Uber filed its S-1 last week in anticipation of going public in May. The WSJ reported on it, here. These are always interesting documents because you get access to previously private information. Here we can see that Uber's ride-hailing market share in the US is down to 67% (as of February 2019) from 78% two years earlier. Revenue from this business line -- which is the company's biggest -- also seems to have levelled off (chart from the WSJ):

The ride-hailing business today has become a commodity. A lot of people, myself included, simply check to see which service is the cheapest (usually it's Uber vs. Lyft). So this space feels to me like a giant race to build the biggest network and get to something new, whether that be autonomous vehicles or delivery drones. Uber calls this creating a "liquidity network effect." Here's an excerpt from the S-1:

We have a massive, efficient, and intelligent network consisting of tens of millions of Drivers, consumers, restaurants, shippers, carriers, and dockless e-bikes and e-scooters, as well as underlying data, technology, and shared infrastructure. Our network becomes smarter with every trip. In over 700 cities around the world, our network powers movement at the touch of a button for millions, and we hope eventually billions, of people. We have massive network scale and liquidity, with 1.5 billion Trips and an average wait time of five minutes for a rider to be picked up by a Driver in the quarter ended December 31, 2018. Every node we add to our network increases liquidity, and we intend to continue to add more Drivers, consumers, restaurants, shippers, carriers, and dockless e-bikes and e-scooters. We also hope to add autonomous vehicles, delivery drones, and vertical takeoff and landing vehicles to our network, along with other future innovations. Our strategy is to create the largest network in each market so that we can have the greatest liquidity network effect, which we believe leads to a margin advantage.

If you'd like to download a full copy of their filing, click here.

Following the lead of San Francisco, a new non-profit, member-supported organization for New York tech companies has just launched. It’s called Tech:NYC. Here are their goals, taken from this blog post:

Tech:NYC’s primary goals are to support the growth of the technology sector in New York City, to increase civic engagement by leaders of the New York tech community, and advocate for policies that will attract tech talent, jobs, and opportunity to NYC.

Tech:NYC will advocate for policies that: 1) underscore a regulatory environment that supports the growth of technology companies and technology talent in NYC; 2) promote inclusivity; and 3) ensure access for all New Yorkers to connectivity, technology tools, and training.

What makes something like this important is that many public policy issues are now rooted in the tech sector. Think about all the debate regarding ride-sharing, home-sharing, drone regulation, contract employees, and so on.

But what is also clear is that many cities are struggling to deal with these issues. As I’ve argued before, just saying no to innovation that doesn’t fit neatly into our currently regulatory boxes is often shortsighted. 

So how do we put in place policies that deliver the right results and that are balanced? How do we grow the tech base while at the same time managing the disruptive fallout? That’s what this group hopes to do.

And it strikes me that every big city could likely benefit from an organization like this.