I think focusing on apps alone misses the point. Startups like Uber or Peloton or Affirm are not just apps they all solve business problems like logistics, hardware, or access to financing. Yes they use software, but doesn't everybody?
Peloton hasn't really solved any social problem. The bike works just as well for burning calories as any other, what they managed to accomplish is sell people licenses for something they used to own at twice the price with a subscription on top and make them feel good about themselves instead of feeling like they're being robbed. That's the real innovation.
Uber hasn't solved any material transportation problem either. We're not suddenly able to 10x our urban transport capacity because of it. Probably the opposite, if anything it's induced congestion and draws resources from the modes of transport that actually solve those problems. The innovation here is that it's managed to do this while pretending not to be an employer.
I wholeheartedly agree the system wasn't great in many cities before Uber, but it's just a sleek version of what was obvious at the time--it just hadn't been built and the incentives weren't there.
I think you can look at bus/train systems as a comparison. In many cities you can download their app, set a destination, and it shows you what tickets you need to buy. You wave your phone to prove you bought your ticket. In many cities you can see the actual buses live on a map. Many bus stops show when the next bus arrives live. Uber was founded in 2009 and iPhone released in 2007. Google Maps was released in 2005, added traffic info in 2007, and Google Maps shipped with the first iPhone. It wasn't hard to see these pieces coming together--it just needed a lot of work, coordination, and a few generations of hardware and software improvements.
I do think they were the first and were innovative in a lot of aspects. I think their impact on the business of taxiing is way more "innovative" than the app and tech--but innovative doesn't necessarily mean "good" or a great use of resources.
As I said, if you had to regularly use cabs prior to ±2009, they were a nightmare. Uber is a massive improvement.
sadly uber has declined quite a bit since- but it was a good kick in the butt to the taxi industries to step up their game.
Or in San Francisco, the cab would ask you where you are going. And if you said Inner Sunset, not even Outer Sunset, they would just leave.
In NYC though, you just walk out of your building, stick your hand out, and the cab would be there.
It is 1000% better in most places.
I've travelled in Europe and had good service just googling the number of a local taxi firm, and speaking to them.
I used Uber once, and they decided not to take my fare; they never showed up.
Anecdotally, I have taken a trip from London to Heathrow airport 2 times, one time with a taxi cab and the other time with Uber. Uber cost two times less, and the service was on the same level or better.
This ironically shows how size matters a lot. Be it state investment or huge VC, more cash, more power and more centralization means better service (if the megamoney was spent well).
I agree that Uber's way of underpaying drivers is not scalable (basic mathematics) and price hikes should happen to make the numbers work out. However the service level now people expect is very much innovative.
What "real reason" is there for anything to "exist" and what do those terms mean? There's no real reason for corn in a can to exist, you have corn on the cob!
It's a subsidy whenever any product was developed based on parts of a project the people in a state created, because the state was paying them. Well, then I guess I exist because of state subsidies. The state reimburses and sets standards for medical procedures and I had open heart surgery at 2. Hell, is Steve Jobs' Apple the result of state subsidy because he formed a company that's state sponsored, when he should have struck out on his own to be a fingerpaint artist from his own materials and talent?
These arguments feel like ridiculously cherry picked characterizations that have no weight and contribute nothing.
Anything you do can be done better when multiple people can collaborate on it and get accurate instrumentation about it. And anything can be done cheaper when it can be automated, and that's what apps provide too.