Launch your product, or don't. But I'm not clamoring for an "invite".
When it's actually for-real, then it's easy to compare the price/service ratio.
Marketing critique aside if the idea has legs, people may be interested (perhaps with a better message). That's my takeaway. Practically, at the right price, I might use a service like that.
1. Don't have to drive 2. I can be somewhat assured of quality (and not have to rent a limo & driver for myself).
For lyft, on the other hand... not so sure.
Don't woo me with "the orangest chairs in America" and film it in black and white.
Generally, I look at language like this as how they want to position the product in the marketplace; I think there is still some value in knowing this, although you cannot trust it until they offer something more tangible.
Also, "affordable" is a weasel word. "Most affordable" may not mean "lowest price."
I've always viewed Lyft as Uber X with a pink furry mustache. What exactly have they "reinvented" before this announcement that wasn't already "reinvented" by Uber before them?
Lyft started at the bottom and now goes up.
My biggest problem with all of these services is that there aren't enough drivers (at least in Boston), and I can rarely actually find one on any service when I need it. And it seems a large % of the drivers are actually chilling at home, waiting for a ride (which is fine), but sometimes don't "move" on the map for 10-15 minutes from the time they accept the ride. It will appear they are a 5 minute drive away, but that becomes a much longer wait.
The actual paid portion of the ride doesn't start until you enter the vehicle and the driver taps the Start Trip button.
You can also verify the entire trip later on your receipt. It shows the entire trip on a map, plus the start and end times, so you can verify that it matches your expectations.
(Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)
And yes, I do feel sometimes there are less drivers, but I just open those apps in order : Summon, then UberX, then Lyft.
I also talked a lot to the drivers (of all companies), and it seems like Uber drivers are really treated like shit, which is mainly why I switched to competitors.
By getting into the game of managing a fleet of vehicles, I imagine their margins will look more like a cab company's and less like a software company's.
It's as curious as if Airbnb started buying up hotels and their associated inventory risk.
Lyft won't actually own the new luxury rides, which were
designed specifically for the company by West Coast
Customs. Instead, individual Lyft drivers are buying the
vehicles with some financial assistance from the company,
according to a spokesperson.
The move means Lyft won't have to deal with issues like
car maintenance or storage, and also maintains the peer-
to-peer element that has propelled the company. The costs
of the cars, and the total assistance offered by Lyft,
isn't being disclosed.
I'm fascinated by how logistics work, so I was asking my Uber driver a bunch of questions. He explained the above to me and said he was referred over to one of these companies because he didn't (or couldn't) buy his own car at the time.
It's small-batch, handmade in the nice part of the Mission with carefully-sourced beans. Basically as San Francisco as it gets.
Seems like the cost would add up, but I guess they hope most riders won't partake.
Actually, charging for concessions (conveniently via the app) might be a very interesting business model. At the very least it might allow them to subsidize their base price, which is super-important given the price war with Uber that's going on right now.
http://www.dandelionchocolate.com/store/products/mantuano-ve...
I don't have a Facebook account. I wanted to try/use this service in SF but was disappointed when it required me to sign into Facebook.
Economics went out the window as it was all about customer acquisition and beating and coming up with better deals for customers. Ultimately, the only person who made money from our ridiculousness were bike messengers and other service providers (real estate brokers)
A lot of what I'm seeing with Uber & Lyft reminds me of that time. Some of my observations on it here - http://4044walnut.com/uber-verus-lyft-kozmo-urbanfetch/
Looks like they are selling the cars to the drivers. It's like NYC's medallion program, but weirder.
Almost all of Lyfts customers have only ever interacted with Lyft via mobile.
Youtube link if you feel so inclined: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVPy-2tqIn4
From: http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/8/5694720/lyft-goes-after-ube...
"[Lyft is] purchasing the vehicles and having them outfitted, but then drivers have the opportunity to buy them and drive in them. The first crop of drivers given the chance to buy into that are some of the oldest and most active, Lyft says; how much they'll pay for that privilege, the company won't say."
The big thing is that this Ford Explorer is probably not a lot more expensive than a Prius is. Priuses tend to cost about $30,000 all in. Ford Explorers start at $30,000. Assume $10,000 in after-market add-ons, but then assume that Lyft negotiates your base price down to $25,000 because they're buying a bunch of them, you're only an additional $5,000 in the hole compared to a Prius. Gas is twice what a Prius owner pays.
And they're charging twice what Lyft ordinarily costs.
So, basically, if they can deliver the same number of rides, your gross is twice as high, your costs are something on the order of twice as high or actually a bit less than that, means that your take-home pay is probably about 150% what a normal Lyft driver makes.
Again, the big if here is whether you are in fact getting the same volume of rides that the downmarket offering is. And the question there is how much supply Lyft wants to put on the road. Are they willing to have more failed rides in order to support their drivers' incomes? Is the demand for a Lyft premium option there at all? Alternately, is the demand really high and you're going to be surging (yeah, yeah: "prime time tipping") more often and making a higher gross? Nobody knows right now.
Disclaimer: I work for Flywheel, a Lyft competitor.
Hopefully this is useful to marketing/awareness people at either Uber or Lyft ... I can't be the only one that has this completely wrong in their head.
Don't think your mix-up is too common. =P