[bryanrasmussen]

the thing is, will it work. I can understand it has worked in the past but it seems to me in the case of Amazon, it seems they've been doing this for more than a decade and it hasn't seemed to work yet in that they are not yet at the level where they can raise their prices.

The same with Uber, will they ever really kill off Lyft, local taxi services (especially with local government fighting them doing so) and public transit, as well as the other competitors springing up. It seems like a massive transfer of VC wealth to the public without a really well thought out plan as to when and how they will be in a position that they can securely raise the prices. I think they will never be able to. That a tactic has worked in some industries and situations does not mean it will work in every situation. I mean where I live there are other, non-Uber services that allow you to easily pick up cars sitting around the city by using your app to get into them. These are also competitors. Self driving cars might allow them to cut costs, but these will also allow others to compete on other services. In short, I think the VCs who dream of Uber someday gouging their customers are deluded, and the same for Bezos - if that day was ever gonna come it would have come some time ago.