jsloss

What’s the trick? More page views?

The cost of acquiring new customers once they reached scale was the issue. The cost went up significantly making their unity economics unfavourable.

They rent buildings (long term leases) and then rent out spaces (short term leases).

It scales. But you’re right, not in any way like a tech company.

The fact that they say tech is at their core is a joke. The only reason to use their app to to book a meeting room or remember your printing code.

You know there are a large number of people who rely on these platforms to earn enough to take care of their families...

Exactly. Just look at the numerous twitter apps that are no longer around but we’re very useful to twitter at the time.

Tech should just be for tech people! Mothers and brothers be damed!

I get the frustration, but shouldn’t we be working towards models that allow for better compensation for creators rather than ... well I’m not exactly sure what you’re advocating for here ...

The ability to compensate someone who is creating value in a network with ownership of said network (eg giving an early uber driver, or Airbnb host, options or equity.) this is currently not possible to do in the US, but is possible with crypto networks.

It’s the most well known climbing destination, not just a “remote and hostile” place. It speaks to the end of the normal distribution curve for experiences/social signalling like this.

There’s Everest and there’s the rest.

We’re moving from a world where we actively search to a word where “the best” is recommended to us.

Google will continue to build out lines of business that make sense in a post search world (hardware, shopping platform, ....?)

Brigading from folks with some reason or another to be very pro china.

There is no shortage of examples of how powerful platforms and governments are using this technology in a way that reduces personal freedom. Surveillance is the name of the game in our current era of internet business models. Are you suggesting that this isn't the case?

Can you expand on your point? Because it makes no sense to me.

All great points. I guess we'll see where the chips land.

Is it easy for new entrants though? And is there competition?

I'm not sure about the future profitability of this space, but I think you're disregarding a few key points.

1. The innovation was less the app and more solving supply problems. No app will be able to change that for the taxi business.

2. Competitive advantage in this space is having more drivers and less wait time. That drives folks to use one provider over another. The lock in isn't the tech, but the availability of rides.

You're right that the lock in or network effect in the ride sharing space is very different than other big tech cos (FB, Netflix, AMZN etc) in that they're localized, and should result in more competition.

The bet investors are making is that the market will shake out with one category leader, a runner up and virtually no competition beyond that. Should be interesting to watch.