Re:Uber Drivers Sue Company over Pressure to Support Prop 22
by brian_cloutier on Thursday October 22, 2020 @09:05PM
(#24865091)
I think you might be conflating two related things. The unit economics of Uber/Lyft, in principle, work out. If there was no way for them to make a profit nobody have invested in them.
They're currently unprofitable in the same way that Amazon spent a decade being unprofitable; every cent was invested back into growing future revenue. It's a little different; if Uber flipped their switch and started taking a profit Lyft would swoop in and steal away market share. But the unit economics do work out, I'm claiming that once prop 22 fails there will be markets for which the unit economics will no longer work out at all.
They're currently unprofitable in the same way that Amazon spent a decade being unprofitable; every cent was invested back into growing future revenue. It's a little different; if Uber flipped their switch and started taking a profit Lyft would swoop in and steal away market share. But the unit economics do work out, I'm claiming that once prop 22 fails there will be markets for which the unit economics will no longer work out at all.