The New York Times ran two articles this weekend, each one exploring an emerging class of Uber driver. The first article, from January 22nd, is titled “Older Drivers Hit the Road for Uber and Lyft,” and addresses, as you might expect, the increasing number of Baby Boomers who drive for app-based ridesharing services to supplement their income. … Continue reading Ubers, Ubers, Everywhere
I got an email early this morning from Starbucks, announcing that I could now take the sounds of my nearest coffeehouse on the road with me, thanks to the company’s newly-inked partnership with Spotify. As a devotee of Starbucks and an avid Spotify listener, this update means I have one more avenue in which to binge on … Continue reading Starbucks Loves Uber Loves Spotify
Within the past few days, two large car manufacturers have announced significant investments into companies that may, if successful, reduce actual car ownership. General Motors has invested in ridesharing startup Lyft, and Audi has put money into premium car rental service Silvercar. GM announced that it was putting $500 million into Lyft, valuing the company at $5.5 … Continue reading Looking Down the Road
Starbucks has made it its business to partner with lots of tech companies – Uber, Spotify, The New York Times – and the most recent addition to that list is Lyft, the popular ride-sharing service. I think this partnership – along with Starbucks’s other deals – represents a new kind of dominance for the brand. In the 1990s … Continue reading Another Coffee for the Road
Starbucks and Uber just inked a deal which integrates the latter’s transportation functionality into the Starbucks app, allowing user to select Uber as an option for navigating to the closest store for their caffeine fix. This new feature is thanks to Uber’s release of its API to a number of firms, allowing them to bake in this sort of functionality … Continue reading One Espresso for the Road
Bill Gurley has a great article on Uber’s valuation – actually a response to Aswath Damodaran’s piece – that raises some of the various markets Uber seeks to enter. He points out: When I used to travel to Los Angeles and Seattle on business I would use a rental car. Today I only Uber. It is materially … Continue reading Uber Cool Evaluations
Several months ago, I wondered why American Express didn’t offer some sort of tailored “$5 off $25” perk at Uber. After all, Amex is pretty aggressive when it comes to targeted promotions, and actively inks deals with retailers that cater to the tech-friendly and mobile-oriented crowd – the same crew that gets its lifts in Uber. In recent months, Amex has offered deals at iTunes, Dunkin Donuts, J. Crew, and Zappos – all brands that try to tap into the mobile audience. And, as I experienced firsthand, Amex’s app uses geolocation to provide targeted reminders of nearly-redeemed offers.
My wife and I recently returned from a jaunt to sunny Los Angeles. We were fortunate enough to be able to do a great deal in a six-day sweep: the Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach, the Hollywood sign, Getty Villa, Warner Brothers Studios, the Grove, LACMA, La Brea Tar Pits, Hollywood Boulevard and about seven different Coffee Bean and Tea Leafs. We hitched an occasional ride with relatives, but the majority of our travel (including rides to and from our hometown NY airports) were on Uber – the smartphone-based, on-demand car service. Continue reading “Out and About in LA”
Silicon Spatula 