Here’s a good long read on all the reasons Uber is going to fail. Everyone will have their reasons for enjoying it.
For me, I’m sick of hearing how Uber is a model for disruption of an industry, blah, blah, blah. As you can see in the piece, Uber is a set of tiny transfer payments from Silicon Valley VCs to every rider of the service. Passenger fares cover only 41 percent of the trip cost. The business model doesn’t scale: entering every market involves huge investment in driver recruitment and regulatory negotiation. Uber also isn’t “sticky” – most Uber drivers also drive for Lyft and could just as easily drive for a third or fourth competitor. The decision to do their own self-driving car research was also stupid (should have been buy not build, in my opinon), perhaps facilitated by technology stolen from Google, and tends to run red lights.
In addition to the financial stupidity, the fact that the company is run by a bunch of odious Randian bros who appear to tolerate a culture of misogony is yet another reason to dislike them. They have enough cash to stick around for years, but my guess is that the history of our current tech boom will start with the reasons why Uber was over-hyped.