How much does running Uber cost?

Sometimes, Uber takes more than 50% of the driver's fare. Uber definitely is flexible with their pricing to be able to get the customers that are frugal, which beats a standard wage model for drivers. And this feeds to popularity, ubiquity, and market dominance. Don't get me wrong, I think that aspect can be appreciated. It explains why they are partly winning (idk the story for Lyft, grubhub). 

I jump straight to the reason that Uber is still winning because I think they take too much of drivers' pay. If they are unfairly addressing the driver, why are they still winning? Where does Uber's overhead go? Does it take that much to run an online app?? How does wikipedia survive if running Uber is this expensive?

Social campaigns are cheap if done right. From my understanding, running a huge web app also doesn't cost that much. Do taxi drivers just need some help from the expensive software engineers? Or do drivers need to be taught how to stand up for themselves? 

I'm sitting on the thought of buying a great domain name for this (open domain, not bidding). I need to do some business calculations.


It definitely helps for brand recognition for being both a taxi and food delivery service. But the food delivery service pricing is horrible on the consumer's buying decision (people aren't willing to pay $40 for fast food, even if its delivered). My company's grubhub orders can charge around $5 at most for the food delivery.  How does the driver make any money? From this, it seems like Grubhub is doing what Uber was, having a pricing that is subsidized by investor money.


For the consumer, I agree that using the internet for taxi is better than standing in the streets. 

Benefit of internet taxi:

  • Choose car type and size
  • Schedule a ride
  • Not waiting in the cold, for an acceptable amount of of driver's time
  • Drivers utilization efficiency
  • Provide pricing estimates before calling a taxi driver
  • Algorithmic pricing
  • Mobile payments
  • Identify customer's ability to pay (through history and card verification before ride)
  • Fexible driver hours (doesn't have to be professional driver, or having a distinct yellow car which is not usable other than being a taxi) 
What Uber successfully carry over as a taxi service:

  • Driver identification and vetting
  • Taxi metering and toll calculation
  • Connecting drivers and riders
  • Service reputation 

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