Has anyone ever read the Sherman Anti-Competition Act?
John D. Rockefeller would be smiling because he would be quick to recognize a winning display of anti-competitive market behavior by Uber. The founder of Standard Oil built his monopoly by exploiting size to leverage discounted access to railroad transport. Such economies supported price cuts his competitors couldn’t match. Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber, is employing a slightly different strategy; Uber is straightforwardly leveraging its access to seemingly unlimited venture capital to break economic rules. Sitting on $1.2 billion in cash, Uber can lose money on every single ride for a long, long time. In some markets, Uber is even paying drivers a bonus to make up for what they are losing in price cuts (though that does not seem to be the case in New York).
Kalanick hasn’t minced words about his antipathy to the existing taxi industry, but Uber is also quite obviously focused on its tech start-up competition. With bigger pockets than the likes of Lyft or Hailo or Sidecar, it’s within reason to believe that Uber could triumph over all.
posted from Bloggeroid
Comments
Post a Comment