> Taxis existed before Uber; but it was the app (handling location, real-time updates, and seamless payment) that changed things.
I disagree - the game changer vs previous minicab offerings is the centralisation. Instead of ringing 4 companies and being given different waiting times by each etc, a single source tells me (initially, before the inevitable split into lyft et al) what the next available cab time is.
In the same way that early netflix felt like a game changer because I had loads of stuff in one place. A lot of the utility drains away as soon as competition appears again and you're back where you started.
In Brazil's delivery market what happened was first there was a company centralizing all delivery phones in a single phone number, but their web interface was very bad and there was no app. The company that went on to first centralize the whole thing using advanced user interfaces won, and eventually bought the first company.
I disagree - the game changer vs previous minicab offerings is the centralisation. Instead of ringing 4 companies and being given different waiting times by each etc, a single source tells me (initially, before the inevitable split into lyft et al) what the next available cab time is.
In the same way that early netflix felt like a game changer because I had loads of stuff in one place. A lot of the utility drains away as soon as competition appears again and you're back where you started.