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> One can imagine what the Uber app would look like if the company operated like Airbnb. A rider would enter her location and destination and get a list of drivers with their fare bids and distances from the starting point. Then the rider would make her choice based on the combination of price and arrival speed. That would make Uber an information provider rather than a taxi service.

Funny, that's precisely what Blablacar (https://www.blablacar.com/) is : a carpooling information provider. Though it is not supposed to be for professional drivers (but Airbnb was not supposed to be for hotel pro either)




The differences between Blablacar and Airbnb were (my guesses):

- Bigger initial market (350+ vs 60+ million people)

- Harder regulatory environment (USA vs France)

- Airbnb's superior UI and more polished products

Feel free to add what I've overlooked.




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