Kalanick: Dominant platforms crush rivals using targeted driver sign-up bonuses
Travis Kalanick · Excellence Is the Capacity To Take Pain | Travis Kalanick, Founder of Uber · Aug 16, 2026 · at 27:45
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick explains how a dominant network can use targeted driver acquisition bonuses to force smaller rivals into expensive broad subsidies.
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“The other way where there's asymmetric going the other way is recruiting drivers. So for instance, I could give subsidies to drivers. If I'm the big guy, I can give subsidies to drivers that are like they're like thousand dollars. If you join Uber and you're, you know, you do a hundred trips in that first week, I could suck up that supply. The only way they're going to be able to keep those drivers Is they're gonna have to subsidize across all of their drivers. Even though I just took a small number of them. So I'm going to suck up all of their drivers unless they defend their driver base.”
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