business I have invested in wins out.
- johnvschmitt 12y agoAbusing the cancelation policy is the specific immoral act I'm calling out here. Offering employment invitations is fine. But, often a company has very forgiving cancelation policies to be customer-friendly. By abusing those cancelation policies to do a DDOS-style attack is going to lead to adverse impacts on the ecosystem (less forgiving cancelation policies, drivers & riders wasting time chasing bogus reservations, etc)
- ja27 12y agoI caught one Lyft last week where I said "wait, did I get you through Uber or Lyft?" because the driver had an Uber sticker in the window. He kind of smiled and was the quietest Lyft driver I've ever had. So how many drivers are doing both? How could either service know? Maybe by seeing a drive go unavailable for short periods and become available again from a different location. I had one driver that just drove in the mornings, between dropping the kids off at school and when it was time to start work. That's an ideal time to have a driver but if you hit him with higher commissions than a full-time driver, he's not going to be happy.
- ghshephard 12y agoThat's why there's a Pink Mustache on Lyft cars.
- baddox 12y agoI have had several drivers from Lyft and Sidecar say that they and many drivers they know often run two or more of the services at the same time.
- gohrt 12y agoThis is not a tech rivarly at all. This is a car-service rivalry.
- elyrly 12y agoExactly, The tech between Uber and Lyft comes down to crowd-sourcing users/driver and payment system.
- OrwellianChild 12y agoBeing installed on someone's iPhone on the home page is a pretty sticky place to be. This strikes me as pretty disingenuous, considering the fact that the entire value of the Lyft/Uber systems is matchmaking. I can open both apps and check availability/price in seconds. Why would this not continue to be a healthily competitive space? (scummy, sabotage and price-war tactics aside)
- fred_durst 12y agoI think you are a bit naive to believe that both Uber and Lyft with survive long term. In a network effect business its typically winner take all.
- OrwellianChild 12y agoI think it depends on the "scummy, sabotage, and price-war tactics" bit. If a well-funded Uber can out-spend and temporarily out-price Lyft into bankruptcy/acquisition, they might gain some leverage. That said, plenty of equilibria exist in other networked service-based markets. A good example would be UPS and FedEx, which provide remarkably similar service profiles to remarkably similar service areas. The matchmaking part of the equation is low-cost on a per-transaction basis, and most of the risk and operational cost lies with the independent contractors (the drivers with their cars). This makes the services straightforward to run and scale, meaning there is no inherent reason why one or the other would be "shut out" of a market. We may see this shake out one of multiple ways that could include the two operating at different levels of the market (Uber on limousines, Lyft on ride-share/cabs). There may also be additional tools/services from one of the companies that upsets the balance in a more sustainable way (e.g. facilitation of ride-shares, carpools, or other less ad-hoc trips like daily commutes). Lots of room for growth and expansion in this space.
- fred_durst 12y agoThe FedEX UPS example doesn't apply because their services are limited by physical infrastructure. The have to buy/lease trucks and distributions centers. Uber and Lyft have no physical limits so the larger one can always undercut the other out of business once it has enough of a competitive advantage. Once Uber is the name brand service for consumers drivers will no longer have a choice and Uber can price squeeze Lyft to death.
- pmalynin 12y agoWhy not merge into UberLyft and provide better service?
- dmethvin 12y agoAt the moment, both riders and drivers benefit from Uber and Lyft beating each other's brains out with bags of money. It can't last forever but while it does we can benefit. At some point the party will be over and we'll need to pay more.
- NickWarner775 12y agoIve also had an experience where my lyft driver worked for Uber also. She said the clientele is different for each company. Lyft is more hip and friendly people. Uber seemed to be richer looking and less talkative. Living in San Diego, Ubers $10 Tijuana trips will be a huge success.
- eridius 12y agoMy brother once described the difference to me as "Use Lyft if you want to talk to the driver, Uber if you don't". It's not just the clientele that are different, but the drivers act differently too. In my experience, Lyft drivers are more prone to trying to strike up a conversation, whereas Uber drivers rarely try and initiate.