Contemporary Economic Analysis Maria Topping – 09702392 Ishjantsan Gursuren - 18919437 Saranchimeg Purevgerel - 18928352 Azra Valjevac- 18725294 An analysis of John McDuling‘s article in The Australian Financial Review “Locals fight back against Uber in ridesharing battle” 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – Maria mainly responsible & others will support Since its inception seven years ago, Uber Technologies has raised $16 billion in cash and debt. With a valuation of $69 billion, (Newcomer 2016) it is a global company competing in 230 cities in 45 countries (Condo 2014). Uber is competing with other ridesharing and taxi hailing apps such as Lyft, DiDi Chuxing, Grab and BlaBlaCar as well as with the taxi industry as point-to-point transport. Uber can be thought of as a marketplace unto itself in the analysis of demand and supply and elasticity. Table of Contents 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – Maria mainly responsible & others will support 2 2 INTRODUCTION 3 3 ECONOMIC THEORIES RELATED TO UBER 4 3.1 Demand & Supply – Elasticity 4 3.2 Competitive market Error! Bookmark not defined. 4 PUBLIC POLICY - Maria mainly responsible & others will support 9 5 Conclusion - Critique of Article – 150 Maria mainly responsible & others will support 10 6 Reference list - Ishee mainly responsible & others will support 10 7 Appendix - Ishee mainly responsible & others will support 11 2 INTRODUCTION John McDuling‘s article “Locals fight back against Uber in ridesharing battle” in the Australian Financial
“It’s a simple experience and a much more pleasant way to get a ride than stepping onto a busy street and waving at oncoming traffic” (Stone, 2014, p. 53). It is convenient for both the employee and customer to arrange a ride, which makes Uber preferable. Additionally, the employees of Uber are given more benefits than the employees of taxi companies. For example, Uber issues an iPhone with the Uber software, free gear to secure it to their windshield and an hour of orientation (Stone, 2014, p. 52). It is this simplicity that appeals to people seeking employment. They are also using a platform that is accessible to many of their customers, because, as of 2015, “64% of American adults now own a smartphone of some kind” (Smith, 2015). Since their focus is on luxury, innovation, and results, they have transformed the public transportation system in their favor.
I am writing to you to help with your petition in allowing companies like Uber and Lyft to come back to Austin. Before you go out to convince the people of Austin, you should have some basic understanding of how people will more than likely perceive this petition and how they will be effected by it. The general rule to know is that people are selective in the way they experience things. I will tell you in what ways they are selective and how you can get the most amount of people to react positively to your petition.
I watched this TedTalk on 6/16/2016, and the name of that TedTalk is Uber’s plan to get more people into fewer cars. The video was filmed on February 2016, and the speaker is Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of the peer-to-peer file sharing company Red Swoosh and the transportation network company Uber. The purpose of this memo is to understand the goal that Uber is trying to achieve.
Watching “SpongeBob SquarePants” as a child made me realize that owning a vehicle is vital in order to get our desire destinations safely and punctual. There were numerous occasions where I found myself dependent on others. Though there are countless of bus stops I can use for transportation, I am not comfortable riding in one. Walking is another type transportation I took for school and work. However, a rainy day impedes a travel by foot. Additionally, riding my bicycle was another way I got around. My errands require extensive transportation on a daily basis. I did not want to be a burden any further. Luckily, I discovered Uber. I am pleased and relieved that I have discovered a reliable way to get to my destinations at a reasonable price.
The sharing economy has its perks however also its inconveniences. Mary Dejevsky is the writer of “Uber and the “sharing economy” are leaps into the past, not the future”, and in the text she speaks on the downside of the sharing economy. “There are questions, too, about quality of life and fairness. What recourse do you have if you are a tenant or home-owner disturbed by anti-social short-stayers? If you are a neighbor woken by driveway customers slamming their doors at 6am? If pollution is increased by the many more cars plying for hire? If wages are further depressed by casualization?”, Dejevsky lists various of problems that people face or could face now that sharing economy is becoming a global thing. All the things she mentions are pretty
Compare this to the 36 seconds for a ride with an average price of $4.00 that NYC Uber passengers currently enjoy. Additionally, consider that it is already more cost effective to use a ride-sharing service rather own a car if you live in a city and drive less than 10,000 miles a year. This means that as automation advances, ride-sharing will increasingly be a cheaper and more attractive option and personal vehicles will greatly diminish. The future of transportation could conceivably be large fleets of autonomous vehicles serving as the central mode of transportation.
Employment received a hard hit by the recession, but this “gig economy” has been able to provide job openings that are in need. According to a recent study, jobs in the gig economy has grown from 9 to 14% from 2002 to 2014, compared to overall employment which only grew around 7%. Moreover, the gig economy has also had an impact in the current economy, specifically coming from the famous startups such as Uber and Lyft. The Uber and
Uber has widely known for its lower transaction costs which is resulted from efficiency in operation cost, or in other word low labor cost. Uber drivers is not the company’s employees but independent contractor. Therefore, Uber has been criticized for their treatment to the individuals who provide the service under their smartphone applications and take benefits from them (Dyal-Chand, 2015). Average hourly wages for drivers is around USD8 – 10, exclude their car depreciation (Weber and Silverman, 2015). Therefore, Uber transfers part of operation cost such as vehicle depreciation cost and employee benefits to the drivers as its independent contractor. In her note, Posen comprehensively describes and analyzes the lawsuits from taxi industry and states where it operate. Unfortunately, she only provide a glimpse about the lawsuits from Uber’s drivers without any solution to be
In text 2 “Learning the wonders of the sharing economy in trip to Denver” (2014) by Catharine Hamm, Hamm talks about, how the sharing economy has made her whole experience to Denver, and how impressed she is by the fact that the business is build on trust, as she says “And I didn’t get ripped off - or worse - by anyone. Which may be the most surprising
contained the following two incidents ( as reported by the article): taxi drivers were protesting against Uber and the taxi industry is split between protesters and non-protesters. The intent behind the taxi drivers protesting is that they are feeling threatened by Uber and what they are bringing to many cities worldwide. Their intent is ultimately
I've been using Uber since it's inception and have utilized the ride-hailing service in several major cities. Uber is celebrating its fifth anniversary and is valued around $50 billion by investors.
In modern society’s day and age, we still have many types of transportations that helps us complete some of our daily needs. You can drive, grab a bus, take a train or even get a quick workout and walk. However, as society progressed and wages increased, people start spending money on other ways to get around instead of driving themselves such as Uber: an app that allows other people to drive you places for a small fee depending on its location. Uber may be cheaper than having your own car but it isn’t always very reliable or convenient. Having your own car provides a reliable source of transportation. Although insurance and maintenance can be pricey; Uber is a relatively cheap and easy system of transportation, although it can be unreliable.
The use of ride-sharing applications has become a popular choice to travel from one destination to another. In the past, cities were dominated by the use of taxis as a means of ride choice. As technology and society has evolved, ride-share applications such as Lyft have become a dominating choice for travel. After completing a PEST and SWOT analysis, Lyft can analyze how to proceed going forward to continue its growth and success.
Uber is an innovative company that operates as a transportation company and a food delivery service around the globe. In addition, Uber is a company that was invented five years ago. Furthermore, during Uber’s early stages of development, the servicing company was referred to as “UberCAb”. Then an individual in San Francisco had decided to try out their service. From the individual’s first experience, the individual was very impressed. In addition, from that point, the company referred to as “UberCab” became commonly known as Uber. Also, Uber operates their service business in fifty eight different countries and have allocated over $60 billion in revenue. Uber faces many issues in their human resources operations implementation regarding drivers and internal employees.
Uber stands out from the rest of the crowd with four basic utilities that add a lot of value to the customer experience. Uber first needed to form a way for not just one person to ride but for multiple to ride and everyone in the Uber vehicle would split the difference in the price of the Uber ride. Then Uber had to figure out a way to get an Uber to the customers in a timely fashion. To complete that task Uber employed 160,000 Uber drivers by the end of 2014