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Lyft Files for IPO

reuters.com

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Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#181

Post by djyaz1200 »

docker_up wrote: post #63

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…

"From a purely investment point of view, why would anyone invest in Lyft over Uber?"

In a word... price. Lyft's IPO will give public markets access to a rapidly growing industry at a lower valuation than Uber.

Post IPO I would guess being publicly traded would be an advantage for Lyft because they will have a broader base of stakeholders who benefit from their success.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#182

Post by Scoundreller »

maxxxxx wrote: post #21
kerng wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like Lyft makes about the same loss as Uber overall percentage wise. So, if both IPO they will have to increase prices accordingly. At this point it might be better for one to back off from IPO, that would allow to further diversify business and find other more profitable ventures long term.

They want to cash out. They know that they have no real long term plan.

How about claiming to actually be a camera company?

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#183

Post by deminature »

Synthetase wrote: post #153
deminature wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The way its built requires no human operational cost.

I'd be skeptical if ridesharing is possible without some human operational involvement. The most complex part is not the 99% of trips that go right, but the 1% that go wrong. The consequences of failure are more severe than say, a SaaS app not working correctly.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#184

Post by newnewpdro »

benj111 wrote: post #87
docker_up wrote: post #63

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 takes the flack, gets the law changed, creates the market. Lyft sails in and gets most of the benefits, without those costs. Uber doesn't have a massive moat. Drivers can have both apps, users can have both apps. You attract drivers by paying them more, you attract riders by charging them less. Uber for now can afford to beat everyone on both those fronts, but eventually they will have to start making a profit.…

> Uber takes the flack, gets the law changed, creates the market. Lyft sails in and gets most of the benefits, without those costs.

Then Waymo dozes over both of them while destroying a large chunk of the "gig economy".

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#185

Post by [deleted] »

inverse_pi wrote: post #91
docker_up wrote: post #63

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 This can be a reason why one would be more interested in Lyft. Uber seems like a distracted player who's losing money on many other markets and businesses, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars on self-driving cars (and flying cars?!). Lyft is much cheaper (15B valuation), while Uber is much more expens…

[deleted]

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#186

Post by medius »

I feel that the time to file for IPO for Lyft and Uber is running out. If Waymo One starts getting popular and gets more and more into news cycle, valuations of both of these companies will be considered based on the progress of self driving cars.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#187

Post by Animats »

Looking forward to reading the prospectus. Let's see the audited numbers.

A confidential filing with the SEC of an offering is a new thing. Until 2017, you couldn't do that. It's limiting in some ways. Lyft now can't say anything more about an IPO. If they do, the confidentiality can disappear.[1]

[1] https://www.sec.gov/corpfin/voluntary-submission-draft-regis...

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#188

Post by mehblahwhatevs »

parthdesai wrote: post #130
chrstphrhrt wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a customer experience I prefer Lyft because they let me give tips. I doin't think Uber drivers make a living wage, so I like trying to figure out what can be added to offset the low base/fees so the drivers can do okay.

Tbh i preferred Uber exactly because of no option to tip, but like other people have pointed it out, you can tip in Uber.

Me too - now that the Uber app has tipping I choose to tip a nominal amount ($2 usually each trip). But prior to them adding it I was happy to not tip at all, even if in the end the price point for the trip was $2 higher.

I'd prefer driver compensation to be worked out on Uber's end of things rather than being passed to the consumer. I know that's what tipping is - but I'm against payment structures that require tipping. I still tip because I don't want to put it on the driver/waiter/whatever, but I'd prefer for the price point to be higher and to not tip.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#189

Post by reaperducer »

Scoundreller wrote: post #178
reaperducer wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2) Lyft focuses on profitable higher income markets like the US and Canada so they can have a higher margin and not get into pricing wars This, I think, is more important than many people realize. When I was driving for Uber and Lyft (for about eight months, two years ago), Lyft had an entirely different clientele. Uber was for the poors, the frat boys, and the average Joe Lunchbucket. Lyft was a decidedly better cla…

Any idea what drives Lyft riders to be better behaved? Is Lyft more expensive in your locale? I’m in a new Lyft market, so their pricing makes them the cheapest with their discounts often.

Lyft charged its riders more, and didn't have all kinds of crazy specials like "Pay $25 for ten rides" kinds of things.

My guess is that people who could pay more for Lyft did. I gave a lot of homeless people rides through Uber, but never through Lyft.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#190

Post by ghaff »

CPLX wrote: post #167
aeternus wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without a large network, the time for a car to arrive is high and unpredictable. This is bad for customers.

Not necessarily. It's pretty easy to have a network that's not very big that always has someone at the airport, or always is available for trips that stay within a specific neighborhood, or can always be arranged with a little more advance notice, or whatever. And the relevant part of pointing this out is that as long as that's true, which is forever, then these large companies will never be able to extract monopoly…

Yes. You can overprovision in a constrained area and you can also let people schedule ahead of time. That's pretty much every black car service which often are not very big companies. But they tend to be relatively expensive. (Which is fine for some uses; I use one to travel to and from the airport.)
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