Even in countries where taxis are regulated, sometimes Uber is more expensive but safer. Like in Romania. When I used to go there a lot the official taxis were mandated to offer such low standardized rates that there was a lot of scamming going on. One of my colleagues was basically abducted by a taxi driver (taken to a dangerous gypsy area and told they would kick him out of the car unless he paid them hundreds of euro). Uber was a lot safer because you have tracability on the driver, but more expensive too. And there weren't a lot of them.

There were ways to get safe drivers in some cases by booking them through the yellow machines. But in the end the company hired private drivers for us. Though personally I would just use the metro and tram a lot too :P If you know where you're going it's not a dangerous place.

Not sure if the taxi situation is still as bad there by the way. I would hope not.

Does no one have any memory of what taxis were like and how much they cost? The taxis are gone because they weren't competitive.

It is precisely in unregulated markets I would want to use a ride shape app else they'd try to scam you on the price. Multiple times I've had drivers attempt to triple the agreed to price, or I'd have to haggle them down before the ride etc. This was over 20 years ago and Uber and the like did away with all that.

Even in Ukraine, it's far more expensive than the local equivalent which works flawlessly.

Counterpoint : in Portugal they are regulated under TVDE, and Uber is competitive with Bolt

In other words Uber did not bribe the politicians enough in their favor, market was not favorable for them, so they exited.

their only leg up in 1st world countries was largely going around any laws governing taxis