Price is the main inhibitor to Uber reaching 500 million users because most transportation globally happens at price points far below Uber X, requiring cheaper modes to unlock mass adoption.
Mac identifies price — not time or technology — as the core barrier to reaching 500 million users. Uber X at $35 per ride in New York is still a luxury product relative to how most people actually get around. Reaching half a billion users means adding trains, bikes, scooters, and public transit to dramatically lower the average transaction cost. ✦ AI generated
Andrew Macdonald · 20VC · 2026-08-17 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 14:44
“Other than time, what is the one inhibitor to getting to 500 million users? You mentioned 200 million.”
I would say price. Um And the reason our IR team won't love that answer is because when you start talking about price in the context of public markets, people are like, 'Oh, you're going to get into a price war and like margins are going to come down and like it's a less attractive business.' But that's not really what I mean. What I mean by price is when you think about the businesses we operate, um primarily, you know, mobility and delivery, the vast majority of the transactions in delivery of things or the vast majority of the transactions in transportation broadly happen at a price point that is like way lower than our core products, right? Like taking an Uber X to and from work every day in New York City for like 35 bucks a direction, that's still a luxury product, right? The vast majority of transportation in New York City is not happening at that price point. And so, if we want to get to 500 million users, and we want to go from people using us on average, you know, six times a month to using us on average 25 times a month, the average cost of that transaction has to come down.
verbatim transcript · starts at 14:44
14:27be in the product selector for rides. And so like how you make those decisions as an organization is tough, but you still have this built-in distribution that is super interesting. And so it's an advantage, but you got to figure out the other stuff, which is like how do you stand up new products in a company? >> Other than time, what is the one inhibitor to getting to 500 million
14:44users? You mentioned 200 million. >> I mean, I would say like our our IR team is not going to love this answer because I I would say price. Um And the reason our IR team won't love that answer is because when you start talking about price in the context of public markets, people are like, "Oh, you're going to get into a price war and like margins are going to come down and
15:04like it's a less attractive business." But that's not really what I mean. What I mean by price is when you think about the businesses we operate, um primarily, you know, mobility and delivery, the vast majority of the transactions in delivery of things or the vast majority of of the transactions in transportation broadly happen at a price point that is like way lower than our core products, right? Like taking an Uber X to and from
15:30work every day in New York City for like 35 bucks a direction, that's still a luxury product, right? The vast majority of transportation in New York City is not happening at that price point. And so, if we want to get to 500 million users, and we want to go from people using us on average, you know, six times a month to using us on average 25 times
15:52a month, the average cost of that transaction has to come down. And so, how do you get that down? There's all sorts of ways in doing that. You have more modes that are cheaper. You can get trains on Uber here in London. You have uh alternative modes like bikes and scooters, etc. because like once you deconstruct car ownership, you you're actually not it's not just about Uber X, it's about all the other
16:12things you do. But you have to get price down. >> Ala Pubelle, I [ __ ] hate these bikes that litter the pavements. I Oh my god, they're so annoying. >> Oh my gosh, I'm an old man. >> Londoners love them generally. London is such a significant market for micromobility. >> I know, I know. It's why I didn't get out much. Um >> Would you rather have more cars on the