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This is interesting. Who is being gamed here?

How likely is it that someone at Lyft not only realized that users would take advantage of the $25 free rides, but was also smart enough to realize that some of those users would share their interesting stories, and generate free publicity for Lyft?

(99% likely, I guess)

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I think the problem is that with this much demand if a few people do this they will make it very hard for others to get a car - which will end up just annoying them about the Lyft experience. Lyft would prefer shorter rides that would be distributed around more people.

Now it's basically investors subsidizing a few long trips and pissing off other potential riders.

I wonder if they really thought through the consequences of this then? They got another $250 million in funding recently, so money isn't a problem. Probably the money prompted this program, in fact.

As you said, they could get things under control by forbidding back-to-back free rides in the same car, assuming the terms are flexible. That would be more in the spirit of the offer, and nobody could really complain about that.

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