Originally Posted by
sedubby
My personal take again...tipping creates friction from a UX perspective - any dip in rider conversion due to adding one more step can slow growth. Even if that delta is small it can translate to $$$$ at Uber's scale.
Also think about the fact Uber is in many countries. Tipping is not a universal custom. If Uber built it it would probably have to be a regional feature. How do you decide which regions should get it and which don't? Do you just end up pissing off more people if you offer it in one place and not another? It's tricky.
A compromise would be having it available but not default. Put tipping in place but leave it disabled in the settings. Users who want to tip in the app can activate it. Those who want to use cash or not tip, have no change to their experience.
Part of me feels like Uber figures that their processing fees will end up being too big a cut, and the money is more important than driver satisfaction, a statement I make based on everything Uber does. On a $5 tip, they might pay $0.15. On a million rides that's $150k (one engineer's salary?), and they have a lot more than a million rides per year. The only way to make it up is to consider increasing the booking fee, or taking it out of the tip before passing it along to the driver. That wouldn't end well for Uber.