Over the long run, at least in the U.S. it seems like Uber/Lyft are edging towards a comfortable duopoly. Usually their prices move in lockstep (each has insights into the other company's prices through email receipt intelligence, credit card intelligence, webscraping, etc.). And their services are fairly exchangeable. For either one to win there needs to be either a massive cost advantage or some sort of stickiness factor – which neither have. Will be fun to follow the '19 IPO season with Postmates on the horizon and DoorDash fat with Softbank money
Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
31–40 of 291 posts
Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has happened to me, I was uber pissed. The Uber driver waited less no more than 2mns Max.
It's fairly rude to make them wait at all. They're not being paid while they're waiting for you.
If one could reliably order an Uber that would be great. But no way Im waiting outside in -10C while the app lies about someone about to pick me up.
Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fact that you were apparently able to do what you did is a perfect indicator for the problem behind that "sales boost": it is a straw fire. And a very expensive one. How fast will you be gone once the nice rewards give way to price increases necessary to reach a sustainable business covering expenses, let alone profitability?
I wont switch. 80% of my ubers get expensed. Keep me fat and happy with rewards, and I'll keep expensing it regardless of the cost, which doesnt really effect me, only our controller.
So now Uber's competitors just have to market to your controller, which is in fact easier than marketing to everyone at your company.
Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fact that you were apparently able to do what you did is a perfect indicator for the problem behind that "sales boost": it is a straw fire. And a very expensive one. How fast will you be gone once the nice rewards give way to price increases necessary to reach a sustainable business covering expenses, let alone profitability?
I wont switch. 80% of my ubers get expensed. Keep me fat and happy with rewards, and I'll keep expensing it regardless of the cost, which doesnt really effect me, only our controller.
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Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#35What is Uber's long term moat/pricing power? To compete in a local market you just need to sign up 5000 or so drivers. At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000. You can just be the third app, most drivers already swap between Lyft/Uber. You could even form a drivers cooperative and just give all the charges to drivers (like farmers do). Regulatory capture seems like the only real route to sustainable profits with…
not that it necessarily changes your argument, but the signup bonuses that uber / lyft offer are significantly higher than $5 (closer to $1k), and are structured in such a way to ensure you're not dual-apping.
"A different model of what they are doing is using their massive revenue growth (not profit) to raise money to fund a search for real pricing power with food delivery, shared bikes, and Uber freight."
I suspect this isn't far from the truth.
Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#36I don't think this is a reflection of Lyft taking market share...more likely that the ridesharing industry has just matured. I remember getting so much joy out of requesting an Uber back in the earlier days. Nowadays I get about as much joy out of Uber(pool) as using the bus, sometimes less because the wait time has increased so much.
UberPool Express has some things in common with the bus, although I’ve still never been slapped in the face by a homeless man in an Uber.
I get a bus twice a day in London and not once has this or even the thought of this come into my head.
Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#37Over the long run, at least in the U.S. it seems like Uber/Lyft are edging towards a comfortable duopoly. Usually their prices move in lockstep (each has insights into the other company's prices through email receipt intelligence, credit card intelligence, webscraping, etc.). And their services are fairly exchangeable. For either one to win there needs to be either a massive cost advantage or some sort of stickiness…
> comfortable duopoly
I don't think they have hit true market dynamics yet (rides are subsidized), so comfortable might be a strong word here.
Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#38The irony of Uber and Lyft both losing so much money is Lyft especially is known for paying some of the highest SWE salaries in SF.
These companies hire so many engineers and then have them do busy-work like building their own internal versions of Slack or new proprietary databases.
Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#39I don't think this is a reflection of Lyft taking market share...more likely that the ridesharing industry has just matured. I remember getting so much joy out of requesting an Uber back in the earlier days. Nowadays I get about as much joy out of Uber(pool) as using the bus, sometimes less because the wait time has increased so much.
UberPool Express has some things in common with the bus, although I’ve still never been slapped in the face by a homeless man in an Uber.
have you ever seen your neighbor get dragged running and hanging out of the passenger side window by an angry uber driver? have you had someone slap you who is not homeless? i have.
i get that you want to equate homeless folks on transit with violence but you did a really bad job of it.
Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near
#40Over the long run, at least in the U.S. it seems like Uber/Lyft are edging towards a comfortable duopoly. Usually their prices move in lockstep (each has insights into the other company's prices through email receipt intelligence, credit card intelligence, webscraping, etc.). And their services are fairly exchangeable. For either one to win there needs to be either a massive cost advantage or some sort of stickiness…
Until the money runs out.