Lyft shuts down in-house rentals
Didn't see this coming. Lyft Rentals is shutting down less than three years after launch.
Lyft is shutting down its in-house car rental program
Lyft will stop renting out cars from its own fleet and has laid off around 60 employees, according to The Wall Street Journal. As TechCrunch notes, the layoffs have also been confirmed by the LinkedIn posts of affected workers. The people who lost their jobs, The Journal said, worked in operations and covered 2 percent of the company's workforce. Back in May, the company reportedly wrote in a staff memo that it's slowing down hiring due to the economic downturn, but that it didn't have any layoffs planned. Things have clearly changed since then.
Source: Engadget
Lyft Rentals was one of the more affordable rental options out there. I really thought they'd figured out the unit economics.
But that's the gig economy for you—nimble and adaptive. By focusing on partnerships instead of in-house operations, Lyft can streamline and offer better core services. It's all about efficiency and growth in the long run.