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Can Uber ever make money?

economist.com

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Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#161

Post by dleclere »

TuringNYC wrote: post #53
bryanlarsen wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxis made money because the medallion situation limited competition, and because fare prices were fixed by the city at levels that ensured a profit.

I see your point, in theory, but the increasing medallion investment/rent just lowered profit further and further until the profit to drivers was some very low wage. The driver is not usually the medallion owner, and hence the rent for the medallion goes elsewhere. The driver just ends up with the metered fare net of medallion costs. Similarly, Uber leads to a sort of perfect competition equilibrium ( https://en.wiki…

Actually it's more like a monopsony where a single buyer (uber) can dictate the price to the sellers (drivers). Uber varies the prices it charges consumers (and therefore pays drivers) based on what maximises its profit rather than general economic welfare.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#162

Post by seppin »

rubicon33 wrote: post #145
cbhl wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are your thoughts on Uber Select / Uber Black / Lyft Lux / Lyft Lux Black?

Definitely a fan of the Select and Black options. In fact, I've been using them more and more. The price - while higher - feels more aligned with what I would consider to be "good value". Ranked in order of importance for me are: - A competent + safe driver, preferably someone who knows the area. - A nice, clean, comfortable ride. - A driver who doesn't talk to me. All 3 of these are markedly improved in both the Sel…

> Definitely a fan of the Select and Black options. In fact, I've been using them more and more.

How was burning man this year?

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#163

Post by lukecameron »

Skunkleton wrote: post #79
parksy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in a way, that's the beauty of disruptive use of technology. Without the innovation of the Uber app, the traditional taxi cartels would have no incentive to improve their services and the fact that they have been forced to do so in order to compete benefits the consumer. They're not quite there yet, and are still catching up. The next logical step is a lift aggregation service that creates a marketplace. I want a…

As it stands the price you pay for a ride in an uber is unfairly low. Driving it even lower would be irresponsible.

It's kind of hard to predict which way the fare would go for such a service... It might actually end up being higher than what Uber is currently charging. Which wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#164

Post by sephicr »

losteric wrote: post #144
Traster wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's a really interesting concept. People think Uber will reach a scale where either it can use automation to reduce costs or jack up prices. It may well be the other way around - as it matures regulations catch up and the loopholes it was using to keep costs down disappear and their costs slowly increase instead.

Or that terrible customer experiences which are currently "exceptions to the rule" end up becoming the norm at whatever they pay drivers/charge customers... there are only so many good drivers and customers/contractors burned by bad experiences will not come back to Uber's platform.

Where I live (in Norway) we are quite well accustomed to bad experiences with overpriceed taxis and bad customer services with existing taxi companies (in large operated with immigrant drivers). Uber would give so much more transparency and security for customers that I'm baffled that it has not been allowed yet

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#165

Post by jv22222 »

dugmartin wrote: post #152
jv22222 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with huge barriers to entry that requires a ton of money to get started Just a note that the proof of concept stage was very cheaply done. Travis hired someone to make an app and the "dispatch" system was just a single php page. He then tested it out with his friends. That said, I agree that ultimately to get to the position they are today required a ton of cash - just the getting started was pretty cheap. Actually…

You guys ever going to do another episode Justin? I still have Techzing in my podcast app list, hoping it will light up again with a new episode sometime.

Yep tomorrow :) But we did one 2 weeks ago too. Sounds like your feed has stopped checking.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#167

Post by ancientworldnow »

an_account_name wrote: post #146
jameslevy wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Places like NYC already show this in practice.

Can you elaborate? I don't have any context on this other than taking a Lyft in NYC once.

NYC introduced fees for ride sharing with destinations or pickups in Manhattan to reduce congestion. They also added fees to guarantee a reasonable minimum wage for the drivers of the ride sharing app.

The difference in price between a cab and a uber/lyft is relatively small. Convenience seems to be the primary driver for which people use (cabs in Manhattan frequently because of ubiquity, apps in other boroughs).

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#168

Post by seppin »

dcolkitt wrote: post #32
govg wrote: post #17

I can only see them making money in three ways : - They scale up massively and capture a huge fraction of the ride sharing market, thus allowing them to offer low cost / low margin rides, but making up for it by volumes : At least in India, they are in a good position, but they seem to have conceded the other markets with high potential for growth like SE Asia and China. - They have a premium offering that is actuall…

Option 4: Uber uses the expertise, infrastructure, and brand it built in ridesharing to expand into the becoming the de facto standard for timely last mile delivery. This is why UberEats is such a major strategic focus for the company. It's proof of concept that they can do more than be a taxi. An efficient platform for quickly and cheaply ferrying around stuff around town is a way bigger market than ridesharing. We'…

> for timely last mile delivery

perhaps the only industry with worse margins than ride-hailing.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#169

Post by dragonwriter »

dcolkitt wrote: post #21
tguedes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber drivers use their cars for stuff other than Uber. It's a way to make additional money from something you already have. That would not be the case if Uber had its own fleet.

Why couldn't the same logic work in the post-self-driving future? If I own a self-driving car that sits in my garage from 8 PM to 8 AM, why not just put it on the Uber network and have it make money while I sleep? As long as people still own cars, why does Uber ever need to own their own fleet? If anything without the actual pain-in-the-ass of actually having to be a driver, I'd think a lot more people would crowdsou…

> As long as people still own cars, why does Uber ever need to own their own fleet?

Because when people without cars need cars is correlated with when people with cars are using their cars.

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