How much of that benefit is purely short-term though? In a hypothetical world where Uber and Lyft's current pathway to profitability never pans out, what are the ramifications. The most obvious one is that their fares will increase by 25-50% depending on the market, pricing them well above the legacy taxi services that existed before the arrival of these VC-backed companies. The second most obvious ramification is that many of those legacy taxi services have been run entirely out of business in smaller markets. My home county of 1m+ people is now down to 1 shady taxi service with a handful of ancient, beat up Crown Vics (last produced in 2011) and they only hang on due to the incredibly low standards for taxi regulation in our region. If Uber and Lyft fail or become far less useful due to cost increases, there are significant barriers to entry for a new, clean, and professional taxi service to enter the market as they don't get to play by VC rules and have to start a highly capital intensive (for a small business) operation by conventional rules while only being able to attract a customer base entirely through conventional means of marketing, and all at a very small cost advantage versus the ride sharing giants.