[expopinions]

Uber is the biggest loser, setting a record for losses of a startup. Silli-con billionaires have supported these losses (subsidized). Sustained losses are unsustainable. Uber presently keeps about 40% of ride cost. When uber raises prices and/or increases uber cut, competition will increase. Autonomous cars will not solve the problem and are a fantasy solution. I.e., no solution.

[nukeop]

Uber's strategy is to eliminate all possibility of competition before raising prices.

[flexie]

Where I live, Uber is effectively banned and local alternatives are quietly doing much the same as Uber used to.

I don't see Uber being anywhere near beating anyone in Europe.

[xfitm3]

Are the local alternatives based on an app or a traditional taxi service?

[moreira]

My little town has a traditional taxi service that now also has an app. Not nearly as polished as Uber but... who cares, it gets the job done (getting me a taxi).

The only thing Uber has is a nice network, so that when I travel, odds are I’ll land somewhere with Uber and not have to think about taxis.

I think the ultimate end solution might be something like Uber but offered to any willing/interested taxi company, akin to Amazon and its marketplace. Join it, you get a free user base + a modern app that handles a ton of stuff for you, but at the end of the day, you’re still your own taxi company and not locked into anything.

Or, alternatively, sell “Uber app as a service” to all taxi companies so that they won’t even have to think about building one. It doesn’t get the same network benefits but it would move things forward for smaller taxi firms.

[flexie]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.taxsee.tax...

[Mvandenbergh]

There's no way for them to build the kind of moat that would do that.

I was in a mid sized English industrial town a while ago where the local cab company had their own app. It wasn't quite as slick as uber but pretty close for a presumably whitelabeled app in a place like that. Ok, fine it's irritating to have to download a custom app for every city or town you might use a cab in but the reality is that the overwhelming volume of uber rides are in the city where the customer lives.

[C1sc0cat]

Yes my local minicab company (in the UK) has a very slick system for handling bookings without an app - you can even book a cab from your last two locations without speaking to the operator.

[gear54rus]

How would that happen?

[rimliu]

Indeed. Not sure about US, but there were already a bunch (4 or 5) of alternatives before Uber came and I do not see them going anywhere.

[Tepix]

Right on. Whenever some other offering enters the market with just slightly lower prices, I'll switch in a jiffy.

[nukeop]

Who can afford to pay for more than 60% of the ride's cost?

[Tepix]

The idea is that the subsidies will be reduced eventually and prices go up. That opens the door for new competitiors to enter the market.