13 January

‘Dynamic pricing’ is a growing rage in commerce. Meaning prices that can be changed quickly to reflect changing conditions. For example if lettuce is getting a bit old, the price quickly made cheaper to get it off the shelves faster. Or concert tickets that explode in price to control demand for popular acts. In reality of course it’s a licence to print money. Uber apparently at one stage had something in its algorithm that knew whether the phone you were using it on had a very low battery level. If it did, it knew you were desperate to hire a ride, and so it inflated the price, knowing you wouldn’t have a chance to hold out for a better one.