The Modern Day's Unarmed War-Uber vs Lyft

?06 April 2017 | San Francisco, CA

Gone are the days when rivalries were between Kingdoms and Empires and in order to prove their supremacy they used to go on wars. Huge investments, manpower, bloodshed and Winners (Though wars never had winners, they had losers and biggest losers) summarize what wars signified.

Our generation has seen some of the most interesting wars but these wars which pretty much started off with the Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi or Dunkin' Donuts vs. Starbucks, Nike vs. Under Armour, and Ford vs. General Motors, Uber vs Lyft, Facebook vs Twitter vs Google and the list goes on.

But when would the loyalty come into the picture? Is it always going to be a price war? Or does hardly makes a difference whether it is Uber vs Ola in India or it is an Uber vs Lyft in the US? Who is in closer proximity of being loyal-The drivers or the consumers? How does market maturity drive loyalty?

Here are top 3 observations:

• Pricing: Most of the drivers that I was able to speak to are not loyal towards Uber or Lyft. More than half were using both the apps and frequently jump and/or use both simultaneously based on the opportunity cost associated with the usage. On the other hand, the users are (comparatively) more loyal towards the ride-hailing apps and less percentage prefer jumping for minor variations in the price though pricing remains the most important factor for the decision-making of most people. In general, Uber's surge pricing on peak times and weekends goes as high as 7-8 times whereas Lyft would generally touch 3-4 times the normal fares.
• Availability: In general, availability does not become a major issue in the major cities (especially in CA). If you compare globally, Uber operates in far more markets than Lyft which makes it a global winner (Uber operates in 300 cities ranging across ~ 60 countries whereas Lyft operates in 65 US cities) but in the US cities, they fight head to head and Lyft gives a tough competition to Uber.
• Product Experience: Does that really count? Yes! If you compare the experience provided by both the apps in terms of the features, they are more or less similar. Both offer basic features like GPS tracking, Providing Drop location, Tracking the driver real-time, approximate time of arrival of the driver and also the time trip would take along with both parties rating (each other) at the end of the journey. If you compare the type of services offered, Uber emerges to be an undisputed leader with 6 type of options (Pool, X, Select, Black, SUV, XL) along with Assist and WAV (Wheelchair) whereas Lyft operates 4 (Line/Pool, Lyft, Plus and Premier). But in general, the majority of users look for Pool or a basic taxi which reduces the impact ratio in proportion to the gap in cab services offered. Drivers, on the other hand, preferred Lyft in terms of overall experience.

Payment is pretty much solved by both the players considering Credit Cards along with PayPal is accepted.

So what do you think matters more-The price war or the loyalty towards the product experience?

(Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his personal capacity)