Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
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Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#2Completely stolen from https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/5r2apd/lyft_sur...
This is all a consequence of bad messaging on Uber's part here; they're not in the wrong.
Uber's Surge system is all automatic--if demand goes way up, and supply doesn't follow suit, prices will increase in the app. Unfortunately, demand goes way up during catastrophes like terror attacks, so Uber has had a few bad instances where, in the wake of a crisis, surge goes up, simply because of the way the system is set up.
People who don't know about how Surge works might assume that Uber is deliberately raising prices in these crisis zones to gouge people in peril, which obviously isn't the case. To address cases like this, Uber put into place a surge shutoff system so that people in these positions aren't charged extra.
What happened here was that Uber, in the interest of avoiding another PR disaster, turned off surge to allow protesters (identifying with a cause which their CEO has openly supported) to get to the venue without extra charge. This backfired because that wasn't made clear in their announcement, and they instead came off as strike busters because the NYC taxi firms stupidly chose to express solidarity by shutting down the ability of protesters (not to mention uninvolved travelers) to get to and from the airport via their services.
I don't envy Uber--they're in a damned-if-they-do-damned-if-they-don't position. It's maddening to see the #deleteUber hashtag get this much traction, especially given that Lyft also continued to operate during the strike, but c'est la vie.
Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#3Dan Primack summarised this well; Uber failed on messaging:
"Uber has done a lot of questionable things over the years, but its actions this past weekend vis-a-vis Trump's immigration ban weren't among them. An actual timeline from Saturday, which may differ from what you saw on social media:
• 4:20pm ET: CEO Travis Kalanick sent email to employees. It stopped short of explicitly opposing the ban, but did say: (1) The company would identify and compensate affected drivers. (2) Kalanick will raise the issue of how the "ban will impact many innocent people" this Friday during the first meeting of Trump's so-called CEO Council. This email was posted a short time later to Kalanick's public Facebook page.
• 4:55pm ET: NY Taxi Workers union called for a work stoppage at JFK airport from 6pm-7pm. Uber does not suspend its own service, but also does not send out any promotions.
• 7:36pm ET: Uber NYC sends out a tweet, saying that surge pricing to and from JFK has been turned off.
The claim that Uber was trying to 'break the strike' by sending out its surge pricing tweet is belied by the timing (i.e., sent after the strike was set to end). And while it is true that Kalanick has agreed to be on Trump's CEO council, it's also true that execs from both Uber and Lyft have agreed to sit on a new automation council set up by Trump's Department of Transportation. Either a pox on both their houses, or a pox on none.”
Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#4It's funny to me how Lyft positions itself like the poor little underdog that deeply cares about humans. People are so susceptible to marketing it's crazy.
They provide the exact same service, and Lyft cloned most of uber's features once uber had achieved the unbelievable mindshift of changing people's behavior.
Whatever people think, in a few years if Lyft is popular enough, guess what: they too will become the "big evil capitalistic entreprise" and some new venture backed company will send a christmas email to their users telling them they love them and should all dance together on the beach.
Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#5It's funny to me how Lyft positions itself like the poor little underdog that deeply cares about humans. People are so susceptible to marketing it's crazy. They provide the exact same service, and Lyft cloned most of uber's features once uber had achieved the unbelievable mindshift of changing people's behavior. Whatever people think, in a few years if Lyft is popular enough, guess what: they too will become the "big…
To be fair, either Uber copied the idea of ride sharing from lyft or both copied it from sidecar. Uber wasn't the first.
Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#6It's funny to me how Lyft positions itself like the poor little underdog that deeply cares about humans. People are so susceptible to marketing it's crazy. They provide the exact same service, and Lyft cloned most of uber's features once uber had achieved the unbelievable mindshift of changing people's behavior. Whatever people think, in a few years if Lyft is popular enough, guess what: they too will become the "big…
Neither company has any stickiness with me. By that I mean, I can switch between them willy nilly with no real affect on my life. I like to tip when my work picks up the bill, so I most often use Lyft... If either of them offered a rewards program (like frequent flyer miles) I would probably use that one exclusively. I have no idea why neither has implemented that yet.
Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#7Completely stolen from https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/5r2apd/lyft_sur... This is all a consequence of bad messaging on Uber's part here; they're not in the wrong. Uber's Surge system is all automatic--if demand goes way up, and supply doesn't follow suit, prices will increase in the app. Unfortunately, demand goes way up during catastrophes like terror attacks, so Uber has had a few bad instances where,…
I don't think the pricing is the extent of people's concerns, or even the majority.
I'm not a fan of Kalanick, personally, but I was prepared to have been wrong about him when I saw his Facebook post about taking care of the drivers who were stranded by this idiocy.
Then, I saw they were taking fares to JFK during the taxi strike — effectively breaking it. To my eyes, and those of many others, that is an ugly repudiation of the gesture.
It was one hour. Having someone on the president's Business Council thing take a public stand like that in solidarity with the very industry he's trying to destroy would have sent a powerful message, and pretty cheaply.
More to the point, turning off surge pricing hours after the strike — that was announced to last one hour — was over is moot.
Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#8It's funny to me how Lyft positions itself like the poor little underdog that deeply cares about humans. People are so susceptible to marketing it's crazy. They provide the exact same service, and Lyft cloned most of uber's features once uber had achieved the unbelievable mindshift of changing people's behavior. Whatever people think, in a few years if Lyft is popular enough, guess what: they too will become the "big…
You forgot some details... dancing on the beach naked banging on bongo drums and singing Kum ba yah.
Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#9these types of events usually blow over in a month or so. but it does confirm what everyone already knows: ride hailing apps have no stickiness. at the end of the day no one cares what service provides the car.
Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign
#10Dan Primack summarised this well; Uber failed on messaging: "Uber has done a lot of questionable things over the years, but its actions this past weekend vis-a-vis Trump's immigration ban weren't among them. An actual timeline from Saturday, which may differ from what you saw on social media: • 4:20pm ET: CEO Travis Kalanick sent email to employees. It stopped short of explicitly opposing the ban, but did say: (1) Th…
I think the issue people have isn't the surge pricing so much as the fact that Uber didn't participate in the strike, and thus profited from it.