Re:On-Demand Startups Are Hemorrhaging Tens of Billions a Year
by JMTQp8lwXL on Tuesday April 02, 2019 @04:56PM
(#19558490)
It is completely valid to question the value of being first to market. Will anybody care about Uber or Lyft if a new player, Company X, has a fleet of hundreds of thousands of autonomous vehicles in all major U.S. cities? Consumers have shown us just how easy it is to switch to a new app.
I concur that the branding wouldn't matter-- if the existing rideshare companies couldn't strike a deal with makers of autonomous vehicles, they won't be getting a share of the autonomous profits. Of course, these companies are actually developing their own technology. But that is far from their singular focus today.
Quietly, I assume there are folks operating on the thought that market dominance doesn't matter. We don't hear about them today very much, because they don't get much media attention.
I concur that the branding wouldn't matter-- if the existing rideshare companies couldn't strike a deal with makers of autonomous vehicles, they won't be getting a share of the autonomous profits. Of course, these companies are actually developing their own technology. But that is far from their singular focus today.
Quietly, I assume there are folks operating on the thought that market dominance doesn't matter. We don't hear about them today very much, because they don't get much media attention.