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Comment by Night_Thastus | Hacker News Reader

The demand for rideshare apps is enormous. It's the only thing keeping investors interested.

But there's no way to make them profitable as it stands.

Depends on the market. I have heard from someone who I trust deeply and knows the financials well (worked there) that Uber is profitable in certain markets.

It’s very possible that they have to pull out of a lot of places, but I think the model can work in the right places

Of course there is, once the investor subsidies go away they won’t have to compete on price so much, and prices will go up.

All of the services that rideshare apps offer were highly demanded before the apps existed, and they were all delivered at more expensive prices with perfectly decent profit margins.

If VC money stops funding these products, then the prices have to go up to something similar to “traditional” prices for those services, but consumers will still choose to use the apps, because the service they provide will still be substantially better than the traditional service.

Traditional services have gotten way better — in that, they got an app. Teo went from an obscure local taxi service to a great local taxi service, and now undercuts uber because they don’t have an insane advertising burn to subsidize.

Part of the value prop of the big rideshare apps is that you can use them basically anywhere in the world (you probably need to have 3 or 4 of them to get most of the world covered). Nobody wants to land at the airport in Toronto, figure out what the local taxi app is, download it and get yourself onboarded, and then order a cab. People just want to step out of the airport and order an Uber.

Uber Rides are profitable and subsidizing Uber Eats growth. Any take that "Uber will cease to exist" is farcical.

> subsidizing Uber Eats growth

Ah, growth, of course. Sure, they lose money on each delivery, but they’ll make it up in volume!

This is the exact same thing people, probably you included, said about Uber Rides, and they’re still saying it. It was incorrect

With all the fees that Uber tacks onto Uber Eats, I'm absolutely baffled that they could possibly be losing money on that service. That's just... insane.

Would also add that the average e-bike-based delivery person is likely happy to accept much less per mile and time-pay.

(They’re all over in Toronto)

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