Uber has 4 Million users monthly. Everyone knows who they are and they are definitly #1 in their business. So how is it even possible to compete with them? The answer is by doing something different and taking advantage of slumps in competition.
In the past year, Uber has been struggling with scandals over the past year. However, this does not change the way Lyft is trying to compete with their biggest competitor. Lyft has set itself apart from Uber by being the more environment friendly and less sketchy company. Lyft offers a round up option, which essentially, for those who select the option, it will simply round up their total by the dollar and then donate the pocket change to a charity of their choice.
The biggest point that proves Lyft will be Ubers replacement is their vision. Lyft has guarantied that in 5 years time, they will be a driver less and self navigating car service. annoying uber drivers are the worst, whether it is their music taste, awkward behavior, or just suspicious behavior and untrustworthy demeanor. Imagine if there were no driver and the passenger could control the music, talk about things in private, and no young women ever had to worry about their safety.
John Zimmer saw this gap in the business and so has began taking advantage of it. Wile the technology in the USA is not yet to the point of making this practical, it shows the general creativity and vision of this young millennial entrepreneur.
I think it’s awesome how Lyft was not afraid to start another business in an area that already seems to be dominated by another company, that company being Uber. Lyft took advantage of the kinks that Uber was dealing with and made their company much more user friendly and make you feel as if you are in safer environment. This goes to show that you don’t have to be scared to jump into a part of the market that already seems to be dominated, there is always a way to make a company/business better.
It’s very good to see that customers truly do value companies that partake in societal causes such as Lyft. It will be interesting to see if Lyft’s business declines if they are unable to provide self-driving cars by their timeline and if business declines, by how much?