In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
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In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
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Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#2[deleted]
Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#3Unless I'm missing something, the claim that becoming a taxi driver can become a well-salaried, middle-class job for a significant number of people is patent nonsense. There is a reason that taxis look the way they do and are driven by the people who currently drive them, and regulations and licensing is only a small part of that.
Uber might disrupt the taxi industry, maybe for the better, but once equilibrium is reached, incomes for drivers will have shifted to the right slightly, at best.
It's hard for me to understand what the long play is for Uber's investors. Given the sheer volume of demand for rides, the relative ease of copying this service, and the number of cars owned by Americans, I don't see how their large revenues can be anything other than temporary. I think the investors are playing the short game.
Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#4>Median uberX Small Business Income Per Year: $90,766 (NYC); $74,191 (SF) http://blog.uber.com/uberimpact
Is it pretty much accepted that Uber is outright lying here? Does anyone believe there is a driver out there banking $100,000 driving a taxi?
I know the company is shady but hoping they can generate enough new blood to compensate for burnout of drivers chasing the dream seems abusive.
Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#5>Median uberX Small Business Income Per Year: $90,766 (NYC); $74,191 (SF) http://blog.uber.com/uberimpact Is it pretty much accepted that Uber is outright lying here? Does anyone believe there is a driver out there banking $100,000 driving a taxi? I know the company is shady but hoping they can generate enough new blood to compensate for burnout of drivers chasing the dream seems abusive.
Plus income != profit. If you buy a car and gas and insurance and maintenance and then Uber cuts the price, you might not make much at all out of that.
Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#6Unless I'm missing something, the claim that becoming a taxi driver can become a well-salaried, middle-class job for a significant number of people is patent nonsense . There is a reason that taxis look the way they do and are driven by the people who currently drive them, and regulations and licensing is only a small part of that. Uber might disrupt the taxi industry, maybe for the better, but once equilibrium is re…
[deleted]
Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#7Unless I'm missing something, the claim that becoming a taxi driver can become a well-salaried, middle-class job for a significant number of people is patent nonsense . There is a reason that taxis look the way they do and are driven by the people who currently drive them, and regulations and licensing is only a small part of that. Uber might disrupt the taxi industry, maybe for the better, but once equilibrium is re…
> Given the sheer volume of demand for rides, the relative ease of copying this service, and the number of cars owned by Americans, I don't see how their large revenues can be anything other than temporary. I think the investors are playing the short game.
The long game is in capitalizing on (a) network effects and (b) the effects of changing technology on consumer behavior and market structure.
Start with network effects. I live in New York. There are many transportation options. Like my tendency to default to a "top of my wallet" credit card, I tend to fire up Uber first. Other options are considered if Uber disappoints. It seldom does; Uber remains at the top of my "stack". This leads to me demanding several rides a day more from Uber than from its competitors. That, in turn, makes Uber marginally more attractive to drivers. The technology is easy to copy, but the ecosystem is not: network effects.
Let's now consider the effects of changing technology on consumer behaviour. I can walk out of the aeroport in San Francisco, Paris, Austin or Abu Dhabi and have an Uber fueled and ready. Uber has been the driving factor behind me abandoning my driver's license, and with it expectations of ever owning a car.
Here's another technology: driverless cars. Driverless cars reduce fleet costs and risks, and increase scalability on the supply-side (i.e. scale is no longer limited by driver availability and quality). If I were writing Uber's strategy, everything until the availability of fully automated automobiles would be geared towards establishing a strong opening for driverless cars. The tactical phase deploys in force only after the supply side of the scaling problem has been kicked away.
Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#8Unless I'm missing something, the claim that becoming a taxi driver can become a well-salaried, middle-class job for a significant number of people is patent nonsense . There is a reason that taxis look the way they do and are driven by the people who currently drive them, and regulations and licensing is only a small part of that. Uber might disrupt the taxi industry, maybe for the better, but once equilibrium is re…
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Exactly.
Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#9>Median uberX Small Business Income Per Year: $90,766 (NYC); $74,191 (SF) http://blog.uber.com/uberimpact Is it pretty much accepted that Uber is outright lying here? Does anyone believe there is a driver out there banking $100,000 driving a taxi? I know the company is shady but hoping they can generate enough new blood to compensate for burnout of drivers chasing the dream seems abusive.
Well, the article claims that Uber has been unable to produce even one driver making $90,000 in NYC. Given that it's supposedly the median, they should have hundreds or thousands of drivers making it. It certainly seems damning.
Re: In Search of Uber’s Unicorn
#10Unless I'm missing something, the claim that becoming a taxi driver can become a well-salaried, middle-class job for a significant number of people is patent nonsense . There is a reason that taxis look the way they do and are driven by the people who currently drive them, and regulations and licensing is only a small part of that. Uber might disrupt the taxi industry, maybe for the better, but once equilibrium is re…
The long game as I understand it is the idea that Uber is building out a platform for real-time mobile logistics, and that transportation is the simplest and most broadly compelling example of something that would run on that platform.