3 ms·

I think the first issue they will run into is scaling. A few people in a startup won't be able to handle thousands of requests in an hour. Personally, I don't

I think the first issue they will run into is scaling. A few people in a startup won't be able to handle thousands of requests in an hour. Personally, I don't have a use for this service. I have a smart phone that can pretty easily search Google for anything that I would need.

mmastrac 12y ago
This service is for people who are willing to trade more cash for less cognitive load. In some ways, Uber was similar at the start -- rather than having to figure out which cab company you want to call to have one sent over, negotiate the phone trees, etc, you just fire up the app and ask for a car. Concierge services are popular at the high-end and there's always been an opportunity to bring these down to a different financial strata of users.
- CPLX 12y ago
  > Uber was similar at the start... you just fire up the app and ask for a car. That doesn't sound similar at all. The substantive difference is that when you asked for a car, a car showed up. Unlike Magic, where you order things and pay for them and nothing happens.
  - cherls 12y ago
    I'm sure if uber went unintentially viral the day it was launched it wouldn't have been able to deliver either. They're similar in concept and uniquenes, not how they were born. That's just a small bump in the road in the long run.
    - CPLX 12y ago
      Yes, if Uber had said they were ready to go in dozens of cities and took people's orders for cars and charged their credit cards but the cars never showed up and they had no manned number to call or email address to deal with that problem and they hadn't coded an app that tracked cars and they had no backend software to handle orders and registration they would have maybe had a different business outcome.
  - shogun21 12y ago
    Now for a magic trick! I'm going to make this money... disappear! Behold! It's gone!!

3 ms·

I think the first issue they will run into is scaling. A few people in a startup won't be able to handle thousands of requests in an hour. Personally, I don't

by paulhauggis 12y ago

mmastrac 12y ago
This service is for people who are willing to trade more cash for less cognitive load. In some ways, Uber was similar at the start -- rather than having to figure out which cab company you want to call to have one sent over, negotiate the phone trees, etc, you just fire up the app and ask for a car. Concierge services are popular at the high-end and there's always been an opportunity to bring these down to a different financial strata of users.
- CPLX 12y ago
  > Uber was similar at the start... you just fire up the app and ask for a car. That doesn't sound similar at all. The substantive difference is that when you asked for a car, a car showed up. Unlike Magic, where you order things and pay for them and nothing happens.
  - cherls 12y ago
    I'm sure if uber went unintentially viral the day it was launched it wouldn't have been able to deliver either. They're similar in concept and uniquenes, not how they were born. That's just a small bump in the road in the long run.
    - CPLX 12y ago
      Yes, if Uber had said they were ready to go in dozens of cities and took people's orders for cars and charged their credit cards but the cars never showed up and they had no manned number to call or email address to deal with that problem and they hadn't coded an app that tracked cars and they had no backend software to handle orders and registration they would have maybe had a different business outcome.
  - shogun21 12y ago
    Now for a magic trick! I'm going to make this money... disappear! Behold! It's gone!!