Where I live, Uber is recognized as the high prices option. Once VCs stopped subsidizing rides prices went up and availability went down - it was a running joke for years that at DCA you’d see people waiting in line for 20 minutes to spend $20 more than hopping in a waiting cab.
That makes sense for me. I would easily pay $20 more to take an Uber over a cab in SF. The prices are the other way around which is convenient for me. The last time I took a cab from the airport the guy asked me which cross streets and how to get there. That's not my Uber experience. I don't want to be telling this guy how to do his job. I want personal transportation and we can chat about something else if he likes but I want him to use the satnav.
Yeah, there are real regional variations. I think the problem Uber has is that they’re valued like a high-end tech company (with locked in overhead like compensation) but they don’t have much of a competitive moat. They can have a better app and global reach is a plus for frequent travelers, but at the end of the day their profit is anchored by how much a taxi costs – even if the service is better people only value that so much, especially in a down economy like the one just created.
They've created a business model any metropolitan community can duplicate for practically nothing, and the first community that does so will share their notes with the rest of us.
People should be asking themselves if their service is a quango waiting to happen, because most of them definitely are.
For a lot of people $20 is an amount that they will think about spending.
Ridiculous to think that a cab driver in 2025 is not using GPS. I don't believe that.
Been burnt too often by american taxis that won't take cards or won't give receipts or have adverts on screens as you're travelling.
That’s not a problem here (they have an app, too) but it’s definitely valid for Uber to compete on better service. I am skeptical that they will be able to get the kind of returns which their investors want that way, however.
I fly into a random city, say Denver.
I could start hunting around for a local taxi app, which may or may not work, may or may not have any cars
I could get in a waiting taxi at the airport, but then I run into issues with cash etc
I could use uber while I'm still collecting my bag and have a known car and known experience waiting for me
Sure, as I said they have a potential edge in service and people who frequently travel to new places. My point was just that it’s not a very big edge: most people are not traveling to new places all of the time and if there’s a big savings they’ll switch. That doesn’t mean that Uber is doomed, just that they’re not a Google/Facebook money printing machine where local competitors can pop up easily.
they already IPOed so the original investors made out with a ton of money. if you think there's still a version where Uber evaporates overnight, I have some puts to sell you.
I’m not expecting anything like evaporating, only that things like their share price and compensation are more like a tech company than a taxi company but they don’t have a strong moat. There’s interest around things like self-driving taxis, but they don’t own the technology so it won’t open up extra margins.
Most individual share prices is buoyed by continuous pumping from 401ks and the like buying into funds, not on the fundamentals of the companies in question.