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The Uber referral arbitrage: 30-cent rides, $10 credits
Abhishek explains his core scheme: Uber paid referral bonuses scaled to local currency, but rides in India cost only ~30-50 cents, so each cheap ride generated a $10 US referral credit he could resell.
“Uh, it's a basic arbitrage. Like arbitrage in India? Yeah, arbitrage. In, in US they used to give like $10, $20 referral value. In India they used to give ₹100, ₹200, ₹300 in rupees. And in India one ride cost, it starts from ₹50 also, ₹50 or ₹25. If you convert it to dollars, it will be like 30 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents max. So we are taking rides using that 50 cents, and in turn, Uber is giving us $10 in US.”
Steal thisHunt for systems that price incentives in one currency or geography while costs sit in a much cheaper one, then arbitrage the gap.
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The Maldives trick: set country to where Uber doesn't operate
When US referral values dropped to $5, Abhishek discovered that setting an account's country to a place Uber didn't operate defaulted the referral value back to $10. After Sri Lanka got Uber service, he switched buyers to the Maldives.
“Yeah, so somewhere where Uber is not running. So initially we tried Sri Lanka, but after that they are like— Uber is operating in Sri Lanka also. Then in Sri Lanka, refer value is set to Sri Lankan value, like some 100 rupees or something, Sri Lankan value. Then we found Maldives, and then any other country you can set where Uber is not there, Uber is not operating, then it was setting default value to $10, but $10 is good value for everyone to buy, so they were buying.”
Billy
The rideshare arbitrage hustler running an army of teenagers
Sam describes a guy in India who exploits a ridesharing referral program by running a network of thousands of teenagers, getting referral credit on cheap rides, then reselling discounted ride credits to US users.
“this guy is a hustler. He's doing amazing stuff. And I'm pretty sure, I think he's either said it or I figured it out. I'm pretty sure the way he does it, this guy's in India. I think what he does is he has a network of like thousands of teenagers and kids, and he just gives them a first ride on, on, on a ride service, and he gets the $10 back, like, in referral, and then sells it, right?”
Tactic
Referral arbitrage: win-win-win for everyone but the platform
Shaan explains how the rideshare hustler games the referral system legally: he triggers cheap referral rides in India, captures the US-sized referral credit, keeps a margin, passes savings to buyers, and the ride-taker gets a free ride. The platform eats the cost.
“And the arbitrage— there's some money, he keeps some money and we get a saving. And then the ride— the person who takes the ride gets a free ride. So it's like a win-win-win for everybody but the service.”
Steal thisLook for referral programs that pay a flat bounty regardless of geography, then source the cheapest qualifying signup in a low-cost market and resell the credit at the high-cost market price.