Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

But their lines of business have inherently low barriers to entry and inherent economic disincentives to artificially keep supply as high as these services do in outlying regions.

The minute they either pay drivers less, charge riders more, or reduce supply, it’s an immediate opportunity for another entrant. Diversifying into e-bikes won’t change that. It’s just an inherent property of the entire concept of a regional taxi service.

Self-driving cars won’t change anything either, as they will just be yet another commodity device that all those would-be entrants can lease and use all the same. The extreme sensitivity to price competition would remain.

The real reason for these auxiliary transportation acquisitions by Lyft or Uber and all the fluff about being “the Amazon of transportation” is simple: they don’t have anything close to a profitable business model. It’s wholly reliant on keeping ride supply artificially high in outlying areas and prices artificially low, through VC subsidy.

In the meantime, they need splashy new stories to tell to keep the hype train going. First it was going to be Uber Eats and other gig economy extensions. Not profitable either? OK, let’s do something with bikes or city travel guides.

> Won't Be Happy

Why so negative. I like how Europeans/Chinese/Everyone stands behind their companies and expect them to succeed globally. USA on other hand is bent on destroying/defaming their own.

I'm sure it would be great until they captured the market then raised prices and started sharing your data with 3rd parties as an additional way to monetize.

Both offer wheelchair accessible cars. I'm not sure what the formal ADA rule should be on them, but offering these services seems to work out for everyone.