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by exogeny 3084 days ago
Yes. Without billions of subsidies from VCs, both companies are long gone.

I'll leave it up to you to conclude whether or not trading $0.60 for a $1 can last forever.

2 comments

Can you elaborate? Uber especially engaged in massive expenses on self driving cars, market share grabs, etc. But take those out and what remains seems to be a solid ride hailing business that should be able to generate stable profit.

It needs to be less expensive than a taxi to generate a lot of demand, but this seems to be a pretty low bar.

It doesn’t have to last forever, it just has to last longer than the competitor.
This isn't intrinsically true.

If they raise the prices, does the market go away?

If they are able to outlast and go to self-driving cars, how profitable is that business when factoring in competition, possible regulation, or it even becoming a public utility?

You’re underestimating the current oligarchy that exists. That’s why net neutrality is dead. You’re right, it’s not intrinsically true, but it’s pretty damn close to it...

Side note: big companies generally die because they don’t take a real threat seriously, and by the time they do, it’s too late.

“We lose money on every sale but we make it up in volume.”