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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

Ironically, the driving force behind Uber's popularity is its centralization and uniformity. Uber replaces the hodge-podge of thousands of different taxi operators with a single company that offers a single app with a single billing system everywhere in the country, while holding drivers to strict vehicle and service standards.

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Among other things, taxis in the US are generally regulated at the municipal level, which is fine enough if you're in NYC, but somewhere like the Bay Area where there are dozens of small cities with crazy borders, you have to remember that Mountain View taxis are different from Sunnyvale taxis, which are different from San Mateo taxis or San Francisco taxis, and only San Francisco taxis are allowed to pick you up at the airport, but any town's taxis can take you there, so when you're going from the airport to somewhere that's not SF, you pay different rates and use a different company than when you're going to the airport. Uber abstracts all that away behind a nice API, which is the same not just for every Bay Area city, but for every city in the US, and many cities around the world too.

I don't know if that's the reason for uber's popularity. I think it, along with other ridesharing sites, are just another option in addition to taxi, car rentals and public transportation.

I wouldn't discount OP's comment at all. It's the main reason I use Uber. I couldn't care less about it's service vs. taxi's, or ridesharing, or most other things. The things I like about it are:

1) I have a single app that I can request a car in mere seconds in just about every major city

2) Payments are handled automatically

That's it. And #2 is an added bonus. #1 is the killer feature for me. I don't have to stand around trying to hail a cab, nor do I have look up a cab company's number to call a car and hope they have one available within a reasonable timeframe.

I'm not discounting it; just treating it as conjecture.

I myself think it's important to look around at different options when looking for transportation and lodging.

This is a little like "conjecturing" about the reason people liked iPods more than CD Walkmen. Even in places with very good cab service (NYC and Chicago), cabs are a fucking pain to work with, and Uber is incredibly simple to work with.

It's more like conjecturing about the reason people go to IHOP over a fancy restaurant.

I'm sure people's reasons are more complex and vary from time to time.

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