Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#11

Post by adventured »

superlopuh wrote: post #7

I have a feeling that they had not anticipated the level of the competition in Russia, where the cabs were such unbelievable scams that the locals had launched mobile-first services long before Uber entered the market.

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete well enough).

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#12

Post by martinald »

baybal2 wrote: post #6
reactima wrote: post #4

Uber got very dominant in market share in Moscow with all its subsidized rides. I paid 200USD for 30 rides! This is not sustainable...

You haven't seen their prices in T2 cities, it is like $1 per 5 to 6 kms. And they have the problem of "Uberists" - people who drive themselves around when Uber subsidizes rides. And they also have issue of botters who do the same, but at industrial scale (without actually driving themselves or anybody else of course)

So they have two phones, one for driver and one for customer, and they request rides and accept themselves? Clever.

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#13

Post by bwb »

adventured wrote: post #11
superlopuh wrote: post #7

I have a feeling that they had not anticipated the level of the competition in Russia, where the cabs were such unbelievable scams that the locals had launched mobile-first services long before Uber entered the market.

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete…

So true.

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#14

Post by oscii »

adventured wrote: post #11
superlopuh wrote: post #7

I have a feeling that they had not anticipated the level of the competition in Russia, where the cabs were such unbelievable scams that the locals had launched mobile-first services long before Uber entered the market.

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete…

> There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term.

I think that's not quite true. The industry (oil, car manufacturing, software, etc.) is pretty much dependent on the Western products and tech.

Besides Uber, GetTaxi is quite popular in Russia. And there are more local similar taxi services besides Yandex, but they are less known. In general, Uber and Yandex are the most popular at the moment.

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#15

Post by konart »

adventured wrote: post #11
superlopuh wrote: post #7

I have a feeling that they had not anticipated the level of the competition in Russia, where the cabs were such unbelievable scams that the locals had launched mobile-first services long before Uber entered the market.

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete…

What about Gett?

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#16

Post by eps »

adventured wrote: post #11
superlopuh wrote: post #7

I have a feeling that they had not anticipated the level of the competition in Russia, where the cabs were such unbelievable scams that the locals had launched mobile-first services long before Uber entered the market.

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete…

Uber never dominated in Russia.

I talked to Moscow taxi drivers on more than one occassion and they were dismissive of Uber as an older and inferior iteration of what Yandex.Taxi was doing. Uber was never at the top, but at a fairly distant second, so their minority-shareholder "merge" with YT is of no surprise.

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#17

Post by calafrax »

adventured wrote: post #11
superlopuh wrote: post #7

I have a feeling that they had not anticipated the level of the competition in Russia, where the cabs were such unbelievable scams that the locals had launched mobile-first services long before Uber entered the market.

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete…

> Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything

"Uber will invest $225 million and take a 36.6 percent stake ... Yandex will invest $100 million and own 59.3 percent"

If they are paying twice as much as their partner for a minority stake I am pretty sure they will not be coming away with anything.

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#18

Post by throwaway312338 »

baybal2 wrote: post #6
reactima wrote: post #4

Uber got very dominant in market share in Moscow with all its subsidized rides. I paid 200USD for 30 rides! This is not sustainable...

You haven't seen their prices in T2 cities, it is like $1 per 5 to 6 kms. And they have the problem of "Uberists" - people who drive themselves around when Uber subsidizes rides. And they also have issue of botters who do the same, but at industrial scale (without actually driving themselves or anybody else of course)

Amusingly, that's comparable or slightly lower than what I'd have to pay for a Auto (tuk-tuk) ride here in India.

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#19

Post by kgwgk »

calafrax wrote: post #17
adventured wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete…

> Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything "Uber will invest $225 million and take a 36.6 percent stake ... Yandex will invest $100 million and own 59.3 percent" If they are paying twice as much as their partner for a minority stake I am pretty sure they will not be coming away with anything.

The whole thing "will be valued at $3.73 billion", so it's perfectly possible that the total contribution of Yandex (cash and non-cash) is much larger than the contribution of Uber.

Re: Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

#20

Post by shubhamjain »

adventured wrote: post #11
superlopuh wrote: post #7

I have a feeling that they had not anticipated the level of the competition in Russia, where the cabs were such unbelievable scams that the locals had launched mobile-first services long before Uber entered the market.

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete…

I often think how better off Uber would have been had they stayed away from markets which no sane company would chose to compete in until, at least, a few years of founding, let alone an operation-heavy company like Uber. In India, autos are already way inexpensive and customers are too price-sensitive to prioritise service. Although, Uber has become the dominant one here but it'll take a while to understand how profitable the bet on India was.

Travis didn't just want to dominate the industry, he wanted to dominate the world: a megalomania to a whole new level.

Post reply on HN