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Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

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Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#191

Post by spookthesunset »

windexh8er wrote: post #120
moocow01 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem really is profit. Pepsi and Coca-Cola both sell sugar water, a commodity, at a profit. Lyft and Uber have made rides a commodity but at this point it looks like commoditization of rides is not able to be sold at a profit. I think they both are touting that scale and technology will lead them to profitable rides but its not obvious that this is going to ever come true in a way that justifies their…

In my opinion the outstanding question today is: are they both too early? It's currently a race to the bottom of driver oriented rides. As soon as driverless becomes viable the current rider fee suddenly shifts to being a more positive profit margin and also shifts opex back in favor of both. But can either last long enough to get there?

> As soon as driverless becomes viable

Alexa can't even turn on my living room lights more than 50% percent of the time. I'm not holding my breath for driverless cars coming any time soon (if ever).

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#192

Post by manigandham »

mempko wrote: post #176
manigandham wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. The fee is only charged if the driver returns the item, so if they cant or dont want to then there's no fee.

I lost a phone in a taxi once (didn't realize it, it was a burner). A week later I had the same taxi driver and he goes "Glad I finally picked you up again, here is your phone". Sometimes people are good.

What's with the moral judgements? Uber is a service. You forgot your item. Most people are good, but still want to be paid.

Expecting everyone else should be generous of their time for your mistake is definitely not good.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#193

Post by bad_good_guy »

Barrin92 wrote: post #189
Androider wrote: post #30

Uber doesn't have much of a moat or lock-in effect. I just switched one day from being a frequent Uber rider to 100% using Lyft, simply because I don't like Uber's behavior as a company. The prices are so close it doesn't make any practical difference to me. Anecdotally, among my friends I also see Lyft becoming the default, and sometimes price-checking with Uber. If Waymo or whoever came out tomorrow with a cheaper/…

To this day I don't even really understand the value that Uber et al are supposedly adding that justifies the size and evaluation of their companies. At the end of the day they're a layer on top of a taxi business. Sure this is useful in some way but like Airbnb or weworks or all these other companies that just throw one layer of service over the actual business I don't understand why they are treated like high tech…

I believe it was originally a big bet on the eventual profit margins from having the market share when deploying driverless cars instead of human drivers

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#194

Post by manigandham »

anigbrowl wrote: post #183
manigandham wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. The fee is only charged if the driver returns the item, so if they cant or dont want to then there's no fee.

What if the driver doesn't want to charge a fee and is happy to just circle the block and drop the item off to a thankful customer, as described in this episode? Maybe things won't be as convenient for some drivers, in which case a fee is appropriate. But imposing a fee without asking the driver or allowing the driver an easy way to notify the customer of the lost item is dishonest; Uber is not doing it on the driver…

The driver chooses to return the item in the first place (and they know the fee), and they can notify riders about lost items via their app.

Uber avoids price negotiation, and considering that it takes time and effort to resolve your mistake, it's likely much better to just charge a standard fee instead of planning for every single case.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#195

Post by wild_preference »

Ftuuky wrote: post #108
deminature wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not meaning to be accusatory, but it's possible you're seeing lower quality drivers because your rating is low?

I don't know my rating but I never did anything inside an Uber to deserve a low rating.

You can check your rating from your app.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#196

Post by spookthesunset »

anigbrowl wrote: post #162
segmondy wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, not having the driver's phone number is good. Can you imagine passengers calling drivers and harassing them for whatever reason? It will happen. Should the driver drive for free to return your jacket? What if the driver is already en route to another passenger and they told the passenger 5 minutes, and your cost will be additional 10 minutes. Do you think another passenger will understand and be forgiving that…

Why are you inventing new facts to rationalize this practice? The other poster told you that the driver noticed the forgotten jacket and immediately attempted to contact the rider, but couldn't. Uber is choosing to interpose itself between the two and collect a fee that neither of them wanted to pay.

> Why are you inventing new facts to rationalize this practice?

The driver being nice and wanting to contact the driver is cool at a small scale but at a large scale with millions(?) of trips per day, that sort of casual niceness doesn't scale at all. At scale, you run into all the questions asked by the parent. You have to address the "oh shit, I need to get/give something back" issue in a more systemic, scalable way that accounts for all the ways drivers and passengers might try to screw each other.

Whether the fee is the right way to make this happen, I cannot answer. But what I can say is the questions asked by the parent are the kinds of questions you absolutely have to answer when creating a feature allowing "call backs" that might get used by thousands or tens of thousands of people per day.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#197

Post by paxy »

Balgair wrote: post #169
cm2012 wrote: post #51

I am a pretty loyal Uber user, and probably spend around $400 a month with them. But... I was stuck out in the cold in the boonies of long island recently, and Uber kept bugging out and not finding rides since I was fairly rural. I downloaded Lyft for the first time and it found me a ride instantly. I'm going to have to use them more often. Just my random anecdote.

$400/mo. Woah! Why not lease a car at that rate? Leases go for ~$150/mo there.

Have to factor in parking, gas and insurance as well.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#199

Post by [deleted] »

TylerE wrote: post #98
gjreda wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this change when the two options are perfect substitutes? As a rider, there's no "cost" to having both apps, so I'll just check both. Similarly, as a driver, I'll just sit with both apps open and see which one I get a rider on.

Makes you wonder why no one has built an app that interfaces with all of them, and finds you the cheapest rate, while taking a kickback.

[deleted]
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