As I have mentioned before since August last year Paris has been invaded by shared electric Scooters. At first it was Lime and Bird (both American companies) then Bolt and Wind appeared in October and now there are two more: Voi and Tier. On top of all that I have been looking at job ads on LinkedIn and I saw that Jump (which is part of Uber) and Dott (which is Dutch) are both looking for General Managers to start their own scooter operations in Paris which would bring the total to 8. What I don't understand is that all these companies are offering exactly the same service, through very similar apps and charging exactly the same price (1€ + 15c/min). I though the whole point of free markets and capitalism was to let competition ensure that prices are kept at a minimum. IF everybody is charging the same its not really working as it should. In addition you would expect no more than 2-3 companies to share the market as a key point of these types of companies is to benefit from being everywhere. I don't want to have to look up 8 different apps on my phone to find the nearest scooter. I don't understand why someone doesn't just halve their price to eliminate some of the competition. If I was GM of Jump or Dott I would recommend an aggressive pricing policy and a significant volume discount. Watch this space!
I presume they're all making a significant loss at the moment, and only the big boys with deep pockets, deep pocketed investors, or diversified revenue streams (or a combination of these factors, as uber does) will survive by bleeding out the little guys. My guess is that in a few years time there will only be 3 players and prices will rise. But I find them to be too expensive already, and so hope vélib get's its shit together !
ReplyDeleteTalking of competition you're only 6 points away from your Mother!
ReplyDeleteHa. She takes cold showers while I type a few words on my keyboard. Talk about cost leadership!
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