Interesting case study: What should Lyft do?
At a recent dinner, a few of us were casually chatting about our consumer experience with Lyft (“Do any of you guys use Lyft any more?”) A few things mentioned by the group:
- “I don’t use Lyft anymore, Uber is enough”
- “I use Lyft mainly to compare price, but Lyft isn’t really cheaper these days”
- “Lyft has older, crappier cars. Their drivers are generally more friendly but often less professional”
I don’t have data, but anecdotally, at least the folks in my circle seem to think Lyft doesn’t really have any perceivable advantage over Uber. And I looked at the stock price and Uber/Lyft differential has been getting wider (Uber is now something like 20x Lyft).
Lyft may continue to survive as a solid #2 player (as long as SEC doesn’t let Uber monopolize the market), but how can it thrive again?
- Should they focus more on certain market segments and focus firepower? (Female first experience? Focus on certain strategic cities?)
- Should they go white label and empower other services, like local taxi companies?
- Should they focus more on B2B? (employee programs etc)
- Should they use a radically different business model? (Subscription-first or bundle offerings?)
I’m too dumb to know the answer, but I’m sure this can be an interesting business school case study..