> At least for me uber has huge brand loyalty, it’s sitting in the dock of my iPhone
Hear hear. It feels to me that brand loyalty arguments are really opinions being extrapolated to the rest of the population. For example, one can reasonably argue airlines don't command any brand loyalty for the average traveler and how they are in a race to the bottom, yet many people will readily tell you how much they hate X airline or how they love Y airline. One could say the same of hotels, shampoos, socks, what have you. There always are those that don't care for the brands, and those that do.
It’s clear that airlines do not have brand loyalty sufficient to create significant margins like Apple or some such.
> If I need to go somewhere, or get home, Uber has never let me down.
The real test of brand loyalty it staying with them after a few bad experiences.
I wouldn't assume that just because people vocalise brand loyalty, means that they stick with it when it's time to open their wallets.
If people won't stop using a company that is so blatantly bad we're in trouble.
Those companies have been Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon.
Financially you could have done amazingly well in the stock market simply by buying whatever big stock techies hate at the moment.
(Not saying Uber will necessarily continue this pattern. Even though they have the brand, I don't see how they intend to fix the enormous losses. That's very different from the optimized zero profit Amazon was making for years.)
> Those companies have been Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon.
That's a great point. I'd add IBM to that list and the time frame would reach back to 35 years.
Now, that doesn't mean they're a good business of course -- they're probably a terrible business -- but that's a reason to use them, not to avoid them.
With that in mind, unit economics at both Uber and Lyft seem to be about the same, and both equally dreadful. Lyft never made some of the even worse investments (like trying to compete in mainland China without government support). Those days appear long behind Uber, though, for better or worse.
Also had trouble getting support- no way to contact them.
unfoetunate because t works great when I had it.
If I need to go somewhere, or get home, Uber has never let me down. Likewise with food delivery, I certainly have been let down on that but Uber does the best job of letting me track the order and get a refund if needed.
Sure Lyft is an alternative, I have it on my phone but simply never use it.
It’s incorrect that nothing has changed about the cost of a ride. Taxi medallions used to be 500k-1m and require essentially taking out a mortgage. Now they are worth effectively $0.
And cost was never the core issue with Taxi’s, it was the unpredictability of the cost, having to pay in cash because the drivers incentive is to skim from the owner, having to find one or call for one, having to put your trust in a random driver in a random country with no idea if you are going the right way.
Look to NYC where they seem to have set the goal of making Uber as expensive as possible (10s of dollars in random fees per ride). It’s still popular - in a city with some of the best taxi options.