RIDEGURU
This is is an article from this morning. It's a new industry that's trying to learn from its history. (and its mistake?) Will they be able to regulate and make these startups play by the rules?
The Uber model — launch your service in a city without permission, become wildly popular, and then ask for forgiveness — is not going to work for scooter startups. For evidence, look at Bird and Lime, which aggressively "pioneered" scooter-sharing in Santa Monica, Calif. Today, the city is expected to announce the companies that can operate during its scooter-sharing pilot, and Bird and Lime might be left out. Recode's Johana Bhuiyan argues that cities now have the upper hand: They've gotten better at this since the early days of Uber and Airbnb, and scooters don't have the same fervent user base as ride-hail apps.
[Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]
Comments
That claim sounds nice and all, but they will still do whatever they want to. That's what it means they ignore the authorities and regulations.
They have bukus of money. If they get busted or whatever, they can afford it. Uber knew their service will spread like wildfire and had billions of investor dollars. They knew they can do whatever they did. They did their risk cost analysis and consciously made the choices they did.
The scooter companies will do the same thing.