Copying Uber at a small scale with a limited feature set is feasible, just like making a little boutique search engine to compete with Google is feasible. But where do you go from there? Seriously competing means you need to do better than them, and with Uber already have advantages of scale and brand, what's your angle?
As long as it's possible for a small group to compete with uber even on the margins, Uber will never have monopoly pricing power. Someone can always start a small company to take people to the airport, pick up executives, etc. Anecdotally, most serious travelers I know in NYC have reverted back to using car services to do airport trips, since it's a much more predictable experience than Uber.
As long as that's the case Uber will never reap the windfall profits that accrue to a monopoly. Which makes me seriously wonder why they would burn such remarkable amounts of money thinking they can establish one.
> Can someone explain this to me? What competitive edge does Uber have that would stop literally any well-funded company from entering their market as a competitor?