I forget where I read it, but some article described Uber's business model as "sell a dollar for 80 cents". You get a LOT of customers that way, and report huge growth, which brings in investors, and everything is great - until the pyramid scheme collapses.
After a "collapse" you are still left with mindshare and a market. If you increase prices by 30% you'll still be the largest player. Maybe later investors are not making returns but you are not going bankrupt.
The thing is, if you have lots of takers for dollars for 80 cents, that doesn't tell you very much about how many takers you'll have for dollars for $1.04.
If you charge too much for food delivery, you won't have very many customers. How much is too much, and does it leave you a profit is the big question.
maybe they can make it work, but probably not in a lot of markets.
In my experience as demand has increased due to the pandemic, prices are reaching the point where I'm not willing to pay them, and I make good money like most people on this site.
If that's any indication of what's to come when they need to stop bleeding cash... not looking great.
I agree for the mindshare, in some cases at least. Pets.com is still in the minds of many of us. And we will still remember MoviePass in 20 years. But, hey, WeWork still exists!
