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Lyft Files for IPO

reuters.com

101–110 of 319 posts

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am private beta testing an app that does exactly what is described.

It seems like there might be a difference between an app that serves a few hundred people and an app that serves hundreds of millions of people.

Don't know much about the ride share industry, but am interested and curious. Which parts of this type of app do you think would be particularly difficult to scale?

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#102
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would ridesharing be winner take all? There's almost no network effect (beyond splitting the cost, but Venmo has largely solved that) and the drivers all drive for all of them. In NYC I think there's at least 4 ridesharing companies and I usually choose which one based on which one has given me a promo.

There are plenty of network effects. To start a new ridesharing company, you have to get drivers and riders. You'd have to offer them a ton of incentives to start driving/riding with your service, when the existing options are well established. For drivers, Lyft and Uber have incentives (lower fees) if you do the majority of rides with their service, which incentivizes you to only drive with one service. When's the l…

The future of ridesharing is uber pool/lyft line in order to increase efficiency. The network effect is huge.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#103

From a purely investment point of view, why would anyone invest in Lyft over Uber? Lyft has a smaller footprint and only operates in the US (except Toronto). They are more susceptible to economic conditions in a single country, the US, and every point of marketshare they get is a zero-sum game against Uber and presumably expensive because Uber won't give it up for free. Uber has a global operations, is in multiple st…

Lyft recently acquired Motivate, the bike share company. I know they run the NYC bike share and now the Minneapolis one.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#104
I'm not very bullish on these ride sharing companies in the long term. More and more data is coming out that suggests that these ride sharing companies impact transportation and congestion metrics in a negative way that is counter productive to cities' long term transportation goals. Accordingly cities are layering on more regulations that will limit what has made these companies different from traditional taxi companies.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#105

From a purely investment point of view, why would anyone invest in Lyft over Uber? Lyft has a smaller footprint and only operates in the US (except Toronto). They are more susceptible to economic conditions in a single country, the US, and every point of marketshare they get is a zero-sum game against Uber and presumably expensive because Uber won't give it up for free. Uber has a global operations, is in multiple st…

Uber is not a public company, so there isn't much alternative for investment in this space. Lyft has more room to grow and expand to profitable markets

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#106
post #57
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't own that market at least the way Uber or Lyft do it. It's so easy for their drivers to switch and it's easy for their customers. In my view they will keep their dominant market positions only while they subsidize rides and lose money. But as soon as they raise prices to be profitable there will be plenty of competition. I think the endgame is to dump the stock on the public market so investors and execs can…

A ride hailing service needs to reach a critical density of available cars per km^2 to be useful. When you first install the app there needs to be someone nearby who will pick you up - if there's no car nearby most people will uninstall it. Additionally the more people use your app and the more drivers you have in an area the more effectively you can deal with idling (less variance in demand spikes - making planning…

The friction against this business model as well is that local governments want to reduce congestion, so they're not going to be happy to license services that are significantly increasing the amount of cars on the road.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#108

From a purely investment point of view, why would anyone invest in Lyft over Uber? Lyft has a smaller footprint and only operates in the US (except Toronto). They are more susceptible to economic conditions in a single country, the US, and every point of marketshare they get is a zero-sum game against Uber and presumably expensive because Uber won't give it up for free. Uber has a global operations, is in multiple st…

> Uber has a global operations, is in multiple streams of business and has diversity across business lines and countries [...] If you invest in a gold company, do you want them hedging the price of gold? Some corporations function as diversified quasi-portfolios. But it's often far easier to analyze and model pure plays. Plenty of pure-play securities on public markets.

by that logic, amazon should just be selling books to make it easy for investors to make 'pure plays'

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#109

From a purely investment point of view, why would anyone invest in Lyft over Uber? Lyft has a smaller footprint and only operates in the US (except Toronto). They are more susceptible to economic conditions in a single country, the US, and every point of marketshare they get is a zero-sum game against Uber and presumably expensive because Uber won't give it up for free. Uber has a global operations, is in multiple st…

Room to grow for all of the reasons you mentioned? Alongside different/better governance and perception

Also revenue. They has it.

I can more easily see how a public market shareholder would make money in a lyft holding, than in an uner holding. This isnt about getting married to a stock and putting the share certificate in a frame, this is about growth and potential addressable market, which is easier to see.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uber has a global operations, is in multiple streams of business and has diversity across business lines and countries [...] If you invest in a gold company, do you want them hedging the price of gold? Some corporations function as diversified quasi-portfolios. But it's often far easier to analyze and model pure plays. Plenty of pure-play securities on public markets.

by that logic, amazon should just be selling books to make it easy for investors to make 'pure plays'

I don't think public companies should be pure plays. But I don't think they should be portfolios, either. There's reason for both.
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