Uber's bought one of the taxi apps in Hong Kong, after basically screwing the taxi business with illegal operation for years - Uber still operates its regular ridesharing here with impunity (hard to believe how bold and brazen it is, and how useless the authorities have been in preventing illegal rides), but at least the taxi apop gives some of its rides legality/insurance.
I'd be interested to see how this works out. Where I'm from (Ireland) our taxi laws are strict enough that Uber can't operate outside of them, so Uber here only allows you to hail a taxi, and for this reason it hasn't really taken off (we have local solutions like FreeNow that were designed for taxis from the start, so everyone just uses those).
In the UK Uber has already integrated the traditional London black cabs with its service and I've noticed that the cabs are usually cheaper or equivalent fare to a regular Uber. In which case - why would I choose to ride with a random person in their own car, when I could get a taxi with proper licensing and car maintenance standards and so on?
Spot on. Just tweeted a chart to you BTW. I am SO glad you are back to ... err.... share Oversharing with us!
Uber's bought one of the taxi apps in Hong Kong, after basically screwing the taxi business with illegal operation for years - Uber still operates its regular ridesharing here with impunity (hard to believe how bold and brazen it is, and how useless the authorities have been in preventing illegal rides), but at least the taxi apop gives some of its rides legality/insurance.
I'd be interested to see how this works out. Where I'm from (Ireland) our taxi laws are strict enough that Uber can't operate outside of them, so Uber here only allows you to hail a taxi, and for this reason it hasn't really taken off (we have local solutions like FreeNow that were designed for taxis from the start, so everyone just uses those).
In the UK Uber has already integrated the traditional London black cabs with its service and I've noticed that the cabs are usually cheaper or equivalent fare to a regular Uber. In which case - why would I choose to ride with a random person in their own car, when I could get a taxi with proper licensing and car maintenance standards and so on?
I’d probably suggest this is the Uber 3.0 we were likely expecting under Dara and his approach to becoming a utility travel app.
This tactic is a way to provide options but become the utility and default for quick a to b travel.
Why not partner or offer a marketplace where all transport is an option.
Rather this than allow a google, Apple (Enter amazon) or equivalent to bite into your usage with their evolving app offerings