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It is rare to see, of not impossible, a real monopoly in a free market. Uber has to compete to win customers, if they artificially raise their prices to where p
by dylanjermiah 11y ago
It is rare to see, of not impossible, a real monopoly in a free market.
Uber has to compete to win customers, if they artificially raise their prices to where people will not pay, people will choose a different form of transportation.
- danieltillett 11y agoYes this is the problem. Unless investors don’t care about returns how will Uber extract the profits required to justify their current valuation?
- dylanjermiah 11y agoFirstly, I have no inside knowledge of their complete model, just assuming. Travis has said that the early markets are 'profitable', the early markets are also their most competitive. So the 20-30% model they have now should allow profitability in all the 300+ cities they're in. I'm assuming the margins are very tight, and that they have to do a lot of volume to be hugely profitable, which they're fast approaching.
- pbreit 11y agoI think Ubers monopoly will be at least as strong as Ebay's in online auctions. There's a humongous liquidity advantage.
- dylanjermiah 11y agoThe common definition of 'monopoly' is the sole provider of a good or service. I doubt very much that Uber can ever achieve that. I much prefer 'market share', I think it's the most accurate term. Aside from that, I do see some parallels with eBay.
- lallysingh 11y agoYou can start in a niche and grow out. Like Brooklyn.
- eru 11y ago> It is rare to see, of not impossible, a real monopoly in a free market. Most long running monopolies in free(-ish) markets seem to be related to owning (the right kind of) land.