111–120 of 121 posts
why they do that
In developing countries, the taxi market is largely unregulated and Uber faces actual competition. Uber cannot compete on price in these regions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a controversial take: outside the US/Europe, Uber is mostly a tourist app. If you actually live in developing regions: 1) your income is much lower, and you are quite price sensitive. The Uber price premium (20-40%) hits much harder. 2) the Uber alternatives are noticeably cheaper for the exact same trip. Regarding your experience, if you were local, that inDrive driver likely would not have tried to extort $1…
My experience in Brazil: Uber is way cheaper here. Compared to what I paid in San Francisco, I'd estimate a ~10x difference. And things here are rarely 10x cheaper. The difference in restaurants is probably less than ~2x. My point being it probably feels like less of a luxury for us than for people in the US. I'd say it's probably the most popular app too. I've never met people who used others.
US SOCOM also just pulled out of Nigeria. The rumor is that this is becoming politically sensitive, so the US DoW is turning things over to none other than Erik Prince (Blackwater, Xe, etc). Nigeria is an important source of minerals, for example: lithium. Africa is being hotly contested right now between ISIS, the US / West, China, and state-local political factions.
For lithium, isn’t South America and other parts of the world a better deal due to having the largest reserves and being more politically stable?
has Uber had a positive ROI on the billions invested in it? I am pretty sure the return on the preferred price from the late rounds 10 years ago is basically zero. Net income has always been negative or close to zero. From a consumer perspective, in late stage cities, uber rides are the same or more expensive than old taxis, and the quality of vehicles is lower. what was it all worth?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People like the knowledge that they are not being ripped off by the person they are interacting with. On Uber you are essentially guaranteed that you are paying the absolute max that you would accept algorithmically, and the driver is getting the absolute least they would accept to drive for. If the balance shifts in any way, someone is ripping off the person they will interact with. Since the customer knows less abo…
While I agree, Uber's cut has reached predatory levels. They take 50% of the fare in some markets. They're significantly overcharging riders and underpaying drivers. https://len-sherman.medium.com/ubers-long-and-winding-road-t...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People like the knowledge that they are not being ripped off by the person they are interacting with. On Uber you are essentially guaranteed that you are paying the absolute max that you would accept algorithmically, and the driver is getting the absolute least they would accept to drive for. If the balance shifts in any way, someone is ripping off the person they will interact with. Since the customer knows less abo…
That means Uber is screwing the driver and customer the algorithmically maximum amount. It should be less, and it should be in the driver's favor. They should be able to afford a decent living.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> US DoW To be clear, it is the DoD - Department of Defense
I mean... https://www.war.gov/ I get what you are saying, and you're not exactly wrong, but... If I called it DoW, people get mad and point it out. If I call it DoD, people get mad and point it out. And if I put both? Fuck all of you, I'm not mentioning both over and over like DoW/DoD is GNU/Linux :)