Aside from them spending money on boondoggle after boondoggle, these guys both still have no moat. They had to burn a ton of cash buying up competitors and there's absolutely nothing stopping a third player from entering and eating their lunches. The core premise of hailing taxis via GPS is very simple and very appealing. The could have run these as lean, low-margin businesses and earned a tidy profit forever, but instead they decided to play the valuation game.
It wasn’t about taxis, man, it was changing everything.
Listen to the old Ben Thompson podcasts from when Uber was taking over life itself. Private cars, self driving, blah blah blah. Why go to a restaurant when Uber can fly one to you?
