This can briefly happen, but until VCs run out of money we’ll get competitors about as soon as the enshittification starts. Well, at least in theory, regulatory caprure is a thing, so it doesn’t always work out.

This also doesn’t work when there’s network effects at play. I believe this is why Grab (Southeast Asian Uber/UberEats) is adding social features like a whole fucking messenger into the app. Didn’t help: Bolt has launched there as well and is often cheaper and faster so I usually check both.

(Now, Grab is publicly traded, and maybe it’s profitable, which would undermine my whole argument. But I’m still getting cheap transportation and discounted food. Maybe they externalize the costs somewhere else which indeed also sucks.)