Considering the gig economy model, how realistic is it for platforms like Zomato, Swiggy, and Uber, etc. to become sustainably profitable in the long run?
With rising operational costs, competitive pricing and pressures on regulations of workers rights- where do you see these platforms going?
What are they going to do after building so much brand loyalty? it’s scary/really cool to think about- how they’re trying to scale fast, become indespendable and then tweak every part of the value chain until profit margin appears. What do you think?
You're exactly right — their strategy is to first dominate and become indispensable, then slowly optimize for profit by tweaking fees, cutting costs, automating parts of operations, and squeezing margins. Long-term, I think many will survive, but in a very different form — more automation (like drones, self-driving cars), higher prices for consumers, and harsher cost controls for workers unless regulations step in. It's a risky but calculated play.
4o
Tbh I’m not sure the current gig model is built for long-term sustainability at all. A lot of these platforms are propped up by investor cash and brand loyalty, but the actual unit economics often don’t make sense. If they raise prices to become profitable, people might just bounce. If they pay workers more (as they should), the margins disappear. It’s a constant squeeze.
Feels like they’re stuck in a loop where growth is the only metric that matters—for now. But at some point, the bill comes due. The scary part is that they’ve built systems so integral to daily life, it’s hard to imagine what happens if they can’t make the numbers work.
Such an interesting take—honestly, I think profitability is possible for these platforms, but it's a tightrope walk. They're scaling like crazy to become totally indispensable, and once they're deeply embedded in everyday life, that's when they start tweaking every part of the value chain to squeeze out margins.
But yeah, rising costs, regulatory pressure around gig workers' rights, and constant price wars make the path super shaky. It’s kinda wild (and lowkey scary) how the game is to dominate first, and then figure out the economics. Feels like they’re building a plane mid-flight, hoping the wings show up by the time they hit cruising altitude.