I was confused about Twitter's business model from the very start. But, I didn't think Uber and Lyft made a lot of financial sense, either :P
Usually what you'd do is pump the platform full of ads and then offer an ad-free option, or make it into a subscription service outright, but I don't think twitter has enough of a moat for the latter and won't be successful on the former.
Uber has only ever posted one positive quarter (Q3 2020) and has gone back to net losses in Q4. It doesn't really make financial sense.
Even the whole "they will be profitable once they have a monopoly" idea is overblown IMO. In Toronto were I'm located, we have a local taxi company (the largest one, Beck) who has an app that AFAICT has all the same features as Uber's core ride hailing app. Clearly Uber's core tech in ride hailing is not that much of an advantage...
Uber would've definitely be positive if it wasn't for COVID. Where I am, People use it massively to get to/from parties, that basically died for the entire 2021... The local Uber branch said there was less than 1/10 rides that year...
So in conclusion, I'd wait before saying what has/doesn't have financial sense.
> In Toronto were I'm located, we have a local taxi company (the largest one, Beck) who has an app that AFAICT has all the same features as Uber's core ride hailing app.
Well, and where's the big difference? Why your local app can work and Uber can't?
Your local app won't work in Italy, whereas Uber does, and works consistently and with the same credit card I use at home. IMHO it's cool.
I assume we'll see some big changes in the near future, and I'm not hopeful that it will be positive for the platform.