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Uber's Failure in Japan

disruptingjapan.com

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Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#111

Post by crdoconnor »

vram22 wrote: post #90
greggman wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What's the lah mean exactly? Heard it a lot in Kuala Lumpur but did not check then. Can sort of guess, but good to hear from someone who knows. Enjoyed being there.

It doesn't really have meaning it's just used to add emphasis at the end of a sentence.

Americans sometimes put 'yo' end of a sentence to similar effect. Yo.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#112

Post by Leynos »

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…

I'm told that Switzerland is a no-tip country, but the service there was excellent the two times I visited Zurich. I left tips anyway, because I didn't think the staff having to put up with my atrocious attempt at speaking German was part of their normal job description.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#113

Post by DasIch »

aianus wrote: post #110
DasIch wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Uber is not uniquely positioned to pool multiple people in one car, to suggest otherwise is quite frankly ridiculous. Also there are no preexisting cars of regular people for Uber to take advantage of because regular people don't have adequate insurance.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#114

Post by mikeash »

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…

Why countries besides the US and Japan is he talking about? I live in the US and have received great service everywhere I've gone, including no-tipping countries like China, France, the UK, Spain, Italy, and Greece, so this doesn't fit my observations at all.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#115

Post by aianus »

DasIch wrote: post #113
aianus wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Uber is not uniquely positioned to pool multiple people in one car, to suggest otherwise is quite frankly ridiculous. Also there are no preexisting cars of regular people for Uber to take advantage of because regular people don't have adequate insurance.

> Uber is not uniquely positioned to pool multiple people in one car, to suggest otherwise is quite frankly ridiculous.

Of course they are, this feature is highly dependent on network effects and Uber is the biggest player.

> Also there are no preexisting cars of regular people for Uber to take advantage of because regular people don't have adequate insurance.

Besides the fact that most people don't give a shit about this, Uber does provide commercial insurance for UberX drivers while they are logged in: https://www.intact.ca/uber-ride-sharing

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#116

Post by mikeash »

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.

Trying, plus $5, will get you a Starbucks latte. Results are what count. I couldn't care less about the motivation behind regulations, just the outcomes. The outcomes in many places are that taxis are inferior in every way.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#117

Post by mikeash »

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

Yes. You need to figure out your address or cross streets instead of having your phone give your position with three meters of accuracy, you have to wait if the operator is busy with something else, you have no record of your request if they forget about you, the ETAs are often completely made up, you have no way to track your car and know when it's about to arrive, and get no identifying information about the car or driver that's picking you up.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#118

Post by wruza »

Uber is just a management that controls bunch of small entities providing a service. You can hate it or feel envy, but actually there are millions of companies with bad and foolish management that cannot even do their service at all.

I hope someday I'll see the company that will act as an umbrella to all service companies out there, and will filter out all those pretending fools unable to clean my carpet, install new furniture or repair pc. I'm really tired of this local 'legal market'. I need it done, not legal.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#119

Post by zyx321 »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #89
kizza wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The other is also a harmless private activity. No one is harmed when I ride an Uber to my destination. You might claim the taxi driver is harmed by me not using him, but then I might also claim that a woman who might marry the bi fellow is harmed by him being unavailable. Also, if you want to talk about things like safety regulations for taxis/Ubers, keep in mind that gay (specifically MSM, lesbians are safe of cours…

You make a convincing argument. We need to strictly regulate gay sex on public roads, and in all other places where it might endanger innocent bystanders. While we're at it, let's tax gay prostitutes who use our tax-funded public bathrooms for commercial purposes.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#120

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #49
pyre wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a claim that a CEO had violated legal duties to shareholders by not breaking the law would get instantly laughed out of court I think that real issue here is that it would not get laughed out of the board room or a shareholders meeting.

I agree. And as Slavoj Zizek is fond of saying many (most) people are ok with someone doing the dirty work for them (break the law, torture, what have you) they just don't want to explicitly be told about it. And anyway, if there's a better service to be had, that people want and are willing to pay for, screw the law, it's a high-latency side chain of authority that has built-in, but slow and political, update mechan…

To follow up on this, here is the full quote from Slavoj Žižek in conversation with Paul Holdengräber:

Zizek: Here I’m a little bit of anti-democratic pessimist in the sense that if you really ask people, cut the bullshit, what do you really want from government, I don’t think people really want that government should not torture people and so on, the point is do it but do it discretely I don’t want to know it.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIPjmmmh_os

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