I don't know if this is accurate. They're fending off lawsuits pushing them to recognize their drivers as employees, their prices are artificially low (in the sense that it's subsidized by VC money), and they're racing both cab companies and car companies at once (if Tesla/GM/Ford gets autonomous cars first, who needs Uber?).
At a ~$70B valuation, they have no margin for error. Their only realistic positive option at this point is to IPO. Right now, they're valued higher than Ford ($50B), GM ($55B) and Tesla ($33B), and currently Uber is reliant upon them (and others) to manufacture the cars they rent to people; if they are beaten to autonomous cars, they have no reason to exist.
This is why I think Uber is in a tough spot; they've raised a ton of money at an enormous valuation, and have to somehow convince the public markets that they're worth it. Whether they can do it, who knows? I've been wrong on these things before (Zynga and KING seemed like obvious flops, but the public bought into them).
I have always looked forward to self-driving car networks because of what I perceived to be their ultra-competitive and ultra-low margin nature.
Then two years ago everyone started talking about an Uber monopoly and I got super upset. Are we seriously seeing another industry ultra centralize due to technology?
But I'm beginning to suspect that this may be a massive miscalculation on the part of Uber and its investors. Maybe it is a low margin, highly competitive industry and Uber will be remembered as that one company that subsidized everybody's rides for a few years until it just faded into the background.
As great as that would be, those are still a decade away from common use, probably much more.
The problem here is that ridership at current prices is rather higher than ridership at 2x current prices... and 2x current prices only brings you up to break-even. you want to bring that up to the point where Uber is making billions? ridership is going to fall off a cliff.
I use uber a lot mostly because it's really cheap; For five bucks? yeah, for five bucks, I'll have someone drive me to work. if that goes to $10 or $20? Yeah, I'll still use it when I go to the bar or when my car is broken or something, but for that kinda scratch I'm probably taking a shuttle, driving myself, or using a bicycle to go to work.
The point here is that Uber's competition isn't really lyft or the cab companies, it's the car I have sitting in my own driveway.
This isn't a start up trying to figure out how to make money (Twitter) or a company that can't/won't change (Blackberry).
This is a company making money that is pursuing a blitzkrieg on the industry. They can sit back any day and rake in billions. I agree there isn't a high entry barrier, but I don't think they've lost the first-to-market advantage.