Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

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That's blatantly false. Companies like Uber, Lyft and Didi are dramatically harming the taxi business all over the world. They wouldn't have to expand that industry one dollar to be unicorns. Those new businesses are unicorn businesses built primarily - but not exclusively - by taking market share from taxis and similar services. When Uber first hit $1 billion in valuation, it wasn't expanding the market for taxi services, it was acting as a superior option for early adopters and stealing customers from taxi and black car services. Uber has decimated (prices are down 75%+ in a few years) the medallion market in NYC as one very loud example of the destruction it's causing to the taxi industry there as it takes market share. If it was primarily market expansion that Uber was using to create value, the taxi industry wouldn't be collapsing across the US.

Netflix used to be a unicorn at one time. It didn't primarily expand the rental market to become a unicorn, it rather rapidly destroyed Blockbuster and thousands of other rental stores by providing a better service. If it was primarily expanding that market, Blockbuster would still be around. Today it's not expanding total TV viewing time, it's proceeding to harm cable, tv networks, traditional tv programming, ESPN, HBO, etc etc.

Tesla - also once a unicorn - isn't expanding the automobile market. They've been directly taking sales from BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Lexus, Audi, etc. The success of the S sedan is coming out of the high end luxury car sales segment. Their 3 sedan will continue that process. That's why those other companies are so freaked out by Tesla's arrival and relative success. If Tesla were primarily expanding the market and not stealing market share, the competition wouldn't be reacting the way they are.

I can buy the argument that services like AirBnB and Uber are growing the market instead of soley stealing customers from other companies. I've only used Uber twice, but in both cases, my alternative was asking a friend for a ride (even though taxis were available). The low price of a Uber ride didn't entice me away from taking a traditional taxi, but instead it was low enough that I'd rather just pay it instead of asking someone else to go out of their way.

So much THIS.. while anecdotal, i've started paying for rides much more since Uber entered the market where i would probably have used public transportation if Uber wan't available. I'm not saying that Uber isn't hurting the Taxi business but they are surely also growing the market

+1 Uber is growing the market.

Just think for a second about countries and cities which did not have taxis.

That is genuinely a foreign thought to me.

Which countries and cities didn't have taxis before Uber?

All of France (ignoring Paris and the top 3 biggest airports & train stations).

In the 6 months I spent in Lyon (2nd city from France), I only saw a taxi once.

I've never been to France, but I'm not convinced.

I searched the internet for "taxis in France" and generally get the impression that "Rates in Paris are different from the rest of France. ... There are four main tariffs for taxis outside Paris."[1]

This[2] article claims a "nationwide protest against Uber", which would seem odd for, as you would have us believe, a nation without taxis.

1. http://www.expatfocus.com/expatriate-france-taxis 2. http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/25/8844649/french-taxi-driver...

I agree.

Uber et al may be harming the taxi business, but my friends and I only took taxis if we had to in our town because they were hard to find, and generally sucked. Now we Uber to go out because it is so convenient. Another friends car broke down and he just never replaced it. He didn't drive that much anyway, and Uber satisfied his need for a car. He would have never done that with the traditional, unreliable taxi in my town.

Uber has definitely expanded the number of people who take a driver service. I wonder if anyone has done any statistical studies around DUIs and Uber coming into a town.

There have been studies, but they have conflicting conclusions. Some claim there has been an impact and others claim otherwise.

A quick Google search will give you some examples.

Do you have a source for the claim that Tesla isn't expanding the high end car market? I thought a significant fraction of Tesla purchases were folks who normally buy non-luxury cars. Not all, of course.

and you think that disproves the point? an efficiency in a market can grow the market

so it is more applicable to simply assume it is "blatantly true" until you prove it isn't, as well as find all of the incumbents that were obliterated

I think adventured was responding to your statement "the simple fact is you can't build a unicorn business by taking market share from other businesses" when he said it was blatantly false, NOT that it's not also possible to expand the market. And I think there are plenty of examples of businesses that did become huge by decimating existing players that there is enough data to say you can become a unicorn just by stealing market share.

In AirBnB's case, the only way it can really grow the market is by providing an efficiency that didn't exist before, and in that respect it clearly has: apartments, houses or spare rooms that used to sit empty when the owner was away can now be put to use through AirBnB. That said, I think it's naive to look at AirBnB's cherry picked data and not think they are having some marketshare impact on hotels, especially on the budget side where AirBnB is clearly a substitute good (think Motel 6 vs AirBnb).

wasn't my parent comment

but in any case I am genuinely curious. I can see the conflict of getting data only from AirBnB.

But perhaps prices simply reached an equilibrium. For example, there was a time when I could count on AirBnB being MUCH cheaper than hotels. Now they are about the same in most areas I look in. I can also see some hotels having less variance in their prices during certain time periods.

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