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Uber's Failure in Japan

disruptingjapan.com

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Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#101

Post by kwhitefoot »

mahranch wrote: post #82
m_mueller wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tips are the most confusing thing by far about the US for me as a European.

One of my best friends is from a country without tipping. He's well-traveled and has something like 20+ stamps in his passport. He says he loves tipping. I was a little curious so I asked him why, he said in countries without tipping, service is shit. Moreover, the demeanor of everyone involved is shit. He said "you Americans don't know how good you have it". I guess even someone fake being nice to you in expectation…

Nonsense. In my experience (granted not 20 countries but more than a dozen) the service is at least as variable and often worse in countries where tipping is common. Also, it encourages behaviour that exists only to extract a larger tip.

Just price the goods correctly so that I know when I start the transaction what I am going to pay, then I'm more likely to return to your establishment to enjoy the food and service.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#102

Post by crdoconnor »

greggman wrote: post #28
pnathan wrote: post #24

The advantage of Uber has nothing to do with price and everything to do with grotesque incompetence on the part of the taxi operators. Five-six years ago, when I asked for a receipt for an expense report, I got a hand-scribbled note. Running credit cards often required hand-based crank mechanisms. Autoplaying TV on the back of a seat that was billed unless you explicitly opted out. It was, in short, a scammy operatio…

I feel your pain. That's what taxi service has been like for me in SF and LA. Also it was effectively non-existent except for calling to be taken to the airport because there were so few. Japan, or at least the populated parts generally have tons of taxis so they are easy to find. They are polite and very clean, one thing western cabs are not. If they do something wrong (go the wrong way, end up taking the wrong road…

>Singapore is similar. Tons of cabs. In fact in Singapore you could book cabs in an app / online since like 2009. You get told the number of your cab so when lots of cabs are driving up you know yours is #27B-6. I had similarly nice experiences. I tried to tip a driver $3 for a $7 fare just so I could give him a $10 and he was like "too much lah!" and gave me $2 back.

Singapore's cheapness is due to its extreme levels of labor suppression. A couple of years ago they imprisoned bus drivers striking over unfair pay (they essentially had explicitly racist pay scales * ). They've deported and imprisoned other union activists. In the 80s the prime minister stepped in to break a strike in Singapore Airlines staff promising "I will, by every means at my disposal, teach you a lesson you won’t forget. And I’m prepared to start all over again. Or stop it!" and subsequently threw the strikers in prison.

The practical upshot if this is that they have huge income and wealth inequality compared to other countries less brutal to labor movements and the workplace cultures are usually "keep your head down and don't EVER criticize the boss" (small wonder very little decent software is created there).

Food and taxis and other similar services are embarrassingly cheap. If you're relatively wealthy and gaping inequality doesn't bother you, it's pretty awesome. It scores really high on those "economic freedom" measures because of this.

This is also partly why Uber - whose USP involves is capitalizing on other countries trending towards low wage commoditization by accelerating that process, isn't doing especially well there compared to incumbents.

* * Yes, it's true. Please read this before instinctively hitting downvote: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/05/singapore-drop-charges-ag...

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#103

Post by aianus »

madeofpalk wrote: post #74
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now, all of what the author said about Uber's flouting of the law is true. And that's not something I'm terribly happy about. But I think there's a certain value in simply ignoring bad law and fixing it on the fly. And this is the problem. Uber is providing superior service for less cost. Clearly the city, which enacts laws on my and other tax payers behalf, isn't actually acting in my favor when it goes after uber…

But regulation also helps in parts. For example, it (tries) to ensure taxis are available everywhere, not just the profitable areas.

How? By strictly constricting supply so drivers only serve the rich, dense areas? /s

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#104

Post by peatmoss »

mahranch wrote: post #82
m_mueller wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tips are the most confusing thing by far about the US for me as a European.

One of my best friends is from a country without tipping. He's well-traveled and has something like 20+ stamps in his passport. He says he loves tipping. I was a little curious so I asked him why, he said in countries without tipping, service is shit. Moreover, the demeanor of everyone involved is shit. He said "you Americans don't know how good you have it". I guess even someone fake being nice to you in expectation…

Hmm, from my years in New Zealand, I can't say service was any less good than it is in the U.S.. There were more "pay at the counter and take a number to your table" establishments, but usually that was for classes of restaurant where that model totally made sense (e.g. pubs).

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#105

Post by pnathan »

walshemj wrote: post #76
dionidium wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I had to use a taxi in St Louis, MO last summer. In order to do this I had to call the taxi company. No app, no website, nothing. It took 45 minutes to show up, period. The driver couldn't find me when he got near. " This is almost all true and ride-sharing has totally changed the game in St. Louis. One nitpick: the area's biggest cab company has had an app for a few years [0]. It's not a perfect app, but I used it…

Is calling rather then messing about with an app so much harder? It takes me 20-30 seconds to call and order a cab in the UK

Let's just say that an app with a GPS unit sweeps a profound number of communication issues into the trash. :-)

And it gets much better when you can see an ETA and an approximate location of the incoming cab.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#106

Post by pnathan »

dionidium wrote: post #61
pnathan wrote: post #24

The advantage of Uber has nothing to do with price and everything to do with grotesque incompetence on the part of the taxi operators. Five-six years ago, when I asked for a receipt for an expense report, I got a hand-scribbled note. Running credit cards often required hand-based crank mechanisms. Autoplaying TV on the back of a seat that was billed unless you explicitly opted out. It was, in short, a scammy operatio…

"I had to use a taxi in St Louis, MO last summer. In order to do this I had to call the taxi company. No app, no website, nothing. It took 45 minutes to show up, period. The driver couldn't find me when he got near. " This is almost all true and ride-sharing has totally changed the game in St. Louis. One nitpick: the area's biggest cab company has had an app for a few years [0]. It's not a perfect app, but I used it…

Yeah, I think it was out of the service area or somesuch. I don't recall the specific issue there, but I DID try that.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#107

Post by skybrian »

madeofpalk wrote: post #74
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now, all of what the author said about Uber's flouting of the law is true. And that's not something I'm terribly happy about. But I think there's a certain value in simply ignoring bad law and fixing it on the fly. And this is the problem. Uber is providing superior service for less cost. Clearly the city, which enacts laws on my and other tax payers behalf, isn't actually acting in my favor when it goes after uber…

But regulation also helps in parts. For example, it (tries) to ensure taxis are available everywhere, not just the profitable areas.

That's what they try to do but my understanding is that Uber and Lyft actually do a better job of it?

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#108

Post by pnathan »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #81
TuringNYC wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agreed. I am on a business deal that brought me to the country of Qatar. Many of the yellow cabs here (blue over here) refused to turn on their meters instead trying to negotiate a fare with you -- often starting at 2x or 3x the actual fare and trying to see how much upside they could keep. They would be nice initially and then try to arm-twist you at the end of the ride. Uber arrived and caught on like wildf…

I mean it really depends... like in Morocco this never happens, unless you look foreign. All taxis have a number on the top of the car, so you can just easily report it. And the penalties for drivers are actually quite harsh, even just referring to 'I know the taxi number' means he's shutting up, turning on the meter and getting you to where you need. You can still have a shitty experience, but for locals it's mostly…

> mean it really depends... like in Morocco this never happens, unless you look foreign.

Ah, so, Uber will have a permanent presence to serve tourists. I see how this is. :-)

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#109

Post by aianus »

kizza wrote: post #43
yummyfajitas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in many countries the freedom to engage in gay sex is seen to be a challenge to the democratic will of the people. It should be no surprise that we don't care very much for this! Those of us who are less democratic and more individualistic recognize how horrible it is when democracy prevents consenting adults from engaging in harmless private activities. The tyranny of the majority is still tyranny. Also, "de…

One is a harmless private activity - the other is a large company gaining an unfair advantage by choosing to ignore the law. Even though they are are both about freedom I think it's impossible to compare these.

You have this backwards, the incumbent taxi companies are the ones with the unfair advantage enshrined in law (medallions purchased 20 years ago for 1/10 of the price).

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#110

Post by aianus »

DasIch wrote: post #40
kizza wrote: post #2

I think in many countries companies like Uber and AirBnB are seen to be a challenge to the democratic will of the people. It should be no surprise that we don't care very much for this! I wonder if Uber could have achieved success in markets with more trusted governments (Germany, Japan) if they started with a softer approach.

Uber solves a problem in the US because the US government is failing to provide adequate public transportation and fails at properly regulating taxis. In most other civilized places with governments that succeed in these areas, Uber just doesn't have product market fit. The legal problems are only producing noise.

Uber is much more efficient than taxis regardless.

For one, it uses the spare time and preexisting cars of regular people (which are cheap) and two, it has the algorithms and data to pool more than one person in the same car.

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