[kshacker]

R&D is not cheap and similarly executive comp is not cheap. They appear to have made a net income of 1.5 B last year (2025), but if. you look at exec comp, the top 5 execs took in 100 M. If you check all their creamy layer, it is likely they spent a quarter billion in stuff that did not need to be paid if all you had were private taxies :) with an open source app // I exaggerate of course since you need some servers to coordinate this, just pointing out where money goes. If someone could run and popularize an open ride platform, that quarter billion would go somewhere else, maybe to the drivers, maybe to the riders.

[energy123]

Intermediation and Uber style network effects aren't long for this world.

Personal agents will search every app for the lowest fare, when in the past the apps had a moat due to the economic frictions involved in sampling more than one app. Uber is also ripe for vibe coding.

Won't be much consolation to drivers as they'll get automated soon after probably.

I don't think all software companies are in imminent danger but Uber does seem particularly vulnerable.

[s1artibartfast]

100M on 52 billion revenue is 0.2%. Net income of 1.5 billion is about 3% of revenue.

> If someone could run and popularize an open ride platform, that quarter billion would go somewhere else, maybe to the drivers, maybe to the riders.

So if you found an equally effective management team that worked for free, you would save the customer about 1% at checkout. That is a tiny benefit, even granting the massive assumption.

Those numbers suggest a competitive environment with small profits, not an abusive monoply exploiting it's position.

[kshacker]

100M is only 5 people. You add to the entire corporate paraphernalia, we will be looking at a lot of money.

There was this story I was reading yesterday, here or reddit, where a driver got $27 for a $65 (or so) ride. That is a horrible markup. The driver is not happy, but if the driver can survive for $27, we (the people) should be able to figure out how to charge $40 for the ride. Not saying it will be easy with the entrenched interests and the for-profit goal of our country, but still ... the markup seemed obscene when I read it.