Re: Rotten to the core
I wouldn't say it's totally fucked as a business model. If it manages to force the taxi companies paying taxes and properly employing their drivers out of business, then Uber becomes a total monopoly and can then jack prices up to take advantage of being a monopoly.
That's a crappy business model. Forcing taxi companies out of business by hemorrhaging vast sums of cash is pretty stupid and not sustainable. One might think that once they have a monopoly they could raise their fees but they have already slit their own throats. The only reason taxi companies had a monopoly was because of "the rules" and government limiting who could enter the market space by use of the ever precious medallions. Once that government repression is eliminated and the market is wide open and anyone with a car and an app can then enter the market and compete, like Lyft, there can be no monopoly. Monopolies really only thrive when they have government backing which is also why the phone company was a monopoly for such a long time.
Uber's main problem has been that it has been so Machiavellian in how it goes about trying to undercut laws and hinder competitors that it mostly forgot about what the original goal was. It went from providing a service to blindly adopting win at all costs tactics that are ultimately self destructive as we've witnessed in these first stages of collapse. At this point it really needs a hard reboot with a refreshed business plan and a lot of chlorine to sanitize the corporate culture. The question is whether they will succeed in turning it around before investors decide to cut their losses and likewise the flow of cash currently running into the furnace.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
