How Uber’s Disruptive Strategy Took Over the Taxi Industry
Reverse-engineering the client-centric & tech-enabled strategy that took on entrenched interests and established an entirely new way of working
The New York City pre-Uber taxi landscape
For many years, evenings out on the town in New York City always ended with an iconic yellow cab ride home.
You stood on a street corner and held out your hand, hoping a cab would see you and stop. Cabs were difficult to find, dirty, smelled bad, and I can remember more than one ride where you could clearly see the road passing through holes in the floorboard inches below your feet. Even as payments everywhere else gradually shifted to credit cards, for years the only reason I still had to go to a cash machine was to get money to pay for cab fares.
And every ride ended with an awkward and often combative conversation around the final cost and the tip.
The only exceptions were the elegant, curated experiences available riding in Lincoln Town cars, typically reserved for lavish business expense moments.
