I want to see Uber in particular fail because of their horrible treatment of drivers, spying on (and publicly shaming the habits of) their riders, threatening journalists over negative press, and because of their shady business practices in general.
I want to see ridesharing as a service succeed, as I think it is the future of taxi service. But I want Uber to either go away completely, or else reorganize as a positive, beneficial company instead of a cancer with douchebags at the helm.
Pretty strong words on your part as well, but whatever, I'll answer. No, I decided a while back that if I ever need a ride, it won't be in an Uber car. This decision was based not only on what's in the regular media, but from reading personal experiences of riders and drivers in forums like this and larger media like Facebook and Twitter. I've read a few good, positive things about Uber in the past few years, but as a whole I consider them to be hostile and extremely slimy.
Simply put, I formed an opinion, as is my right, and it's a strong opinion so I use strong words to convey it.
For bubbles to really be bubbles they need broad participation, and VC funding really is limited in how many people can participate.
Governments have not seriously tried to stop Uber yet. If/when they do, they will easily succeed.
Right now, the farthest most have gone is fining drivers a relatively small amount, which Uber pays. What happens when they step that up to seizing the car? Who is going to sign up to be an Uber driver in a city where it can get your car seized?
Here's how I predict it will go down. Cities will eventually decide to legalize Uber-type services, with such companies required to obtain a license. There will be a limited number of companies licensed in each city--it makes much more sense for the city and its citizens to have a small number of healthy companies than to have a large number of companies barely scraping by. Those licenses will go to Lyft and other non-Uber services, because they have not had the "fuck you" attitude that Uber has.
That's when the cities will crack down severely on Uber.
They're doing well but I don't see anything that would stop government regulating them out of existence. They're no, say, Bitcoin in that regard for sure.
*gross revenue. Big difference.
I don't want to see Uber fail, because I hate catching taxis, but I think there needs to be a serious reality check here. The business model that Uber runs upon is still relatively unregulated & fragile, and as shown in Vancouver, cities and Governments have the power to easily drive out services like Uber. Not to mention the pressure from taxi lobbyists.
I don't want to see Uber become a monopoly, but this cash injection can only mean that Uber will aggressively attempt to drive out its competitors therefore becoming a monopoly and in the process, a splitting image of the broken taxi industry they are trying to disrupt. As history has shown, when you have next to no competition, you stop innovating. Lets just see how this plays out.