Because the taxi business is a commodity. The returns are ~2%.
Uber doesn't have any geographic or other advantages. "Self driving" is a nonsense claim that doesn't stack up because it's not going to be available for at least another 5+ years. Even when it does happen, Uber doesn't have the capital to establish the necessary fleets of vehicles and is currently "outsourcing" that to the owner/drivers.
There have been any number of articles about Uber's lack of a sustainable business model.
Uber does have the advantage of operating globally and having a single app that will get you a taxi almost anywhere in the world. Given that traditional taxi companies often only operate in a single town or city that's quite an advantage. They would easily have a sustainable business if they dramatically cut their costs. Whether they can do that having taken the amount of VC money they have is another question.
I'd assume a decent chunk. I don't generally use a taxi in my home country, but used Uber a few times when traveling. That being said, I have 0 issue downloading a local taxi app and deleting it afterwards.
Uber doesn't have any geographic or other advantages. "Self driving" is a nonsense claim that doesn't stack up because it's not going to be available for at least another 5+ years. Even when it does happen, Uber doesn't have the capital to establish the necessary fleets of vehicles and is currently "outsourcing" that to the owner/drivers.
There have been any number of articles about Uber's lack of a sustainable business model.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2020/09/09/th...
https://marker.medium.com/end-of-the-line-for-uber-901e3077b...
And the original guy that showed that the emperor has no clothes:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/08/hubert-horan-can-ube...