this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
184 points (98.9% liked)
technology
23393 readers
158 users here now
On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
- Ways to run Microsoft/Adobe and more on Linux
- The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android
- Great libre software on Windows
- Hey you, the lib still using Chrome. Read this post!
Rules:
- 1. Obviously abide by the sitewide code of conduct. Bigotry will be met with an immediate ban
- 2. This community is about technology. Offtopic is permitted as long as it is kept in the comment sections
- 3. Although this is not /c/libre, FOSS related posting is tolerated, and even welcome in the case of effort posts
- 4. We believe technology should be liberating. As such, avoid promoting proprietary and/or bourgeois technology
- 5. Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
- 6. No crypto (Bitcoin, NFT, etc.) speculation, unless it is purely informative and not too cringe
- 7. Absolutely no tech bro shit. If you have a good opinion of Silicon Valley billionaires please manifest yourself so we can ban you.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Uber was only ever cheap because the rides were being subsidized with VC money in order to try to run the competition out of business. It was the Walmart model, the “tech” element was puffery, novelty pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes.
As someone who never really took taxis in the pre-uber times I guess I'm not the one to know, but was it just puffery? obviously they only did it to kill competition, avoid regulation and taxes, etc. but was it not also genuinely more convenient to order a taxi through an app with your GPS location, vs calling and doing it over the phone (and presumably waiting longer)? In cities without the densities required to just be able to hail a taxi from the street, I assume it was a big step up, even if it was evil and all the other promises were fake.
The taxi industry was so decimated by the time I was old enough and in a big enough city that I don't have a good frame of comparison.
There wasn't much in the way of innovation in Uber/Lyft. Private Taxi companies and the regulated cab commissions were able to get competing apps going pretty quick. They just couldn't compete because they had to charge some kind of fee to the Taxi operators, while Uber was giving users a huge discount.
The venture capital firms knew from the beginning that Uber wasn't about technology or innovation, it was about being the next tech monopolist.
Get in between businesses and customers in an industry that's going through a technological change. Subsidize to the benefit of the businesses and the customers to prevent competition. Grow until you have monopoly power. Increase the costs to the users, then increase the costs to the businesses. Next step is usually offering to sell the customers to the businesses(usually by selling ads), but I could see it being some kind of Uber driver gold subscription or something that gives you priority in the app.