
Uber’s Credit Card Is Bankrupting Restaurants - jasonrhaas
https://blog.producthunt.com/ubers-credit-card-is-bankrupting-restaurants-and-it-s-all-your-fault-af76ea9ca46d
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wcarron
Seems like a horrible submarine article. "Oh look! Uber did $Thing! Get in on
it now or miss out like a loser!"

Like, honestly? This is it? Uber, the "behemoth" who failed to crush the taxi
industry as promised, is now somehow going to "disrupt" not just the
restaurant industry, but also the credit game? Let's not forget that they
actually need to start making money. Are VCs going to subsidize peoples'
credit purchases now, too? Why not have them subsidize my housing as well? Why
stop at ride sharing and food?! Uber all the things, right? Shame that Uber
forgets that it is not and never will be Amazon.

Gonna file this one under "total horseshit"

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whamlastxmas
I don't know what planet you're living on where Uber is somehow out of the
game and not completely destroying the demand for taxis.

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wcarron
I come from the planet where Uber is currently:

\- Hemorrhaging cash like a hemophiliac taking blood thinners

\- Embroiled in various legal battles

\- Losing labor market share to Lyft

\- Losing customer market share to Lyft

\- Failing to push legislation to eliminate taxi medallion systems

You know, the planet where they've lost their Keanu Reeves (TK) along with
billions of dollars. The planet where I and many others do not use Uber in
favor of a Lyft or taxi. The planet where Uber created a failing business
model and tried to put lipstick on the pig by evading laws and throwing cash
at the dumpster fire. The one where they subsidize every single ride with VC
cash while they hold out hope for Level 5 autonomous vehicles to replace their
substandard workforce on a more-than-optimistic time frame. The planet where
Uber is a black hole of delusional "manifest destiny" style Silicon Valley
kool-aid.

Taxis aren't dead. They'll be around well after these fools are parted with
their money.

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whamlastxmas
I don't really think I'm going to convince you that maybe Uber is doing what
they've planned on doing all along and in the grand scheme of things seem like
they're doing it pretty well. It sort of seems like you have some stake
against Uber to be so vehemently against it. Just because Uber doesn't have a
100% market share doesn't mean they're doing poorly.

~~~
wcarron
I have no stake for or against Uber in any manner. I just call spades what
they are.

> I don't really think I'm going to convince you that maybe Uber is doing what
> they've planned on doing all along

Conversely, I don't understand how you can argue I'm unconvinceable despite
not providing anything to really be convinced by except vague allusions to
some sort of secret plan that's working perfectly.

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ejlangev
Color me extremely skeptical of this. Uber can't seem to get taxis right and
now they're going to dominate an entirely separate business with established
competitors? And the evidence for this is that they launched a credit card
when they could have just bought the transaction data from some data provider
and tried to de-anonymize it instead like other tech companies do. Something
isn't adding up.

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SurrealSoul
Content:

>Uber won’t be able to single-handedly kill the restaurant industry

Title:

>Uber's Credit Card is Bankrupting restaurants and it's all your fault

I am confused.

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makira
Bankrupting some restaurants != killing the restaurant industry.

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SurrealSoul
Creating "ghost restaurants" != Bankrupting some restaurants

This article is mostly fluff and contradictions (and credit card advertising).
However, it does alert to the predatory information collecting / hoarding and
value of that information to the restaurant industry, however speculatively
those alerts are

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deadmetheny
I own a food service business - this entire article is a bunch of conjecture
and on-its-face nonsense . The only space that Uber is even going to be able
to potentially dominate is that of delivery food, which is already a deeply
entrenched industry with a ton of local and national and international
competition, and unlike the taxi industry there's not much in the way of
pricing that can be knocked down. Places that specialize in delivery already
have minimal storefronts and not much in the way of wait-staff. So while these
phantom kitchens with strict delivery may cause a few smaller joints with poor
advertising and middling food quality to go under, those businesses were
likely not going to last all that long anyway. Even with Uber's driver network
and the power of Data™, I don't foresee Bill's Speedy Chippy going under due
to Uber undercutting them anytime soon when it's got an established customer
base.

On top of all of this, Uber still loses money with its ride-sharing, so what
makes people think that they're ever going to make a lasting dent in delivery
food? The only actual information they're able to garner from a card is how
much people are spending, where, and at what time. That's got its use, but
it's not exactly revolutionary never-before-seen information.

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cdubzzz
There sure are lots of links to credit cards in this “article”...

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TrainedMonkey
This. Affiliate marketing payout for credit card signups is pretty
significant.

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thisisit
So the whole article is about a future where Uber _might_ be able to do the
bankrupting but the title is about how it _is_ doing it right now?

A classic clickbait.

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throwaway9981
Middle of the article:

>Edit: Uber publicly denied that they would receive an individual’s spending
habits from the Uber card. However, that doesn’t discount their previous
attempts to acquire this data and don’t prevent them from acquiring this data
in the future from the card or other avenues.

Undermines the entire first part of the article...but don't let that discount
it

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adjkant
Does anyone think this credit card could just be an ad for UberEATS?

> "Dining, including UberEATS"

I bet that subconscious thought could increase spending enough to pay for any
given rewards.

Most everything in this article seems like a huge reach. I'm sure Uber wants
to keep options open given the rough waters right now, but I doubt any of this
is a real plan at this point.

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CodeWriter23
How are they obtaining information about what dish you ate from a single row
in a database that details the tax, tip and total? That, along with the
restaurant name, is the ONLY information transmitted to the card company.

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bassman9000
_and it 's all your fault_

Thanks for the consumer bashing clickbait

