Ripping you off Stage 3
Lyft solves matching and trust in many cities, but economic surplus flows to shareholders and take rates from drivers and riders. The app is still useful—this isn’t “junk” by default—but the model is stage 3 extraction: liquidity as leverage, pricing power when alternatives thin out.
The promise
Its first promise, and how much is kept · Scoring
60% kept
“Your friend with a car”
Why it’s rated 3
The criteria it meets, with sources · Method
- Alignment 0 of 3
- None
- Lock-in 0 of 4
- None
- Extraction 2 of 7
-
- E3 Squeezing the other side Nov 2, 2023
- E4 Hidden costs and dark patterns Oct 25, 2024
- Decline 0 of 3
- None
Result Two or more extraction criteria, or lock-in plus at least one, so stage 3.
News signals
Sourced reporting, tagged by strategy
Oct 25, 2024
Lyft pays $2.1M to settle FTC charges of misleading drivers about pay
Wage arbitrageDark patterns
Nov 2, 2023