Re:Confession: I Don’t Think Uber Is Actually a Great Busine...
by lobster_johnson on Saturday December 10, 2016 @09:52PM
(#13149326)
I don't think anyone is disputing that Uber is a great service — it's been a game changer for the consumer.
What's continually being debated, however, is what Uber is as a business enterprise, which is what the article is about.
Uber is interesting in that they're a facilitator of a commodity in which they're not all that crucial to the equation. They're the eBay or Google Search equivalent of transportation, where they give users and workers access to a common marketplace (not quite a market, since the workers are not able to set prices; I'm sure there's a proper economic term for what it really is) and the real work is done by the drivers. But they're not a monopoly, and that marketplace exists at the whim of the customer, who might not have the brand loyalty to stick around.
What's continually being debated, however, is what Uber is as a business enterprise, which is what the article is about.
Uber is interesting in that they're a facilitator of a commodity in which they're not all that crucial to the equation. They're the eBay or Google Search equivalent of transportation, where they give users and workers access to a common marketplace (not quite a market, since the workers are not able to set prices; I'm sure there's a proper economic term for what it really is) and the real work is done by the drivers. But they're not a monopoly, and that marketplace exists at the whim of the customer, who might not have the brand loyalty to stick around.