Re:Hit by Big Loss, Bird Seeks $300M in New Funds
by UncleEntity on Friday July 12, 2019 @03:44PM
(#20423780)
Probably has more to do with the charging people than any bird plan. Was chatting with someone who does that a while back and they go out and collect as many as they can find since they get paid per scooter.
Also there's apparently people out there who both charge and ride the same scooter so they get some VC funded free transportation.
Re:Hit by Big Loss, Bird Seeks $300M in New Funds
by jonlucc on Friday July 12, 2019 @02:43PM
(#20423242)
I'm pretty sure there's some serious dropoff in power with lower battery level. I will walk a bit further for a 100% battery scooter rather than take one with ~60% for that reason.
Re:Hit by Big Loss, Bird Seeks $300M in New Funds
by john-foley on Friday July 12, 2019 @01:46PM
(#20422688)
They could be lying about the 30 mile range. That was my first (cynical) thought.
Re:Hit by Big Loss, Bird Seeks $300M in New Funds
by atwebb on Friday July 12, 2019 @03:41PM
(#20423755)
Or it is under ideal conditions/weight, if you use a smaller example rider but users tend to be heavier (maybe scooter riders don't like walking as much?) then that would lead to reduced mileage, pure speculation of course.
that makes sense. Any growth oriented company would much rather lose margins by prematurely charging than risk having an user run out of battery and churn. I don't see that changing much post-saturation.
I could imagine this flaw in unit economics being overlooked by investors and omitted in pitches. Doesn't this destroy the unit economics? Only way around it would be paying independent re-chargers per % refill rather than flat per charge? But I think I remember some firm trying that and the re-chargers would just run it down in their sheds...