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Comment by drewmate | Hacker News Reader

I don't see how a scooter rental like this can be anything but a race to the bottom. I have used competitors' services (though never Bird) and they work just fine. There's no network effect with a fleet of drivers like Uber/Lyft. I'll happily use the app of whichever scooter is cheap and right in front of me.

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Not only is there no network effect, but capital cost and cost of market entry is very low. Unless Bird's ultimate goal is to block competitors by lobbying cities or licensing to cities like some bike sharing companies do limiting competition, which is entirely possible.

In many ways, it seems very similar to the taxi industry, which only seems to be as profitable as it is (in addition to safe and reliable) thanks to regulation and a sanctioned geographic monopoly. Somehow I doubt such a monopoly will be granted to a single corporation like Bird, though perhaps there is another path to viability.

What if you don’t already have their app. Then there is friction. I am about 20 feet away from a Bird scooter but under the present circumstances I’m not interested in creating an account, etc.

I'm guessing you're not really in the target market of scooter users then. Getting the app and creating the account (for any of these companies) is very straightforward. You should give it a try, if for no reason then to satisfy your curiosity for a couple bucks.

Well, if (when?) uber/lyft enter the market, you probably already have their apps, so this is a non-issue.

For others, I think if you have competent product people, you'd limit registration to a phone number and offer apple/android pay. With iOS 12, for example, it would be so seamless since it can auto-fill confirmation codes. So all you'd have to do is put in your phone number and you're logged into a new account.

Better yet just make the scooters tap to pay on device.

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