00:00:02
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, back.
00:00:08
Speaker 2: To Tech earnings shares of Lyft higher. The company reported growing demand for premium rides, also strengthening European markets. Super interesting and kind of the global expansion story, Lift CEO David Risher is with us. There is a very specific data point actually that I'd like to start on, and that is that in markets, specifically San Francisco where you have Lyft rides and Weimo rides, you said San Francisco grew twenty percent year on year.
00:00:35
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:00:36
Speaker 2: I explain the causal or casual relationship within that data point.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know, our industry has gone through a big transformation and it is the sort of bringing on of these self driving vehicles. Waymore of course is the market leader in that anytime you see a transformation like this, one or two things can happen. You can either see sort of a substitution or you can see a market expansion, and in this case, we're seeing a market expansion. And it's not that's surprising. When people take self driving cars, they tend to like them a lot. They're very reliable product, They're a nice private product. So you feel like you could have a private conversation. But at the same time it doesn't seem to take away from people's interest in being driven by humans who can help with luggage or have good conversations. So it really is a creative.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: This is a micro case study. It's one market San Francisco. But you know, the questions are is Lift gaining market share from Weimo in this city or is it that this is an issue of supply So because somebody cannot get into a Weimo within a reasonable timeframe, they go to the lift app, which is happening. I probably both, honestly, probably so interesting.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think this is such an interesting thing that's going to play out. My expectation over time is what will dominate will be the market expansion. And again, the reason it's sort of simple. You have a cool new product coming onto an existing platform, and where we believe the hybrid network, which is you know, human driven cars plus avs really kind of creates the best possborll come for everyone. But well, you know, we'll I'll have to see how that works.
00:01:59
Speaker 2: I think that you and I discussed on several occasions the idea that the introduction of the robot taxi and maturity of the market expands the overall tam for ride haling. Just recap that argument.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: I think that's exactly it. So, I mean, look, people take just in the United States, about one hundred and sixty billion rides a year in their private cars. Okay, today we deliver a billion. Maybe the other guy's deliver two billions. So it's called that three billion out of one hundred and sixty billion. And it's a good experience. You're sitting in the backseat, you're able to text, you're able to have your own space. What holds it back, Well, for whatever reason, some people might want not want to be driven by another driver or someone else in the car. This takes that away. I'll tell you a very specific story. So I was just with an old friend of mine. I just ran intrew into the airport. Her son had a tragic, tragic accent a couple of years ago, absolutely devastating physical accident. He's in rehabilitation. For him. The idea of getting in a self driving car where the doors open wide, maybe there's not even a driver there, not there's anything wrong with that, but it just gives him more space to sort of be in his own zone is.
00:02:55
Speaker 2: Actually going to be the technology and an engineering story, design story.
00:02:59
Speaker 1: It's a design story exactly. And so anyway, I'm very optimistic about this. And then when I look at our capabilities around fleet management and you know, kind of imagining supply and demand, I get really excited about the future.
00:03:10
Speaker 2: LIFT is let's let's go back to the core business and the earnings. But LIFT is pushing outside of the United States. You know, every time you've been on the show over the last year, there's been a development on that front. But what do we actually learn through your earnings about how you're growing x USA?
00:03:25
Speaker 1: So here's what's really cool. So LIFT was primarily a domestic company up until about a year ago, maybe called it eighteen months ago. Then we started to expand in Canada. That's gone very well. Now we acquired a company called free Now and a couple of other smaller companies overseas. Okay, what's happened since then. We're in the process of transforming ourself to a truly global company. Some of that is internal stuff, back of the house, multi currency, GDPR, all these sorts of things, but we're also beginning to introduce new functionality to customers. So I was just in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago. I was very lucky to be there. I get a chance to check out on our beta app, the ability to use the Lift app, not a new app, but the Lift app to hail local supply local taxicab in Barcelona. I did it four times, work flawlessly, So good because I don't have to do a different app. I already know the user interface and so forth, and sowe for now the company we required, they're also growing now too because of some of the innovation of the technology we've been able to add to their stack. So it's look, our service levels are really good and I love that about our product, and now we can take that to a more global audience and hopefully continue to grow as a result.
00:04:22
Speaker 2: How we let you know, it could be Europe Spain specifically, but how are those markets different to the United States? How does the consumer behave differently? You know there are.
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Subtle differences, I mean very significant, I guess difference not subtle. Is the role of the taxicab in a lot of Europe is very significant.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: You know, this culturally entrenched in many economies in Europe, as an example.
00:04:42
Speaker 1: Very much so. And unlike maybe in a New York where people almost begrudgingly take a cab, for example, But in a.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: Plays like Spain, and you're going to have New york Is phony into this program now.
00:04:52
Speaker 1: And I get that, and I understand well, and New Yorkers have opinions about their taxicabs, right, But in Spain it tends to be almost a career. You know, you get in the car, it's probably someone who's been doing it for many years, maybe as father did it as well. Certainly in London everyone knows that knowledge. I mean, it's an all sort of incredible thing. So that's a really significant difference. And for us, it favors us because free now is strong in taxis and the sort of double click there is because tax is seen to be quite regulated. The relationship that that company and now our company has with governments tends to be quite strong, which back to the av question, really matters a lot. Abe is new technology and for a lot of governments it feels maybe a little bit intimidating, and we can help there. So it's a really nice sort of set of circumstances that tends to sort of favor our business.
00:05:35
Speaker 2: In markets outside of the United States, Uber is already there in some cases, Bolt etc. How are you going to make lifts different from a technology perspective or just a product perspective.
00:05:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, so stay tuned on this. This is actually a very very live conversation we're having internally. I can use some of the examples of the US maybe and give you a little sense. So in the US we've really redoubled our innovation and you know some of these products Women plus Connect and I just turned that we've given over one hundred and seventy five million rides between women and women in the US over the last couple of years. Lift Teens, Lift Silver. This is real innovation. We're hoping to bring some of that innovation to the European space for sure. And then there's also a lot of conversation around you know, let's say, the reputation of those guys in Europe isn't necessarily super. People don't necessarily love the company. I'll just say it that way, and we hope we bring some joy to the conversation as well.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: Internally, Where is your biggest focus on the technology side, What are the types of people you're trying to bring in and things you're building rebuilding, code migration, literally anything on the side.
00:06:36
Speaker 1: For sure. So many interesting things. So I'll give you a couple of examples. Some of it's basic, some of it's more far reaching. Here's the basic thing. We now pick people up on average, so seventy five percent of the time we will pick you up either the same or faster than our big competitor. OK. Why is that kind of a big deal? Because our market share is smaller. So doing that reliably twenty four hours a day, seventy a week because people are busy, they want to get to where they are an awesome accomplishment. I'm hugely proud of our marketplace team for accomplishing that. And then, bigger picture, I'm really excited about Lifting, one of our newest products that allows teens to get in and get constant messaging back to their parents to make sure the parents know that they're safe and sound. It's just a good I look at this as almost a generational thing. A new car now costs like eight indred bucks. It's going to be interred bucks a month, fifty on releasepace plus maintenance, plus gas, all these sorts of things. Lift is just a better answer for a lot of people. And so I'm sort of excited when I look two, three, four, five years out at some of the kind of you know, teen innovation now, because I think that'll help change a
00:07:35
Speaker 2: Whole generation lift CEO David Rishard, thank you very much for coming in than thanks for being back on the show.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, back.
00:00:08
Speaker 2: To Tech earnings shares of Lyft higher. The company reported growing demand for premium rides, also strengthening European markets. Super interesting and kind of the global expansion story, Lift CEO David Risher is with us. There is a very specific data point actually that I'd like to start on, and that is that in markets, specifically San Francisco where you have Lyft rides and Weimo rides, you said San Francisco grew twenty percent year on year.
00:00:35
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:00:36
Speaker 2: I explain the causal or casual relationship within that data point.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know, our industry has gone through a big transformation and it is the sort of bringing on of these self driving vehicles. Waymore of course is the market leader in that anytime you see a transformation like this, one or two things can happen. You can either see sort of a substitution or you can see a market expansion, and in this case, we're seeing a market expansion. And it's not that's surprising. When people take self driving cars, they tend to like them a lot. They're very reliable product, They're a nice private product. So you feel like you could have a private conversation. But at the same time it doesn't seem to take away from people's interest in being driven by humans who can help with luggage or have good conversations. So it really is a creative.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: This is a micro case study. It's one market San Francisco. But you know, the questions are is Lift gaining market share from Weimo in this city or is it that this is an issue of supply So because somebody cannot get into a Weimo within a reasonable timeframe, they go to the lift app, which is happening. I probably both, honestly, probably so interesting.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think this is such an interesting thing that's going to play out. My expectation over time is what will dominate will be the market expansion. And again, the reason it's sort of simple. You have a cool new product coming onto an existing platform, and where we believe the hybrid network, which is you know, human driven cars plus avs really kind of creates the best possborll come for everyone. But well, you know, we'll I'll have to see how that works.
00:01:59
Speaker 2: I think that you and I discussed on several occasions the idea that the introduction of the robot taxi and maturity of the market expands the overall tam for ride haling. Just recap that argument.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: I think that's exactly it. So, I mean, look, people take just in the United States, about one hundred and sixty billion rides a year in their private cars. Okay, today we deliver a billion. Maybe the other guy's deliver two billions. So it's called that three billion out of one hundred and sixty billion. And it's a good experience. You're sitting in the backseat, you're able to text, you're able to have your own space. What holds it back, Well, for whatever reason, some people might want not want to be driven by another driver or someone else in the car. This takes that away. I'll tell you a very specific story. So I was just with an old friend of mine. I just ran intrew into the airport. Her son had a tragic, tragic accent a couple of years ago, absolutely devastating physical accident. He's in rehabilitation. For him. The idea of getting in a self driving car where the doors open wide, maybe there's not even a driver there, not there's anything wrong with that, but it just gives him more space to sort of be in his own zone is.
00:02:55
Speaker 2: Actually going to be the technology and an engineering story, design story.
00:02:59
Speaker 1: It's a design story exactly. And so anyway, I'm very optimistic about this. And then when I look at our capabilities around fleet management and you know, kind of imagining supply and demand, I get really excited about the future.
00:03:10
Speaker 2: LIFT is let's let's go back to the core business and the earnings. But LIFT is pushing outside of the United States. You know, every time you've been on the show over the last year, there's been a development on that front. But what do we actually learn through your earnings about how you're growing x USA?
00:03:25
Speaker 1: So here's what's really cool. So LIFT was primarily a domestic company up until about a year ago, maybe called it eighteen months ago. Then we started to expand in Canada. That's gone very well. Now we acquired a company called free Now and a couple of other smaller companies overseas. Okay, what's happened since then. We're in the process of transforming ourself to a truly global company. Some of that is internal stuff, back of the house, multi currency, GDPR, all these sorts of things, but we're also beginning to introduce new functionality to customers. So I was just in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago. I was very lucky to be there. I get a chance to check out on our beta app, the ability to use the Lift app, not a new app, but the Lift app to hail local supply local taxicab in Barcelona. I did it four times, work flawlessly, So good because I don't have to do a different app. I already know the user interface and so forth, and sowe for now the company we required, they're also growing now too because of some of the innovation of the technology we've been able to add to their stack. So it's look, our service levels are really good and I love that about our product, and now we can take that to a more global audience and hopefully continue to grow as a result.
00:04:22
Speaker 2: How we let you know, it could be Europe Spain specifically, but how are those markets different to the United States? How does the consumer behave differently? You know there are.
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Subtle differences, I mean very significant, I guess difference not subtle. Is the role of the taxicab in a lot of Europe is very significant.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: You know, this culturally entrenched in many economies in Europe, as an example.
00:04:42
Speaker 1: Very much so. And unlike maybe in a New York where people almost begrudgingly take a cab, for example, But in a.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: Plays like Spain, and you're going to have New york Is phony into this program now.
00:04:52
Speaker 1: And I get that, and I understand well, and New Yorkers have opinions about their taxicabs, right, But in Spain it tends to be almost a career. You know, you get in the car, it's probably someone who's been doing it for many years, maybe as father did it as well. Certainly in London everyone knows that knowledge. I mean, it's an all sort of incredible thing. So that's a really significant difference. And for us, it favors us because free now is strong in taxis and the sort of double click there is because tax is seen to be quite regulated. The relationship that that company and now our company has with governments tends to be quite strong, which back to the av question, really matters a lot. Abe is new technology and for a lot of governments it feels maybe a little bit intimidating, and we can help there. So it's a really nice sort of set of circumstances that tends to sort of favor our business.
00:05:35
Speaker 2: In markets outside of the United States, Uber is already there in some cases, Bolt etc. How are you going to make lifts different from a technology perspective or just a product perspective.
00:05:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, so stay tuned on this. This is actually a very very live conversation we're having internally. I can use some of the examples of the US maybe and give you a little sense. So in the US we've really redoubled our innovation and you know some of these products Women plus Connect and I just turned that we've given over one hundred and seventy five million rides between women and women in the US over the last couple of years. Lift Teens, Lift Silver. This is real innovation. We're hoping to bring some of that innovation to the European space for sure. And then there's also a lot of conversation around you know, let's say, the reputation of those guys in Europe isn't necessarily super. People don't necessarily love the company. I'll just say it that way, and we hope we bring some joy to the conversation as well.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: Internally, Where is your biggest focus on the technology side, What are the types of people you're trying to bring in and things you're building rebuilding, code migration, literally anything on the side.
00:06:36
Speaker 1: For sure. So many interesting things. So I'll give you a couple of examples. Some of it's basic, some of it's more far reaching. Here's the basic thing. We now pick people up on average, so seventy five percent of the time we will pick you up either the same or faster than our big competitor. OK. Why is that kind of a big deal? Because our market share is smaller. So doing that reliably twenty four hours a day, seventy a week because people are busy, they want to get to where they are an awesome accomplishment. I'm hugely proud of our marketplace team for accomplishing that. And then, bigger picture, I'm really excited about Lifting, one of our newest products that allows teens to get in and get constant messaging back to their parents to make sure the parents know that they're safe and sound. It's just a good I look at this as almost a generational thing. A new car now costs like eight indred bucks. It's going to be interred bucks a month, fifty on releasepace plus maintenance, plus gas, all these sorts of things. Lift is just a better answer for a lot of people. And so I'm sort of excited when I look two, three, four, five years out at some of the kind of you know, teen innovation now, because I think that'll help change a
00:07:35
Speaker 2: Whole generation lift CEO David Rishard, thank you very much for coming in than thanks for being back on the show.
