Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#101

Post by theptip » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 8:56 PM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #7

This is a puzzle to me. Uber faces some critical issues ahead. If they can solve them, the bikes will be a rounding error. If they can't, the bike business won't be enough to save them. Why add the complexity when they could buy or build something later? I especially can't figure out why the Jump CEO would do it. The odds of their work surviving to the 10 year mark seems so small. It reminds me of something like Dodg…

Strongly agree on Uber's side; this seems like both a distraction and a rounding error even if it's successful.

As for Jump;

https://www.crunchbase.com/search/funding_rounds/field/organ...

They just announced a $10M series A in January. To cash out at a $100M valuation doesn't seem like a bad outcome; after just doing just a series A, the founders' stake is likely to be in the 25-50% range (I'd guess in the lower end).

Obviously the zeitgeist is to shoot for a unicorn, but there are plenty of reasons to chose an earlier exit, only some of which suggest that the underlying business is shaky.

(Dodgeball sounds like a great deal BTW; rest & vest for a year or two, and then go start your company again except this time without having to bring in outside funding for your seed).

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#102

Post by throw15310 » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 8:58 PM UTC

would be interesting to see what lyft does. spin? $8m raised, based in sf, founded by lyft exec and yc alum

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#103

Post by calcifer » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 9:00 PM UTC

pinot wrote: post #95

alangibson wrote: post #82

I'm currently sitting in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. One of the first things you notice when you get here is that there are not bike lanes, not bike paths but very seriously bike roads on either side of the street. These are filled pretty much all the time by people of all ages on their personal bikes. There are no rental bikes anywhere. The moral of this story is that if you want people to bike, build bikeable citi…

OK we will start over.

Actually, in the 70s Netherlands was very much a car-first country. The current cycling infrastructure is a very hard won victory, with thousands dead along the way [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBdf9jYj7o

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#104

Post by paulie_a » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 9:00 PM UTC

toufka wrote: post #11

wpietri wrote: post #7

This is a puzzle to me. Uber faces some critical issues ahead. If they can solve them, the bikes will be a rounding error. If they can't, the bike business won't be enough to save them. Why add the complexity when they could buy or build something later? I especially can't figure out why the Jump CEO would do it. The odds of their work surviving to the 10 year mark seems so small. It reminds me of something like Dodg…

I suspect it's really good signal for setting up or optimizing routes. Those bikes show very clear underserved endpoints that might otherwise be hard to discover. Might just be a cheap and interesting peek down-market on their geographic data-layer.

Hopefully Uber starts attempting to optimize routes again, if anything they have gotten worse. and every driver I have chatted with seems to agree, most just use Google maps and ignore the directions from Uber.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#105

Post by thiagocsf » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 9:01 PM UTC

sagichmal wrote: post #66

jwilliams wrote: post #63

Just signed up for this in San Francisco -- Only to find that Russian Hill, Nob Hill, and North Beach are excluded. Plus Fort Mason, the Presidio, and anything west of the Panhandle. "San Francisco" it is not. Which I guess is fine, but they make you pay up-front, so I found that a bit of cheek. Admittedly it's only $2, but even on principle it's annoying. They should be much more transparent in the signup process. T…

This is a result of NIMBYism in those neighborhoods, not any Jump bike policy.

Having experienced the mess caused by dockless bikes in my city, Sydney, I wish we would ban them too.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#106

Post by kolpa » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 9:04 PM UTC

thiagocsf wrote: post #99

alangibson wrote: post #82

I'm currently sitting in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. One of the first things you notice when you get here is that there are not bike lanes, not bike paths but very seriously bike roads on either side of the street. These are filled pretty much all the time by people of all ages on their personal bikes. There are no rental bikes anywhere. The moral of this story is that if you want people to bike, build bikeable citi…

I am in the city of Sydney, where no less than 4 dockless bike rental companies started operating overnight. They have become urban clutter. Users park them in locations where they’re easily knocked over and, from there, they usually get damaged. There’s also a very high incidence of vandalism. Bikes with no seats, no pedals, bent wheels, on top of trees, in canals. It’s common to see heaps of scrap bikes on the road…

That's a valid opinon but surely the same applies to roads, covered with heaps of scrap cars and car parts?

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#107

Post by e40 » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 9:04 PM UTC

alangibson wrote: post #82

I'm currently sitting in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. One of the first things you notice when you get here is that there are not bike lanes, not bike paths but very seriously bike roads on either side of the street. These are filled pretty much all the time by people of all ages on their personal bikes. There are no rental bikes anywhere. The moral of this story is that if you want people to bike, build bikeable citi…

Exactly. And as a pedestrian, I expect to be having arguments with the people renting these bikes (I already have had a few, and they're still new in my city). They seem to think they can ride on the sidewalk, even though the street I've had the argument has a separate bike lane.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#108

Post by ebikelaw » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 9:04 PM UTC

alangibson wrote: post #82

I'm currently sitting in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. One of the first things you notice when you get here is that there are not bike lanes, not bike paths but very seriously bike roads on either side of the street. These are filled pretty much all the time by people of all ages on their personal bikes. There are no rental bikes anywhere. The moral of this story is that if you want people to bike, build bikeable citi…

Bike shares are great even if you have a great bicycling city. I myself am a Very Serious Cyclists, more than 200 miles per week, and I still use the bike share at least weekly. Just today I had to take my car to the shop, then I took a train to another place and there was a Lime Bike so I jumped on that and went to my destination. I have no idea why people complain about bike shares, dockless or docked.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#109

Post by estsauver » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 9:04 PM UTC

alangibson wrote: post #82

I'm currently sitting in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. One of the first things you notice when you get here is that there are not bike lanes, not bike paths but very seriously bike roads on either side of the street. These are filled pretty much all the time by people of all ages on their personal bikes. There are no rental bikes anywhere. The moral of this story is that if you want people to bike, build bikeable citi…

I'm in Amsterdam, and it's really incredible what you can do when the entire city is bike friendly.

I don't want to leave in large part because of it actually.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#110

Post by woolvalley » Mon, Apr 09, 2018, 9:05 PM UTC

thiagocsf wrote: post #99

alangibson wrote: post #82

I'm currently sitting in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. One of the first things you notice when you get here is that there are not bike lanes, not bike paths but very seriously bike roads on either side of the street. These are filled pretty much all the time by people of all ages on their personal bikes. There are no rental bikes anywhere. The moral of this story is that if you want people to bike, build bikeable citi…

I am in the city of Sydney, where no less than 4 dockless bike rental companies started operating overnight. They have become urban clutter. Users park them in locations where they’re easily knocked over and, from there, they usually get damaged. There’s also a very high incidence of vandalism. Bikes with no seats, no pedals, bent wheels, on top of trees, in canals. It’s common to see heaps of scrap bikes on the road…

The dockless jump bikes seemed to be locked to something. I think it's a requirement for riders to lock them after use, and so far, they haven't been cluttering SF.

Maybe that is the compromise. No docks, but have to be locked to some sort of normal bike rack to prevent clutter. The manufacturer / city isn't responsible for maintaining expensive dock infrastructure where company A cant use company B's docks, and apartments & businesses can create bike parking space in an adhoc manner, making the over all market more efficient.