David Cantrell wrote:

On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 04:21:44PM +0100, tim... wrote:

It's possible for Amazon to kill the competition and for it not to come back
again, leaving you in an unassailable position to reap the rewards of
previous work

Once Uber has established in a city, competition can continually spring up
again meaning that you are continually fighting it. There is no path to
killing it off completely (other than making your price so low you don't
make a profit). There are always new drivers prepared to compete with you.

What's different about them that makes it possible for someone to pop up
and start competing with Uber, but impossible for someone to pop up and
start competing with Amazon?

The capital needed to expand into a new market. Number of suppliers and
distribution.

Amazon uses existing infrastructure e.g. Royal Mail and other couriers
to hit a new market. A competetor has to get connectionbs with all the
suppliers and have a physical centre (although that might be avoidable)
So cost for setting up a new organisation is large.

Uber provides infrastructure e.g. the cars (and currently drivers). To
get a new market it needs to get all those. A competetor has to do
exactly the same. There are no suppliers and the central control can be
anywhwre it is just computers and support staff. So cost for a new
organisation is smaller but it is the cost to enter a new martket that
is large.



--
Mark