This, I think, is more important than many people realize.
When I was driving for Uber and Lyft (for about eight months, two years ago), Lyft had an entirely different clientele.
Uber was for the poors, the frat boys, and the average Joe Lunchbucket. Lyft was a decidedly better class of passenger, paid more per mile, the people tipped more and more often, and the passengers were 953% less likely to throw up in your car.
Drivers on their way to an Uber pickup would drop the fare if a Lyft opportunity came in.
Lyft doesn't capitalize on this perception that it is "better" than Uber, but my sense of the situation from talking to dozens of drivers and hundreds of passengers is that both the drivers and the passengers knew it.
Lyft could really differentiate itself in the market, if it decided to go this route (so to speak). The same way that Apple positions itself as a premium brand.
Is Lyft more expensive in your locale?
I’m in a new Lyft market, so their pricing makes them the cheapest with their discounts often.
Lyft's Android app just works, and is reasonably usable. I've been burned by Uber's app crashing after an update.
I keep using Lyft over Uber; most drivers I see in my area (NYC and Brooklyn) have both apps installed. But many seem to have the Lyft-specific sign under the windhshield, but rarely an explicit Uber sign.
As a corporation, Lyft seems to be much less showy, and does not seem to be losing gargantuan sums on pie-in-the-sky projects. They project a nicer, if understated, image; this is also somehow attractive, and likely says something about the way the company is run.
My guess is that people who could pay more for Lyft did. I gave a lot of homeless people rides through Uber, but never through Lyft.
( Sorry Lyft was never in my region )
Uber has all kinds of crazy promotions, like paying a flat $6 per ride for a whole month, or paying $25 up front for ten rides, no matter how long they are. Of course, there's also surge pricing that everyone knows about.
The worst is that Uber charges passengers more if they're traveling to or from "rich" ZIP Codes. In theory, Uber is doing this because we were supposedly carrying rich people around who could afford it. But more often than not, we were transporting low-wage maids and other service people from one job mucking out toilets to another. So Uber was actually hurting the people who could least afford to pay more.
I'm so glad to not be associated with Uber anymore.
Lyft frequently gives me offers like "10% of your next 10 rides" and "25% off this weekend!". I think it's because I'm only an occasional rider (1/month or so unless I'm traveling). Uber does not give me any promotions.
1) The market can support multiple players running profitable (i.e it's a 2 player or 3 player market). Think of the drugstore industry (Walgreens & CVS). 2) Lyft focuses on profitable higher income markets like the US and Canada so they can have a higher margin and not get into pricing wars with massive foreign players (Didi, Oola, etc.). Uber is bleeding cash in their foreign markets. 3) Lyfts valuation is more reasonable relative to their numbers than Uber's. At the end of the day your investment thesis should not be just on the company but also the price you are buying at. 4) Lyft could manage their costs better and hence be closer to profitability to Uber (this is a pure guess but seems possible)
I have been pretty successful investing in 2nd players when they are priced correctly.