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by ryanto 3661 days ago
Neat. I've always wondered if Uber's ride sharing had a weak moat. As a consumer there's little difference for me between taking an Uber, Lyft, or something else. This makes it easy to compete in the consumer ride sharing market.

If Uber is able to integrate with other apps this introduces a high switching cost for those apps... and that gives them a pretty solid moat. Excited to see how this API gets used.
2 comments
ec109685 3658 days ago
Why isn't it just as easy for businesses to switch to the delivery service that is cheapest at any given moment? There are API aggregators that abstract out the differences between delivery providers.

Their moat is their crap load of drivers.

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nikrdc 3661 days ago
Where did you find this term "moat"? (Genuinely curious)
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joshvm 3661 days ago
A moat is the trench around the outside of a castle that is often, but not always filled with water. It's a defensive structure because people have to cross it to get your castle in the middle. So Uber's castle (i.e. it's product) doesn't seem to be that well defended against competitors (it has a weak moat). They have the numbers and the user adoption, but fundamentally they're no different from Lyft et al.

That's my interpretation anyway! I've never heard 'weak moat' used in this context before though. Apologies if you actually know what a moat is and that all sounded rather patronising :/

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BWStearns 3660 days ago
> A moat is the trench around the outside of a castle that is often, but not always filled with s/water/alligators/.

Joking aside, that's a great way to describe the do-hard-things concept. I think the gp was more asking if that was a metaphor derived from some pg (or whoever) blog post.

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sorenbs 3661 days ago
It's a fairly common term to describe barrier to entry dynamics. See for example a random article like this https://stratechery.com/2015/selling-feelings/
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sketchthat 3660 days ago
I tend to hear the term "Rust on" (as in metal rusting). So the more rusted on you are the harder it is to get you off. The more integration you have across the board, the more rusted on you are and people can't be bothered trying to clean the rust off.
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findjashua 3661 days ago
warren buffet
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