Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement

[superlopuh]

I have a feeling that they had not anticipated the level of the competition in Russia, where the cabs were such unbelievable scams that the locals had launched mobile-first services long before Uber entered the market.

[adventured]

It's a moot issue. There was no scenario under which a Western firm was going to be allowed to dominate any meaningful Russian infrastructure long-term. Uber is fortunate if they come away from Russia with anything. In most industries Putin is reluctant to allow even his own oligarchs outright control. The notion he'd allow Uber to own their taxi / ride-hailing business is laughable (even assuming Uber could compete well enough).

[thriftwy]

I think you're oversimplifying Russian Taxi market a great deal.

First of all, you're saying that mobile-first services were launched because cabs were crap. The market was good because the market was bad?

Medium-size cities had very cheap fixed-rate taxi-by-telephone services. Like, whole city flat rate for $3 in driver's own old beater.

Meanwhile Moscow had awful taxi services (very unreliable and expensive) and you had better luck just lifting your hand when near the road (yes, that's how it actually worked).

Then Yandex launched their Taxi and reliability of service rose very fast while prices fell. Then, GetTaxi and Uber also entered market, as well as some smaller players like Maxim and Saturn. Yandex is still heavily focused on Moscow with unreliable coverage everywhere.

[reactima]

Uber got very dominant in market share in Moscow with all its subsidized rides. I paid 200USD for 30 rides! This is not sustainable...

[lukasm]

When I was in a small city outside Moscow I was paying $1.50 for a 1 min of a phone call and $1.40 for 10 mins cab ride. It was cheaper to take the cab and talk to someone than to make a call.

[baybal2]

You haven't seen their prices in T2 cities, it is like $1 per 5 to 6 kms. And they have the problem of "Uberists" - people who drive themselves around when Uber subsidizes rides. And they also have issue of botters who do the same, but at industrial scale (without actually driving themselves or anybody else of course)

[bad_user]

I'm from Bucharest, Romania. The average price here is something like $0.35 / Km and the price I'm paying for a ride is somewhere between $2.5 and $5.

And that's the price of Uber as well, which can go up in rush hour, but we now have Taxify as well, which I prefer because their prices are more predictable.

So when you're saying that you paid $200 for 30 rides, that seems expensive to me.

[Spooky23]

Seems like a smart move to me. Given the political situation, operating at scale in Russia is a liability anyway. Now they get some cash and a stake in the Russian controlled operation.

[amai]

Maybe relevant: http://englishrussia.com/2017/05/31/russian-airport-taxi-dri...

[Grue3]

Damn. I used both and Uber is cheaper and much better customer service. Trying to get your money back from Yandex.Taxi is a kafkaesque nightmare.

[COMMENT___]

I don't get it. What money back? For non satisfactory service? Or for not providing the service you paid for?

[Tinyyy]

Can anyone tell me what would happen to Uber's stake in the joint company if Uber fails? Is it auctioned off to cover its debts?

[JumpCrisscross]

If by "fails" you mean goes into liquidation then, essentially, yes. Uber's JV stakes, like its other assets, would be used to make creditors while (under the supervision of a bankruptcy judge).

[charlesdm]

If you can't beat em, join em.

[baybal2]

Uber got itself into its own 'LeEco moment'