Wow, I wonder how do they manage to cover the expenses of running a tech startup? We know that software business is capital and intellectual property heavy. How do these people do it?
Software runs on hardware, and it's not cheap.
The only thing expensive about software development is labor cost. Hardware is ridiculously cheap compared to any other profession.
Cheap is not an absolute term. I agree with another comment here, it's absurdly cheap compared to almost anything else.
That's probably less than the cost of setting up one restaurant.
Now that driver and rider expectations around the service have solidified somewhat the backend systems can be simpler too.
There are many benefits to being a fast follower.
In fact, this is how Hailo (an Uber like service headquartered in the UK) used to work, until they were driven out of business by VC backed competitors.