Was just talking about how Uber had a golden age where is was better than taxis and had now reverted to sucking.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the same here. These companies can locally "disrupt" by losing money, buying revenue, and moving ahead of regulation, not to mention taking advantage of novelty to bring in gig workers or property owners or whoever looking to try something new. But once reality catches up with them, their business model is not actually better, and quite possibly less efficient than past models, so they make changes to try and be profitable and end up sucking.
Not that it's bad to try stuff, I think we're just seeing reversion to the mean
I refuse to use AirBnB where there are perfectly good hotels. And I refuse to use Uber where there are perfectly good taxis.
The business models of both AirBnB and Uber I would class as scams.
The companies are never intended to make a profit, being just vehicles for the management administration to soak the drivers, owners and investors while laughing all the way to the bank. Once the investors, drivers, and owners realise they are being taken for suckers, Uber and AirBnB will just shrivel up and blow away with the wind.
Except that pawnbrokers are still in business, and I begin to think of AirBnB and Uber as pawnbrokers: they let you turn some part of what you own (the car, say) into cash to ease your present extra-tight circumstances, even if you'd never have rationally bought the car or house for that purpose. Not sure I'm right about this, but that's how it's beginning to look to me.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the same here. These companies can locally "disrupt" by losing money, buying revenue, and moving ahead of regulation, not to mention taking advantage of novelty to bring in gig workers or property owners or whoever looking to try something new. But once reality catches up with them, their business model is not actually better, and quite possibly less efficient than past models, so they make changes to try and be profitable and end up sucking.
Not that it's bad to try stuff, I think we're just seeing reversion to the mean