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by 908B64B197 1941 days ago
> If I have to deal with the airport’s wifi... I don’t want to depend on downloading a 100mb binary over it.

That pretty much doomed all these "local Uber competitors". Nobody would start looking for a local competitor, set up an account, get 2FA, register their payment method and then have the privilege of getting a "starting up" screen telling them how and where they can get a ride. Instead they just open Uber and get where they want.
2 comments
smeyer 1941 days ago
>That pretty much doomed all these "local Uber competitors"

Did it? How much of Uber's usage in a random big city is from travelers based elsewhere vs locals? And it seems like others have succeeded in some narrower regions (Grab, Didi, etc.).

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bostonfincs 1941 days ago
A whole lot of Ubers big spenders. On a individual basis, but I know many consultants/sales people traveling all over the world that spend hundreds or thousands on ubers a month and want the ease of use. Those are Ubers profitable customers buying lux/black cars etc. in addition to many wealth families that use Uber all over the world in vacation. They should be solving for those customers over a customer worried about an extra 50 or 100mb even on their phone
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otabdeveloper4 1941 days ago
> doomed

Uber lost in pretty much every market where they had local competition. Are there any counterexamples?

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