Lyft picks consolation over sharing in bid to compete with Uber

Lyft is introducing a “extra reasonably priced type of higher-end journey” in an try to supply ride-hail merchandise that prospects really need, CEO David Risher stated Wednesday throughout the firm’s third-quarter earnings name.

The transfer comes after Lyft has been profitable, by some metrics, in regaining market share from Uber by slashing its ride-hail fares. In Q3, Lyft reported 22.4 million lively riders, up from 21.5 million within the second quarter, and elevated gross bookings of round $3.6 million.

Now that Lyft has introduced on some new riders, the duty forward is to retain these prospects. Risher thinks that “Further Consolation,” a brand new product that he teased throughout the earnings name, might faucet a small section of Lyft’s journey quantity at this time that has the potential to develop over time.

“The vehicles are newer, the drivers are extra skilled. The legroom is a bit bit larger. You’ll be able to select a quiet journey, and so forth and so forth,” stated Risher, noting that the product could be priced at $1 to $2 above regular rides. “You’Il see it in the event you open up your Lyft app at this time in virtually all of the nation and tomorrow, much more.”

Risher in contrast Further Consolation to Financial system Plus tickets provided by airways, which he stated are a “loopy revenue driver” for that business. The upgraded expertise would additionally present Lyft with a better margin product to ship barely higher economics.

The brand new product is consistent with Risher’s new purpose for Lyft to prioritize higher-quality merchandise. For Lyft, which means ditching shared rides, which the manager says isn’t a fantastic product for both drivers or riders.

As a substitute, Lyft is doubling down on merchandise like Wait and Save, which supplies prospects a less expensive fare for agreeing to a extra versatile pickup time, or its scheduled rides product, which has a premium value on it. Risher additionally teased a “sturdy dedication to reliability” on Lyft’s reserved rides, significantly for individuals who use the function for airport rides.

The concept behind these options is to current Lyft as a differentiated ride-hail product. The issue is that Uber is already doing many of those options at a bigger scale, so it actually simply seems to be like Lyft enjoying catchup.

When it comes to journey sorts, Uber presents Uber Consolation and Consolation Electrical — each are the identical as Lyft’s Further Consolation, however Consolation Electrical presents rides in luxurious electrical autos. In April, Lyft relaunched a function that permits riders to request an electrical or hybrid car, Lyft Inexperienced, however it was initially solely obtainable to enterprise vacationers.