[Bartweiss]

I'd love to see some proper data on "incentivized word of mouth". When I engage in that, it's almost always normal word of mouth plus a mutual cash-grab. Compare how often you decide "I should spread the word about this for money" to how often you go "This is really great. Oh! Let me recommend you and we'll both save a couple bucks." Hell, I've told existing users "I want this app, recommend me and we'll grab some cash?"

I guess it might still improve retention for the new users, which is probably Uber's goal, but I'm skeptical about whether incentives promote more sharing, or just raise the price of existing shares.

[cmiller1]

>I guess it might still improve retention for the new users, which is probably Uber's goal, but I'm skeptical about whether incentives promote more sharing

I first used Uber because I was with someone that was already a user and we were going to catch a cab... He would have just done it himself, but because of the incentive, I downloaded instead so our shared ride would cost us less.