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Uber essentially needs to destroy an industry in order to shake it free of its long entrenched ways and rebuild it. Of course it's mean. My only hope is that u

by eric_h 12y ago

Uber essentially needs to destroy an industry in order to shake it free of its long entrenched ways and rebuild it. Of course it's mean. My only hope is that uber doesn't take down too many innocent bystanders as it steamrolls taxi industries across the world. Unfortunately it's not in uber's, as a business, best interest to give two fucks about innocent bystanders (I think, -we'll see how the "nicer" new taxi company replacements do over the next decade).

ams6110 12y ago
Setting aside the specific ethics or lack of ethics of Uber, any successful "disruptive" business (as most successful startups are, and what many members of this forum seem to be aspiring to be) by definition destroys or at least diminishes the status-quo. It is very rare for a business to tap a truly green field market, where if successful they will not be diverting market share from established players. That is not being "mean." Uber is not primarily motivated to put traditional taxi companies out of business, or to put taxi drivers on the unemployment roles, though that may be a side effect of what they are trying to accomplish. Uber did not set out with an objective of destroying traditional taxi companies, they set out to provide a better implementation of that service. Calling this "mean" is like calling the winning team in a football game "mean" because they won. Well. That's the point. They set out to win the game. And it's very unlikely that those on the winning team don't have empathy for their counterparts on the losing team, because they have all been there from time to time. The goal is to win. That this means the other team loses is not the goal. It's a fine distinction in some cases, but an important one if you are going to start throwing around words like "mean." Being better than a competitor is not being "mean."

by eric_h 12y ago

ams6110 12y ago

Setting aside the specific ethics or lack of ethics of Uber, any successful "disruptive" business (as most successful startups are, and what many members of this forum seem to be aspiring to be) by definition destroys or at least diminishes the status-quo. It is very rare for a business to tap a truly green field market, where if successful they will not be diverting market share from established players. That is not being "mean." Uber is not primarily motivated to put traditional taxi companies out of business, or to put taxi drivers on the unemployment roles, though that may be a side effect of what they are trying to accomplish. Uber did not set out with an objective of destroying traditional taxi companies, they set out to provide a better implementation of that service. Calling this "mean" is like calling the winning team in a football game "mean" because they won. Well. That's the point. They set out to win the game. And it's very unlikely that those on the winning team don't have empathy for their counterparts on the losing team, because they have all been there from time to time. The goal is to win. That this means the other team loses is not the goal. It's a fine distinction in some cases, but an important one if you are going to start throwing around words like "mean." Being better than a competitor is not being "mean."