http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-rivals-form-international-alliance-1442429031
The article that I chose was “Uber Rivals Form
International Alliance,” by Douglas Macmillian and Rick Carew. This article
talks about how companies who oppose Uber are trying to form an alliance to
gain ground against Uber. Since Uber has been acting like a monopoly, many taxi
service companies have been getting hurt badly. The companies that have made a
deal or somewhat a merger are the U.S Company Lyft Inc. and the Chinese company
Didi Kuaidi Joint Co. They agreed that a user of both apps could get rides in
the other country and not have to use foreign currency. An example of this
would be a Chinese citizen going to the U.S on business could use his Didi
Kuaidi Joint app to hail a ride from the Lyft app and still pay in Chinese
currency. Didi also invested 100 million dollars in Lyft, which is a large
contribution. These companies are doing whatever they can to slow down Uber,
and they are even trying to expand their alliance with other car service
companies. Uber will be very hard to battle with because of its growth and
power. Uber is in over 60 countries, and has raised 8 billion dollars in equity
and debt financing. This is more than any other company. Both Lyft and Didi are
trying to find as many investors as possible in order to compete with Uber. An
example of a investor that Didi has obtained is Alibaba. Personally, I believe these companies will not be able to compete with Uber.
7 comments:
I think Uber new is facing suck a big problem is because recently Uber is too aggressive. Uber expanded to so many countries that local businesses from the world are very unhappy of that. It seems that a new “world war” which fights for the taxi market will start soon, and this “war” may change taxi business in the future.
This will be interesting to watch. I personally feel this alliance will not be successful if they cannot come up with something more spectacular. The idea of using the same currency is indeed great but I think both Lyft and Didi need to think of pulling the Uber customers their way, perhaps with special deals and discounts in addition to the currency feature. Otherwise I just feel Uber's fame and popularity will be too big to be brought down by them.
I agree that it will certainly be difficult to compete with Uber, as they pretty much have monopolized the industry. However, the idea of allowing either country's currency to be used will make the partnership of these companies more accessible and easy to customers on an international basis. I also agree that the two companies should continue to increase their R&D, in order to come up with a number of things that Uber cannot do by itself or has not thought of yet. Although the Uber takeover is ideally viable for other taxi companies, Uber's recent popularity and success may be too substantial to allow for a serious competitor.
I agree that it will certainly be difficult to compete with Uber, as they pretty much have monopolized the industry. However, the idea of allowing either country's currency to be used will make the partnership of these companies more accessible and easy to customers on an international basis. I also agree that the two companies should continue to increase their R&D, in order to come up with a number of things that Uber cannot do by itself or has not thought of yet. Although the Uber takeover is ideally viable for other taxi companies, Uber's recent popularity and success may be too substantial to allow for a serious competitor.
I agree with Sophia that it is certainly going to be difficult to compete with a company like Uber who has almost 100% of the market share in the global economy. And while the interchangeable currency feature is definitely an advantage for the two companies, I feel that they need to increase spending in their R&D department to diversify themselves even more and add more currencies to the mix. Uber has created a monopoly in which the barriers to entry are far above the norm and for someone to be able to penetrate the market, their product needs to be not only more efficient, but overall, better for the consumer.
Many governments are unhappy with Uber because its takes business away from local taxis, so I think that there will many more companies that try to oppose uber. Government's might even start subsidizing taxi businesses to compete with Uber. If Uber keeps operating as it does now, it will monopolize the market. I think the idea of customers being able to use different currencies is smart. What companies need to do is differentiate and offer a service more valuable to consumers than uber.
I agree with the above comments in favor or the fact that Uber has monopolized the car transportation industry. The brand carries such customer loyalty that it is tough for competitors to enter the market. Yes Lyft has made a proactive decision in their recent team up, but is it too late? It will also be interesting to see if the deal between Hilton hotels and Uber is successful. The deal where Hilton contracts Uber at their hotel would certainly be a lucrative deal for Uber as well as increase their control of the industry
Post a Comment