Yeah can't defy nothing with this model.
A handful of parasitic wannabe visionaries grabbing as much investor money as fast they can so long the sales pitch sounds ok, meanwhile "disrupting" all laws they can and paying workers less than minimum wage.
Seems like the drivers have wisened up in some places.
Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
71–80 of 158 posts
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
And previous well functioning economies get destroyed in the process
I don't know what fantasy well-functioning economy you are taking about. You had to manually call a taxi company, and wait for an hour for a taxi that might now even show up.
Because it turns out personal chauffeurs for sustainable prices is just not that big a business?
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#73If there was any time to be skeptical of Uber's longevity, it is now (at least for me). My experience is anecdotal but I visit my home country every year for a few months and I can clearly notice the declining quality of Uber's services: 1. Vehicles, on average, take at least 10-15 mins longer to get 2. Even if you find a vehicle, 60% of these rides are canceled (either by the driver because they call me and find out…
It's like this in Tacoma, WA right now. An Uber or Lyft may never arrive. 5-10 cancelled drivers before the car arrives is normal. A notice saying "No cars available" is shown 70-80% of the time for XL size cars. Often it takes 1h or so to get a ride. Sometimes it will come in 4 minutes, sometimes it will say 4 minutes but then 5+ drivers cancel and it takes an hour of real time, while the app just says 4 minutes. I…
Yep - I am now seriously considering buying an electric scooter because Uber is plain unreliable now.
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do they still lose money on every ride they give? I've been skeptical for a while now, it's a ponzi scheme.
Please explain what you think a ponzi scheme is. Because losing money on something isn’t close to the definition
I think they mean it is sort of a ponzi scheme for those invested. It requires more and more investor money to operate and will eventually collapse leaving the last round of investors holding the bag while those that got in early may get out fine. I think the ponzi scheme is more an apt metaphor than the actual structure of the company?
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The profit is propped up a bit by subsidies, b Does this mean that Tesla would have a smaller profit margin without subsidies, or that Tesla would not be profitable in real terms without the subsidies?
Both. People would purchase fewer teslas without the tax credit and Tesla would have less income without the ability to trade their tax credits to “dirtier” manufacturers.
Sure this is all coupled; But I was trying to separate "propped up a bit" from "pretty dependent on". It's not really clear without having looked into the details.
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#76Ultimately you can NOT "magically" negate "Last Mile Costs" in cities and towns where the Last Mile path distance is enormous. Did my MBA thesis on this subject with the benefit of 20 years of engineering experience. The numbers simply do not work unless you change how cities and residences are built, which would cost far more than you'd ever gain from solving Last Mile costs - the breakeven time is of the order of 1…
I would also be extremely interested in reading your thesis.
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#77This may be a hot take, but I think the gig economy is one thing which could be a pretty solid use of the blockchain. Uber/DoorDash/Lyft are all pretty simple CRUD apps at their core, and the companies themselves do very little actual work. Unfortunately, due to the Silicon Valley cult of growth, they are still either unprofitable or barely profitable while also taking a pretty massive cut away from actual workers on…
> Uber/DoorDash/Lyft are all pretty simple CRUD apps at their core,
> Most of the functions of the main delivery platforms could easily be achieved through smart contracts,
These Crypto conversations always seem to follow the same format:
1. Define a problem, but reduce it to a single, or a few, causes
2. Oversimplify the existing solutions to the problem
3. Propose smart contracts as a solution
4. Hand wave how smart contracts actually contribute to solving the problem
5. Ignore the new problems that smart contracts, and the required market places, would introduce
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#78If you are dumping to own the market as a monopoly, and so is your competitor, and both of you are buoyed up by seemingly limitless investor finance, then all that happens is that investors' money moves into the customers' pockets.
I have been thinking about this every now and then - I, and many others, hold no loyalty to any particular ride sharing or food delivery app, and the cost to switch to the one that is offering deep discounts is almost zero. I know people who are constantly exploiting these sign up offers across many businesses that are pulling the same sort of ridiculous discounting that Uber pulled - and therefore are effectively li…
I suspect it's a not trivial amount of money. this reminds me of the San Francisco subsidy (the ability of people living in San Francisco to utilize a venture capital back startup for almost every aspect of their life at a tremendous discount) from a couple of years ago, anecdotally living expenses can be reduced by nearly 30%
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#79I was expecting a data driven argument but the bits of data shared actually contradict the author. These companies mentioned are collectively worth $500B, after taking $100B in venture capital. They are starting to get profitable. Demand for their services is increasing. This article is thousands of words of the exact same talking points we have been hearing for a decade. What's the "after all" part?
> They are starting to get profitable I don't know what you are basing this on but it's definitely not based on data. $UBER EPS over the last few quarters: -1.28 0.61 -0.06 -0.54 -0.62 $DASH EPS -0.30 -0.34 -2.67 The only way they are getting profitable is on an "adjusted basis", in other words when they exclude most of their expenses. That's not a business, that's a game.
I still contend that many of these types of "startups" are merely elaborate ponzi schemes.
Actually, I think a lot of businesses are just that.
Re: Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you think about last mile delivery robots? https://www.kiwibot.com These little bots don't require the same level of human physical presence as Uber or DoorDash.
They faked the bots. They require human physical presence, and a remote controller. > The Kiwibots do not figure out their own routes. Instead, people in Colombia, the home country of Chavez and his two co-founders, plot “waypoints” for the bots to follow, sending them instructions every five to 10 seconds on where to go. > On the ground in Berkeley, people also do a lot of robot support. Traveling at 1 to 1½ mph, th…
This seems comically complex and wasteful compared to the extremely old fashioned "restaurant hires person with a bike" solution.