How New Year’s Eve made me rethink Uber as a business

Hello everyone! First of all, this is just some reflections I got on New Year's eve, about Uber/Bolt/these type of companies. Sorry if my english isn't the best. For years, I always used Uber or Bolt. In Spain they were insanely cheap, so cheap that taxis felt pointless. I'm talking about some trips I remember like taking 15min and they would charge you something like 3€/4€, there were always huge discounts on the app. Same trip, better app, lower price. Easy choice. Then New Year’s Eve changed my mind. After a night out with friends, I opened Uber and Bolt to go home. The price was around 70€. (I have to say it was late / almost in the morning and it was like a 20min ride to my home). I walked a few meters and asked a regular taxi. It was way cheaper, and the ride ended up being 18€ Same city., same distance, same time. That’s when it really clicked for me: the disruption was not really efficiency, it was pricing. When demand spikes, the whole value proposition disappears instantly. I have obviously considered investing in Uber some time ago, but this made me think about it. How much of their growth comes from actual long term value, and how much comes from being able to underprice competitors for years? What happens when they need to be profitable and prices normalize? Do customers actually stay? I don't think anymore. While talking to the taxi driver, I told him the huge price difference, he said something interesting: those low prices didn’t come from efficiency. Uber and Bolt spent massive amounts of money on discounts for years just to capture customers. Not saying don't invest in Uber, but this made me see the business not as good as how I would have seen it a few years ago.