Hacker News Reader

Comment by s17n | Hacker News Reader

I agree that the economics of scooter sharing are probably fucked but your last argument is like saying "look at cab companies, they're small mom and pop shops, this Uber thing will never take off"

View on HN

Cab companies weren't mom and pop shops, though (at least not in the sense you're getting at). In fact, obtaining a medallion was a substantial investment ($1M+ in some cases[1]). It's not particularly difficult to make the argument that scooters are a niche market at best.

[1] http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/files/2011/10/1021-met...

That's in New York. In most areas, cabs were relatively marginal, little used services. Uber didn't take their market, it created a whole new market.

The rest of the country ain’t New York City.

No, I don’t mean to say that at all. The beauty of Uber is that it stitches together multiple markets on both the supply side of the marketplace and the demand side. For both small, medium, and large distances, riders know they will have a car and drivers know they will have a fare.

Bird investors failed to consider that this isn’t true for scooters. Each catchment area is isolated from the next.

Yes, I agree with your argument here. But comparing Bird to mom and pop bike rentals is wrong for the same reason that comparing Uber to traditional taxi companies (or comparing Cragslist to traditional classifieds, etc) is wrong.

Is Uber making money yet?

In major metros, yes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com