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Is the Ride over for Uber?

smartcompany.com.au

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Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#291

Post by _8j50 »

Say what you will about how Uber is being executed but as a user of their products and their competition I am very happy with them. Not only is the quality if their UI great and customer service top-notch (rarely have issues, when I do I get instant refunds, can't say that for doordash/grubhub ans certainly not Taxis's). Taxi drivers and restaurants go out of their way to make sure only people with specific appearance, background and conformity to stereotypes received good service (if any at all), Uber basically killed that bullshit! To me it is similar to how walmart killed mom&pop shops, right... the very nice and welcoming mom&pop? Not a chance! Even before walmart Sears allowing ordering things from their catalog was revolutionary in that minorities and immigrants could just... you know buy shit like toasters like everyone else! What a marvelous idea? Haha. I can say the same about Airbnb and hotels as well.

Let me give you an example: I took a taxii from the airport to my home, the guy took the route I knew was very long and with only 20% of the trip I was being charged like $100 and asked him to immediately stop at the next parking lot he sees. Took my luggage out and called Uber that completed the rest of the trip for $50. Not my first time dealing with scammy taxi drivers either. It was a nightmare calling a taxi before uber, it will take them at leasr 45min to get a guy and good luck getting them to wait on you and coordinate your pickup.

My point is, it may be operated badly but it provides a ton of value and has the advantage od being first to market. I have always wanted to try Lyft for example but I never had to, never been in a situation where I needed them (except for scooter rentals in santa monica once -- didn't work at all). I avoided Uber eats on purpose but the rest were so crappy I switched, much more costly but I have a lot less problems now and they even added grocery delivery now. They are quite possibly one of the most valuable companies at he level of Walmart, whether or not they can realize that value globally and get the timing right I have no idea, but I am rooting for them.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#292

Post by remflight »

pessimizer wrote: post #255
remflight wrote: post #228

Terrible article. It’s basically a negative yelp review masqueraded as some sort of financial analysis. He’s essentially a pissed off ex-customer that on one hand complains that they don’t pay the drivers enough, but also complains that the service is now too expensive. The article is utter garbage. If you look at Uber’s drop in valuation, it’s commensurate with the drop in all tech companies. In fact, the article is…

> they don’t pay the drivers enough, but also complains that the service is now too expensive You seem shocked that these two things could be true at the same time, when they are often true at the same time.

Yes it’s called hypocrisy.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#293

Post by simonblack »

labrador wrote: post #248
simonblack wrote: post #179

Uber is a scam. It is never intended to make a profit. EXCEPT for the guys in management, who are soaking the fool investors and non-businessmen drivers alike, while they laugh all the way to the bank. It's a business-model straight out of the dot.com bubble of the late 1990s. If the investors wised up, and the drivers wised up. Uber would evaporate away like the morning mist. And the Uber management guys might actua…

The dirty little secret is that drivers depreciated the value of their car more than the money they get for it. They are taking money out of the value of their car and calling it income. Uber knows this and doesn't mention it.

I was talking to an Uber driver this morning. I asked him if he was paid while waiting for a job. "No" he said. That means that Uber is getting free hours from all the drivers who are 'on duty' but not actually driving. Uber also takes 27.5% of the fare. That other 72.5% has to pay for all wages, taxes, insurances and car expenses first before there is any 'profit' at all.

As I said above, Uber relies on their drivers not having any 'business smarts'. If the drivers went through all the arithmetic involved in costs, wages, taxes, non-business hour loadings, return on investment figures, etc, etc, etc they would find they are subsidising the Uber management, rather than being paid properly.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#294

Post by cinntaile »

Apocryphon wrote: post #277
cinntaile wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local cabs need to innovate and provide an app with similar features. If they do that, they'll probably stay in business. If not... Good luck.

The problem is what happens after Uber goes out of business, having taken out the local cab companies?

In what sense? The taxi's and their drivers will still be there, they're locals. They're not completely dependent on Uber so if a vacuum would arise, it would be filled quite fast I believe.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#295

Post by moralestapia »

dmitriid wrote: post #284
hotpotamus wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it also means our unit economics are several orders of magnitude better than Uber's.

It doesn't. Your unit is tiny . A few thousand users doesn't even break the threshold of "death by Hacker News". Uber's 93 million in 80 countries means that (very roughly) in each country they have three orders of magnitude more users than you: 93 mln/80 countries = 1+ mln in each country = 1000 times more than you = 3 orders of magnitude. As I said, just dealing with payments in each country is often a full-time jo…

>but WhatsApp in itself is a very simple product (that is very hard to scale)

What makes it particularly hard to scale?

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#296

Post by wdb »

airbreather wrote: post #288
wdb wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it indicates you are able to find a job that earns you money

not if you are retired, the way it works here the marginal tax rate of a pensioner could end up around 80% when means tested pension payments are taken account of. For someone that has worked all their life and paid a shitload of tax I find that a little offensive and have no problem with them optimising their returns in their golden years.

Now you are talking about getting welfare subsidies when people are retired? I hope when you are retired you have pension pot or a (paid off) house you can leverage so you need to get welfare money from the government

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#297

Post by deepGem »

projektfu wrote: post #247
deepGem wrote: post #111

I think the market is ripe for a real Uber Black. A super premium service that guarantees a cab no matter where you are within a minute. No cancellations. Your own personal on demand limousine. People are so tired of cancellations and not finding rides, I bet some will pay a premium just for the predictability that you can go anywhere whenever you desire.

Why would Uber not offer this if the business is there? They have the infrastructure and if the Uber branding is sullied, just add a new name with a diamond next to it. I think the market of people willing to pay $40 for a $10 ride with first-class experience must be too small.

I donno. I keep thinking about this all the time. I might also be blinded by the intricacies of where I live, Bangalore. Cancellations by Uber drivers are rampant here and it's very hard to find the black equivalent. The UberXL service which counts as the black equivalent has absolutely zero predictability. My guess is that there are at least 10,000 - 20,000 people in Bangalore, a city of 10M willing to pay a 2 - 3x premium for predictability and good QoS. There simply is no such option for non airport rides.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#298

Post by didntknowya »

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…

Well Uber is logistics/CS company which a tech approach. I would think that makes it a tech company. Their stack is complicated and there are plenty of logistic giants who could've beaten them if only they were as tech focused.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#299

Post by mantas »

wdb wrote: post #296
airbreather wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not if you are retired, the way it works here the marginal tax rate of a pensioner could end up around 80% when means tested pension payments are taken account of. For someone that has worked all their life and paid a shitload of tax I find that a little offensive and have no problem with them optimising their returns in their golden years.

Now you are talking about getting welfare subsidies when people are retired? I hope when you are retired you have pension pot or a (paid off) house you can leverage so you need to get welfare money from the government

Where pensions are tied to incomes and go away if you reach certain incomes threshold?

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#300

Post by lenkite »

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…

> (2) kinda lacks the technical leadership to really be one.

Really hard disagree. Their software development model is amongst the best in the industry. That needs strong low-level tech leadership.

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