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Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

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Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#21

Post by danieltillett »

codyb wrote: post #19
OmarIsmail wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Destroyed" is an unfortunate term to use. The drivers and riders will benefit who are predominantly not rich, so its actually a kind of stimulus.

Maybe not rich but a lot of the lower income people in my neighborhood in Brooklyn aren't using Uber or Lyft regardless of how cheap because they don't have much money period. You have to have a phone and internet access for these services so it's definitely not hitting the lowest brackets.

Yes the Uber/Lyft for poor people is called a bus. Hence why the bus network is so bad in so many location :(

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#22

Post by mrcrassic »

codyb wrote: post #19
OmarIsmail wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Destroyed" is an unfortunate term to use. The drivers and riders will benefit who are predominantly not rich, so its actually a kind of stimulus.

Maybe not rich but a lot of the lower income people in my neighborhood in Brooklyn aren't using Uber or Lyft regardless of how cheap because they don't have much money period. You have to have a phone and internet access for these services so it's definitely not hitting the lowest brackets.

Do you have data to support this? I too live in Brooklyn and have found the opposite to be true.

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#23

Post by viscanti »

HappyTypist wrote: post #15
argonaut wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber loses at least $470M / year, if not more (unsure if the number is per quarter, half-year, or full year) [1]. Lyft's struggles have nothing to do with their losses, and all to do with the fact that they're losing the market to Uber. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-reportedly-operating-at-...

Uber lost 470m/period. As the article mentions, these figures are outdated by a number of years and completely irrelevant - Uber is hitting more than 2.5 billion in revenue (commission) this year. According to public information, Lyft is losing approximately 3 to 5 times the amount of money per ride .

> According to public information, Lyft is losing approximately 3 to 5 times the amount of money per ride.

And it sounds like they're struggling to gain market share even given those subsidies.

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#24

Post by cballard »

mdc2161 wrote: post #14

Well I guess that could explain the 50% off rides promo they've been running in NYC for the past 6 weeks. Seems like every Sunday I get a push notification that it is extended.

I wish Apple would actually ban APNS spammers. Yelp does it too ("Yelp Weekly" or something).

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#25

Post by jakeva »

mrcrassic wrote: post #22
codyb wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not rich but a lot of the lower income people in my neighborhood in Brooklyn aren't using Uber or Lyft regardless of how cheap because they don't have much money period. You have to have a phone and internet access for these services so it's definitely not hitting the lowest brackets.

Do you have data to support this? I too live in Brooklyn and have found the opposite to be true.

Brooklyn is a big place, and the person you're replying to did just say his neighborhood… probably little data available on any scale let alone the scale of one's neighborhood, aside from anecdotal.

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#26

Post by argonaut »

HappyTypist wrote: post #15
argonaut wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber loses at least $470M / year, if not more (unsure if the number is per quarter, half-year, or full year) [1]. Lyft's struggles have nothing to do with their losses, and all to do with the fact that they're losing the market to Uber. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-reportedly-operating-at-...

Uber lost 470m/period. As the article mentions, these figures are outdated by a number of years and completely irrelevant - Uber is hitting more than 2.5 billion in revenue (commission) this year. According to public information, Lyft is losing approximately 3 to 5 times the amount of money per ride .

If those numbers are indeed out of date (I'm not taking an Uber spokesperson's word for it), I would be inclined to believe they are losing even more than $470M/period, given their extremely aggressive expansion and extremely aggressive fundraising.

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#27

Post by OmarIsmail »

danieltillett wrote: post #20
OmarIsmail wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Destroyed" is an unfortunate term to use. The drivers and riders will benefit who are predominantly not rich, so its actually a kind of stimulus.

It probably is closer to destroy rather than transfer. Yes there will be a shift of capital from investors pockets (pension funds ultimately) to drivers and consumers, but a lot of this capital will be squandered on drivers driving at less than full capacity and consumers not paying the true economic price. Neither of these is a very productive use of capital - there is of course the environmental cost of half-empty…

I see consumers not paying the true economic price as a form of stimulus. They're receiving more value than they are paying for, and so they presumably are living better lives and will be able to spend that saved money elsewhere (movies, food, etc). Similarly, if drivers are at less than full capacity that means there are more drivers than there would be without the funding, and thus more drivers getting paid.

No arguing against the environmental impact of course, other than the hope that cheap ride-sharing reduces the likelihood of car ownership.

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#28

Post by tim333 »

yueq wrote: post #12
danso wrote: post #2

How big is the gap between Lyft and Uber in India and China and other large Asian markets? In China, is there a state-favored rival [1] that could just shut out both? From an American perspective, it's hard to imagine Lyft overcoming Uber's lead...but maybe it's a sensible investment if Lyft has a strong chance of being bought by an Asian company? [1] edit: Found this Fortune article, which describes Didi-Kuaidi as t…

Uber has very little chance to win China market considering competition from Didi which is backed by Tencent and Alibaba. Considering the insurmountable dominance of Tencent's Wechat and Alibaba's AliPay on mobile phones in Chinese market. Some reports that Didi has 80+% market in China and Uber gets 10+%.

Yeah but Didi's offering is a ride hailing app for regular taxis while Uber is doing the 'black car' thing. So they are kind of differentiated. Also Uber are partnered with Baidu, the Google of China so they can have Uber fares pop up when people google stuff. Or should that be baidu stuff? Dunno.

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#29

Post by tim333 »

cballard wrote: post #24
mdc2161 wrote: post #14

Well I guess that could explain the 50% off rides promo they've been running in NYC for the past 6 weeks. Seems like every Sunday I get a push notification that it is extended.

I wish Apple would actually ban APNS spammers. Yelp does it too ("Yelp Weekly" or something).

Settings -> Notifications -> off?

Re: Lyft Files to Raise as Much as $1B

#30

Post by xiaoma »

yueq wrote: post #12
danso wrote: post #2

How big is the gap between Lyft and Uber in India and China and other large Asian markets? In China, is there a state-favored rival [1] that could just shut out both? From an American perspective, it's hard to imagine Lyft overcoming Uber's lead...but maybe it's a sensible investment if Lyft has a strong chance of being bought by an Asian company? [1] edit: Found this Fortune article, which describes Didi-Kuaidi as t…

Uber has very little chance to win China market considering competition from Didi which is backed by Tencent and Alibaba. Considering the insurmountable dominance of Tencent's Wechat and Alibaba's AliPay on mobile phones in Chinese market. Some reports that Didi has 80+% market in China and Uber gets 10+%.

Baidu was a strategic investor in Uber, and they lead another $1.2B round a couple of months ago. Both companies have local giants backing them, so anything can happen. If I had to bet, though, I'd bet on Uber winning in China if they can win enough of the rest of the world.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/07/uber-confirms-its-raised-1-...

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