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Lyft Files for IPO

reuters.com

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Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#11

Post by _hardwaregeek »

ghaff wrote: post #4

Question that's somewhere between rhetorical and semi-serious. At what point do one of these companies increase their pricing to the point where they can operate profitably and just let volumes end up wherever they end up (making whatever cost cuts they need to on the way down)? Presumably there's some point where you can make money--but maybe not if you have a basically equivalent competitor who is willing to lose m…

Seriously, what's Uber/Lyft's long term goal? If I had to guess, destroy all local taxi services, then fix prices with their competitors and worry about anti-competitive lawsuits later. Waiting for self driving cars feels like a fool's errand.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#14

Post by ghaff »

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #4

Question that's somewhere between rhetorical and semi-serious. At what point do one of these companies increase their pricing to the point where they can operate profitably and just let volumes end up wherever they end up (making whatever cost cuts they need to on the way down)? Presumably there's some point where you can make money--but maybe not if you have a basically equivalent competitor who is willing to lose m…

Seriously, what's Uber/Lyft's long term goal? If I had to guess, destroy all local taxi services, then fix prices with their competitors and worry about anti-competitive lawsuits later. Waiting for self driving cars feels like a fool's errand.

When Kalanick was booted, I actually did expect the board to call a timeout and take a hard look at the business model while admitting that self-driving, especially in places that actually have enough density to make taxi-type services generally of interest, is a red herring. It's too far out and it's not clear what the implications are anyway.

It's not like Uber and Lyft aren't still a useful service at 1.5x to 2x current pricing (or whatever is needed to achieve profitability). Traditional taxi services suck in a lot of places. And, OK, at that point the users who only take Uber because of the VC subsidies end up going back to taking the bus. But who cares.

>destroy all local taxi services

Except they haven't. There are still taxis where they make sense as well as private car services. It's hard to see giving it a few more years is going to make much of a difference.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#15

Post by wbl »

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #4

Question that's somewhere between rhetorical and semi-serious. At what point do one of these companies increase their pricing to the point where they can operate profitably and just let volumes end up wherever they end up (making whatever cost cuts they need to on the way down)? Presumably there's some point where you can make money--but maybe not if you have a basically equivalent competitor who is willing to lose m…

Seriously, what's Uber/Lyft's long term goal? If I had to guess, destroy all local taxi services, then fix prices with their competitors and worry about anti-competitive lawsuits later. Waiting for self driving cars feels like a fool's errand.

Too easy to enter the market, at least in a small area for price fixing to work.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#16

Post by davio »

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #4

Question that's somewhere between rhetorical and semi-serious. At what point do one of these companies increase their pricing to the point where they can operate profitably and just let volumes end up wherever they end up (making whatever cost cuts they need to on the way down)? Presumably there's some point where you can make money--but maybe not if you have a basically equivalent competitor who is willing to lose m…

Seriously, what's Uber/Lyft's long term goal? If I had to guess, destroy all local taxi services, then fix prices with their competitors and worry about anti-competitive lawsuits later. Waiting for self driving cars feels like a fool's errand.

Taxis are really a short term play. Long term is really transport as a service - who owns the market when people no longer own cars.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#17

Post by [deleted] »

ghaff wrote: post #4

Question that's somewhere between rhetorical and semi-serious. At what point do one of these companies increase their pricing to the point where they can operate profitably and just let volumes end up wherever they end up (making whatever cost cuts they need to on the way down)? Presumably there's some point where you can make money--but maybe not if you have a basically equivalent competitor who is willing to lose m…

[deleted]

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#18

Post by ryanmercer »

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #4

Question that's somewhere between rhetorical and semi-serious. At what point do one of these companies increase their pricing to the point where they can operate profitably and just let volumes end up wherever they end up (making whatever cost cuts they need to on the way down)? Presumably there's some point where you can make money--but maybe not if you have a basically equivalent competitor who is willing to lose m…

Seriously, what's Uber/Lyft's long term goal? If I had to guess, destroy all local taxi services, then fix prices with their competitors and worry about anti-competitive lawsuits later. Waiting for self driving cars feels like a fool's errand.

>Seriously, what's Uber/Lyft's long term goal?

Massive fleets of autonomous vehicles transporting people.

People often fall into the trap of seeing Uber and Lyft as a taxi service, they are absolutely autonomous vehicle companies. The human drivers are simply there to collect massive amounts of data, and build brand recognition, while the autonomous vehicle technology comes to maturity.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#19

Post by maxxxxx »

davio wrote: post #16
_hardwaregeek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, what's Uber/Lyft's long term goal? If I had to guess, destroy all local taxi services, then fix prices with their competitors and worry about anti-competitive lawsuits later. Waiting for self driving cars feels like a fool's errand.

Taxis are really a short term play. Long term is really transport as a service - who owns the market when people no longer own cars.

You can't own that market at least the way Uber or Lyft do it. It's so easy for their drivers to switch and it's easy for their customers. In my view they will keep their dominant market positions only while they subsidize rides and lose money. But as soon as they raise prices to be profitable there will be plenty of competition.

I think the endgame is to dump the stock on the public market so investors and execs can cash out and mission accomplished. I don't think there is any viable long term plan.

Re: Lyft Files for IPO

#20

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

ghaff wrote: post #14
_hardwaregeek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, what's Uber/Lyft's long term goal? If I had to guess, destroy all local taxi services, then fix prices with their competitors and worry about anti-competitive lawsuits later. Waiting for self driving cars feels like a fool's errand.

When Kalanick was booted, I actually did expect the board to call a timeout and take a hard look at the business model while admitting that self-driving, especially in places that actually have enough density to make taxi-type services generally of interest, is a red herring. It's too far out and it's not clear what the implications are anyway. It's not like Uber and Lyft aren't still a useful service at 1.5x to 2x c…

It's not that they aren't a useful service at whatever price level would bring them profitability at current sales levels as much as that the demand curve may be such that if they were to raise prices theyd lose at least enough sales that it might not bring them to profitability at any price point.

I.e. while someone earning $200K might decode they can afford $20 rides rather than $10 ones, someone making $50K might think differently. The "who cares" when people go back to riding the bus is Uber.

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