https://slate.com/business/2022/05/uber-subsidy-lyft-cheap-rides.html Uber has lost an astounding sum since its founding in 2009, including more than $30 billion in the five-odd years since the company’s finances became public. Together with earlier losses and a similar strategy at rival Lyft, this has amounted to an enormous, investor-fueled subsidy of America’s ride-hailing habit. Those days are over, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees in a memo last week. “The average employee at Uber is barely over 30, which means you’ve spent your career in a long and unprecedented bull run,” he wrote. “This next period will be different, and it will require a different approach. … We have to make sure our unit economics work before we go big.” Average Uber prices rose 92 percent between 2018 and 2021, according to data from Rakuten; a separate analysis reports an increase of 45 percent between 2019 and 2022. Both Uber and Lyft have added a surcharge for riders that helps drivers account for high gas prices. And all that was before last week’s ultimatum. The cynical assumption was always that Uber was burning all that investor cash in order to corner the market. Once it killed off car service, taxi cartels, and its ride-hail rivals, the company would stop charging riders less than it was paying drivers and prices would have to go up. On Monday morning, an Uber from Manhattan to JFK Airport was $100—nearly double the fixed yellow cab rate.
Funny how they charge so much and still pay their drivers like shit
Should we boycott and call taxis instead
Still cheaper than taxi
I've heard Uber accused of both subsidizing rides using VC money, and taking a very high cut of profits from drivers. Which one is it?
Are they cutting salaries soon?, layoffs?
Layoffs are very likely.
If waymo can offer ridesharing at scale, it will bring back the prices users expect. It's a big, unproven if though.
I heard on the “All In” podcast recently that everyone thought Uber would just win. But then an irrational actor entered the scene in the form of Masayoshi from Soft Bank got $100 billion+ from Saudis etc and shotgun blasted it into Lyft etc. This “ruined” the traditional playbook wherein Uber should have been able to take over the market easily. Instead endless venture money rained down giving them all money to compete with one another at record breaking losses.
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Uber and lyft should die. They made things so expensive that its now going beyond control. We should not allow them to monopolize the market
😂 with all the inflation why do you expect the transportation price to keep unchanged tho? House price and food price and even Tesla price is not the same, it’s your money worths less now
Wait a minute, you think the riding is expensive is because of monopoly of Uber / Lyft? Seriously what are you smoking dude.