Saturday, January 9, 2016

Uber Has Cut Prices in 100 Cities



Uber has announced in a blog post that it is cutting ride prices in 100 U.S. and Canadian cities, beginning today. It's all about winter supply and demand.

Kurt Wagner reports:
It’s a technique Uber has used in the past, and it has nothing to do with rewarding you or the rest of its user base. Instead, it’s a business move — simple supply and demand. Uber has discovered that “people hunker down at home” in January, and “demand for rides drops.” This is the company’s attempt to pull you off your couch and away from Netflix and the NFL playoffs (which also start on Saturday).
  -RW

3 comments:

  1. A Michigan limo service has sued Uber under the RICO statute for not following "regulations".

    http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2016/01/08/limo-service-claims-uber-racketeering-michigan/78510106/

    Also in Michigan news, the decrepit ghetto town of Flint was switched from clean Detroit water to nasty Flint River water by its emergency manager resulting in lead and other poisons in the water. Since the tax-hiking Republican governor didn't respond quickly, we can blame this one on CAPITALISM.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/what-did-the-governor-know-about-flints-water-and-when-did-he-know-it/423342/

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  2. Isn't the whole Uber thing that it doesn't set prices, supply and demand does? E.g. surge pricing and all that? I thought it was not up to them to cut or raise prices. If it is, then a competitor should move in to exploit their centrally planned price setting and instead let prices float dynamically.

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  3. I would guess their price algorithm has a floor setting which will be lowered. If the price algorithm didn't have a floor programmed into it then there would be times when the price dropped to zero. Obviously no one would pick you up for free

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