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Comment by jfoster | Hacker News Reader

Lyft barely exists outside of the US. Uber is still on top if you take a global view.

Lyft have a deal with Grab here in Southeast Asia. As I understand I can use Grab to book Lyfts in areas where Lyft operates and Grab doesn't (and vice versa).

Not (always) vice versa. In Ho Chi Minh, where Grab operates, I was not able to book using Lyft and had to install/setup Grab.

As a guy from India, what is Grab?

Ola from South East Asia

OK, but that is more of a convenience for American tourists who may not have a local phone number to sign up for Grab than an actual service. People that live outside the US are not going to have the Lyft app in the first place.

Not anymore.

http://mashable.com/2017/03/22/didi-chuxing-lyft-roaming-dea...

As I understand it Uber's profits from the US market (and VC money) is funding the global expansion. If Uber lose their dominant position in the US we should expect their plans in the rest of the world to stop quite quickly; they won't be able to afford them.

Is Uber making profits in the US market?

> and VC money

Yeah, this is pretty key. If Uber's dominant position in the US is slipping but there's still a clear way for them to emerge on top globally and cash is the limiting concern, it seems likely they'll be able to continue subsidizing international expansion with more VC money.

Unless this VC money goes to pay for trial expenses against google.

I think they should settle. Uber should give waymo whatever they asked for (which likely isn't money).

I think Waymo doesn't want to have Uber as a competitor. They want to shut them out of the market. A market that Uber needs to have a future.

Like the other reply said, Lyft's strategy is partnerships with local companies.

Yes but other services hurt uber in other markets (didi?).

Didn't Uber get a significant chunk of Didi stock when it agreed to exit china? I have no idea how uber is doing overall abroad but china didn't appear to be a total wash for them at least.

Uber received a 17.5% stake in Didi as part of the deal [1], which is worth ~8.75B given their most recent raise at a ~50B valuation [2].

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-28/china-s-d...

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/didi-chinas-uber-raises-5-5-bil...

Not that bad of an outcome really. I think Uber blew about $1 billion chasing after China.

Certainly nothing in London yet.

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