Mike Smyth: With Uber and Lyft approved, what's next? - The Province | Canada News Media
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Mike Smyth: With Uber and Lyft approved, what's next? – The Province

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Opinion: It took nearly eight years, but Uber and Lyft has finally been approved to operate in Metro Vancouver. Now what comes next?

Never let it be said that it took less time to land human beings on the surface of the moon than it’s taken for ride-hailing services to arrive in Metro Vancouver.

It just feels that way.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy made his historic pledge to go to the moon in May 1961, and Neil Armstrong took his famous first step in July 1969.

That’s a little over eight years to get to the moon — or about six months longer than it took for ride-hailing to arrive.

And that’s about the only bragging rights B.C. political leaders can claim after ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft were finally granted provincial operating licences on Thursday.

Uber briefly started operating in Vancouver in the summer of 2012 before it was quickly shut down by Christy Clark’s Liberal government. The fight to bring ride-hailing services to B.C. has been going on ever since.

Why has it taken so long? Because both the Liberals and the New Democrats have been so fearful of the taxi companies that were donating money to them and wielding influence over them, that’s why.

The Liberals were convinced taxi companies in Surrey would mobilize against them if they ever allowed Uber and Lyft into the market.

The New Democrats were scared too, but at least they have finally delivered on services that are now commonplace around the world.

Whether this industry will be successful is another story.

Uber and Lyft must first secure municipal business licences and purchase insurance coverage from ICBC.

The good news is that ICBC says its ride-hailing insurance product is ready to go. And Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart took to Twitter to announce city hall is ready to quickly issue business licences to both companies.

The bad news is that even after seven-and-a-half years of talking about it, there is still no single ride-hailing business licence for the entire Metro Vancouver region.

A regional licence should have been ready to go on Day 1. Instead, Uber and Lyft will be faced with a patchwork of municipal rules and licence fees until Metro Vancouver gets its act together. (They have promised a single regional licence by the end of the year.)

It means Uber and Lyft will likely launch first in Vancouver, and you might be able to summon a ride on your smartphone by next week.

But it will be interesting to see how long it takes for your Uber or Lyft car to actually arrive. Both companies are already warning about a driver shortage because of the NDP government’s insistence on a Class 4 commercial licence for ride-hailing drivers.

And then there’s Doug McCallum, the taxi-loving mayor of Surrey. McCallum has already threatened to keep ride-hailing services out of Surrey, even though the province has made clear he has no authority to do that.

But he and all the other ride-hailing opponents have been fighting a long losing battle. Now let’s see if the thing actually works.

msmyth@postmedia.com

twitter.com/MikeSmythNews


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Netflix’s subscriber growth slows as gains from password-sharing crackdown subside

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Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.

The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.

The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.

The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.

The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.

The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.

Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.

In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.

“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.

As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.

Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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