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  • Hacker News
  • lucky you!
    by oriettaxx
  • why they do that
    by swimminglala88
  • Read the article to find out.
    by mvdtnz
  • In developing countries, the taxi market is largely unregulated and Uber faces actual competition. Uber cannot compete on price in these regions.
    by tristanj
  • has Uber had a positive ROI on the billions invested in it? I am pretty sure the return on the preferred price from the late rounds 10 years ago is basically zero. Net income has always been negative or close to zero. From a consumer perspective, in late stage cities, uber rides are the same or more expensive than old taxis, and the quality of vehicles is lower. what was it all worth?
    by 33MHz-i486
  • net income was 80 billion in the last 2 years alone, what are you talking about?
    by aeyes
  • https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uCMu9MoRwCo

    This reminds me of this bit on a podcast where a tidbit of learned information so blatantly contradicts basic logic.

    There's always an explanation, in this case, the tidbit was that "dull knives are more dangerous", because you apply more force when cutting vegetables and can end up hurting yourself, but it's laughably wrong when applied to weapons.

    In the case of the tidbit of "uber actually loses money" that might have been relevant in the first years, there's this phenomenon where companies operate at a loss for some time (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_dumping) in order to accumulate market share (i.e a monopoly) and then they increase prices in order to recoup their investment and make profits.

    So you read somewhere that "uber actually loses money" and this was from presumably a trusted source, but you failed to account the date of the knowledge, when Uber was somewhat smaller and their margins were smaller, and you read it assuming it applies to the present, so you somehow thought that one of the biggest tech companies in the world, that charges around 30% per trip, and has almost no marginal costs, would operate at a loss.

    So I don't want to be offensive, but it's so wrong that it has a comedic quality.

    by TZubiri
  • at $156B market cap someone sure is making money.

    I've no say in the manner in which they ran/run their business but judging a mega-corporation on lemonade-stand level accounting is a fool's errand.

    by apsurd
  • Driving for Uber in Lagos I suspect has to be very challenging
    by hduto
  • It feels like people are comparing Uber the brand in their own country and applying that to other countries

    * People assume that Uber is a big brand in Nigeria and Uganda, this might not be true

    * People assume that Uber is popular in these countries, this might also not be true

    by tabs_or_spaces
  • Wonder how much this was influenced by both drivers and riders gaming the system.

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IYaBPIwope0

    by ompogUe
  • US SOCOM also just pulled out of Nigeria.

    The rumor is that this is becoming politically sensitive, so the US DoW is turning things over to none other than Erik Prince (Blackwater, Xe, etc).

    Nigeria is an important source of minerals, for example: lithium.

    Africa is being hotly contested right now between ISIS, the US / West, China, and state-local political factions.

    by esseph
  • > US DoW

    To be clear, it is the DoD - Department of Defense

    by myko
  • For lithium, isn’t South America and other parts of the world a better deal due to having the largest reserves and being more politically stable?
    by Izikiel43
  • Followup:

    The PMCs that Erik Prince has are primarily doing oilfield and oil worker protection in places like Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Same for mining facilities.

    https://www.upstreamonline.com/exclusive/blackwater-founder-...

    https://www.theafricareport.com/381915/erik-prince-returns-t...

    by esseph
  • In Nigeria: Lithium totally irrelevant compared to oil. I think people have this really weird idea that lithium is to electric cars as oil is to regular cars, but it’s literally like a factor of 50 less.
    by Robotbeat
  • Uber was never really in Nigeria much, despite apparently being here a long time. I use ride-hailing a lot, and I've never used it because it is not available in my state, or in most states, for that matter.
    by melodyogonna
  • I read that in Nigeria (may misremember), the fares set by uber were too low (possibly it was a long-tail country with some incorrect exchange rates), so the drivers and riders had a custom of agreeing to different fees, I believe it came to the point where drivers would share an image or a copypasta with the actual rates and would ask the passenger to accept before picking them up.
    by TZubiri
  • Bolt (the CEE ridesharing app) is the primary player in Nigeria. In Uganda it's primarily a bunch of local startups.
    by alephnerd
  • Lovely. That's tech creating good jobs. I hope Uber leave my country too.
    by brazukadev
  • Makes sense, Uber's 30-50% cut is far too much. How can they compete with inDrive which only takes 10%. And on inDrive you set your own fare.

    Rides are 20-40% cheaper elsewhere, why would anyone pay extra for Uber?

    by tristanj
  • 30% is fair. Don’t like it start a cab company
    by 486sx33
  • Can't speak for InDrive's safety rating, but I would pay 30-50% more for Uber's safety tech (on a $5 ride) than a company with less funding.

    (I'm ex-Grab).

    by itake
  • Insurance goes up. Who knows how much liability they need to cover transportation. They likely deal with claims of being kidnapped or held hostage by driver on a regular basis.
    by itsamario
  • Man in some of the shitty countries I've had the misfortune of living in, taxi drivers were outright predatory and sometimes downright hostile. Uber was a godsend in such environments.
    by Razengan
  • People like the knowledge that they are not being ripped off by the person they are interacting with. On Uber you are essentially guaranteed that you are paying the absolute max that you would accept algorithmically, and the driver is getting the absolute least they would accept to drive for. If the balance shifts in any way, someone is ripping off the person they will interact with.

    Since the customer knows less about how much things should cost, they are more likely to be ripped off. People pay a 30% premium to ensure that they dont feel ripped off alone.

    by augment_me
  • One anecdote for a datapoint: Not sure if it's better now but I've lost a phone in an InDrive and I've lost an expensive bag in an Uber and it was significantly easier and less sketchy to get the bag back. I'm not a price sensitive rider so the insurance of a reputable 'comfort' tier Uber driver paid off. The InDrive driver made me get another ride to him then demanded $1000mxn (~$55usd) to return my phone. The Uber app had me pay ~$250mxn if I remember correctly and the driver promptly returned the bag.
    by blovescoffee
  • I would pay extra because I don't want the cognitive load of haggling on the cost. When I want/need A ride, it's because I'm either overloaded, away from home, or drunk. These are three times that I didn't want to bother with any more nonsense.
    by Loughla
  • According to some people on X, they shut down immediately, while rides were still active. Sounds like an unplanned (and quite crazy) action.

    https://x.com/gergelyorosz/status/2095256757178188113

    by jhogervorst
  • This is hilarious. They are legally kidnappers at this point. No reason to even stop the ride and let you get out for free.
    by 1970-01-01