<story><title>Uber Drivers “Strike” and Switch to Lyft Over Fares and Conditions</title><url>http://www.buzzfeed.com/johanabhuiyan/uber-drivers-are-protesting?s=mobile</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yumraj</author><text>This.&lt;p&gt;Basically while there are network effects in the sense that any provider (Uber, Lyft etc.) will need to have some critical mass before there are enough drivers and enough riders, both can subscribe to multiple providers and there is no long-term stickiness at the moment.&lt;p&gt;In other words, this is not a winner take all market with FB&amp;#x2F;LinkedIn&amp;#x2F;Twitter type network stickiness and the overall market is still fair game. The driver&amp;#x27;s rating is the only sticky data, and it is unclear in this context as to how valuable that is as riders are not going to wait an extra 30mins to get a 5-star driver vs. a 4-star driver.&lt;p&gt;This should not come as a surprise to anyone since right now most metros have multiple competing taxi service providers, so it makes sense that that may be replaced by a similar multiple mobile-app taxi providers.&lt;p&gt;Also, it is difficult to re-paint your taxi when you move from one traditional provider to another, in the Uber&amp;#x2F;Lyft&amp;#x2F;etc. world, that is no longer required, so provider switching or aligning with multiple providers is trivial which will imply that in future the providers&amp;#x27; margins will be squeezed out and riders and drivers will keep the most benefit.</text></item><item><author>jefflinwood</author><text>The really interesting story here is that if drivers are so willing to switch networks for better opportunities, there isn&amp;#x27;t a compelling reason for Uber to have the valuation that they do.&lt;p&gt;The value of Uber isn&amp;#x27;t really in the tech or the app - it&amp;#x27;s in the networks of riders and drivers in each city. If each of those can be aggregated into some other kind of service, where Uber, Lyft, etc. are just providers of payment processing, and possibly some operations expertise, that middleman network will capture all of the value.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tootie</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t see how there&amp;#x27;s any network effect to be had. Consider food delivery. I use both seamless and delivery.com. Seamless is a little better and has a wider network of restaurants. But I have 0 lockin and will frequently switch to delivery.com for any exclusive restaurants they have. I have an account on grubhub too although I use it rarely. There&amp;#x27;s nothing tying to me to any of them. No friend list, no thousands of photos. Just my recent orders which are of limited value. Taxi service is the same. The second that Lyft has lower rates or a close car, everyone will switch in a second. Or flock to option 3 the second it has any advantage.</text></comment>
<story><title>Uber Drivers “Strike” and Switch to Lyft Over Fares and Conditions</title><url>http://www.buzzfeed.com/johanabhuiyan/uber-drivers-are-protesting?s=mobile</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yumraj</author><text>This.&lt;p&gt;Basically while there are network effects in the sense that any provider (Uber, Lyft etc.) will need to have some critical mass before there are enough drivers and enough riders, both can subscribe to multiple providers and there is no long-term stickiness at the moment.&lt;p&gt;In other words, this is not a winner take all market with FB&amp;#x2F;LinkedIn&amp;#x2F;Twitter type network stickiness and the overall market is still fair game. The driver&amp;#x27;s rating is the only sticky data, and it is unclear in this context as to how valuable that is as riders are not going to wait an extra 30mins to get a 5-star driver vs. a 4-star driver.&lt;p&gt;This should not come as a surprise to anyone since right now most metros have multiple competing taxi service providers, so it makes sense that that may be replaced by a similar multiple mobile-app taxi providers.&lt;p&gt;Also, it is difficult to re-paint your taxi when you move from one traditional provider to another, in the Uber&amp;#x2F;Lyft&amp;#x2F;etc. world, that is no longer required, so provider switching or aligning with multiple providers is trivial which will imply that in future the providers&amp;#x27; margins will be squeezed out and riders and drivers will keep the most benefit.</text></item><item><author>jefflinwood</author><text>The really interesting story here is that if drivers are so willing to switch networks for better opportunities, there isn&amp;#x27;t a compelling reason for Uber to have the valuation that they do.&lt;p&gt;The value of Uber isn&amp;#x27;t really in the tech or the app - it&amp;#x27;s in the networks of riders and drivers in each city. If each of those can be aggregated into some other kind of service, where Uber, Lyft, etc. are just providers of payment processing, and possibly some operations expertise, that middleman network will capture all of the value.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>How would you say self-driving vehicles fit into this? Supposedly they&amp;#x27;re rolling out in ~3-5 years, and with self-driving vehicles, you no longer need the middle man managing a fleet of contractors.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I&amp;#x27;m willing to me a Long Bet [1] with anyone regarding fully autonomous self driving vehicles in regular use in 6 years.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://longbets.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;longbets.org&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; ; &lt;a href=&quot;http://longbets.org/rules/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;longbets.org&amp;#x2F;rules&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>