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Comment by pcr0 | Hacker News Reader

Uber is active in 80+ countries and 600+ cities worldwide. That's a really big gap to fill.

Meh. Two years ago, Uber and Lyft threw a tantrum about being forced to play fair and left Austin. Several competitors sprung up and filled the gap within a matter of weeks.

It was a year ago and we've hardly missed them.

That's the funny thing about the gig economy. You're instantly replaced.

Rumor has it that there are other large corporations whose operations span the globe, and whose employees know the arcane formulae to command the performance of mighty forces that can summon chariots at will.

I know nothing of such worldly matters; I am but a humble priest of Eris.

Sure, the technology has a low barrier of entry but that ignores network effects (necessitating lots of cash burn) and the willpower to oppose entrenched interests such as governments and taxi groups.

Network effects are mostly local. You can be rideshare for a major city and the residents will use you even if it isn't worth it for others.

I heard Chariot got bought by Ford

That's 600+ cities where suddenly there's a huge incentive to fill it fast.

Do advocates of free markets as engines of creation and disruption really have so little faith?

Except the taxi industry in many cities is not a free market, my city in particular being #1 on both the world crony capitalist index and the world economic freedom index (Hong Kong). Uber stuck their middle finger at our regulators in a way that no other company had dared to before, at the benefit of consumers.

Going forward, I don't think we'll ever see another taxi company with the balls and cash that Uber has (or had).

Then it should be hoped that locals will be inspired by Uber's example and launch a native version.

If we're going to put our faith in markets and free enterprise, then we need to believe that the market will find a way to deal with the gap of Uber. To do otherwise is to view the organization as indispensable, which is even worse than laissez-faire market worship; it's the objectivist veneration of a producer (vs. looters), and bowing to Uber's will because we think we cannot live if it shrugs.

There are plenty of other people in this world with balls and cash.

The drivers don't vanish into thin air if the mobile phone app dies

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