And So ... The end of the River Experiment. 

Continue Reading Here.

This last post highlighted a recent article about the likely failing of Uber .... it was one of a series. The full set can be found here:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

... and lots more on the topic of Uber

Essential reading for all.

... even better - Part Ten - Can Uber Ever Deliver - The Uber Death Watch Begins

This article neatly and concisely summarises everything that I dislike about Uber.

If you follow me, you will know that despite my interest in platforms and their obvious role as a significant future of Marketplaces, Uber stands uniquely in the #FAIL bucket - and would have been in the dead bucket years ago - if anything in the world was at all fair and reasonable.

This is the latest in a highly detailed series that dives into the underpinnings of Uber ... and it really does make you wonder about those VCs that have invested in them.

For those of you who are late to this series, the underlying reason that Uber is not a bona fide tech success is that the fact that it has cars available at affordable (cheap) prices is solely the result of massive, unsustainable investor subsidies. There are no network economies in running any transportation network because beyond a baseline service level, there is an inherent tradeoff between service frequency (size of fleet and staff) and profits. Uber’s app is trivial technologically and does not create a barrier to entry or confer scale advantages.

Read The Whole Article Here … Read on for some pertinent quotes:

The think tank taxi deregulation campaign blocked discussion of industry reforms based on economic evidence of potential impacts on efficiency and welfare with an emotive/tribal battle framing that precluded compromise.
…
Twenty-two of the pieces were published by pro-corporate/libertarian/objectivist oriented advocacy groups that received major funding from Charles and David Koch
…
Uber adopted the think tank propaganda approach almost word-for-word as the foundation for its market control battle Uber needed to establish the image of a battle between cutting-edge technologists fighting to disrupt a backward industry so that people outside of its core of supporters would view Uber as the heroic good guys.
…
Despite Uber’s transparent interest in destroying all incumbent operators in order to establish global industry dominance, Kalanick insists Uber is just trying to increase competitive options.
…
Uber insisted that the emergence of an unregulated, Uber dominated industry had nothing to do with multi-billion dollar subsidies but was strictly the result of the free choices of consumers in a competitive market
…
But as law professor Eric Posner points out, “…[this] is a response that any monopolist could make…But whether or not Uber does overcharge people now, sooner or later — once it displaces taxis and dominates markets —it will.”

... Recognise anyone?

Google Tests Waters of Voice Ads on Speaker

An unprompted promotion highlights balancing act the tech giant faces between monetizing new search formats and users’ ad tolerance

[Paywall] 

I love that expression ' user's ad tolerance ' ... do they not read the news? We have already that we have zero tolerance - hence the rise of ad blockers.

File under another reason not to buy Amazon and Google tech ... and stick with Apple ... a company that makes its money from what it makes - not the people that use what it makes.

Oh - and that caption? Jeez - Alexa might be able to recognize word patterns - but it doesnt understand anybody!