Hello Pushkar,

Uber faces tremendous competition; essentially every cab ride that is not facilitated using their app is competition. But the tug-of-war highlighted by price maker vs. price taker is the same tug-of-war as consumer surplus vs. producer surplus.

One of the advantages of thinking about things in terms of consumer surplus is that it allows you to look for businesses that are currently under-pricing their goods and services. This is exactly what Starbuck's has done over the years. Essentially, they looked at the pleasure that people got from drinking coffee and realized that a good cup of coffee was worth more than $1 to people.

When you do your analyses of business you should examine where in the consumer vs. producer surplus battle a company's products lie. I think this framework will provide you with some nice insights.

Best wishes for success!

Jason