jiqiren

This whole argument doesn't work when you consider AirBNB. AirBNB is thriving in Japan with the same Uber playbook.

The real reason for Uber's failure is public transit and taxis in Japan are amazing (and for a decent price).

Objective-C user checking in: yes.

This is solved with mosh: https://mosh.mit.edu

Uses UDP/protobuffs so network connection can be lost/changed/etc.

Use WhatsApp. At least they only have metadata and not the content of all your messages.

Perhaps a student saw an opportunity to get a quick $20,000 discount on their tuition?

Wouldn't mind seeing Google/Facebook struggle a bit. I think once things start falling apart they will each take swift action of cutting off 3rd party ad markets to be one-stop-shops for legitimate ads. Might be too late by then.

Missing E2E encryption is deal breaker for me. But I'm likely a minority demanding that feature.

I guess no backup strategy means no other option but to pay. Likely goes hand in hand with weak or missing security strategy.