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Is the Ride over for Uber?

smartcompany.com.au

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Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#191

Post by sushid »

Teever wrote: post #90
hackernewds wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mind boggling how most people think it's a simple matching FIFO matching algorithm, instead of how mind bogglingly complex making ride-sharing happen at scale is I would know.

I think people don't care about it because at the end of the day all this mind bogglingly complex stuff just exists skim money off a transaction that should ideally be done between two individuals -- a buyer and a seller. Uber is nothing more than a rent-seeking middle man and no one cares about how complicated their rent-seeking activities are behind the curtain. Why can my ISP string up fiber optic all over my city…

How is Uber anything similar to a utilities company? Those companies are rent seeking because they provide an essential service in a de-facto monopoly. Uber literally created the demand from both sides of the marketplace while facing steep competition from incumbents. There are many things wrong with them but how can you criticize them for rent seeking? They're one of the most capitalistic companies around and their origin story is literally the opposite of rent seeking.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#192

Post by sushid »

Teever wrote: post #166
al_mandi wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber facilitates matching and routing and many other things. Don't you think that those features are worthy of paying for them?

Sure, but that's money that is being taken out of my community and I would prefer that it stay here. Why do I need to involve a middle man from another country to facilitate a trip across town?

Then ride a cab? You're involving a middle man because they do a pretty damn good job taking you from point A to point B. It's the same reason you might want to use Amazon to buy something and "take money out of your community."

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#193

Post by bsder »

pm90 wrote: post #189
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this post. I do a hard eye-roll every time I read one of these "Hey, I could build that company's website in a weekend" or "They should only need a few engineers to keep it running" type posts. If anything it just shows that the commenter has 0 idea what they're talking about. I'm not at all saying that there isn't a good amount of "fat to trim" at large companies, but often times the hard work at these bi…

I remember that time quite well. These alternative apps would always fail over the weekends when demand skyrocketed. They just didn’t work, when most people needed them the most (drunk and trying to get home from bars/clubs). That really hurt their reputation in my eyes and in the eyes of others like me (which in Austin was a lot!). I personally remember wandering around at 4am trying to get a ride back… not an exper…

> These other apps had almost a year to fix themselves and they couldn’t. I guess they just couldn’t muster the capital to build something really solid.

They really didn't have time or money because everybody simply assumed Uber/Lyft would use their gigantic piles of VC cash to come back shortly and sweep everybody aside even at a loss.

And everybody was right.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#194

Post by nitwit005 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #26

Uber would have been fine if they operated like a medium sized SAAS company as they're forced to for example in Spain, where they due to regulations sell their software to local companies. Smaller team, focus just on the ride hailing software, take a cut of the revenue and that would actually be a decent business that doesn't try to make money by either monopolizing markets or atomizing the taxi business and destroyi…

When they started, the taxi companies wouldn't have gone for it. They started adopting apps after their customers came to expect it.

That said, I think they always should have planned that sort of transition. They bet on self driving cars instead, which hasn't panned out.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#195

Post by nitwit005 »

jlmorton wrote: post #157

> This writer, previously an avid Uber Eats user, now avoids it in almost all cases and instead, orders directly from restaurants, which have mostly built an online ordering systems. Going direct means your food isn’t ruined I don't know if this is confirmation bias, or just a lie to add weight to the thesis, but it's obviously absurd, as anyone who has ever worked for, or even ordered directly from a local restauran…

A lot of businesses have driver tracking and route optimization apps now. Dominoes previously said they were using AI for heavier optimization.

Uber also has a basic disadvantage, which that their delivery drivers are rarely at the source building already, but that's often true for a pizzeria.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#196

Post by Teever »

sushid wrote: post #192
Teever wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that's money that is being taken out of my community and I would prefer that it stay here. Why do I need to involve a middle man from another country to facilitate a trip across town?

Then ride a cab? You're involving a middle man because they do a pretty damn good job taking you from point A to point B. It's the same reason you might want to use Amazon to buy something and "take money out of your community."

I take the bus, but I noticed lately that I haven't seen a cab in my city in months, whereas pre Uber I used to see dozens of them a day.

For better or worse I think that Uber destroyed the cab industry in my city.

Either way, I still think that we could have some sort of decentralized ride sharing platform that doesn't suck so much money out of local communities.

I think that this would be better for communities and therefore society a a whole.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#197

Post by mdale »

Barrin92 wrote: post #26

Uber would have been fine if they operated like a medium sized SAAS company as they're forced to for example in Spain, where they due to regulations sell their software to local companies. Smaller team, focus just on the ride hailing software, take a cut of the revenue and that would actually be a decent business that doesn't try to make money by either monopolizing markets or atomizing the taxi business and destroyi…

Aka Lyft ?

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#198

Post by RC_ITR »

voz_ wrote: post #25

Uber is an example of a company that wants to be a tech company, but (1) really shouldn't (2) kinda lacks the technical leadership to really be one. It feels like the right call, around 2017, was to either: (A) double down and build a platform for every kind of physical multisided marketplace (matching as a service, maps+routing+locations+geofences as a service, physical product ops as a service, etc) Where Amazon we…

The problem with the “many markets” idea is that outside of taxis and food delivery, there’s often not enough consistent demand for “on-demand”

Plumbers and masseurs and dog walkers didn’t build up reservation books because it was hard to make real-time bookings (phones enabled that), they did it because it’s the most efficient way to plan working hours so you’re not sitting around your entire life waiting for work.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#199

Post by mi_lk »

voz_ wrote: post #25

Uber is an example of a company that wants to be a tech company, but (1) really shouldn't (2) kinda lacks the technical leadership to really be one. It feels like the right call, around 2017, was to either: (A) double down and build a platform for every kind of physical multisided marketplace (matching as a service, maps+routing+locations+geofences as a service, physical product ops as a service, etc) Where Amazon we…

Yea sure ~15 engs can operate the tech stack of a 50B company. If you worked there for 5 years and still hold these opinions, what you really signal is that you don't know what you are talking about regarding your company's business model and likely just oversimplify how sausage was made with your experience in probably only 1-2 orgs.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#200

Post by mdale »

addicted wrote: post #19
aetherson wrote: post #9

The problem with Uber Eats is exactly the same as the problem with Uber's rideshare: there's no difficult-to-copy element of it. It's been clear for at least seven years that it's easy to spin up a food delivery service, just the same way it's easy to spin up a rideshare service. The basic technology is something a small team can conjure up out of nowhere in a few months, the two sided marketplace is heavily incented…

Let’s say there was just 1 delivery service. Could they charge enough delivery fees to actually build a sustainable business? How much fees would you need to charge? $4/delivery means having to make a delivery in 15 mins to be able to pay the delivery person minimum wage. Plus Uber’s profit, plus the cost of the car and maintenance expenses + tickets, accidents, etc, It’s hard to see how a monopoly can also make mone…

If it's a monopoly sure ... It's how physical mail "worked"
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