Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

Re:Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue by MarkMc on Tuesday December 20, 2016 @02:43AM (#13218172)

Sure, but nothing ties eBay sellers to eBay. For an Uber driver to add another Taxi app it's not just a case of downloading and installing the app. They have to create a user account, enter their bank account details, verify their email address, take a photo of themselves, their car, drivers licence and insurance documents and upload them to the Taxi app server. Then wait a day or two for it all to be processed.

If the Taxi app has a significant number of users you might convince driver's to jump through those hoops. But if the Taxi app has no users it's impossible.

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Re:Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue by coryl on Tuesday December 20, 2016 @04:12AM (#13218465)

All the taxi apps are incentivizing signups by subsidizing their pay rates. Everyone is essentially taking losses to grow market share. Drivers will signup for whoever can make them money, so there isn't as much friction as suggested. They earn their livelihoods from driving, so a couple day sign up process is well worth it.

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Re:Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue by puranjay on Tuesday December 20, 2016 @03:16AM (#13218288)

Uber was flat out paying drivers to sign-up.

This is an easy problem to solve.

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Re:Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue by Naritai on Tuesday December 20, 2016 @01:02PM (#13222251)

the eBay analogy would be that nothing stops people from posting the exact same product on multiple sites at the same time. If I were looking at something on eBay, and I could do a quick google to find that same product on another site for 15% less, eBay will very quickly find themselves in trouble.

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