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I've been pondering how you'd break the uber lock on the market. I mean, I use Uber and not Lyft 'cause there are more Uber drivers, so on average, the car is
by lsc 11y ago
I've been pondering how you'd break the uber lock on the market. I mean, I use Uber and not Lyft 'cause there are more Uber drivers, so on average, the car is gonna be there faster if I use Uber.
However, if I had an app on my phone to check the nearest uber and the nearest lyft and the nearest whatever else? that would remove the barrier to entry that Uber has set up. in that case (at least when lyft had a nearby car) I'd be happy to take lyft or the local cab company, if they had a similar app.
Of course, you'd end up with an arms race with uber, or whoever the dominant player was, with them trying to break your app.
Interestingly, I bet that the second and third tier ride-sharing companies would cooperate, so if there were enough of them in the area, the idea would work fine even when uber was winning the arms race.
- Dwolb 11y agoYou could break the Uber lock on the market if supply and demand are not sufficiently random to require Uber's marketplace to coordinate. That is, if it is usually convenient for Joe to depart from work at a certain hour and this is a time when Maureen typically likes to drive, both Joe and Maureen could potentially disintermediate Uber and split the marginal gain. This solution could look like a simple payments app, ride scheduler, and a local 'I'm here' function. Another option could be to structure the market to enable 'teams' of drivers (ie like a taxi company brand). Allow these teams to find further operational gains through pooling resources and greater coordination. This solution would re-imagine the Uber market and driver tools for full-time workers.
- lsc 11y agoEh, I think the "one big marketplace" model is best. I... honestly, I don't want another relationship I have to worry about. I know it sounds terrible, but I just want to get to work every now and again, and I don't want to have to plan it ahead. My point is that you don't have to run the cars to run a marketplace, though the money is being thrown at doing both at once in an effort to lock the running of the cars into the monopoly. Running the marketplace is the only real natural monopoly here, though; If you can decouple the marketplace from the running of the cars, you could potentially become a lot more efficient, by allowing smaller players to run the cars.
- Dwolb 11y agoHm, I think 'one big marketplace' is how people originally thought about messaging online. I don't need WhatsApp, I have SMS. I don't need Snapchat I have WhatsApp. I don't need Facebook, I have Twitter.' However, horizontal differentiation in messaging and social has allowed people to use different tools depending on context. In fact, it's currently a bit silly to think you'd spam all your message or social apps at once using a single app or service. I don't really feel there is a natural monopoly with today's tech when it comes to carsharing. This goes back to my first couple of points where ultimate coordination and reduction of friction may be better served by local/human players to some extent.
- lsc 11y agoI... honestly I have no idea why there are players other than IRC and email, with sufficiently fancy clients. Either it's primarily a marketing game, and the people willing to invest in marketing want their own network so that they have more control/can extract more value, or I just don't understand the market.
- h43k3r 11y agoIn India, Ixigo has launched a app which shows cabs from all the various cab providers including Uber,Ola,TaxiForSure and others.
- rokhayakebe 11y agoIf their pitch is immediacy, pitch for cheaper rides if the person books 6 hours ahead or does not mind waiting one hour for a cheaper ride.