Uber's Incentive Scheme in Nigeria

So I'll, I'll tell you a little fun story,

uh, that hap- This happened in Nigeria.

Mm-hmm.

Uber, a company we're all familiar with,

went from country to country trying to grow its operations.

One of the things it did that was particularly ingenious

and sinister at the

same time was they gave incentives to drivers in

all of these countries to drive for Uber by giving them bonuses.

So they said, "If you take... If you agree to drive for Uber

and you pick somebody

up from, let's say an airport where we really need

drivers, we'll give you a bonus.

So we'll give you like double the amount of the fare that it would normally be."

And they went and they did this in almost every country.

Is that sustainable?

It's not supposed to be. The only thing they were trying to do

is establish

themselves in the markets and get a stranglehold on it so that like

taxis and all these other industries wouldn't be able to compete.

Get crowded out.

Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

So they get crowded out, right?

Now, it worked in most places. In Nigeria however,

Nigerian taxi drivers and Uber, like people who were, had cars,

they did the calculation and realized that

they could make money but not really have to drive anybody.

So what Uber drivers in Nigeria did was they signed up to be Uber drivers.

They then called themselves from the airports-

Uh-huh

... picked up nobody from the airport, drove themselves back into the city

and then got the bonus amount, which was, which paid for the gas.

So you're making, uh, yes.

And then they, then they took themselves back to the

airports

to get another fare that was a bonus.

'Cause if it's a bonus then you're just living off the bonus.

And they were making so much money doing this that Uber canceled the scheme for the

whole world.

Man-

Basically-

... Nigerians are so-

Bra

... genius bro.

Kudos to Nigeria.

All the time.

Because Uber was scamming and then Nigeria was like,

"You want to scam?"

"You want to scam?"

You came to the head office.

"Well I'm going to show you something."

And Nigeria taught Uber a lesson