<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>rogerbinns</author><text>&amp;gt; Ride-sharing is not an area that can be monopolized&lt;p&gt;It is very close.  There are massive network effects and it will be hard to unseat an incumbent.&lt;p&gt;The more riders there are, the more revenue is available for the service provider (eg drivers).  More riders means average waiting time is lower because more vehicles will be around.  More riders means less downtime between riders since the next rider will be closer.  More time in revenue service lets you spread fixed costs over more riders, reducing the fixed costs per ride (economies of scale).&lt;p&gt;This all means an incumbent will provide better service especially as reduced waiting times, and will be able to provide that service more cheaply due to greater utilisation.  Their drivers&amp;#x2F;owners will also make more money due to greater utilisation.  Newcomers will end up providing worse service (longer waiting times etc) and cost more!</text><parent_chain><item><author>jondubois</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s fair to compare Lyft with Intel in terms of innovation.&lt;p&gt;Ride-sharing is not an area that can be monopolized. As soon as companies like Uber and Lyft stop subsidising rides, competitors will spawn up like mushrooms.&lt;p&gt;Unless Uber&amp;#x2F;Lyft manage to create fully automated self-driving cars AND find a way to OWN all those cars, they will never have a monopoly.&lt;p&gt;The people who own the cars will have the freedom to switch to any ride-sharing network they like (or even multiple networks).&lt;p&gt;Then there will be new kinds of ride-finder apps which will allow people to select between multiple providers&amp;#x2F;networks - A bit like how Expedia lets you select between multiple airlines.&lt;p&gt;The Airline business is very competitive and low-margin these days, I think it will be the same for companies like Lyft and Uber.</text></item><item><author>ChuckMcM</author><text>Back in the 80&amp;#x27;s when all the Semiconductor companies were losing money, Andy Grove of Intel stated that because Intel was losing less money than everyone else, it must be the largest semiconductor company. If Lyft can become profitable while Uber isn&amp;#x27;t that will change the market dynamics tremendously.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Lyft Loses $600M in 2016 as Revenue Rises to $700M</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-12/lyft-loses-600-million-in-2016-as-revenue-surges</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>SomewhatLikely</author><text>Google maps at least on Android is already showing fares from both Uber and Lyft when you ask for directions.</text><parent_chain><item><author>jondubois</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s fair to compare Lyft with Intel in terms of innovation.&lt;p&gt;Ride-sharing is not an area that can be monopolized. As soon as companies like Uber and Lyft stop subsidising rides, competitors will spawn up like mushrooms.&lt;p&gt;Unless Uber&amp;#x2F;Lyft manage to create fully automated self-driving cars AND find a way to OWN all those cars, they will never have a monopoly.&lt;p&gt;The people who own the cars will have the freedom to switch to any ride-sharing network they like (or even multiple networks).&lt;p&gt;Then there will be new kinds of ride-finder apps which will allow people to select between multiple providers&amp;#x2F;networks - A bit like how Expedia lets you select between multiple airlines.&lt;p&gt;The Airline business is very competitive and low-margin these days, I think it will be the same for companies like Lyft and Uber.</text></item><item><author>ChuckMcM</author><text>Back in the 80&amp;#x27;s when all the Semiconductor companies were losing money, Andy Grove of Intel stated that because Intel was losing less money than everyone else, it must be the largest semiconductor company. If Lyft can become profitable while Uber isn&amp;#x27;t that will change the market dynamics tremendously.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Lyft Loses $600M in 2016 as Revenue Rises to $700M</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-12/lyft-loses-600-million-in-2016-as-revenue-surges</url></story>