Leaderboard

Man you should know me better that this by now :-) I related my personal experience, as you did, primarily to show that I understand the appeal from the rider's perspective. But trust I was wearing my MBA/Entrepreneur hat when looking at Uber's business model. Also keep in mind asking a bunch of drivers question is not much better than our experiences, they are just more anecdotes. We can also make different assumption of the expenses (for example, I would argue most cars would not get 40 miles per gallon in city driving). The fundamental question I'm really asking/ however; is society better off with Uber/Lyft, with the previous model or something else (true peer to peer)? Again we both attest to the benefits from the rider's perspective. But is that trade off worth the resulting negatives to society? Again, if white women can get dresses that cost less because enslaved Africans are picking the cotton is society better off? Chris you should check out The Harvard Business review of how Uber managers drivers, you might be surprised by certain aspects of the how the business actually works. This is one of the reasons asking drivers what they think, though interesting, is not very valuable in understanding Uber's model--the primary reason is that the driver may simply be ignorant of these issues or not sophisticated to appreciate them. Man peer to peer model is realistic, is in use today, and I believe the future. ebay, for example, it is doing very well; this is just is not resulting in the fantastic numbers that makes headlines. Closer to home, the digital revolution has made it possible for more Black people to publish books, but Amazon's model, which dominates the Black book ecosystem, is all about "extraction," revenue generation. So despite the plethora of Black books Amazon is not helping in the process of getting the best books to the readers most likely to enjoy them. This opens up opportunities for other businesses to reap financial reward by compensating for Amazon's deficiencies. Of course Amazon will do everything in their power to crush any competition, but they can't succeed, because at the end of the day, you'll make a little less money when you are unwilling to exploit people and that is a tradeoff facebook, Amazon and Uber are unwilling to make--despite what the billionaires who own these companies say. The actions of their companies reveal the truth.

Photo Credit: Regina Brooks African-American women hit the books because it’s a way to spark a conversation, and to learn, validate, and share, says Lloyd-Sgambati: “You have to remember that not so long ago, it was punishable by death for an African-American to read, mainly because white society feared the spread of knowledge. Now many readers think, ‘I am doing this for my ancestors.’ My mother had eight children, but she ended every day by reading a book. It’s a large part of the African-American tapestry of their lives. It’s a myth perpetuated that they don’t read.” It’s not just African-American women who are reading, says Johnson. The men are also hungry for something that speaks to their lives. “It is not clear to me that men are reading less, but they are reading differently,” he says. “Women are more likely to get together and talk about books and go to readings. Those types of things are more visible, but that doesn’t mean men aren’t reading and exploring as well.” Read the complete article at Publisher's Weekly.

Note, I said Uber sucks and I explained that most of the drives I took were Lyft which has a much better model and has already improved on where Uber failed. Most of those drivers had switched from Uber to Lyft. I used Uber in Memphis because more people are signed up here. Research is simply a person asking questions and documenting so my asking questions, although on a small scale, is just as valuable as any report written by someone analyzing the business aspects because all research can be skewed and should be taken with a grain of salt. We have to listen to research though because most of us don't want to take the time to do our own analysis. When you say Peer to peer you include eBay? That has thrown me for a loss. I don't consider eBay peer to peer. eBay is the same as Amazon so that creates a flawed discussion point in my view. But that makes me realize that when we both started discussing this we failed to layout what Peer to Peer means in relation to the original discussion of the first post. My thought of peer to peer is when people are able to visit farmer's markets or use their own platforms to sell to people,no middle man. Here are some of my thoughts on eBay and Amazon: I will give you my own example of peer to peer that makes sense. I have a hedge fund. I researched how to start one and launched it through ARCH. I had 3 investors at 10,000 a pop. One person received a 900 dollar return in one month and pulled out. One person received a 1600 dollar return on his 10K in 5 months, and the current investor will get a 10% return over a 3 year period. This is peer to peer because there wasn't a middle man in between my investor and me. http://www.arch-usa.com/arch-investment/ If you are considering eBay a better option over Amazon I call into question every argument you've made. They are the same. The only difference is that Amazon has entered a space that you are very sensitive about in books and you've seen it directly affect this area. eBay has transitioned into a replica of Amazon. It simply hasn't chosen to enter the book industry, but Amazon started in books and made a natural progression in business growth. eBay takes 13% of every sale. Amazon takes 10-15% depending on category. Amazon has Amazon payments and eBay has Paypal. They both take monthly fees for professional accounts. They both have the right terminate you for any reason they choose. They are essentially working in the same areas. Paypal is better because Amazon came along after and copied the platform so no one really uses it. A true peer to peer won't happen and won't exist. There will have to be advertisements paid to get people to your product. The same money that you spend to get people to your product could possibly cost more in customer acquisition than using Amazon or eBay so as it stands it makes sense to build your platform through these companies to avoid having to pay for the advertisement expenses, but it goes both ways. If you can create content that drives traffic to your site you can win, but you have to have a Huffpost level of content from high profile people or a ton of info that the people are interested in and searching for. Once again I agree that peer to peer is the way to go, but if you watch the video I explain it as best as I can using the destination vs foot traffic theory the person who has a product, books, shoes, shirts, electronics will have to pay to acquire customers. If I can give Amazon or eBay 13-15% and I don't have to think about customer acquisition I'm going to take the easiest route.When Rushkoff says we are being used, he's right. We are being used, but after ten plus years I have finally conceded and I take the easiest path while still adjusting and trying to deliver straight to people. You know like I do how hard this is. But my small sample size for Lyft gives a different story.