And the other thing, Uber became super popular because it was subsidized by VC money and fares were cheap.
Now that it's established... it isn't generally cheaper than taxis, it just has a slightly better app, though in many places that's not true anymore.
Oh, and to add insult to injury, you know how the taxi groups lobbied against public transportation, for example to airports? AWESOME, now there aren't just a bunch of local SMBs doing that, now there is an international mega corp doing that too.
Yeah, uBer was better and cheaper. Because it was subsidized from every angle. Cheap fares for riders, higher pay to drivers. Now it's either worse or about the same as Taxi's used to be. There's definitely some benefits to Uber especially when travelling. For local rides though, for me, at least, it's no longer better than taxis used to be, but the problem is now all the taxis are gone. It used to be that calling a taxi was unreliable, but they were generally available just by going outside and standing around for a few minutes.
Ah, I forgot to mention something. The enshittification has begun. Uber needs ever growing profits every year. Those will come from... lower pay for its drivers. Higher fares. Other various microagressions (ads in cars, ads everywhere).
It was unprofitable until literally this quarter, and the majority of that profit was, I believe, earned from food delivery services.