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Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

nytimes.com

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Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#221

Post by acchow »

rtpg wrote: post #199
eddieplan9 wrote: post #141

According to leaked financial in [1], Lyft is expected to generate $32M of net revenue on about $158M of fare, while losing $50M per month. If everything stays the same, Lyft would have to raise rate by 156% to break even. Also, Lyft's growth is mostly purchased: > While rides increased about 11 percent from April to May, fully paid rides, without the use of a coupon or a credit, grew by only 5 percent in that period…

Uber was in a similar situation to Lyft not too long ago. Uber's also already said that they're cash-positive in the US, and Lyft is focused on the US for now. It's not hard to imagine that after this multi-city expansion, costs will go way down. I wouldn't qualify the growth as "mostly purchased" when it's... 50/50 couponed/full? That seems to be more a consequence of the multi-city launch than anything. I'm pretty…

> I wouldn't qualify the growth as "mostly purchased" when it's... 50/50 couponed/full

If most of their customers are buying only because they are selling under the market price, then it doesn't matter if the subsidy is 5% or 50% or 100%; their sales are "mostly purchased".

Imagine you open a store tomorrow and sell gold for 1% under the market price - suddenly your sales blow up to $1 billion in a day. You have purchased all of your sales, with just a 1% coupon.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#222

Post by Apocryphon »

techsupporter wrote: post #3

Forgive me if this is me being dense, but from an outsider's perspective I don't understand what makes Lyft any better than Uber. Neither company properly categorizes their drivers (as employees), both have a rather sizeable cut from fares, both depended on being basically illegal cabs--except for Uber Black, which uses licensed black car services--to get started, and neither has a financially viable business model.…

Tonight I've learned that Uber, on iOS, tracks the user's location even when the app is inactive, for at least ten minutes after a ride is over. Lyft only tracks location while a ride is in session. Would like someone to confirm this.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#223

Post by IMTDb »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #214
empath75 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber pool wasn't meant to be for professional drivers. If he's doing that, he's doing it wrong.

Oh, you sweet summer child. Just because Uber says "ridesharing" doesn't mean it's actually ridesharing.

Oh, you sweet summer child. Just because empath75 says "not meant for professional driver" doesn't mean there can't be people doing that for money.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#224

Post by paulddraper »

baddox wrote: post #145
xiangmin wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a ban on people from a particular faith Is it though? For example of Muslim, it does not even affect about 88% of the world's Muslims (Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Turkey, Malaysia, others) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country

I don't see why the percentage of Muslims in the world is relevant. The internment of Japanese Americans in the 1940s certainly targeted Japanese people despite that being a small percentage of Japanese people in the world.

The US didn't intern Japanese. They interned Japanese Americans, so that is the scope of discussion.

And yes, it would be significant if the US targeted the 99% of the Japanese population vs the 1% most concerning part.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#225

Post by paulddraper »

IanCal wrote: post #178
trustfundbaby wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also helps that Europe and its cities are ... smaller.

I always dislike these comparisons. The truth is simply that it depends. You can't justify an unknown city having a certain quality of bus routes compared to a diverse range of tens of countries by saying "it's smaller". It'd be slower and more expensive in some parts of the UK, easier in others and in some countries I assume you'd be expected to just cycle the 6 miles.

> cycle the 6 miles

The minority cycles. Crowded cyclists are hardly better than crowded cars.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#226

Post by disiplus »

acchow wrote: post #221
rtpg wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber was in a similar situation to Lyft not too long ago. Uber's also already said that they're cash-positive in the US, and Lyft is focused on the US for now. It's not hard to imagine that after this multi-city expansion, costs will go way down. I wouldn't qualify the growth as "mostly purchased" when it's... 50/50 couponed/full? That seems to be more a consequence of the multi-city launch than anything. I'm pretty…

> I wouldn't qualify the growth as "mostly purchased" when it's... 50/50 couponed/full If most of their customers are buying only because they are selling under the market price, then it doesn't matter if the subsidy is 5% or 50% or 100%; their sales are "mostly purchased". Imagine you open a store tomorrow and sell gold for 1% under the market price - suddenly your sales blow up to $1 billion in a day. You have purc…

thats the price of acquiring a customer. for my saas the cost to acquire a customer is X, X is multiple of montly fees. so only after couple of months im going to be on 0. The cost for me could be adwords, running a free plan, or something else.

how is this different. I assume that they hope to convert some of those to regular customers.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#227

Post by patrickaljord »

yunti wrote: post #134
foxfired wrote: post #127

Here is how I see it. I rely on those rides to go to work every single day and here what it (would) costs me. Uber: $250 a month.(Majority) Lyft: $500 a month (Whenever Uber is too expensive) Bus : $100 a month (1h:15 for 6 miles and 3 buses... No) Politics and all internal conflicts aside, there is a need for these services whether we like it or not. When I need to make a decision in the morning I take whatever is t…

The answer is that, you are using a service that is unsustainably too cheap. In the longer term the price will have to increase, probably quite significantly and you'll have to choose whether you think it's still worth it or take the bus. Unfortunately you, and many others are the ones benefitting from drivers being underpaid.

> Unfortunately you, and many others are the ones benefitting from drivers being underpaid.

To be fair, these drivers would be out of jobs without Uber. They are not qualified enough to find better paying jobs. Being underpaid is still better than not being paid at all. However, there's a limit to how little Uber can pay its drivers before they start looking for better paying jobs elsewhere. Uber needs to balance this with their need to be profitable in order to keep existing. And they're not profitable already in spite of these low wages. If anything, it's Uber who needs to worry about its existence. Drivers will find jobs elsewhere.

I think Uber started as a high margin business, which is always a great place to be but they quickly turned into a (very) low/negative margin business because of competition which requires exponential growth and constant injection of money to pay for the growth. The amount of pressure on the ceo must be insane, glad I'm not in his shoes (doesn't justify him being a-hole to his driver though obviously).

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#228

Post by IanCal »

paulddraper wrote: post #225
IanCal wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always dislike these comparisons. The truth is simply that it depends. You can't justify an unknown city having a certain quality of bus routes compared to a diverse range of tens of countries by saying "it's smaller". It'd be slower and more expensive in some parts of the UK, easier in others and in some countries I assume you'd be expected to just cycle the 6 miles.

> cycle the 6 miles The minority cycles. Crowded cyclists are hardly better than crowded cars.

They take up less space and result in less pollution and a healthier population. In what way do you think they're about the same?

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#229

Post by CalRobert »

trustfundbaby wrote: post #164
deusex_ wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe, your bus fare would be half of the price and probably you would need one or two connections. The public transport is much more developed and to me seems like a much better mass transportation alternative. More ecological, cheaper, less cars overall.

It also helps that Europe and its cities are ... smaller.

Perhaps that could serve as a guide for planning councils in the US who wish to improve their cities.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#230

Post by CalRobert »

paulddraper wrote: post #225
IanCal wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always dislike these comparisons. The truth is simply that it depends. You can't justify an unknown city having a certain quality of bus routes compared to a diverse range of tens of countries by saying "it's smaller". It'd be slower and more expensive in some parts of the UK, easier in others and in some countries I assume you'd be expected to just cycle the 6 miles.

> cycle the 6 miles The minority cycles. Crowded cyclists are hardly better than crowded cars.

....

Perhaps you can enlighten us as to how getting hit by a bicycle is comparable to getting hit by a Land Rover?

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