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Comment by monkeyprojects | Hacker News Reader

That is a hell of a risky investment given the approach the Chinese competitors are using in China is to block Uber's access to the devices most people book rides on...

see https://pando.com/2015/08/24/wechat-blocks-uber-its-step-one...

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Uber may be the one company that is so ethically bankrupt that foreign copycats actually have the moral high ground. Hilarious that Emil guy still works there. And they're in bed with DoD now too? Bring on the Chinese clones ...

How are they 'ethically bankrupt'?

If you look at their wikipedia page, the section 'criticism' [1] lists a variety of issues. You'd expect criticism from incumbent taxi companies, and perhaps you also expect sketchy labor practices, and a few fatal accidents and rapes. But the problems also include user privacy issues, threats to journalists, and attempts to sabotage their competitors.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Uber_%28company%2...

Wait til they deploy their self driving cars and sell all that data to the relevant government.

They've done some moronic things, yes. But 'ethically bankrupt' is a big stretch. All in all, Uber has created 50bn of market value. They've done that by making drivers and riders lives better than it was before.

Saying "Is Uber morally bankrupt?" is just the same as saying "Is the Pope Catholic?" by now.

Rides of glory?

From the article you linked: "Back in March, WeChat banned Uber, a significant channel for how Uber communicates with customers."

The most that WeChat could do is (i) stop Uber from sending messages/promotions to people subscribed to Uber's WeChat account, and (ii) stop uber.com URLs from being displayed in the built-in browser.

Neither of these would affect customers' ability to (i) download the Uber app, (ii) book Uber rides.

According to [0], while Google Play seems to be usable in China, Chinese internet companies own the app store market. So that's another potential battleground maybe? Tencent and Baidu seem to be significant players there, Tencent being bigger but neither being the biggest.

[0] http://www.newzoo.com/free/rankings/top-10-android-app-store...

Apple's app store is still in its hands. And because of the fragmentation of the app store, people are more inclined to download app from the website of the maker instead of some "store" that injects "non-kosher" stuff in the app

I confirm we can not download the app through Google Play. It also does not work for my device (Android Nexus 5) in Shanghai due to the connectivity with Google Maps. It is a pain I must say, but most people find workaround.

Are you sure about the second point? I use Uber on a Nexus 5 and it works fine in Shanghai, without requiring VPN. IIRC Uber now uses Baidu maps in China.

Check out the list of investors.

>Investors in Uber's Chinese unit include Hillhouse Capital, Asia's biggest hedge fund, Chinese Internet giant Baidu Inc, China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd, China Life Insurance Co Ltd, Ping An Insurance Group Co of China among others, said one of the people.

I completely agree! Sounds like sufficient local power there to thwart any untoward action from the competition.

It seems that it will indeed allow to push things forward. Now to see what and who the concurrents have in their pockets.

This is a big setback, yes, but if Baidu can properly push Uber, the two together should be able to hold a significant part of the market. In the Baidu Maps app now, you can order an Uber- so that's already there. But yes, not having access to WeChat is indeed pretty tough.

In Baidu maps? Awesome, I will check it out. Do you know when it was added?

It's been at least a few months.

And not just them. In China you always need political support to succeed. I don't think they have spent the last 10 years making Guanxi there. And the current leadership is also not very pro America.

Even then, if the service is popular it'll be cloned by s national service and Uber will be removed.

I'm on the ground here in China. Uber's used their tactic of going head-on against government and regulation when they started out here, and it didn't work. I think they underestimated the speed and ferocity of local competitors, and didn't put enough emphasis on the political savvy needed to get popular and government support. They've recently made some well-connected hires and partnered with some powerful allies like their investors here, but they are now playing catchup. I'd also be concerned that their connections are of the mercenary type, and would be less likely to take up Uber's cause at the expense of heightened political risk, if it came down to it.

Edit: grammar

Yeah, political mismanagement can even end in your employees getting hit by Chinese gangsters, your company losing their rent contract and webserver without reasons etc. On the other side, if you have government backing your competitors are no problem because they experience these "accidents".

Isn't the larger risk a true p2p solution that cuts out the middlemen (Uber and its investors)?

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